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jrosenstein's review against another edition
2.0
Updraft is really YA dystopia by another name. It has a lot of the hallmarks, a young heroine who turns out to have an unusual ability, a shadowy body that controls society, secrets that the plucky heroine must unearth. There's even hints of a possible love triangle. I just didn't find the story very compelling and while the world is unusual and creative, none of the physics make sense. This seems to be the start of a series so maybe things will be explained in later books, but I just didn't understand how it could be possible for people to fly around on silk wings. And there are invisible sky monsters, but no explanation of why they're invisible. Didn't move me.
hrobison11's review against another edition
5.0
I haven't read a book like this in awhile. It felt unique to me, it was intriguing. I literally could not put this book down today until it was finished!
dhalperi's review against another edition
3.0
Read this as it was nominated for several awards in 2016, but was very disappointed. Thin characters, immature writing, nonsense world. This book is really YA fantasy; I think I'm just too experienced a reader to enjoy this. Cannot recommend.
drownedworld's review against another edition
5.0
I read this months ago and somehow forgot to review it. Unfortunately, my memory is ridiculous but I loved this book, really, truly loved it. Fran Wilde's worldbuilding is sublime and I look forward to reading more from this author.
dcunitz's review against another edition
5.0
"They kept us from fighting to death in the clouds. They found the few left alive, taught them Laws. They learned how to raise the towers faster. On their wings, we rose"
tregina's review against another edition
3.0
This was a lot of fun to read, but at the same time it felt quite familiar. Not the setting, which was definitely something I hadn't seen before, but the tropes and the plot and the relationships. Its strength was definitely in the bone city itself, and I was left with so many questions about the whys and hows of it all that I look forward to having explored in the future.
judeandolin's review against another edition
DNF @ 63%. I kept chugging along, expecting this to get more interesting as I learned more about the world, the characters, etc., but it just didn't. The main character was lifeless and the plot was so hidden beneath the world-building that I couldn't decipher the two.
Basically, this is a world where humungous towers made of bone grow out of the Earth (?). The bones have been growing for so long that the surface of the world is no longer visible beneath the cloud cover, and the society uses mechanical wings to navigate between the towers and trade, etc.
SUCH an interesting, different idea, and I know I would have loved it if I could have connected to any of the characters.
Basically, this is a world where humungous towers made of bone grow out of the Earth (?). The bones have been growing for so long that the surface of the world is no longer visible beneath the cloud cover, and the society uses mechanical wings to navigate between the towers and trade, etc.
SUCH an interesting, different idea, and I know I would have loved it if I could have connected to any of the characters.
alex_watkins's review
4.0
Really awesome and creative world building. Definitely highly recommended for fans of young adult fantasy.
songwind's review
4.0
Updraft presents a world where humanity exists in a series of living towers made of bone. Bridges connect some, but travel is mostly done by wing, as the ground is far below, beneath the clouds.
As our MC Kirit comes of age, she gets caught up in a vast and hidden tension that deflects the course of her life and takes he places she never imagined.
The City and its inhabitants feel well worn in, fleshed out and lived in. Despite the many outlandish things about the setting, I was able to suspend my disbelief to enjoy the story.
The plot is a nice combination of personal growth, action and intrigue. It was very readable (or listenable in this case) and kept my attention.
Warning: this book is not for those who like things explained. There are no long infodumps, and precious few explanations. What explanations we are given about the setting explain past events, but not the big questions. Why do they live in a living City? What kind of beast is it? How did humans get to this world in the first place? Are they non-standard humans, as is implied by some of their abilities (living at extremely high altitude, muscle-powering a set of wings, and others)? None of these questions have answers.
Wilde manages to include enough explanation to make the story accessible by inclusion in the narrative. This is my favorite method of in-story data acquisition.
All in all, a very strong book and a fascinating bit of world building. I am looking forward to book 2.
As our MC Kirit comes of age, she gets caught up in a vast and hidden tension that deflects the course of her life and takes he places she never imagined.
The City and its inhabitants feel well worn in, fleshed out and lived in. Despite the many outlandish things about the setting, I was able to suspend my disbelief to enjoy the story.
The plot is a nice combination of personal growth, action and intrigue. It was very readable (or listenable in this case) and kept my attention.
Warning: this book is not for those who like things explained. There are no long infodumps, and precious few explanations. What explanations we are given about the setting explain past events, but not the big questions. Why do they live in a living City? What kind of beast is it? How did humans get to this world in the first place? Are they non-standard humans, as is implied by some of their abilities (living at extremely high altitude, muscle-powering a set of wings, and others)? None of these questions have answers.
Wilde manages to include enough explanation to make the story accessible by inclusion in the narrative. This is my favorite method of in-story data acquisition.
All in all, a very strong book and a fascinating bit of world building. I am looking forward to book 2.
xeyra1's review
4.0
I confess that parts of this book seemed very formulaic of the dystopian genre. Societies divided in different towers are much like societies divided by districts or personality-based ranks. The powerful with secrets that an intrepid young teenager is going to find out and expose in order to change society for the better. It's all very 'been there, read that'. What usually makes something so cliched work is characters, writing and world-building, all of which Updraft is ranked very positively.
