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Reading as a Writer: The Surviving Sky

 

After listening to an early interview with Kritika H. Rao, I knew I had to read The Surviving Sky. Doubly so when my writing group friends began raving.  

I bought it (which has become more rare as I try to be a responsible library user) and I can't undersell the emotional impact of holding a doorstopper in your lap. 

Once I picked this book up, it was so hard to put it down. At the same time, I did not want it to end. In order to savor the first-read, I forced myself to read no more than 50 pages a day, because otherwise I would have stopped working and sleeping to devour this book. 

In addition to the fascinating world-building and the stakes that kept me glued to the page, I really loved how the relationship progressed in this book. More than the relationship itself, I thought this book was an excellent example of how the relationship itself has an arc, and each character's relationship with their relationship also has an arc and changes throughout the book. 

The only thing that I didn't love about this book was that I didn't realize until the end that it's meant to be a series. Nothing wrong with that, I just wish I'd realized up-front so I knew what to expect from the ending. 

Just a note to anyone who's been reading my book reviews until now (which, let's be honest, has been no one). Since these little blurbs have never really been book reviews so much as notes on what I loved about the fantasy/sci-fi/speculative books I've been reading, I decided to change the name of the series again. 

In addition, I've decided to branch out and post more about what I'm reading outside of the speculative range. More to come on that! 

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