I have loved every single one of Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner’s books together. They always create such amazing sci-fi stories with great love stories being a big part of it. This book was naturally one of my most anticipated of the year, especially as it blends sci-fi and fantasy.
So lets start with a little summary! North lives up in the clouds in a series of floating cities of which he is the Prince. One problem: the cities are falling, and his people no longer have the knowledge to repair them. An attempt to convince his people that he could build a vessel to get back from the ground below leads to him being stranded there where he meets Nimh. She is a living goddess, her people’s current incarnation of the Divine One. But she has not manifested her main powers yet and she thinks this means she will be the one to find the lightbringer – the destroyer of the world…
The more I think about this book the more I am amazed by it. I still have so many unanswered questions about the world North and Nimh live in and the reason I have them is because the
characters do not yet know themselves. I’m really looking forward to the next book where we might discover some of these answers.
One of the big things that struck me about this book was that, at first, you think the magic that Nimh and her people have is just science – something they can’t explain. This is how North rationalises it but, as I got further through the book, I began to question that alongside North. It’s really fascinating this idea of their being two completely separate worlds within a world: one relying on technology and another relying on magic.
I also really loved the dual perspectives and how different they were. It was fascinating to see the
vastly different viewpoints that Nimh and North had on the Lightbringer, and to also not be sure who was right.
I really don’t think I’ve ever read a book quite like this and would highly recommend you pick it up!
The only problem I had with the book was that it was quite a slow start. I didn’t fully get into the book until probably just before halfway through. The last half was a roller-coaster but I spent the first half wondering if I liked North and Nimh. I think this might be because it sets up like it will use a few common YA tropes (main character seen as leader but actually being controlled, main character trying to prove they’re right and something going wrong). Also, I’m aware these aren’t tropey names so let me know if they have actual names! I just think they’re pretty common across YA books. I will say that the book really does diverge from them and becomes very original.
I wish I had got sucked in from the start as then it would probably be a 5* read but I feel good giving
this a 4.5*.
If you can’t cope with cliffhanger endings though then I’d wait a little while to pick this book up. Honestly, I was warned about this, but the last line of this book has just made me so anxious. I can’t believe I’ll have to wait a year for the next! The last few chapters together were full of quite a few twists and turns, some predictable others not so.
This book, while a blend of sci-fi and fantasy leaned more towards the latter which was definitely new from Kaufman and Spooner together. I’m hoping we might get a bit more of both genres in the second book because you guys know how much I love sci-fi!
The London Faerie 