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Title: Pilgrim of the Sky
Author: Natania Barron
Genre: World-walking fantasy
Thingummies: 3.5
Synopsis: Maddy thought her boyfriend was dead. But when she is pulled into a steampunk fantasy world, she discovers that not only is he still alive, but he--and she--are more powerful and interconnected than she'd dreamed.
Thoughts: Maddie's voice pulled me into this one right away. She's an ordinary ex-grad student in mourning for a missing lover, with far too many mundane responsibilities, but Barron gives her a thoughtful perspective on the world I found instantly engaging. She starts in our world, quickly tumbles into another one, and then discovers that there are a lot more possibilities than she'd been aware of.
There are several places in which the author commits what I would consider grievous sins, and yet totally gets away with it. Interruptions keep conveniently preventing people from explaining things properly to Maddie to build tension--but it turns out that none of the people she would trust are remotely trustworthy, and they're all deliberately looking for ways to escape these conversations with as little information exchanged as possible. That's right--they have in-character reasons to be unhelpful and to give her only partial truths. Maddie herself is far too trusting, and her alter ego has far too much random sex--only it turns out that there's a very good, deep, underlying reason for their actions and reactions as well. And none of it's tacked on as lampshading--the characters were built with these motivations from the ground up, and it works.
Something else I appreciated? Maddie loves people who are deeply, deeply flawed, and she acknowledges this. I'm not going to spoil endings, but by the end she makes a decision about who she wants to be with. And she does so explicitly acknowledging out loud to the person in question that he's flawed, that he's made mistakes that are not actually forgivable and she is not going to forget, but she's going to choose to forgive him anyway. Would I make her choice? Probably not. But she makes it for completely character-consistent and well-thought-out reasons, with her eyes wide open, not holding the past over him but not sweeping it under the carpet either. It's a surprisingly complex and mature resolution to a romantic storyline, something that is generally lacking from, well, most stories.
The world building is fascinating, with ancient gods and cults of Mary and castle ships suspended in the sky. There's more than enough costume porn to keep any steampunker happy.
There are a couple issues that drove me crazy, some minor and some significantly less minor. On the minor side--Randall's profession never makes any sense. He's officially a haberdasher. Only, all the work we see him do is of a gentleman scientist. Matilda, on the other hand, is a haberdasher's wife--but seems to be engaged mostly in dress design. Haberdashery and dress making were entirely different disciplines, and don't have a terrible amount of overlap. Neither one goes well with being a scientist. Furthermore, the former are both examples of trade positions. And while a gentleman scientist and his wife might move in high society and be invited to nobility's parties, a tradesman most certainly would not. Perhaps society works drastically differently in this world--but Maddie is a historical scholar, and would know it was drastically different, and should at least be surprised. It doesn't really make sense--the professions are grafted on for convenience's sake, and it's not particularly necessary.
More importantly--I'll admit I still don't quite understand what happened in the ending. If you're willing to wave your hands a bit and say "it was all resolved", it happens in a way that's emotionally satisfying. But the logistics of exactly what the First World gods were trying to do and what actually happened is still kind of mystifying.
There's plenty of sequel bait here. Will there be one? I'm not sure. But I'd be happy to see what else Barron might do with her world(s).
Author: Natania Barron
Genre: World-walking fantasy
Thingummies: 3.5
Synopsis: Maddy thought her boyfriend was dead. But when she is pulled into a steampunk fantasy world, she discovers that not only is he still alive, but he--and she--are more powerful and interconnected than she'd dreamed.
Thoughts: Maddie's voice pulled me into this one right away. She's an ordinary ex-grad student in mourning for a missing lover, with far too many mundane responsibilities, but Barron gives her a thoughtful perspective on the world I found instantly engaging. She starts in our world, quickly tumbles into another one, and then discovers that there are a lot more possibilities than she'd been aware of.
There are several places in which the author commits what I would consider grievous sins, and yet totally gets away with it. Interruptions keep conveniently preventing people from explaining things properly to Maddie to build tension--but it turns out that none of the people she would trust are remotely trustworthy, and they're all deliberately looking for ways to escape these conversations with as little information exchanged as possible. That's right--they have in-character reasons to be unhelpful and to give her only partial truths. Maddie herself is far too trusting, and her alter ego has far too much random sex--only it turns out that there's a very good, deep, underlying reason for their actions and reactions as well. And none of it's tacked on as lampshading--the characters were built with these motivations from the ground up, and it works.
Something else I appreciated? Maddie loves people who are deeply, deeply flawed, and she acknowledges this. I'm not going to spoil endings, but by the end she makes a decision about who she wants to be with. And she does so explicitly acknowledging out loud to the person in question that he's flawed, that he's made mistakes that are not actually forgivable and she is not going to forget, but she's going to choose to forgive him anyway. Would I make her choice? Probably not. But she makes it for completely character-consistent and well-thought-out reasons, with her eyes wide open, not holding the past over him but not sweeping it under the carpet either. It's a surprisingly complex and mature resolution to a romantic storyline, something that is generally lacking from, well, most stories.
The world building is fascinating, with ancient gods and cults of Mary and castle ships suspended in the sky. There's more than enough costume porn to keep any steampunker happy.
There are a couple issues that drove me crazy, some minor and some significantly less minor. On the minor side--Randall's profession never makes any sense. He's officially a haberdasher. Only, all the work we see him do is of a gentleman scientist. Matilda, on the other hand, is a haberdasher's wife--but seems to be engaged mostly in dress design. Haberdashery and dress making were entirely different disciplines, and don't have a terrible amount of overlap. Neither one goes well with being a scientist. Furthermore, the former are both examples of trade positions. And while a gentleman scientist and his wife might move in high society and be invited to nobility's parties, a tradesman most certainly would not. Perhaps society works drastically differently in this world--but Maddie is a historical scholar, and would know it was drastically different, and should at least be surprised. It doesn't really make sense--the professions are grafted on for convenience's sake, and it's not particularly necessary.
More importantly--I'll admit I still don't quite understand what happened in the ending. If you're willing to wave your hands a bit and say "it was all resolved", it happens in a way that's emotionally satisfying. But the logistics of exactly what the First World gods were trying to do and what actually happened is still kind of mystifying.
There's plenty of sequel bait here. Will there be one? I'm not sure. But I'd be happy to see what else Barron might do with her world(s).
