2016 read #28: All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders.

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
316 pages
Published 2016
Read from April 4 to April 6
Rating: ★★★★ out of 5

This book is something of a genre gumbo, put together from scraps and shorthands and storytelling conventions (or, if you must misuse a perfectly good word permanently redefined by a certain website, genre tropes) from all corners of speculative fiction. There's childhood fairytale magic in the vein of Summer and Bird; there's a hint of airport thriller and a big dollop of technothriller; there's a brief interlude of magical school, more reminiscent of The Magicians than Harry Potter; there are bits of urban sorcery, in the tradition of Wizard of the Pigeons; there's strange physics, plus talk of wormholes and planetary colonization; there's a whole helping of climatepunk and near-future misery porn; the emergence of a sentient AI is a central plotline. The only things missing are dragons, political fantasy, and transhumanism, and even that last one is winked at in the closing pages.

The mix didn't strike me as quite so revelatory and astounding as the blurb-reviewers hyped -- people have been commingling science fiction and fantasy since before the two were coupled as linked genres, after all. Maybe I was less enthused than, say, Michael Chabon and Cory Doctorow were because I personally don't care that much for certain elements of modern science fiction, with its emphasis on small moments of personal joy amidst the all-encompassing nihilism and pessimism. The fatalism of climatepunk is a big part of the reason why the last three or four years of reading have turned me from a sci-fi buff into a fairies-and-witches nerd, and AI stories have never interested me much. A more straightforward fantasy continuing the atmosphere of the opening chapter probably would have suited my tastes better.

But that doesn't mar my appreciation for what is, on every other level, an outstanding and affecting novel, a tragic intertwining of personal losses and big picture stakes. The book felt longer to me than it was; to spill something a bit corny and hyperbolic, I almost feel like I've gone somewhere far away, and only now come back. The action climax landed with a bit of a thud, but the emotional core of the story, and the characters, remained true and moving throughout.