A big thanks to NetGalley and Titan Books for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I don't quite know what I read, except that it was a lot more complicated then it could have been.

The Surviving Sky by Kritika H. Rao is a fantasy set in a world where storms reign, jungles span planets, and floating cities are overrun with magic. Iravan is an architect, one of the people who came up the design for the floating city he calls home. Though his architect status, is also his identity. Except to his archeologist wife, Ahilya, who is slowly drifting away from him with their marriage becoming shaky. But they must come back together following a horrendous jungle expedition. And not only save their marriage, but their entire world as their city starts to plummet from the sky.

The premise of this was interesting, but the execution of it was a bit lackluster. I liked how it put the center of conflict with Iravan and Ahilya's marriage, which you don't see too often in fantasy novels. I just wish this book was a standalone instead of a trilogy, as it doesn't seem like it will keep up with the need to be more than one book.

The Surviving Sky is a fantastic, smart debut by author Kritika H. Rao. In this intricately built world, husband Iravan and wife Ahilya work to save their living city, which floats above a jungle world of earth shattering storms. I flew through this impressive dystopia, swept away by the unique magic system, where a select few "architects" are able to psychically manipulate architecture. I loved that our main character, Ahilya, does *not* have this power, where instead it is her husband Iravan who does; yet even without this power, Ahilya does incredible things. This really brings to light to me how an everyday person can make true change. The story focuses too on their relationship and struggles, particularly with questions of power and privilege. I love seeing a married couple front and center in this book, which isn't something I feel like I typically see in a SF/Fantasy book. Overall, strong character building in this, along with incredible world-building.

Really excellent commentary and themes around climate, power, rebirth, and consciousness. I also appreciated how identity is shaped through this, thoughtful embracement of queer relationships, and the interesting technologies and details throughout the story.

I hope there will be more from this world!!

I'm not going to lie -- I wasn't complete sure what specifically was going on during a lot of Rao's novel; however, I still enjoyed it immensely and the world she created.

Rao fully immerses the reader in her world and sci-fi/magic(?) system without a long exposition dump, which I appreciate. However, because of the small understandings tucked throughout the novel (and some big reveals at the end) I did get lost or come to some misunderstandings but they were all minor and didn't impede my understanding of characters or overarching plot. For example, for the longest time I thought this was a futuristic Earth because of the plants, animals, and human characters, but I found out at the end that it definitely isn't. I think. I guess it could be still but I don't think it's intended to be....

Anyways, Ahilya and Iravan are great, fully imagined characters with strengths and weakness to embrace. Their relationship and how marriage evolves was the best part of the book. It's a bittersweet ending for the two of them but it works perfectly in terms of character arc and narrative necessity.

Goodreads has this labeled as #1 but I don't see a mention of any sequels on her website. I'm sure there's more to explore in this world, but it works well as a standalone novel.

This was an interesting read at first, but I had trouble getting through it. The characters were intriguing but felt a bit unlikable which I believe added to the overall tone of the story but ultimately made it a hard read for me. The writing was great and the plot was very original.

Earth has been uninhabitable for hundreds of years due to the earthrages, massive earthquake-storm hybrids that literally reshape the face of the planet. Luckily for humanity, individuals known as architects learned how to traject, manipulating plants to do their will. Before the earthrages wiped the surface clean, cities made of plants were guided into the air, and the architects expended their energy to keep them aloft until the storms passed. Now all of mankind that remains lives in these ashrams, where the architects can guide the lives of everyone aboard, only landing during lulls in the storms so that the architects can rest.

Not all citizens are architects, however, and no one is more upset about that than Ahilya. She's an archaeologist, and the only one in Nakshar. She has studied the surface in between rages, and staunchly believes that there might be something out there that is surviving through the storms somehow. But to gather the proof that she needs, she'll need an architect's assistance and approval from Nakshar's council to even leave the ashram the next time it lands. Complicating things for her is her husband Iravan. He's not just an architect, but a senior architect, and a member of the council. After a fight they had a few months ago, he's not so sure that her research expedition is necessary. Is he just trying to keep her safe, or is he trying to maintain the status quo and help the architects keep their stranglehold on power?

When Iravan decides at the last minute to replace the junior architect who had been assigned to accompany Ahilya and her young assistant, all of the plans for the expedition are thrown into disarray. Both of them are hiding secrets from the other, and trajecting is getting more and more difficult. What they find in the jungle could change everything about their world and their marriage, if it doesn't kill them both first.

The Surviving Sky is a tense, brilliant piece of sci-fi/fantasy. Kritika Rao has built (or maybe trajected) a phenomenal new world hovering just above danger at all times. The characters are well-rounded, and the tension between Ahilya and her husband is palpable. Class warfare is interwoven throughout, with the long-running conflict between architects and non-architects showing beautifully in the strain on Ahilya and Iravan's marriage. It's available as of yesterday, and I highly recommend you check it out at your earliest convenience. My utmost thanks to Titan Books and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for a fair review.

