ksubbotage's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.25
itabar's review against another edition
3.0
I liked the main characters and no one is who they seem! Great misdirections.
michelletheshell's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
polyphonic_reads's review against another edition
4.0
As most Frances Hardinge books, this one was absolutely excellent. She writers fantastic worlds and characters and doesn't shy away from the darker side of life. People in her books live in abject poverty, children are kidnapped, there are quite explicit deaths on stage. These are, I remind you, middle grade children's books. She doesn't condensed to children either on the subject matter or on the execution. The only reason I'm giving this 4 rather than 5 stars is that a major plot point rests on exotisation of brown people and the main character dressing in brownface. Given the general lack of racial diversity in Hardinge's books, I think it is a real letdown. The book could also be about 100 pages shorter - there were a bit too many twists and turns in the last fifth or so.
barelyspicy's review against another edition
3.0
Considering that I did not like the first book, this was better but still not impressive. I found it boring at times and took too long for the story to progress. It was harder to go through with it but It certainly got much better at the end.
book_nut's review against another edition
4.0
I adore Hardinge's writing. And this one is absolutely wonderful.
squishies's review against another edition
4.0
Starts off a bit slow, but it really picks up the pace.
Love, love, love the characters and storyline - it was so much fun and fierce!
I wish there was more!!
Love, love, love the characters and storyline - it was so much fun and fierce!
I wish there was more!!
razishiri's review against another edition
5.0
At the end of Fly By Night, a book that has now sat in a place of honor on my shelf for long enough for me to call it one of my favorite books ever, Mosca says, "I don't want a happy ending. I want more story." And so do we. And Hardinge is one of the few writers that doesn't disappoint.
This is a rich, frantic, wonderfully political story that even the most voracious reader would struggle to consume in one sitting. I have to hesitate before finally settling on the name "fantasy," because there's no actual magic in Mosca's world. What makes it fantasy, instead, is the extraordinarily absurd and inventive set of socio-political rules that govern the realm. A city population arbitrarily sorted into haves and have-nots, with the unfortunate literally barred from the light of day. A boy locked in tower since infancy to safeguard his town. A government terrorized by a malevolent, tax-collecting syndicate. Some of these situations are ridiculous--some all too believable--and all say something important. Hardinge picks at the roots of human stupidity and superstition and shows the connections between power, desperation and fear.
Our hero throughout is a girl with a fierce intelligence, grit, and a growing sense of justice. I absolutely loved Mosca's character development in this--she moves from sharp witness of the world and its events to an active player in political workings far beyond her. Her relationship with Clent, too, matures considerably as she learns that she can lean on him, and he becomes a true mentor without controlling her (ha, who could?). I'm happy that these books focus on relationships and issues besides romantic love. Compared to practically every other type of story sophisticated readers can enjoy, the lack of romance for the main character is noticeable--and so refreshing! Mosca reminds me of Lyra in the first installment of His Dark Materials, before Will enters the scene--she's brave, independent, passionately interested in the truth, and far too busy making things happen to worry about boys (or girls).
The dime novels I'm researching this summer run into a problem with endings. Their roaming, adventurous heroes embody the dream of endless excitement and adventure and escaping by the skin of one's teeth. But the books also represent a civilizing project of the time which means that their heroes have to settle down, enter into a conventional marriage plot, or else perish in a last blaze of glory. While I suspect that in reality, the choice between these two is a shade more nuanced--just because you "settle down" doesn't mean you're settled down, and life on the fringes of society is not necessarily more "free"--Hardinge achieves what these writers weren't able to. And I'm thankful, tremendously so, that Mosca and Clent's journey isn't over yet.
This is a rich, frantic, wonderfully political story that even the most voracious reader would struggle to consume in one sitting. I have to hesitate before finally settling on the name "fantasy," because there's no actual magic in Mosca's world. What makes it fantasy, instead, is the extraordinarily absurd and inventive set of socio-political rules that govern the realm. A city population arbitrarily sorted into haves and have-nots, with the unfortunate literally barred from the light of day. A boy locked in tower since infancy to safeguard his town. A government terrorized by a malevolent, tax-collecting syndicate. Some of these situations are ridiculous--some all too believable--and all say something important. Hardinge picks at the roots of human stupidity and superstition and shows the connections between power, desperation and fear.
Our hero throughout is a girl with a fierce intelligence, grit, and a growing sense of justice. I absolutely loved Mosca's character development in this--she moves from sharp witness of the world and its events to an active player in political workings far beyond her. Her relationship with Clent, too, matures considerably as she learns that she can lean on him, and he becomes a true mentor without controlling her (ha, who could?). I'm happy that these books focus on relationships and issues besides romantic love. Compared to practically every other type of story sophisticated readers can enjoy, the lack of romance for the main character is noticeable--and so refreshing! Mosca reminds me of Lyra in the first installment of His Dark Materials, before Will enters the scene--she's brave, independent, passionately interested in the truth, and far too busy making things happen to worry about boys (or girls).
The dime novels I'm researching this summer run into a problem with endings. Their roaming, adventurous heroes embody the dream of endless excitement and adventure and escaping by the skin of one's teeth. But the books also represent a civilizing project of the time which means that their heroes have to settle down, enter into a conventional marriage plot, or else perish in a last blaze of glory. While I suspect that in reality, the choice between these two is a shade more nuanced--just because you "settle down" doesn't mean you're settled down, and life on the fringes of society is not necessarily more "free"--Hardinge achieves what these writers weren't able to. And I'm thankful, tremendously so, that Mosca and Clent's journey isn't over yet.
markdudley's review against another edition
5.0
Absolutely brilliant. I can't praise this book enough.
christophertd's review against another edition
5.0
I have just finished Fly Trap (Twilight Robbery in the UK) and it was every bit as good as Fly By Night. Very impressive. Despite a seemingly light tone, peppered with hilarious scenes and wonderful names, the story has bite. The idea that people are destined to be good or bad depending on the hour of their birth is obviously absurd, but played neatly so that it makes sense. And is a perfectly good allegory for the silly categorisations that we are fond of using to include or exclude people. It works here because it wasn't a topic for preaching, it was just there and you (and the characters) made of it what you wanted. The adversaries were smart too, not just cardboard cut out villains. Their actions made sense and they responded sensibly to changes in their circumstances according to their motivations and needs. In that sense the story seemed larger than Mosca, Eponymous and Saracen. Which is as it should be.