Updraft

Executive Summary: This book finished stronger than it started, and I'll probably pick up the next one, but not right away. 3.5 Stars.

Full Review
This book has been getting a lot of buzz after various award nominations (and maybe some wins?). I wasn't really interested though. It sounded Young Adult, which I don't tend to enjoy, and I'm already not a big “Steampunk” fan. I'm not sure what qualifies as steam punk exactly, but maybe that's an inaccurate description? I'll leave that someone else. It's certainly closer to steam punk than it is to traditional fantasy.

I only picked it up because it was the June pick for Sword & Laser. This was a borrow over buy, and I still think that was the correct decision. It took me well over halfway to start getting into it. I wasn't particularly excited by any of the characters.

The main character irritated me for much of the book. The only thing that helped her case was many of the characters she interacted with were worse. The main exception was probably the twins, whose names I forget at this point.

I'm a big fan of the “magic school” trope, and this book had a bit of that vibe, right down to the asshole rival. However it was really the world building and the mystery of it that I found the most interesting. I wish we had been told a lot more than we were. Why do they live in the sky? Is there still a surface left? Where do the bones they use to build things come from?

More than anything else, finding out more about the world is what has me interested in reading the next book. However, I'll happily wait awhile to do so (maybe until the last book of the series is out).