This review originally appeared here: https://swordsoftheancients.com/2023/06/14/the-surviving-sky-a-review/

4/5
<b>A fusing of science fiction and fantasy, and all of the senses. The first book in a long time that I could not put down. </b>

If you’re looking for a book with older-than-teenager protagonists, a married couple working through their problems, miscommunication trope, discovering lost history, plant magic, and tackling societal prejudices, this book is for you.

<b>I read the ARC for THE SURVIVING SKY late into the night every day until I finished it.</b> I can’t remember the last time I did that. I enjoyed the pov shift between two characters, especially with a miscommunication trope, as I could see where each character thought about the other’s actions and what they thought about their own actions. As someone who is married, I loved seeing the dynamics of an already established relationship and working (or not working) through their challenges. Each character has believable flaws which really makes them human and relatable.

A lot of information is provided in the first chapter, but I felt that the balance between character personality, description, and information was very well done. Immediately I was gripped by the world presented. And after reading, I wanted to tell my husband how much I loved him - not talking to the people you love is gut-wrenching.

I loved the naming schemes. Earthrages for the massive planet-side storms, architects for the people who can manipulate plants and build structures out of them, and sungineers...which I believe are users of lost technology. Sungineeres were an interesting concept, but I felt it wasn't fully explained - not like architects were. Magic, from the perspective of the architects and what they think it is, is explained by experiences real-time and re-explained by theories. I felt there was a missing piece for sungineers like maybe they harness sun or use solar energy but there's a scene where they are basically using holograms so I'm not sure what the definition of a sungineer is supposed to be.

There is a glossary at the back of the book which I appreciate. I read the book first and then looked at the definitions to see if I missed anything but I'm happy to report that the author explained the majority of the terms either directly or with context clues so that I didn't need the glossary.

I really liked seeing Ahliya working to uncover the history to help people like her not be oppressed. And I greatly enjoyed the descriptions of locations, plants, and even the scents of the flora. It made for an immersive read.

A major plot point/twist that felt like the climactic event of the story occurs midway. While I enjoyed the change up, knowing then that a <i>bigger</i> twist/climax point must be coming, this is where the prose started to slow for me where previously I felt that the balance between action, description, and character building was well done. Which leads me to...

On to some spoilers.

<spoiler>Other favorite elements include the introduction of spirit-bonded animal companions. Giant birds, everyone! I’m excited to see where this goes in the series.

<b>Cons</b>

Several instances in the book followed an experience> explain > talk about it formula. What I mean is that the event happened and as a reader we experienced it real-time, then had internal dialog which re-explained or hypothesized what had happened, followed by characters talking about it and again explaining or hypothesizing. I felt this slowed the pace down. And explaining clearly what had happened could have been an option vs summarizing and hypothesizing everything the character had already experienced. As a reader, we are usually able to put things together ourselves and don’t need it three times. For me, this made the ending drag. I experienced the grand reveal of the plot /plot twists at the end but then had to read through both characters' conjectures. Instead of summarizing what I already experienced, I wish it had either explained something new or been more concrete in what it did try to explain. Instead, it still felt open to interpretation and not wrapped up.

Pregnancy was a key feature in this novel. And by that, I mean Ahliya did not want to become pregnant and this impacted her marriage. The fact that she and her husband have sex on the one day she's supposedly the most fertile seems entirely counter to her character. She has been actively preventing pregnancies all along and to slip up during "makeup sex" seems a disservice to the character and to every reader who identified with Ahliya's wish to not bear children. (And really inaccurate - as many people who track their cycles for pregnancy can attest to thinking they had the perfect days and still didn't get pregnant) I really hope the following book doesn't follow the lines of "oh, you'll change your mind" about pregnancy and Ahliya suddenly loves the idea of children.

Minor characters I felt were not fully formed. The main character's sister is on the same tree-like structure and yet they hardly interact. I felt like I learned very little about the main character's pasts nor their best friends. A sungineer is the best friend of Ahliya but I couldn't latch on to why as he came off as a grumpy dwarf archetype constantly bad-talking her husband. I did not see interactions that bespoke friendship and had to instead trust the character telling me they were friends was true.</spoiler>

<b>In summary / TLDR : THE SURVIVING SKY combines great elements from fantasy and sci-fi in an immersive read for bookworms looking to scratch an itch for 30-something protagonists, a sprinkle of dystopian, flawed characters, storm, magic, and so many plants. </b>

**I was provided with an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

An absolutely mesmerising debut, The Surviving Sky is a beautiful blend of speculative genres.

Set in a dystopic world where the earth is inhibitable because of catastrophic Earthrage storms, humanity resides in airborne cities made of plants. There are a select few with the title of Architect who possess the power to manipulate and shape nature and this living architecture, making them revered in society.

