User Profile

tauriner

tauriner@bookwyrm.social

Joined 10 months, 3 weeks ago

This link opens in a pop-up window

Charlie Jane Anders: All the Birds in the Sky (2016, Tor Books) 4 stars

An ancient society of witches and a hipster technological startup go war as the world …

Review of 'All the Birds in the Sky' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This book was recommended to me, soon after I'd finished Robin Sloan's Sourdough, and then declared that modern-day magical realism was exactly the genre that meant the most to me, particularly the stories in which California-based millennials struggled to find humanity and meaning in a tech-centric world. It's a kind of science fiction where all the technobabble is familiar and real, but a dose of mysticism is needed to keep Silicon Valley palatable. Venture capitalists already believe in too many fairy tales.

All The Birds In the Sky is decidedly more magical than realism, and because it's more about the duality of magic and science, both worlds are represented more or less equally. The refreshing take here isn't that it's magic versus science, at odds with each other, forever warring for dominance and yet must be maintained in some kind of cosmic balance. Or even the Harry Potter version, where …