The Sky is Yours

The Sky is Yours, Chandler Klang Smith, 457 pages

I really enjoyed the world the Smith was building in The Sky is Yours. There were fun elements of a post-apocalypse dragon New-York, loaded with interesting characters and opportunities for things to be built upon. However, the end of the novel just seemed to fizzle a bit, as it seemed to wrap up too neatly, too quickly. All this time was invested in a variety of characters, each of whom you want to know more about, but then the book promptly ends and has a tidy epilogue that feels unpolished in comparison to the rest of the book, as though Smith ran out of steam inches from the finish line. I would highly recommend this book to those that love detailed world building and an interesting premise, though I do wish this had actually been two books set in the same world, with one book building towards the conclusion, and the other book fully following the plot threads that seemed to be snipped a little too early.

The Traitor Baru Cormorant

The Traitor Baru Cormorant, Seth Dickinson, 400 pages

Dickinson's The Traitor Baru Cormorant is this month's Orcs and Aliens book club book, and man is it a ride. Told from the vantage point of Baru Cormorant, a young woman of an imperialized island nation, as she becomes first a student of the Empire of Masks schools and "hygiene" regimens that destroy her native culture for its unclean ways, then as an account for the Empire of Masks in the country of Aurdwynn, where a feudal hierarchy has bred waves of rebellion and problems. All through the novel Baru uses play and counter-play, intrigue and savvy accounting, to confront the conflicts that arise around her. From secret rebellions to dukes vying for her hand in marriage, Baru keeps pushing her agenda of reclaiming and saving her land. And the ending. Oh the ending. I did not see it coming at all. This is the first in what is planned as a trilogy, and I am excited to read them and see where this goes.

Every Heart A Doorway

Every Heart a Doorway, Seanan McGuire, 173 pages

Though seriously late in writing this, I did read Seanan McGuire's for last month's book club. I was about twenty pages short of the end when the meeting occurred, but I did find our discussion of choice and how McGuire presents the aftermath of the Narnia Other World trope to be engaging and wonderful. That the children get to live these full, adult lives in one world, and then are just shunted back into reality moments after they left. It is intriguing how the various worlds the children visit are categorized, with different key words to help relate to one another through shared experience, though each world visited, each doorway opened, is different. I really enjoyed the characters Jack and Jill, who had visited a world of gothic horror and Hammer films. I have already picked up the second book in this series, which focuses upon those two characters.

Uprooted

Uprooted, Naomi Novik, 448 pages

Naomi Novik's Uprooted is November's Orcs and Aliens book club book. It centers around Agnieszka and the Dragon's fight against a deeply corrupted evil forest. It draws a lot of influences from Eastern European folklore, and Agnieszka's magic shares a connection to the stories of Baba Yaga. Novik's storytelling is clear and well written, and her protagonists have wonderful depth and purpose. I'm very excited to see what the rest of the book club thinks of this novel, as I highly enjoyed it.