From the Bookshelf of Apocalypse Whenever…

All the Birds in the Sky

Charlie Jane Anders

Why we're reading this: It's crazy, topsy-turvey fantasy/sci-fi mash-up with the complete annihilation of the human race at its c…more
[close] It's crazy, topsy-turvey fantasy/sci-fi mash-up with the complete annihilation of the human race at its core. Keep reading past the first third of the book if kids aren't your thing.

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Apr 20, 2017 Robin rated it liked it

Shelves: 2017

I've started this review and deleted it several times, and now I'm really behind with reviews, so it's time just to write something about the book and move on. On paper (no pun intended), this should have been a book I liked - well, I bought it last year, so I must have thought I would like it. It is both fantasy and science fiction, both genres I like, and it is quirky, and I really like quirky. I guess now I know it depends on the type of quirky.

The book follows the lives of Patricia and Laur I've started this review and deleted it several times, and now I'm really behind with reviews, so it's time just to write something about the book and move on. On paper (no pun intended), this should have been a book I liked - well, I bought it last year, so I must have thought I would like it. It is both fantasy and science fiction, both genres I like, and it is quirky, and I really like quirky. I guess now I know it depends on the type of quirky.

The book follows the lives of Patricia and Laurence, not Larry, as they grow up. We first meet Patricia when she is six-years-old trying to save a wounded bird from her sister and the neighboring cat. She discovers that she can talk to the bird and also to the Parliamentary Tree, who proclaims that she is a witch. To save herself and the bird, she must answer the Endless Question, she asks for more time...and is found and carried back home by her father. Her mother and father punish her by locking her in her room and slipping meals under her door. We meet Laurence in elementary school. He is a nerdy genius who suffers the same stereotypical fate as other nerds by being picked on and ostracized by his classmates. Patricia and Laurence are in the same class at school and both being thought weird by their classmates, they become friends. Just before Patricia runs away to a witches school, she saves Laurence from military school, so that he can attend a computer school. The two lose touch until they have both graduated from college and have careers. The world is in environmental disarray. Patricia is working with the witches to try to save Earth, while Laurence is working with the scientists to find a way to save the human race by getting them off world to another planet. The scientists and the witches collide, and to some extent, Patricia and Laurence are caught in the middle.

You may be asking - what happened to the Endless Question? Did Patricia ever answer? Well, I won't answer that, and you may be disappointed by my non-answer. I know I was disappointed by the resolution of the Endless Question. It seemed a cop out, IMO.

I can't say that I really liked the book, but I guess I didn't hate it. My initial rating was 3.5, and the more I think about it, the more I wonder if I wasn't too generous. I guess I'll give it the benefit of the doubt since it was nominated for both a Hugo and a Nebula, but honestly, I think that was a mistake. I don't feel that this book is fit to be compared to books like Dune or Ringworld or The Left Hand of Darkness or Ender's Game or Blackout/All Clear or The Forever War or...well, you get the point.

I wasn't able to identify with either character - I came close to identifying with Laurence, but he made some really stupid choices in the book that really made me just want to shake him. I guess I mainly felt sorry for him. Patricia, well, I had a difficult time liking her, especially as the book went on. I can't say that I actively disliked her, because well that would give the impression that the book actually made me care, and it really didn't. I thought the plot, what there was of it, was very thin. The whole witchcraft versus science thing could have been intriguing, but really focused more on saving Earth versus saving the human race. While it wasn't contemplated in the book, it seems to me that getting humans off the Earth would actually accomplish both goals of saving Earth and the human race. The book sort of ended with a whimper. All in all, I was disappointed. I guess I should probably email the author as she suggests so that she can come to my house and act it out with origami finger puppets. That might be more interesting.

An interesting aside, I have noticed that most books on Amazon, if they are even mediocre, rate at least 4.0 stars. All the Birds in the Sky has a 3.9 rating on Amazon - 'Nuf said. ...more

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Jul 10, 2017 MichelleCH rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-fic, group-reads, fiction, ya-literature, scifi-fantasy, kindle, dystopian, end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it

This started out so strong and I very much enjoyed the initial character development and ridiculous bits. It's a quirky and interesting beginning and I loved all about Patricia. A nice combination of magical realism and post-apocalyptic fiction.

The novel revolves around Patricia (a witch) and Laurence (Larry- a techno geek) who both spend their childhood as outcasts and through that experience become comrades as the odd person out in every setting. After their childhood the second part of story ...more

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