The Surviving Sky

 By- Kritika H. Rao

    This book was another library find, when perusing the shelves I found a paperback book and took a look at the beautiful cover. A floating island with trees, wildlife, and structures on and around the island all floating above the ground that looks to be having horrible storms. While I was intrigued by the cover I thought it was strange that I have never heard of it, so I took a picture of it on my phone and decided I would do some research. I never did do any research however, it felt as though the book was stalking me when the staff put it on a display case. After a few weeks I decided to check it out. 

    The author has built a truly unique world based on the future of earth where most of civilization has been destroyed by storms on the earth they call earthrages. I am not sure if I truly completely understand earthrages, when described in the book it seems that the earth shakes and plants become hostile all the while wind, lightning, and rain rage around you. It is true chaos and devastation to the earth itself and anyone on the ground. Humanity has evolved and built cities build out of trees and plant life, that fly above the earth away from the earthrages below. Humanity themselves have separated into two classes those that are born with the ability of trajection, known as architects, and the rest who have normal abilities. Trajection is the ability to connect to the conscience of plants and affect their growth and changed them to suit your needs, even to shape them into rooms and stairs. As you can imagine there is some social issues because of the two classes, one that feels superior and the other that resents their reliance on architects. The main characters are Ahilya and Iravan who are married to each other however they are currently in the middle of a fight at the beginning of the story and haven't spoken in a while. Not only are they having issues in their marriage but there are also issues with their city who is filled with architects that are struggling with trajection and the fact that there are not enough of them. 

    I enjoyed this book, the author has built a amazing world that is complex and unique. The author is an artist with the details of how the world works and allows you to almost put yourself in the world that is unlike anything you have ever seen or experienced. The characters are equally complicated and show depth in their inner thoughts and relationships to other characters. Overall, I would recommend this book however not to everyone the level of detail, complexity of story, and philosophical thoughts of the book do not make for a light read. However, if you are looking to dive into a new world and looking for something less superficial I would highly recommend this book to you.