The writing is great, and though it cannot entirely avoid some of the tropes of the genre, it's compelling enough that you don't really care that they're there because the story is drawing you in. The fascinating society Fran Wilde has built with this universe, where people live in very high towers built on bone and are both united and divided by them. Transportation is done by flying with artificial wings and everyone does or grows up to do so. Tower loyalty is the most important aspect of this society, and your own tower's security is paramount, even if it means letting another tower fend for itself so you don't danger to your door. This is important due to the skymouths, tentacled predators that prowl the skies and may attack at any moment.
Our protagonist is a bit non-conforming towards this divide, wanting to become a trader like her mother in order to contact and help other towers in a way that's more acceptable to the society. And due to a thoughtless mistake and a bit of happenstance, she is deemed a lawbreaker and thus begins the story. Kirit is actually a really compelling protagonist with whom you can identify with. The story is told through her perspective and not once did I feel like slapping her for being too dumb (well, maybe a bit in the end because of what was unleashed) or too preoccupied with sex and guys and romantic triangles to have a proper logical thought in her head (there's only a smidgen of a romantic hint in this novel instead of full blown trope-y and angst-filled teenaged romantic melodrama).
There are some really beautiful moments in the novel and some really interesting secondary characters whom I really liked, and there's an interesting usage of traditional songs and law reciting. There's also some aspects that are less explored and where some suspension of disbelief is needed. For example, not once in the novel do I remember reading that our protagonist, Kirit, had any kind of martial training in weapons or otherwise; however, not long after she begins a certain training, she is being asked to enter combat and she fares very well at it. I understand that in a world under constant attack by tentacled flying monsters some kind of fighting would be taught to all their population, a bit of a hint towards this would have been nice earlier on, because all I could think was that this particular brand of badassery came out of nowhere.
Then there's the confusing end, where in order to expose secrets, Kirit just quite possibly gets a lot of people killed, and I guess this is typical of teenagers making any kind of important decisions without being fully aware of how bad the consequences can get, but I'd been enjoying this character so much for not being particularly stupid and then she goes and makes such a stupid, potentially lethal, move. And everyone just goes with it, too! It didn't ruin the book for me; it's a good ending in a way, if you don't think too much about how fast people came to her side, but her thoughtlessness did make me like Kirit a little less by the end of the book.
I am, however, looking forward to the next installment of this series and I do recommend it, dystopian tropes and all, because it is one of the better written in the genre I've read lately.
The writing is great, and though it cannot entirely avoid some of the tropes of the genre, it's compelling enough that you don't really care that they're there because the story is drawing you in. The fascinating society Fran Wilde has built with this universe, where people live in very high towers built on bone and are both united and divided by them. Transportation is done by flying with artificial wings and everyone does or grows up to do so. Tower loyalty is the most important aspect of this society, and your own tower's security is paramount, even if it means letting another tower fend for itself so you don't danger to your door. This is important due to the skymouths, tentacled predators that prowl the skies and may attack at any moment.
Our protagonist is a bit non-conforming towards this divide, wanting to become a trader like her mother in order to contact and help other towers in a way that's more acceptable to the society. And due to a thoughtless mistake and a bit of happenstance, she is deemed a lawbreaker and thus begins the story. Kirit is actually a really compelling protagonist with whom you can identify with. The story is told through her perspective and not once did I feel like slapping her for being too dumb (well, maybe a bit in the end because of what was unleashed) or too preoccupied with sex and guys and romantic triangles to have a proper logical thought in her head (there's only a smidgen of a romantic hint in this novel instead of full blown trope-y and angst-filled teenaged romantic melodrama).
There are some really beautiful moments in the novel and some really interesting secondary characters whom I really liked, and there's an interesting usage of traditional songs and law reciting. There's also some aspects that are less explored and where some suspension of disbelief is needed. For example, not once in the novel do I remember reading that our protagonist, Kirit, had any kind of martial training in weapons or otherwise; however, not long after she begins a certain training, she is being asked to enter combat and she fares very well at it. I understand that in a world under constant attack by tentacled flying monsters some kind of fighting would be taught to all their population, a bit of a hint towards this would have been nice earlier on, because all I could think was that this particular brand of badassery came out of nowhere.
Then there's the confusing end, where in order to expose secrets, Kirit just quite possibly gets a lot of people killed, and I guess this is typical of teenagers making any kind of important decisions without being fully aware of how bad the consequences can get, but I'd been enjoying this character so much for not being particularly stupid and then she goes and makes such a stupid, potentially lethal, move. And everyone just goes with it, too! It didn't ruin the book for me; it's a good ending in a way, if you don't think too much about how fast people came to her side, but her thoughtlessness did make me like Kirit a little less by the end of the book.
I am, however, looking forward to the next installment of this series and I do recommend it, dystopian tropes and all, because it is one of the better written in the genre I've read lately.