All the Birds in the Sky - Charlie Jane Anders

[Sara]

Patricia and Laurence become friends, when he paid the 'weird girl' to be his alibi to his parents that he was spending time outdoors. While he is a technological genius, the youngest person to ever create a two second time machine, she has had experiences that lead her to believe that she is a witch with the ability to speak to animals - though it happened only once and she is no longer sure of her memory. When she once again performs magic, in front of her friend it drives a wedge between them that sends the two down very different paths. When they are reunited ten years later in San Francisco, the world is hurtling towards catastrophe, and each of them must try to save it the only way they know how, but it might be too late for everyone.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. In fact, I initially gave it four stars, but the more I reflect on it, the more I am struck by exactly how poor the writing actually was, and drastically reduced my rating. The author had a really interesting concept, and wrote a book that defied genres, freely mixing sci-fi, urban fantasy, magical realism, and apocolyptic fiction. It was a veritable smorgasbord of speculative fiction. And this I loved, but the concept unfortunately could not overcome the writing. There was also another character, outside of our two protagonists, who seemed like could have been put to very good use, and while he was omnipresent throught the first two parts of the book, his storyline was very abruptly wrapped up and treated almost as if it had not happened. It was extremely lazy, and I would have preferred he not be introduced at all then abandoned because the author couldn't figure out what else to do with him. Overall, I am left with a feeling of dissatisfaction and disappointment.

[Cora]

The poor writing is disappointing. This one is on my wish list because the premise sounded interesting.