Now the story itself has a lot going on but centres on a husband and wife duo, equally stubborn and at odds with each other regarding many things but mainly their individual ideologies on what the best course forward is for humanity. Iravan is set in his Architect ways and sustaining the world through conventional methods. Ahilya wants her profession as an archaeologist to be taken more seriously and is intent on looking to the past to help shape the future. We follow along as they come to terms with how their personal lives and civilisation as a whole is shifting around them.

Ahilya and Iravan were such compelling protagonists and their somewhat toxic marriage even more so. All the emotions just ripple off the page. Rao not only draws us into the lives of these two people who are so wrong for each other that they’re right but also perfectly balances and weaves various intersecting plotlines around their relationship trouble. From uncovering close kept secrets to the trail of clues that are followed in order to find some form of salvation for the universe, the characters dive deep into the world and the history that they know, the unknowns of it, and also of themselves.

Alongside the more emotionally loaded personal journey of the protagonists there is a wider examination of the intricacies of the powers present in the world, both magical and political, and how they affect all of society. I was fully intrigued with how the themes of privilege in the class system were explored and all the political disparities. There is just so much depth and thought that has been put into everything that happens over the course of this book and it is all meticulously pieced together.

What stole the show though was just how immersive and fleshed out the worldbuilding was overall. The writing vividly evokes all the beauty and the horror of this very sentient setting that is rooted in human consciousness. It is a setting that you’ll want to run towards in order to explore and run away from in equal measure.

My own knowledge of Hindu philosophy is pretty basic but Rao has used it to create such a multifaceted magic system and history around this incredibly breath-taking setting that continues to evolve the more you read. I’ll admit there were some quite info dumpy moments that slowed down the pacing at the times, this was mainly in the middle, but I found myself fascinated with all the details that we were given during these lulls in the plot that I was still very much engaged.

I didn’t actually know that this was going to be part of a series before reading it but with how all the foundations seem to have been set in this first instalment I’m looking forward to seeing where the story goes next.

If you like stories with equal amounts of action and drama, messy characters and in depth worldbuilding then I highly recommend this book to you!
Final Rating – 4/5 Stars

I found this to be a very slow and thoughtful book, and whether you come to it at a right mood would determine the enjoyment. Not the thing if you want a fast paced, actioned packed space opera; but a very chewy, slow to unravel piece that rewards you for patience and attention - yes. I see where the comparisons to the Jasmine Throne come from, and there is definitely a few notes that resonate, but this book is very much its own thing, both in ambition and execution. It wasn’t a fast read for me but a really enjoyable one.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC of the book.

Did not finish book. Stopped at 25%.

I had trouble feeling engaged by this book. It's bothered me that I can't quite put my finger on why. Originally I was intrigued by the premise. The worldbuilding had some similarities to the Jasmine Throne with a science-fiction like twist and I wanted to read a book with marital tension as opposed to a "getting together" type romantic subplot.

I think the book contained unique world building elements and had good character tension, but I could not make it more than a quarter way through the book.

The book began with the conflict between a husband and wife in the floating city. Her goal in the book was to discover the reason the Earth has become so unstable and gather data, but the society she lives in doesn't prioritize her research. They prioritize her husband's work instead, which reeks of elitism you see all the time in the real world (engineering > sociology, creative fields, etc). That her husband was in no way responsive to her point of view was frustrating. They obviously care about each other but are so at odds that their conflict seemed impossible to resolve.

The book did not progress much farther than what I knew about it going in. It did some character building but not giving a ton of information to further the plot. I've read other reviews that the book goes deeper into philosophy such as questioning plant and animal consciousness, which I did pick up on a little bit, but it would have been more potent for me if the wife was able to tap into the magic system to help explain this. Instead she cannot commune with the plants the same way as the engineers and I think this hindered my understanding a little bit.

It has a lot of elements I normally look for in fantasy and I regretted not being able to finish it. I would try another book from this author or attempt to read it again at a different point in time.

The start of a new sci-fi trilogy with elements of Hindu mythology that will capture you from the first page and won't let you go until the final word. I can't wait to read more in this trilogy.

The Surviving Sky is an intricate SFF journey into a world of connections and identity. With Hindu and philosophical inspirations, Rao tackles questions about consciousness amongst a living, breathing queer-normative world filled with intangible mazes and constellations.

Nature vs. humanity is also at play in a sort of dystopian post-apocalyptic world where earthrages destroy all on its surface. The architects, those who can enter "the moment" and manipulate plants through trajection, feel the pressure to keep their flying ashram afloat. Architect Iravan and archaeologist Ahilya haven't been a proper team in months and their marriage is messy. Through dual POV, the two attempt to stay tethered to their bonds - marital, career, societal.

