Lou Jacobs's Reviews > The Vanished Birds

The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
The Vanished Birds
by Simon Jimenez
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Lou Jacobs's review Sep 02, 2019 · edit
it was amazing

A virtual tour de force debut ... although using the science fiction motif , this is a literary novel exploring frienship, love, betrayal and wonder of the fantastic. Filled with a plethora of well fleshed out characters. The main two are female ... Spaceship Captain Nia Imani and aerospace engineer Fumiko Nakajima. Fumiko believes the future of mankind is in the Stars and not on the climate savaged Earth. She is hired by the mega corporation Umbai to design a series of space stations which will provide the platform for the migration of the human race by a series of Arks. Fumiko chooses to pursue her career rather than sustain her burgeoning friendship with lover, Dana. Her space stations are designed with similarities to the form of modern day birds ... she names them: Macaw, Pelican , Barbet and Thrasher. (hence the title ... The Vanished Birds). Colonization of the galaxy is achieved by the development of "cold sleep" ... a lengthy period of suspended animation allowing reawakening in a safer time and better place.
On the farming planet, Umbai-V, a pod crashes with the mysterious appearance of an unharmed mute boy .... who later is given the name, Ahro. Fumiko has a theory that this youth has a unique but undeveloped power, the ability to Jaunt. An ability suspected in rumor and legend ... however, one that she may have experienced in person. The power in which an individual has the ability to travel across galaxies in mere seconds ... perhaps one day Ahro will be able to think of a place, and be there.
Fumiko enlists the aid of Nia to take the boy and remain on the fringes of space ... hidden from the claws of Umbai ... and possibly have him develop the ability to "Jaunt". She opines Umbai has been looking into her extracurricular projects for some time and she'd rather they not know about Ahro. "They do not know how to handle good things without breaking or exploiting them." During the journey Nia and Ahro's relationship flourishes from friendship to admiration and then ultimately mutual love.
Simon Jimenez proves to a master storyteller and weaves an intricate and astonishing narrative
pitting multiple forces and motivations against one another. Is greed or love the more powerful force?
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing / Ballantine for providing an Uncorrected Proof of this gem in exchange for an honest review.

The Vanished Birds is a sweeping epic journey through time and space. But it is written in such a gorgeous, almost poetic, way, that swept me away. It is a bit like a novella that leads to a novel, and then leads on to an epic novel, then circles back and leaves you going, "OH." There was a little bit of flipping back and going, wait, "who was that?" But not much, and Nia, Ahro, and the crew on the ship were all very well done with their own voices and characters. Absolutely lovely.

The past hungers for him, and when it catches up, it threatens to tear this makeshift family apart.

Dynamic cast of characters, beautifully written, and fascinating premise.

I can not express how happy I am that I found this book. I have read several Sci-fi books, and I have enjoyed very few of them. This was such an enjoyable book. The characters are fantastic, the found family aspect of it all. Thinking about it, it gave me FireFly vibes a little.

The first few chapters, or the first chapter (they are long chapters), follows a different boy over the course of his life, from birth to his death and the time over the years where he meets Nia and wants to have something more than he as a farmer, but learns that he's not as special as he thought. After his story is done, it follows a different boy (Ahro) and Captain Nia.

This was beautifully written, the characters are all wonderfully diverse. And the plot, while not entirely clear at first is really interesting. There are parts that lag a little, and some of the off-shoots of the plot aren't clear how they fit in with Nia and Ahro, quickly weave together nicely.

Vanished Birds is a mysterious science fiction tale bathed in beautiful prose that offers glimpses of a future of seasons changing, stars within reach, technological marvels, corporate greed, and metaphysical depth.

Starting with a distant world, a colony frozen in time except for brief decades-apart visits from offworlders. You get a strong juxtaposition of the few backward souls living simple lives and the grand civilization out there. A young boy exploding from the stars ✨ changes everything. And, his future appears special. He's mute. He doesn't belong anywhere. But he may just be the one everyone in the cosmos has been waiting for. Or not.

Meanwhile, a thousand years earlier, a designer baby changes everything and puts in motion things unimagined. The question is always what matters most, personal affections or human progress. Is it the job or the relationship that's important? Is loyalty to your friends, shipmates, companions paramount or setting aside a nest egg? Ultimately are we all disposable, interchangeable, useful? And what are the limits of corporate greed? Will it take us places we never thought we'd go?

This is a metaphysical story, not a bang bang shoot em up. It's filled with a sense of wonder and magic. Although I enjoyed it, I'm not certain everyone will.

What I think makes this novel work so well is that you never really know where the story is going. At first, you think one is the main character, but then there's a shift and the story focuses on someone else in another part of he universe becomes the focus. A lot of the story takes place on an aging ship with a motley crew, but it's a few giant steps till you get there. First, you have to flee the dying earth and it's not necessarily fair who gets to go. First, you have to have the oddest extramarital affair imaginable. First, someone has to predict what may come to be.

In any case, the writing is captivating, mystical. And takes the reader on a
One strange trip through ugh time and 🚀 space.

The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
The Vanished Birds
by Simon Jimenez
F 50x66
Sherry 's review Aug 18, 2019 · edit
liked it

I soooo wanted to love this. Started out with interesting short stories then morphed into the main story which I found extremely long and tedious. Sort of a space opera on choosing family. A boy is found crash landed on a space station and one of the captains of a space traveling ship wants to adopt despite being told it was impossible. I kept thinking how I would have livened this up a bit. I DNF'D at 75%. I just wasn't interested enough to go on. Arg!