All the Birds in the Sky

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Anyone suffering from midwinter blues should read Charlie Jane Anders’s between-categories fantasy, “All the Birds in the Sky.” The scenario is (almost) Harry Potter, the tone is (quite like) Kurt Vonnegut, the effect is entirely original… Charlie Anders is a new voice, witty, charming, thoughtful and sometimes mordant.“ — Tom Shippey, Wall Street Journal

Seven years had passed since some birds had told Patricia she was special. Since then, she’d tried every spellbook and every mystical practice on the internet. She’d misplaced herself in the woods over and over until she knew by heart every way to get lost. She carried a first-aid kit, in case she met any more injured creatures. But no wild things ever spoke, and nothing magical ever happened. As if the whole thing had been some kind of prank, or she’d failed a test without knowing.The relationship between Laurence and Patricia is at the heart of the book, and it’s all about being different. And about two very different ways of seeing the world. They meet up as kids, and they struggle to survive the horrors of middle school – everything from mean kids to a school guidance counselor with a deadly secret. And then 10 years later, they meet again, after Patricia has graduated from a magical school, and Laurence has become a genius engineer and “wunderkind.” Well.” A giant turkey in one of the lower branches, with wattles that looked a bit like a judge’s collar, pulled himself upright and appeared to consult some markings scratched into the side of the Tree before turning and giving a loud, learned “glrp” sound. “Well,” he said again, “there are several methods that are recognized in the literature. Some of them are trials of death, but we might skip those for the moment perhaps. There are also some rituals, but you need to be of a certain age to do those. Oh yes, here’s a good one. We could ask her the Endless Question.” James Tiptree, Jr. Award: Gender-bending SF". Internet Speculative Fiction Database . Retrieved April 10, 2017. This geeky, spiritual love story is strong enough to keep listeners riveted, and [Alyssa] Bresnahan’s performance is the icing on a very tasty cake.” — Audiofile Magazine 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

In a review in SF Signal, science fiction critic James Wallace Harris described All the Birds in the Sky as "three weddings: a marriage of science fiction and fantasy, ... YA and adult, and ... genre and literary." [8] He said Anders manages this "with a light touch, producing a novel that is a joy to read, yet is as deep as you're willing to dig." [8] Writing in The Independent, David Barnett described the novel as a blend of Diana Wynne Jones, Douglas Coupland and Neil Gaiman—"a little bit of science fiction, a little bit of fantasy, and a hell of a lot of fun". [9] He added that Anders is "an important new voice in genre fiction", and that this book "marks a brave, genre-bending debut that, as satisfying as it is, perhaps hints at even more greatness to come." [9]All the Birds in the Sky is one of the most surprising novels I’ve read this year, and for the most part one of the most delightful. Anders manages to make all of these risks pay off… Anders’s approach to writing about childhood echoes that of Daniel Pinkwater.” — Gary K. Wolfe, writing in Locus Anders, Charlie Jane (2016). All the Birds in the Sky (e-booked.). London: Titan Books. ISBN 978-1-7856-5056-7. a b c Webb, Richard (August 30, 2016). " All The Birds In The Sky. Book Review". British Fantasy Society. Archived from the original on October 26, 2020 . Retrieved April 11, 2017. Ward, Timothy C. (January 22, 2016). "[Interview] Charlie Jane Anders on All the Birds in the Sky, Publishing and More". SF Signal. Archived from the original on December 2, 2022 . Retrieved April 6, 2017. Patricia has magical powers, from an early age. When she tries to rescue a small bird with a broken wing, she discovers she can understand what the bird is saying—and she can talk to other creatures in the forest, as well. But becoming a fully-fledged witch is no easy process, and Patricia’s powers aren’t at all reliable. Once Patricia is a grown-up, she’s mastered her powers—but now she has to deal with the other witches, who worry that Patricia will break the one and only rule of magic.

Theodolphus began to sob, without making any sound. He wept like a silent jungle cat. Then at last, he decided that life would not be worth living if he couldn’t eat ice cream from time to time without worrying it was poisoned and he began to eat. Anders' first novel, Choir Boy, was published in 2005. Most of it was written in 2001, and she described it as "very weird literary" fiction. [5] After that she worked on several novels, including All the Birds in the Sky, but it was not until her science fiction novelette " Six Months, Three Days" won her a Hugo, that she realized what readers were after, and focused on All the Birds. In a 2016 interview in the science fiction book podcast Geek's Guide to the Galaxy, Anders said that, whereas the other books she was working on "felt like something that other people could have written", All the Birds "felt like something only I could have written." [5] She spent most of 2011 working on the book. [6] Tor Books acquired All the Birds in the Sky in March 2014, with publication planned for 2015. [1] The sun went down. The family stopped for burgers and more lecturing. Laurence kept sneaking looks under the table at his propped-open copy of Have Space Suit—Will Travel. He was already halfway through the book. 3 But now they’re both adults, living in the hipster mecca San Francisco, and the planet is falling apart around them. Laurence is an engineering genius who’s working with a group that aims to avert catastrophic breakdown through technological intervention. Patricia is a graduate of Eltisley Maze, the hidden academy for the world’s magically gifted, and works with a small band of other magicians to secretly repair the world’s every-growing ailments. Little do they realize that something bigger than either of them, something begun years ago in their youth, is determined to bring them together—to either save the world, or plunge it into a new dark ages.

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Patricia vowed with all her heart to do everything in her power to save this bird. This was what led to Patricia being asked a question with no good answer, which marked her for life. If Patricia could do magic, then she could fly out her window or communicate with witches in China and Mexico. But no. She was still just boring, and bored. I haven’t heard anyone answer the Endless Question before,” said a goshawk. “This is more fun than Question Time.”