While a slower read for me, there are limits to what humans can endure, and The Surviving Sky displays them through a unique and complex manner. Rao has built an evocative world of power struggles, survival and secrets and I look forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.

CW: death, grief, classism, murder, pregnancy

It’s Sky Week, thanks to a trio of summer releases whose titles end with the word “Sky.” First on the docket is the one that’s been on my TBR the longest: The Surviving Sky by Kritika H. Rao. Floating cities, messy relationships, and an ever-more-dangerous world? Yeah, I’m in.

The Surviving Sky takes place on one of many floating islands, which protect the population from deadly earthrages by flying high above the roiling ground. But the plant magic (trajection) that powers the island is getting more and more difficult, and no one knows why. Even the most powerful among the trajectionists can’t pursue the question too deeply, for fear of losing his sanity—or worse, being accused of losing his sanity and being lobotomized. His wife, herself unable to traject, seeks answers in archeological study of the world below, but few find her course of study promising enough to be worth the risk, with even her husband unwilling to declare public support.

The marital struggles between the two leads and the search for sustainable protection as the power of trajection wanes serve as twin forces driving the novel. It was the interpersonal plot that drew me to the book initially, and I was pleased to see that the narrative eschews easy answers. The plot summary may suggest a controlling husband threatened by his wife’s research, but it doesn’t take long to realize that there’s no true villain here. Both have their stubborn and selfish tendencies, with all the failings that those entail, but at the same time, they do wish each other’s good, as well as the good of their home. Some of the conflict comes down to character flaws—and there are moments where the reader may want to sit a character down and talk some sense into them—but a lot comes down to different ideas about the wisest course of action, especially when one spouse has access to classified information that the other lacks. Their conflict never feels cartoonish, nor does it paint one the villain and one the victim, nor does it push an unrealistically quick resolution. They’re both largely well-meaning, but bridging the gulf between them requires more than just good intentions.

The investigations into trajection and its alternatives, on the other hand, are more of a mixed bag. Different skill sets and information access sees major characters pursuing various lines of research, from a search for structures that could withstand an earthrage, to development of a battery that could store the power of trajection, to a fumbling exploration into the strange resistance in trajection that comes dangerously close to falling into madness. The first investigation provides a plausible and straightforward entry point into the problem, but plot developments hinder this line of research and push the story toward the latter two.

And neither of the final two lines of research worked as well for me, albeit for different reasons. The battery subplot just felt a little bit underdeveloped–it wasn’t the primary aim of either perspective character, so development stayed mostly offscreen, and when breakthroughs came at key points of the story, they didn’t feel entirely earned. The research into trajection, on the other hand, was the primary obsession of one of the leads, and it develops steadily over the course of the book, with the stakes only getting higher as the study gets further and further from established norms. But that progression pushes this subplot into a heavily mystical direction, which made me as a reader feel somewhat disconnected. I can’t really call it a fault of the book—the mysticism is plenty supported by the plot up to that point—so much as a mismatch between book and reader that made it hard for me to appreciate some of the climactic scenes.

The finish also left the story in a somewhat uncertain position between standalone and series-starter. The conclusion is satisfying enough that I wouldn’t foresee any problem reading The Surviving Sky as a standalone, but I might’ve wanted a few more chapters tying up loose ends. But I believe this is meant as a trilogy-opener, and it’s not one that gives a clear sketch of the main arc to come. That doesn’t necessarily leave it in bad company, and fans of the first book will doubtless pick up the second, eager to see more of a favorite world or character. But there’s not a hook that makes a second book feel vital.

While not every subplot is perfectly executed, The Surviving Sky is a good read and a promising debut. The interpersonal storyline is excellent, and the exploration of magic is carefully built and bound to appeal to those who don’t mind a little mysticism in their fantasy.

Recommended for those who like: messy relationships, Indian-inspired worldbuilding, magic that leans to the mystical.

Overall rating: 14 of Tar Vol’s 20. Four stars on Goodreads.

THE SURVIVING SKY is a stunning debut in an inventive world.

I got to read a version of this book a few years ago and loved it then. Being able to come back and read it after the publishing process is quite the experience - a very fun one though. Seeing what's changed and what hasn't, how the core ideas have stayed the same while shifting things around it.

I love, love, love the world (it's the thing that's stuck with me most clearly from reading it years ago.) This is a world where people can control plants, can make living cities fly to avoid the storms tearing up the planet below. It is a book that straddles the fantasy and science fiction genres, as there's also solar-powered technology. I think it leans a bit more towards fantasy, hence my genre labelling.

But not everyone can, and that leads to a power imbalance when most of the ruling council can. This is the heart of the conflict of the book - whether those who can control plants are right in their approach or not (a "best for the greatest number" approach, though who is that number is another matter.)

