This book had a very chaotic and confusing start, I felt like I had been thrown into the middle of the story, but things soon became clearer.

The world building was great. The concept of human-animal hybrids and AIs living within them was super interesting. I loved learning more about the world and its history.

Crista is an interesting main character, as is Red Day. Their development as individuals and as partners as certain truths are revealed to them was riveting. I would have loved some more development of some of the side characters.

Overall, this is a great sci-fi book with a decently paced plot.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily

“Plague Birds” by Jason Sanford is a stunning mix of sci-fi and fantasy readers must get their hands on. This highly imaginative novel is a wild ride full of AIs, animal/human hybrids, monks, and alien lifeforms. Readers will be fascinated by the realistic world-building, the unordinary creatures, and the terrifyingly vicious characters.

Plague birds are notorious for their merciless nature, giving them notoriety as powerful beings feared by everyone. They bond with a blood AI to exact revenge on wrong-doers however they see fit. Crista experiences a Plague Bird’s brutal nature when one murders her mother and again when she is forced to become one herself.

Crista and her AI, Red Day, embark on a life-threatening journey in which she must hunt down a rogue faction called the Veil who are bent on destroying everything that gets in the way of what they perceive to be their ultimate mission. In a world where sense can be manipulated and no one is who they appear to be, it’s impossible to know who to trust and who’s the enemy.

Readers will be enthralled by this gripping and compelling novel and all of its radiant characters. There aren’t too many novels with richly developed secondary characters, but Sanford has created multi-faceted characters with complex backgrounds that readers will easily hate, sympathize with, or love. One thing is for sure: these are characters readers will easily keep straight in their heads and won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

The world-building, lifeforms, science, and fantasy elements are 100% some of the most interesting and fascinating elements of the story. It’s a post-apocalyptic story set way in the future with a life that kind of resembles reality’s present-day except for all of the technologic advances and dark fantasy elements. It doesn’t take much to become immersed in Sanford’s world or to become addicted to Crista’s story.

Choosing not to read this book means missing out on an inventive sci-fi tale with an original outlook on the genre. Not to mention the beautiful addition of dark fantasy that adds a sinister atmosphere to the overall story. Add this book to your TBR shelves, pre-save the novel, and look for it on shelves on its expected publication date of September 21st, 2021.

Thank you to NetGalley and Apex books for providing me with a free e-arc of this novel and the opportunity to share my honest opinion in this review.

This book has so many elements that I love: human-animal hybrids, artificial intelligence, detailed characters with complex relationships, intricate world-building, an emotional punch, and a plot that keeps the reader engaged, It's a beautiful blend of science fiction and fantasy, wrapped up in a wonderful story. Highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Jason Sanford, and the publisher Apex Books for providing an advance copy for review.

Plague Birds is really just a fantastic book, and I'm so glad I got to read it.. The world-building of this book is super fun. AI watch over gene-modded humans while others contain deadly powers. If you lIke fantasy and science fiction and deep multilayered stories, this book is for you.. The story has well plotted out with lots of twists and turns.

I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read this book. The cover is awesome.

Plague Birds is such a wild ride. I was torn between wanting to read it as fast as possible to find out what would happen and wanting to make it last. This book is worthwhile for the worldbuilding alone--the far-flung future setting populated by AI, automatons, and gene-spliced animal-human hybrids living in quasi-medieval villages feels truly unique and wholly engrossing--but it has so very much more than worldbuilding alone to offer.

While the immensely creative setting and all its details were particular highlights for me, I also very much liked most of those novel's characters. I appreciated the complexity of their relationships, and the space Sanford makes for multiple things to be true at once. The lack of straightforward answers available to most of the characters as they navigate the mysteries of right, wrong, and existence itself keeps things tense and gripping, and the grace the most sympathetic of the central characters afford one another as they learn to deal with impossible circumstances as best they can is portrayed in such a lovely and gentle manner.

Plague Birds is really just a fantastic book, and I'm so glad I got to read it. I'll be thinking about this one for ages, and I'll be looking forward to seeing what Sanford writes next.

I received a free e-ARC of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my review.

It’s as if Jason Sanford has reached into my soul and written the perfect book for me. It contains animal/human hybrids, powerful AIs, a wolf woman, a far distant world that has returned to a village/agricultural system. The plot is imaginative, complex, emotional, exciting and imaginative.
I loved every moment of this book. It took me by the hand and led me on an imaginative, intellectually and emotionally satisfying journey and I am sad to end my time in this world with these characters.
If you love fantasy and science fiction and deep multilayered stories, this book is for you.
Thank you to the author and the publisher for providing me with an arc and I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

Plague Birds
by Jason Sanford

This book is an excellent science fiction book but it feels like it is a mix of sci-fi and fantasy. It's a futuristic book where mankind has traveled and has had settlements at one time on the moon. But this is in the far distant past to the characters of the story. The story has well plotted out with lots of twists and turns. NONE of which I figured out ahead of time. It were so unpredictable! I like a book that can surprise me.

Man has lost its humanity long ago. There are gene spliced hybrid people that are mixed with just about every animal you can think of. The few humans, pure ones, seemed to have been living on the moon. (If I understand it right.)
Some survivors made it off after a big disaster.

AIs are, and were, a big part of life. Automated people who has skin and their brain but enhanced with android like parts, and AI brains merged with theirs, can live 10,000s years. There is only one left. There are AIs that guard villages that are kind and helpful. There is one per village.

Then there are Plague Birds. They are people that are asked and except the duty, when one Plague Bird is dying, to take on the mission. They bond with the AI in the Plague Bird. Plague Bird's can live hundreds or thousands of years if no one kills them. They are extremely hard to kill! A Plague Bird goes around administering justice. They can wipe out a whole village in a minute if the wanted to.

This is just part of the world. But in this story, our gal of the story ends up being a Plague Bird to save her family and find her mom's killer. But she finds there are two other beings on this planet with even stronger powers than a Plague Bird! One could destroy the world! One is trying to destroy her!

I really, really loved this world and characters! Very unique and intriguing! I loved how there were so many twists! Someone set her up to be a Plague Bird 10,000 years before she was born! It blew me away! I am not giving anything away. The puzzle is finding out how!

I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read this awesome book! Love the cover too!