All the Birds in the Sky Spiral-Bound | 2017-04-11
Charlie Jane Anders
★★★☆☆+ from 10,001 to 50,000 ratings
All the Birds in the Sky
When Patricia Delfine was six years old, a wounded bird led her deep into the forest to the Parliament of Birds, where she met the Great Tree and was asked a question that would determine the course of her life.
When Laurence Armstead was in grade school, he cobbled together a wristwatch-sized device that could send its wearer two seconds into the future.
When Patricia and Laurence first met in high school, they didn't understand one another at all. But as time went on, they kept bumping into one another's lives.
Now they're both grown up, and the planet is falling apart around them. Laurence is an engineering genius who's working with a group that aims to avert catastrophic breakdown through technological intervention into the changing global climate. Patricia is a graduate of Eltisley Maze, the hidden academy for the world's magically gifted, and works with a small band of other magicians to secretly repair the world's ever-growing ailments.
Neither Laurence nor Patricia can keep pace with the speed at which things fall apart. But something bigger than either of them, something begun deep in their childhoods, is determined to bring them together. And will.
"What a magnificent novel--a glorious synthesis of magic and technology, joy and sorrow, romance and wisdom. Unmissable." --Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians
"Into each generation of science fiction/fantasydom a master absurdist must fall, and it's quite possible that with All the Birds in the Sky, Charlie Jane Anders has established herself as the one for the Millennials...highly recommended." --N. K. Jemisin, The New York Times Book Review
"Charlie Jane Anders has entwined strands of science and fantasy, both as genres and as ways of experiencing life, into a luminous novel." --John Hodgman
"Has the hallmarks of an instant classic." --Los Angeles Times
"Genius....My fave read this year." --Margaret Cho
"Do yourself a favor and go pick up All The Birds in the Sky! You will lurve it." --Amber Benson
"Thoughtful and hip and fantasy and sci-fi all wrapped up. A+." --Felicia Day
"Everything you could ask for in a debut novel -- a fresh look at science fiction's most cherished memes, ruthlessly shredded and lovingly reassembled." --Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing
"Read it immediately. Thank me later." --Laurie Penny
"It's fantastic when someone who is so important in the scifi world can flat-out write as well as critique and analyze." --Scott Sigler, New York Times bestselling author of Alive
"The craziest thing about Charlie Jane Anders' book is how it remains so intimate and accessible despite genre jumping. All the Birds in the Sky moves from a coming of age story to a millennial romance and then a dystopia -- and it's filled with so much of the uncanny. That includes, but is not limited to, a shapeshifting teacher, talking birds and an anti-gravity gun...A truly fun read." --New York Daily News
"A fairy tale and an adventure rolled into one, All the Birds in the Sky is a captivating novel that shows how science and magic can be two sides of the same coin." --The Washington Post
"Anyone suffering from midwinter blues should read Charlie Jane Anders's between-categories fantasy All the Birds in the Sky. The scenario is (almost) Harry Potter, the tone is (quite like) Kurt Vonnegut, the effect is entirely original." --The Wall Street Journal
"Heartfelt, ambitious, and dynamic. Fantastic stuff." --Financial Times
"Imagine that Diana Wynne Jones, Douglas Coupland and Neil Gaiman walk into a bar and through some weird fusion of magic and science have a baby. That offspring is Charlie Jane Anders' lyrical debut novel All the Birds in the Sky." --Independent
"Highly readable and imaginative, All the Birds in the Sky will sing to Philip Pullman fans." --Mail on Sunday
"An entertaining and audacious melding of science, magic, and just plain real life that feels perfectly right for our time." --BuzzFeed, "5 Great Books to Read in February"
"Like the work of other 21st century writers -- Kelly Link and Lev Grossman come immediately to mind -- All the Birds in the Sky serves as both a celebration of and corrective to the standard tropes of genre fiction. [...] Like William Gibson, Anders weaves a thrilling, seat-of-the-pants narrative with a compelling subtext." --Elizabeth Hand, Los Angeles Times
"Two crazy kids, one gifted in science, the other in magic, meet as children, part and meet again over many years. Will they find love? Will they save the world? Or will they destroy it and everyone in it? Read Anders lively, wacky, sexy, scary, weird and wonderful book to find the answers." --Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club