I loved seeing a book have a long-term relationship at it's heart, a relationship with all its troubles where the people have to ask "is it still worth it?" It feels like books rarely portray more than the start of a romantic relationship, rarely go beyond the falling in love. This book goes well beyond that, asking what happens after the "yes, we are in love" realisation, and whether it's possible or desirable to find a way back once you no longer are the people who first fell in love.

And neither Ahilya and Iravan are "right" - they're both human with deep flaws that means their outlooks have flaws too. It leads to all sorts of delightful conflict and allows you to root for both of them at once, even when they're opposing each other. If one were right then the other would be wrong and that would make rooting for them both much harder (and also less compelling as one being right would feel very unrealistic.)

This is the start of a trilogy, but this book drops all the world-changing revelations you'd expect at the end of a second book - or mid way through a third. It is going to be very fun to see where the next books go!

Wow, this book was amazing! What really stood out was the world building. It was so unique and the author did a fantastic job of creating a world that felt so real and one I could disappear into. The characters were loveable and I couldn’t help rooting for them. I can’t wait to read more from this author in the future. Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher, for a chance to read and review this book.

I really really REALLY enjoyed this. I requested an ARC of The Surviving Sky on a whim and I’m SO GLAD I got approved because I loved it. A few aspects of the magic system were a little over complicated which doesn’t bother me but I know some people will struggle with it. I loved the way Ahilya & Iravan’s marriage was written in this book. It’s so rare to read about an established relationship outside of contemporary fiction and to see these two struggle with communication and understanding. Not because they simply misunderstand each other, but their misunderstanding stems from having been married for so long they both assume they know the other person well enough that they think they understand without asking. It’s really really well done especially when they both clearly love each other despite the pain they’re putting each other through. I’m really looking forward to the rest of this series especially after that ending!!!!!!

The book tells the story of a world where people (humans?) live in flying cities, which are built ("trajected") around trees, whose life-force and consciousness can be shaped to create whatever architects (those built with a unique ability to manipulate the world around them) want. The story follows Ahilya, a non-architect who is fascinated by the history of their world and trying to gain social standing despite not being one, and her husband Iravan, a senior architect, who sits on the council, carries the world on his shoulders, and struggles to reconcile his love for his wife with his responsibilities as an architect. The story unfolds as the world that everyone knew and loved starts showing cracks, and the changes make everyone, and in particular Ahilya and Iravan, re-examine truths that had been considered immutable. There are several important themes in the story - our protagonists' marriage and its tribulations; the conflicts both our protagonists try to resolve between what they want for themselves, what they want for each other, and what they feel is important for the world around them; the ability of societies and cultures to evolve over time and create their own histories, as tools to consciously govern behaviours and ways of life; and the importance of cosmic balance and humility (more on this later).

What I loved most about the book is the worldbuilding. The universe Ms Rao creates is, in many ways, unique and genre-bending. At the very least, I can’t recall reading anything even remotely similar. The only other universe of comparable complexity is Tamsyn Muir’s (especially when it becomes clearer what it actually is in Harrow and Nona). The pacing of the plot and its evolution towards a climax are also super well executed, with attention to detail, internal consistency, and natural rhythm and flow. It was a pleasure to read, and it kept me excited at all times. I also liked the environmental themes embedded in the book from start to finish – it was nicely done, without preaching, but still sent the very strong message the author wanted to communicate.

I struggled with two things. First, I found the injection of the relationship woes of our two protagonists into the story overdone. While it is plays a nice role in the climax, and is intimately woven into the narrative and doesn’t feel superfluous, some of the aspects of their relationship just lack credibility. There is a Young Adult vibe to the scenes describing their married life, and there is something akin to persistent nagging in how they treat each other, and how little they communicate. It is a very weak aspect of an otherwise very strong story. Second, and last, I found the last fifth of the book overly complex. It felt like the author wanted to squeeze in all that was required to understand her worldbuilding into a small number of pages, creating so much convoluted arguments, that I found myself lost. I can’t really go into the detail without spoiling the book, but suffice it to say that there was just too much cosmic philosophy (in-world) that it stopped being a book and became almost like ramblings.

Overall, I highly recommend it to anyone interested in speculative fiction and genre-bending fantasy/sci-fi/romance. While the book is advertised as having South East Asian influences, I found few (other than perhaps the characters’ complexion). The book has a universal tone, and even the tolerance of sexuality was done in a very organic way, without making a fuss. I also can’t wait to read the next instalment, if there is one, as, I hope, we’re more or less done with worldbuilding and meta-physics and can just enjoy the ride now.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of this novel in return for an honest review.

