- Joined
- Oct 24, 2011
- Messages
- 23,122
- Reaction score
- 10,882
- Location
- Where faults collide
- Website
- doggedlywriting.blogspot.com
I'm reading Updraft by Fran Wilde right now. It's really different, and she definitely doesn't info dump with the world building. Lots of mystery about why in the heck the world consists of a bunch of bone towers that seem to have no bottoms below the clouds, and where the ground is and why no one seems to ever see it (and why are the clouds so scary anyway). This makes sense, since the pov character wouldn't be aware of things that are absent from her world and just takes the way her world is for granted. I'm having a bit of trouble visualizing the setting, and what the people look like overall (I'm imagining them as white folks, because some of them have blond hair and/or blue eyes, and there are descriptions of people turning pallid) but the culture seems pretty from scratch. But I'm wondering if they might be built differently than we are, or not entirely human, since they fly with these strapped on wings (so maybe gravity works differently in their world or something).
I'll be irked if the answers to some of these questions don't materialize by the end, though, because I really want to know what's below the clouds and why these bone towers grow from there. It's an imaginative book, and nicely written for a debut novel (I think it's a debut), but it's right on the cusp for me of being so fanciful I almost have trouble relating to what the central conflict looks to be shaping up as. We'll see.
I'd definitely recommend it to people who are tired of fantasy set in worlds that resemble a set historical time or place from our own, though. I'll know if I think it's for sure hugo-worthy by the end.
I'll be irked if the answers to some of these questions don't materialize by the end, though, because I really want to know what's below the clouds and why these bone towers grow from there. It's an imaginative book, and nicely written for a debut novel (I think it's a debut), but it's right on the cusp for me of being so fanciful I almost have trouble relating to what the central conflict looks to be shaping up as. We'll see.
I'd definitely recommend it to people who are tired of fantasy set in worlds that resemble a set historical time or place from our own, though. I'll know if I think it's for sure hugo-worthy by the end.
Last edited: