Order The Surviving Sky HERE
OFFICIAL AUTHOR
BIO: Kritika H. Rao (she/her) is a science-fiction and
fantasy writer, who has lived in India, Australia, Canada and The Sultanate of
Oman. Kritika’s stories are influenced by her lived experiences, and often
explore themes of consciousness, self vs. the world, and identity. She drops in
and out of social media; you might catch her on Twitter or Instagram
@KritikaHRao. Visit her online at www.kritikahrao.com.
OFFICIAL BOOK
BLURB: High above a jungle-planet float the last refuges
of humanity—plant-made civilizations held together by tradition, technology,
and arcane science. In these living cities, architects are revered above anyone
else. If not for their ability to psychically manipulate the architecture, the
cities would plunge into the devastating earthrage storms below.
Charismatic, powerful, mystical, Iravan is one
such architect. In his city, his word is nearly law. His abilities are his
identity, but to Ahilya, his wife, they are a way for survival to be reliant on
the privileged few. Like most others, she cannot manipulate the plants. And she
desperately seeks change.
Their marriage is
already thorny—then Iravan is accused of pushing his abilities to forbidden
limits. He needs Ahilya to help clear his name; she needs him to tip the
balance of rule in their society. As their paths become increasingly
intertwined, deadly truths emerge, challenging everything each of them
believes. And as the earthrages become longer, and their floating city begins
to plummet, Iravan and Ahilya’s discoveries might destroy their marriage, their
culture, and their entire civilization.
FORMAT/INFO: The
Surviving Sky is expected from Titan Books on 4th April
2023.
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS(SHAZZIE): I
was interested in reading this book because I like to grab any South Asian
inspired fantasy tales, and consider it my absolute privilege to have read a
very early review copy. I am happy to report that it is a new favourite, and
that I will purchase a physical copy so that it can occupy a special place on
my bookshelf.
If I were to describe it badly, I would say
that it is about a married couple trying to save both their relationship, and a
flying city held up with plant magic. It is a futuristic, dystopian,
ecological, science fiction fantasy that focuses as much as the relationship
between the two protagonists, Ahilya and Iravan,
as they try to make their marriage work, as it does on the survival of mankind
in this setting.
This review will discuss my reading
experience in a slightly unconventional flow. There is a lot that can be said
about this book, but I will try to address, in my review, the following -
first, the relationship between the protagonists, and only next, the
premise and the world-building as well as I can manage, followed by my thoughts
on the magic system, and finally, what you might be able to expect with respect
to your personal reading experience.
When I read the first few chapters, I was
immediately struck by the thought of how refreshing it is to read about a
relationship that focuses on a couple in a who have been married for over a
decade. Kritika very clearly means their marital life to be an
depiction of a couple wanting the best for each other individually and their
relationship, but also one that examines the friction that can be caused by one
of them being handed all the privilege possible, and the other seen as having
little to no value in their chosen pursuit. They don't enable each other, but
they do accept that the other is very competent with their job. They eventually
work together despite their troubles, and this leads to a couple of chapters
from either perspective that were written well enough to steer me toward
considering each of their feelings and opinions as compelling as the opposite.
I firmly believe that the cover of this
book is a wonderful choice, and a great way to help visualise the unique choice
of setting for the book. The world-building here is clearly the winning factor
for me, and this will likely be what most readers find the most intriguing.
From chapter one, we are introduced to this clever and creative world. The
ecological threat that humanity faces here, is similar to that in N. K.
Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy. The earth is prone to constant fits of rage
that make it hard to survive on the ground, but here, humanity takes a
different route survival. They take to the skies and rely on plant-based magic
that a few people are gifted with, and hence they are valued the most, due to
their part in keeping their communities safe.
I can't say much in detail about the magic
system involved, without giving a lot away. It is a soft magic system this far,
but not one that is without consequence. It heavily dictates a large part of
the way the story unfolds. Just like the setting, when a certain idea of
concept is discussed more than once, Kritika ensures that she
adds an extra layer, making the ideas used not just easy to follow, but also
evolve slowly, as the characters find out more about their world and history,
and all of this is driven by their necessity and desperation to try to protect
their community from the imminent threat they face.