CHARACTERS
🔲 mary-sue party
🔲 mostly 2D
🔲 great main cast, forgettable side characters
🔲 well-written
✅ complex and fascinating
🔲 hard to believe they are fictional

PLOT
🔲 you've already heard this exact story a thousand times
🔲 nothing memorable
🔲 gripping
🔲 exceptional
✅ mind=blown

WORLDBUILDING
🔲 takes place in our world
🔲 incoherent
🔲 OK
🔲 nicely detailed
✅ meticulous
🔲 even the last tree in the forest has its own story

ATMOSPHERE
🔲 nonexistent
🔲 fine
🔲 immersive
✅ you forget you are reading a book

PACING
🔲 dragging
🔲 inconsistent
🔲 picks up with time
✅ page-turner
🔲 impossible to put down

Pure genius.

This debut science fantasy novel has everything I could ask for from both genres. The world is lush, the magic is mysterious, and at the same time, research plays a huge role in the story, which questions how we build our societies and our relationships within them.

The character work was superb. The main characters of the book are very flawed in my opinion, but that's what makes them so very real. They quarrel, they fight, they reconcile, doing everything with such raw emotions it made me forget I'm reading about fictional people. I wouldn't say they are likable, but they were so fascinating to follow!

I also loved how detailed the worldbuilding was, especially as the plot progressed and some big revelations happened. I felt like I discovered something new about this otherwordly flying plant-city with every page and I loved every moment of it.

I also adored the themes this story played with. Marriage, culture, social order, responsibility, trust - all played a big role in the narrative and they were presented with remarkable finesse.

According to Goodreads, this is the first book in a series, but it didn't feel like one. The plot was complete, the character arcs ended after a nice curve, and the overall ending was satisfying in my opinion. I will certainly read whatever else will be published in this world though because I can see the potential for more stories set in it.

This exceptional debut will be out in less than a week, if you haven't preordered it yet, this is your sign!

HIGHLIGHTS
~Flying plant cities!
~which don’t have marriage counselling, I guess
~Desi solarpunk
~women single-handedly inventing archaeology
~a marriage as a microcosm of a world
~the most mindblowing of epic reveals

The Surviving Sky is a massively impressive debut with an underlying design drawn from Hindu philosophy. (Not mythology. Philosophy. The distinction is important.) Aside from one or two minor details – like the rudra beads worn by citizens, which in many ways mimic the Kimoyo beads of Wakanda in the Marvel comics – everything in this book was new to me. Rao has built a world like nothing I’ve ever seen before, down to its smallest parts, and listen, I read a lot. I read SFF a lot. It is not very often that I come across something in a SFF book that is not even a little bit like something I’ve encountered elsewhere. I’m not trying to toot my own horn here, but I really want to drive home how incredibly unique Rao’s creation is. Even if it turns out that what is wholly new to me is very familiar to Hindu readers – I doubt that’s the case, but I don’t know nearly enough about Hinduism and the culture around it to be sure – it doesn’t change the fact that the majority of the English-reading community is going to be left absolutely floored by what is completely new to us.

I mean. When I finished reading Surviving Sky, I had to go and lie down. And then spend about four hours breaking down everything Rao had unleashed upon me, a poor helpless reader, in a vain attempt to process it all.

Initially I was actually very disappointed with this book – I was hoping for really lush, descriptive prose to match the beautiful setting, and Rao’s writing struck me as almost blunt; not what I was looking for at all. I came pretty close to DNFing it. But I’m so glad I pushed through the first few chapters, because it didn’t take long before I was swept up in Iravan and Ahilya’s complicated relationship (and relationship drama), and after that, the pages just flew by. I felt like a very frantic roadrunner, reading as quickly as I could, enthralled but also desperate to find out what would happen next, and next, and next.

And LAST. Because – oh my gods, that ending-reveal. That was a climax of mythic proportions and no, I am still not over it.

The Surviving Sky is two stories intwined: the end (or is it?) of a marriage, and the potential end of an era for the flying plant cities that are the last bastions of humanity (the surface of the Earth being constantly ravaged by devastating storms known as earth-rages). Not that it’s immediately obvious that the cities are in trouble, but from the opening pages we learn that the plant-magic – trajection – that keeps the cities functioning (and flying) is becoming harder and harder…even if the ruling bodies don’t want to believe that. And while at first it seems like Ahilya and Iravan are a couple who just happen to be born into this time, it eventually becomes clear that their relationship and the gradual failing of the cities are connected, in ways I guarantee you will not see coming.

