I’m already a big fan of blurred lines, genre-bending novels and this one blew me away and was every bit as unique as I had hoped it would be. For a debut novel, I really think this is something special, and think it would also make an amazing movie. Fingers crossed it gets the accolades it deserves.” — Bookshelf Butterfly

Anders approaches her characters with intense sentiment, whether that be love or fear, but without ever becoming sentimental. I got the sense that she really enjoyed writing these characters, as she pushed them through trial after trial (social, professional, and mystical), and that in turn made me love her characters. All the Birds in the Sky is, above all else, a character-driven drama about ties that bind. There is also plenty to say of the way magic users interact with nature in a world they claim to be uniquely connected to. My favorite examples of this are when Anders introduces us to the great and powerful witches and magicians that mentor Patricia, humans so strong in their abilities that they can’t quite connect with the outside world due to the nature of their powers. And even those leaders in Laurence’s world of science can’t see the damage they might ultimately wrought if they go through with their plan to “save” the world. Charlie Jane Anders’ brilliant, cross-genre novel All the Birds in the Sky has the hallmarks of an instant classic. It’s a beautifully written, funny, tremendously moving tale… Like [William] Gibson, Anders weaves a thrilling, seat-of-the-pants narrative with a compelling subtext.” — Elizabeth Hand, Los Angeles Times. The only response, for a long time, was silence. Then an eagle raised itself up, from near the top of the Tree, a white-headed bird with a hooked beak and pale, probing eyes. “You should not have brought her here,” the eagle said. WHEN PATRICIA WAS six years old, she found a wounded bird. The sparrow thrashed on top of a pile of wet red leaves in the crook of two roots, waving its crushed wing. Crying, in a pitch almost too high for Patricia to hear. She looked into the sparrow’s eye, enveloped by a dark stripe, and she saw its fear. Not just fear, but also misery—as if this bird knew it would die soon. Patricia still didn’t understand how the life could just go out of someone’s body forever, but she could tell this bird was fighting against death with everything it had.

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Ugh. Okay, if you are going to have a “bird parliament” in your book, at least make it realistic enough that your adult reader can suspend disbelief and doesn’t feel vicarious embarrassment for you, another adult, who has come up with something that sounds like it was cribbed from a fourth-grader’s creative writing session. Cringiness aside, the magic had no clear rules or limits that would seem to prevent a deus ex machina at any point (this isn’t a spoiler), the author seemed to have no idea what her male protagonist actually did at work, and there were more things but I’m tired of thinking about this stupid book, so that’s all you get. I wanted to like it so badly, too! Locus Awards 2017". Science Fiction Awards Database. Locus Science Fiction Foundation . Retrieved June 25, 2017. A fairy tale and an adventure rolled into one, All the Birds in the Sky is a captivating novel that shows how science and magic can be two sides of the same coin.” — The Washington Post It’s a riotous garden of a book, full of ideas and a fun sense of letting things go to see what happens. All the Birds In The Sky takes on heavy themes like fate and choice and environmental collapse, but makes it feel more like it’s dancing with them than wrestling.” — Samantha Holloway, New York Journal of Books

Oh.” His dad had an embarrassed look in his deep-set eyes, behind his square glasses. “You want to go? This coming Tuesday?” Captivity is worse than death for a bird like me,” the sparrow said. “Listen. You can hear me talking. Right? That means you’re special. Like a witch! Or something. And that means you have a duty to do the right thing. Please.”

When the whole world turns chaotic, we must be the better part of chaos,” Patricia’s mentor tells her in a dark moment. It’s a line that feels like a call to arms from two seconds into our own future. Childhood friends Patricia Delfine and Laurence Armstead didn't expect to see each other again after parting ways under mysterious circumstances during high school. After all, the development of magical powers and the invention of a two-second time machine could hardly fail to alarm one's peers and families. But now they're both adults, living in the hipster mecca San Francisco, and the planet is falling apart around them.

When wizards meet scientists who have created time machines, one is left with no option but to expect wonders of the best kinds.” —The New Indian Express Umm,” said Patricia. “Is the Endless Question going to take a long time? Because I bet my mom and dad are worried about me.” It was hitting her all over again that she was up way past her bedtime and she hadn’t had dinner and she was out in the middle of the freezing woods, not to mention she was still lost. Charlie Jane Anders has entwined strands of science and fantasy, both as genres and as ways of experiencing life, into a luminous novel that reveals the exhilarating necessity of each.” — John Hodgman( The Areas of My Expertise) All the Birds in the Sky…might have suffered under the weight of high expectations if it didn’t so easily soar above them…. All the Birds in the Skyis a triumph.” — Shelf Awareness I’m sorry, ma’am,” Dirrp said. “But it’s okay. She can talk. She can actually talk.” Dirrp pivoted, to speak into Patricia’s ear. “Show them. Show them!”

Charlie Jane Anders

The first person I ever met who could talk,” Tommington yowled. “And you think I’m stupid? Grraah! Taste my claws!” All the Birds in the Sky is a perfect synthesis of both sides of her writing life: a deeply felt story of love, magic, science, growing up an outsider, and living in apocalyptic times, bubbling over with a deep knowledge of genre history and geek culture.” — Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi Blog One of the most intriguing new novels of the year, partially because it defies definition… Think of it as magical realism for the digital age.” — Baltimore County Public Library Yeah.” Laurence cut into his dad’s flow before the conversation got away from him. “That’s right. Milton Dirth. And I really want to go see it. This is like a once-in-a-lifetime chance. I thought maybe we could make it a father-son thing.” His dad couldn’t turn down a father-son thing, or it would be like admitting to being a bad father.