"This was always our destiny. We were always
each other's completion, each other's ruin. "
A large part of this book is influenced by
Hindu-philosophies and mythologies. If read carefully enough, it will not be
hard to understand what the author refers to, in certain parts of the book.The
ideas of duty, destiny, rebirth, consciousness and intent are embedded into the
story and the culture of the community, along with nature playing a very large
part in dictating how species survive and interact with each other. Readers
familiar with Indian classic music will find an extra element of appeal among the
pages. What is dizzyingly remarkable is how everything in this book has an
underlying theme of duality, one of the most prevalent notions in the Hindu
philosophies. The world is described in a way that makes it feel both
contained, but also expansive at the same time. The civilisation seems to be
advanced enough to survive in the sky, but sustains itself based on arcane
technology. Both the protagonists in the book are good for each other in some
ways, but equally bad in others. All the aspects of the book that have been
discussed in this review both stand out on their own, but are, at the same
time, extremely tightly coupled in their evolution throughout the story, with
the promise of a lot more to come in the sequel.
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS
(MIHIR): The Surviving Sky
is Kritika H. Rao’s debut book and the
worldbuilding in the story is one of the best that I’ve ever read in a SFF
debut. The story is set on a planet that has an incredible destructive event
called Earthrage, which basically makes it impossible for the denizens of the
planet to survive on its surface. The people have started living on floating
sky cities that are powered by plants and the people known as Architects who
perform psychic manipulation to keep the cities afloat. This scenario is quite
unique and the author beautifully sets this premise by opening the readers
within and then cleverly showcases the readers all of it.
As my colleague Shazzie mentioned about the worldbuilding,
this book is absolutely brilliant in its depiction of a world that’s unique and
quite dangerous. There’s quite a of lot of Hindu mythology mixed into this
world from the Yaksha-animal hybrid creatures to the Rudra beads to certain
words like Ashram, ragas etc. This is quite fantastical and for south Asian fantasy
SFF readers, this is such an incredible breath of fresh air. The story
basically focused on two main POV characters Ahilya and Iravan who
are very, very intelligent people but incredibly complicated and very much
angry with each other.
These characters are what drive the story and the author
presents both of their viewpoints. One one hand, we have the architects who are
crucial for the survival of all human beings. But on the other hand, their
sense of superiority is troubling and everyone else feels that. Ahilya with her archaeology background
has found all of this very troubling and I found her name to be very
interesting mythologically. For fun, check out who Ahilya was in the epic of Ramayana. The parallel between that mythologically Ahilya and the Ahilya of Nakshar and how it plays out vis-a-vis her husband is interesting. The author really makes us invested in to what these two are truly about. Their
anger towards each other is explored solidly and we the readers can see the
complexities that tie them together and yet push them away.
For me the story is all about characters and the world
collapse that’s upcoming. However the plot pace isn’t of the quicksilver kind,
it keeps building up bit doesn’t quite conclude in the spectacular fashion that
it was intended. I would have loved for it to be more action-packed given the
potential of the gigantic Yaksha creatures and I really hope that the sequels
play up more on that angle. I have to be clear though, that this is purely
subjective and is purely my opinion.
The
Surviving Sky is an incredible debut that fuses Hindu mythology
with incredible worldbuilding that rivals the best of Sanderson. Kritika H. Rao is an incredible talent
and I for one, can’t wait to see what the sequels bring.
CONCLUSION (SHAZZIE): How you
enjoy your read of this book might be different. The universal audiences will
find a tale that is unique and creative. The desi readers will likely enjoy
this on a different level, since it contains nods to many well known mythical
beings they're familiar with, along with ideas so commonly discussed in their
culture. No matter what group you belong to, this is a reading experience that
is incalculably enjoyable, creatively built, thoroughly immersive, and just
like a majority of concepts in Hindu philosophy, thought-provoking and
incredibly hard to distill.
No comments:
Post a Comment