Rao’s prose is surprisingly addictive; easy to read and fast-paced, despite managing to allow for a fair bit of (very necessary and plot-relevant) introspection. I say ‘surprisingly’ because, as mentioned above, I was hoping for a different kind of writing style, and Rao’s is a fair bit plainer and more direct than I generally enjoy. I’m not sure I can put into words why it worked for me, when similar styles from other storytellers have resulted in DNFs. Part of it is probably how…charismatic Ahilya and Iravan both are; they’re both characters that you can imagine dominating any room they walk into, powerful personalities that you can’t help but gravitate towards, irregardless of whether or not you actually like them. And I really did not like Iravan as a person at all – more on that in a minute – but he makes for an incredibly compelling character, just as Ahilya does. It’s not that the secondary cast is not so developed, but they feel less developed next to these two; every other character pales in comparison to these leads, seem faded and inconsequential even when they are, in fact, incredibly important to the city and/or plot. And that feels deliberate, and correct, because when push comes to shove this is Ahilya and Iravan’s story more than it is anyone else’s; not just because they happen to be the main characters, but because of who they are, what they are, the effect they have on those around them, on the city, on history. They are their world in miniature; the fate of their civilisation is played out in their interactions, their antagonism, their partnership.

It’s an incredible thing to witness; even more so when you recognise what it is you’re seeing. It’s masterful.

(I’ve done a lot of thinking about Surviving Sky since I finished it. Can you tell?)

THE MARRIAGE
I feel like I’m probably supposed to say that how well you ‘buy into’ Surviving Sky is dependant on how much you buy into Ahilya and Iravan’s marriage – but the thing is, that’s not true. I wasn’t rooting for them; I was screaming at Ahilya to divorce her utter dickhead of a husband for most of the book – and it didn’t matter. It in no way affected how deeply invested I was; it didn’t make it any easier to tear my eyes away; it didn’t jolt me out of the story or give me my breath back. These two are just that compelling, that even when I thought they needed to get the fuck away from each other, I couldn’t stop turning pages. I don’t think I’ve ever seen characters with this kind of charisma; I often see characters described as charismatic, but Rao is the first author I’ve come across to successfully write characters who are like gravity wells; characters I can’t disengage from even if I despise them.

It was certainly an experience.

And I mean: if I stop and think about it, then for the most part, Ahilya and Iravan’s relationship makes very little sense to me. Almost at once, I thought they ought to divorce; on an objective level, I feel like Ahilya’s love for Iravan, in particular, is inexplicable – and both the narrative and Iravan himself come to acknowledge that most of the issues in the marriage are of Iravan’s doing or making. Ahilya is far from perfect, but when she starts a fight, it’s because she has an incomplete picture of the truth – because either Iravan or their government have withheld or outright lied to her. Whereas Iravan is arrogant, withdrawn, cold, domineering – for crying out loud, when Surviving Sky opens, he hasn’t talked to Ahilya for seven months, while he was off sulking in his office! Why? Ahilya doesn’t want to have a baby with him, given the rocky shape of their marriage right now.

IRAVAN.

IRAVAN.

HI.

YOU’RE KIND OF A MASSIVE CHEESERIND.

Iravan is an interesting character to read about. But as a person, he’s an asshole, and even if some of his asshattery has understandable roots – even if, by the end of Surviving Sky, we know exactly what is so deeply, fundamentally wrong with him – that doesn’t really change the fact that I unequivocally sided with Ahilya and thought she deserved so much better. Iravan has a real problem with empathy (in that he has little) and arrogance (of which he has a lot). At one point in the book, he (accidentally) almost kills her and her friend, and that should have been it. Done. The ultimate dealbreaker.

But it wasn’t. And now that the book is over, that bothers me a lot – it bothers me that Ahilya wasn’t even mad about it; that she instead ran after Iravan to make sure he was okay (the one and only time she doesn’t call him out on his bs and confront him with it); that it is never mentioned or referred to again. If I’d been Rao’s editor, I’d have asked her to either remove or massively change that scene, because it tips the scales too far; everything that Iravan does up to that point can be fixed with open and caring communication, but that? No. That’s too much. Or it should be. But instead, it’s disturbingly easy to go along with it; to forget That Scene ever happened. Which is necessary: if we acknowledge That Scene, then nothing after it makes sense; the story (or at least Iravan and Ahilya’s marriage) should have ended there. But Rao’s writing is so mesmerising that it pulls you along even when you should really want to get off the ride!

I mean this as a compliment. I mean, I genuinely think That Scene was a bad call from a storytelling perspective; but the fact that Rao could convince me to forget about it – could in fact bring me around to becoming extremely invested, by the end of the book, in Ahilya and Iravan getting back together and making things work – is Exhibit A in how impossibly compulsive The Surviving Sky is.

BEYOND THE MARRIAGE
Outside of Ahilya and Iravan’s marriage are several majorly important plotlines and threads. Trajection – which keeps humanity alive – is becoming harder, and Iravan, as an extremely important and skilled architect (which in this world means, someone who can use trajection) is becoming convinced that there is some Thing, maybe a conscious, living thing, inside the realm of trajection that is interfering with it. Humanity desperately needs more architects than it has, putting pressure on both the architects and the sungineers – think solarpunk engineers – to come up with an innovative solution. Ahilya’s friend is frantically trying to build a battery that would take some of the strain off the architects, and Ahilya is helping by smuggling very illegal plants into the city from her trips to the surface. At the same time, Iravan is being accused of losing control of his powers, a situation which worsens when the Council realise how badly his relationship with Ahilya has broken down. (‘Material bonds’, aka marriage and specifically parenthood, being mandatory for architects.)

