The Surviving Sky

This book has been on my top most anticipated lists since the first time it came onto my radar but I didn't want my horrible reading slump to affect my reading experience, so I decided to wait till I got both a physical copy and audiobook before I attempted to read it. And wow this was everything I wanted.

It's scary to go into a book from which you have too many expectations. It can be particularly heartbreaking if doesn't live up to it. But I'm glad I didn't have to worry about that here. Not that there's no heartbreak here, it's just the more cathartic and satisfying kind. The writing and plot took its time to make me feel invested because this is a very complex world, and the author dispenses information very slowly, like peeling an onion, so that we can try and understand the things which are left unsaid. I felt very reminiscent of The Broken Earth trilogy while reading this one because both have a commonality of the home planet being ravaged by geological disasters - in this case, earthrages - and the author does a brilliant job of creating a fantasy world inspired by Hindu philosophy/ mythology but which also has an in-world scientific base. I particularly loved the usage of the concept of rebirth from Hinduism, and how even if we don't have concrete memories of the previous lives, there is still an imprint of our desires and regrets that we carry forward. The way the philosophical elements and the magic/science of trajection tie in together towards the end is masterfully written.

I was very excited to meet our main characters because it's so rare to have protagonists in their 30s with marital problems in the usual kind of SFF books I read. And both Ahilya and Iravan are a delight to read - they are aggravating and got on my nerves and I wanted to give them a good shake many times over, but it was still a lot of fun to get to know them. However, what we mainly get to see is a marriage in trouble, one where the power imbalance and both of their stubbornness has led to a loss of trust and buildup of anger - and while I did feel amused by some of their arguments which really went nowhere (I did relate to some of them too deeply), I also would have loved to get some more glimpses of the good times so that I could believe more convincingly that their love was strong enough to weather the various storms.

In the end though, all I can say is that I finished the book feeling immensely satisfied. The beginning took a bit of time, but I breezed through the second half in just a couple of days. I really have to thank the author because it's been a while since I've read a book so fast. It also immensely helped that I could alternate between the book and audio, very beautifully narrated by Sharmila Devar and Pranshu Mishra. I have been thoroughly thrilled by this debut science fantasy, with a very unique and complex world which got my brain working quite a bit, and characters who could be infuriating but I couldn't help but love them. Can't wait to see where this story goes next coz the possibilities are very intriguing.