To a(n initially) lesser degree, there is also the mystery of what causes the earth-rages that makes the planet’s surface uninhabitable – and Ahilya’s passionate drive to prove that non-architects are not second-class citizens; to trigger a shift in the public perception of architects being the only people who really matter. The architects claim that there is no way for humanity to survive without trajection; Ahilya is searching for proof that the yakshas – giant animals that mysteriously manage to exist down on the surface – have some adaptation or access to safe habitats that humans could utilise as well. The callous dismissal of her theories, and her search for alternate answers to those the architects provide, is written well-enough to make your blood boil; even as Rao also has you grudgingly admitting that you can see where the architects are coming from.

The situation is far from ideal, but there will be no easy fix. In that way, Rao has created a world that is as messy and complicated as ours, without simple answers, populated by characters as contradictory and multi-faceted as those of us writ in blood instead of ink.

I can’t do anything but applaud.

MIND: BLOWN!
I could probably write a full-on thesis on Rao’s incredible worldbuilding, which as I said, is so unique and interesting. It’s Desi solarpunk! But I think it’s going to be much more fun for the reader to discover the whole of it themselves, so I won’t go into much detail.

What I want to do is talk – a little bit, as vaguely as possible, without spoilers – about THAT ENDING.

Because look: as a general rule of thumb, reveals that the reader could never have guessed at annoy me. I never see it coming, but I love when I can look back and, in hindsight, see all the clues I didn’t put together. And that is not the case here. The reveal, when it comes, is a lot more telling than showing, and although the groundwork for tiny bits and pieces of it were laid down, most of it comes kind of out of nowhere.

And I don’t care.

It is AMAZING.

I don’t see how Rao could have pulled off this reveal without doing a lot of telling – and of course, telling-not-showing isn’t inherently bad anyway, only bad when it’s badly done. And although there’s a fair bit of it, I wouldn’t say Rao’s done it badly.

But honestly, even if she had, the sheer breathtaking SCOPE of that reveal would have negated any complaints from me. It’s not that Surviving Sky does a sudden 180; it’s not that what’s revealed contradicts established worldbuilding (I mean, it does, but it’s more ‘we didn’t know this’ rather than ‘we believed the exact opposite of this and are now being proved wrong’); it’s not that Rao rips the rug out from underneath us. It’s…it’s just so HUGE. We are talking literally mythic proportions; a zooming-out, a Big Picture revealed, that I could never have imagined, on a scale that the mortal mind can barely comprehend. It’s gorgeous and unprecedented by anything I’ve ever encountered; it makes it clear that the story hasn’t even started yet, that it’s the forces of the very universe that are going to be friends and foes and battlegrounds going forward.

No quibble I had with Surviving Sky survived the climax. All flaws and faults are forgiven and forgotten. I cannot emphasise this enough: if the premise interests you? Then read this book to the end. Don’t DNF it. You need to experience that – that – that APEX FINALE.

Okay?

All right then.

Humanity has fled to the skies, living in floating cities built with plants and controlled by the Architects, people with plant magic. Below them a violent mix of climate destruction, earthquakes and storms make the ground inhospitable. Only a few rare creatures endure along with supercharged jungle plants that rapidly spread whenever there is a lull.
It's been so long since humanity took flight that little is truly remembered about how they first managed to become airborne or how the earthrages first emerged. Archaeologist Ahilya is keen to investigate but the powerful Architects, including her estranged husband Iravan, think it's a waste of time and resources. But the cities are becoming harder to maintain and Iravan has been stretching the boundaries of his magic, risking everything.

I loved the world, the image of flying plant cities and churning destructive storms and wild jungles below. I'll admit that some of the magic was a little hard to follow but I liked the mix of that with the more scientific elements and that the people weren't wholly reliant of magic users.

I also enjoyed the development of the story, the investigation into the changes and the exploration of the nature of nature and of consciousness. Some interesting concepts that I assume will be looked at more in the sequel.

The characters are a little more tricky. I can't say that I especially liked any of them. Ahilya and Iravan are struggling with their marriage -there's a lot of arguing, miscommunication and jumping to angry conclusions. I'm not really a fan of these kind of interactions so I could have done with less of that.

Overall, I really liked the concept and world-building, it was an interesting blend of scifi, fantasy, post-apocalyptic climate fiction. I'll be interested to see how the rest of the series develops.

An absolutely gorgeous ddebut full of magic, wonder, and beauty. Brilliantly complex characters, exquisite writing and creative worldbuilding. I'll be reading much more from Rao.