[YKH]≡ Read Free The Sky Is Yours A Novel Chandler Klang Smith 9780451496263 Books

The Sky Is Yours A Novel Chandler Klang Smith 9780451496263 Books

Download As PDF : The Sky Is Yours A Novel Chandler Klang Smith 9780451496263 Books

The Sky Is Yours A Novel Chandler Klang Smith 9780451496263 Books

This book is not about talking dragons or village-saving adventures. It's about weird human beings in a futuristic world-gone-wrong as they test one another and their own limits. Smith sets up the story as a comic satire, but always slips in something serious, beautiful, hopeful, or sad. Basically, the writing is gorgeous and fresh, and the emphasis on character development is equally refreshing. I noticed a lot of contrasts, with big shifts in tone, point of view (between scenes), format (song, memo, screenplay, journal, currency chart, video game...), and even genre. Yet it always seems purposeful. I was floored by the bold choices and sharply drawn, sneakily poignant characters.

"Bold choices" is also the key to the plot. The jacket outlines it fine: Three young people in a worn out/decadent society have their lives upended and they have to forge their own paths through a dragon-besieged city. If something seems strange about the larger story, it's the way it blends genres. Most of the first act is an old-fashioned arranged marriage story. If that goes over your head then you might think it's slow, but I found every scene did plot work within this context. (As the mother of the bride says, "You are about to enter into a binding legal contract. That is the urgency.") I also thought it was a clever way to discover what's at stake for the characters and their world, which satirizes America's gradual slide back into aristocracy.

And that world! The people, technologies, plot twists (including the topsy-turvy one that concludes Part 1), and maybe even the dragons spring from it. Empire Island combines the best and worst tendencies of modern culture with a blend of current/futuristic/obsolete tech (flying cars AND limos driven by oxen!?), heedless environmental destruction, genetic engineering, and extreme economic inequality. Duncan Ripple encapsulates one end of this. He's a media-savvy reality star with "foie gras for brains" from an ultrawealthy real estate family. (Sound familiar...?) Of course his dad has to fix him up with someone competent to manage the family assets. Enter bride-to-be Swanny, a young aristocrat on the brink of ruin. She is smart, stubborn, romantic, and naive, with a strange, possibly terminal medical affliction brought on by the local water supply. Maybe an Edith Wharton or Jane Austen type. And the wildcard is Abby, an enigmatic tarzan-like girl who saves Ripple after a dragon encounter and then becomes his lover.

The secondary characters are also unique. Just a quick example: One of my favorites is Duncan's wheelchair-bound uncle Osmond, a hard-drinking, snarky guy who veers between eloquent flashes of wisdom and brash scorn. He truly gives a wedding speech for the ages.

Despite the satire, I ultimately don't think this book is dour in its outlook on humanity (unlike, say, "Black Mirror"). For one thing, Smith lavishes sympathetic detail on the initial absurdity of the characters. And Swanny, Duncan, and Abby struggle in earnest to understand and push back against the lives they've inherited. They end up being complex and memorable. Real people.

No spoilers, but I was genuinely affected by the way some arcs resolve, including for secondary characters. I did roughly predict an important plot point at the end, but I still found it surprising in what it means for the main characters and so movingly written that I had to put the book down for a moment. Spoiler-free, but you can tell a good ending by how it refuses to satisfy rigid expectations while still pulling threads together that you didn't even know were waiting to be connected.

All told, everyone in The Sky Is Yours reaches their limits and pays a certain price for the world they want to live in.


Tags : The Sky Is Yours: A Novel [Chandler Klang Smith] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b><b>Named One of the Best Books of 2018 by: <b> Wall Street Journal </i>(Best Science Fiction) <b><b> • </i></b></b></b> NPR</i> • New York Public Library • LitHub</i> <b><b> • </i></b></b> Mental Floss •  </i> <b>LitHub: 21 Books to Give to Everyone You Know This Holiday Season LitHub: 5 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books by Women to Bring With You Into 2019 There have been a lot of books heralded as heirs to  Infinite Jest</i>,Chandler Klang Smith,The Sky Is Yours: A Novel,Hogarth,0451496264,Literary,Science Fiction - Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic,Dragons,Dragons;Fiction.,Dystopian fiction,Dystopias,FICTION;Fantasy.,FICTION;Literary.,AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY,FICTION Fantasy Dragons & Mythical Creatures,FICTION Fantasy General,FICTION Literary,FICTION Science Fiction Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic,Fiction,Fiction-Fantasy,FictionFantasy - Dragons & Mythical Creatures,FictionLiterary,GENERAL,General Adult,Science Fiction,Science Fiction And Fantasy,United States,fantasy gifts;best gift books;dragon gifts;sci fi gifts;books for teenagers;gifts for teenagers;literary;debut novel;fiction;future;futuristic;dystopia;sci-fi;dragons;New York;New York City;quest;adventure;love story;romance;Gary Shteyngart;magical realism;magical;debut;manhattan;science fiction;sci fi;science fiction books;sci fi books;literary fiction;post apocalyptic fiction;sci-fi books;apocalyptic fiction;fantasy novels;novels;fiction books;literature;sci fi book;books fiction,literary; debut novel; fiction; future; futuristic; dystopia; sci-fi; dragons; New York; New York City; quest; adventure; love story; romance; Gary Shteyngart; magical realism; magical; debut; manhattan; science fiction and fantasy; literary fiction; science fiction books; apocalyptic fiction; fantasy gifts; best gift books; dragon gifts; sci fi gifts; books for teenagers; gifts for teenagers; apocalypse; realistic fiction books; sci-fi books; sci fi book; books fiction; fantasy books for adults; fantasy fiction; fantasy novels

The Sky Is Yours A Novel Chandler Klang Smith 9780451496263 Books Reviews

This novel completely redefined the fantasy genre for me.

Most fantasy novels feature plucky young protagonists doing the best they can in an unjust world. Usually, they're likeable - the sort of characters you'd want to befriend during a long journey.

That's not so much the case here. Two of the main characters are ridiculously spoiled, and the third, raised on a trash heap, lacks the pure, clearly-articulated motivations you'd expect from a typical fantasy heroine.

But it's precisely those human fallacies and weaknesses that make Smith's characters so captivating. The Sky is Yours is relentlessly imaginative in its depiction of a world where the city's structures and the psyche of its citizens have been fractured by dragons.
I loved this book. Every word of it. A few notable reasons I loved this book (1) it is very funny. I laughed out out loud throughout it. (2) The character development is fantastic. Each main character is totally their own unique person with a well developed personality. Swanny, Duncan, Uncle Osmand, Pippi, Abby - all are amazing characters. I finished the book last night and I already miss them! (3) The book is very creative and the author does a very good job of drawing you into the world she has created. You get a feel for Empire Island and its state of decay. The technology of this city/world/time is advanced, yet the society is dying. Reminded me a little bit of the world from the Dark Tower series. (4) It is a pretty long book (about 450 pages) but a page-turner. I read it over the course of a few days. The plot keeps you drawn in without moving at too fast of a pace.

The Sky is Yours is one of my favorite fiction works I've read over the past five plus years. I highly recommend it!
I read the title of Electric Lit's review of The Sky Is Yours, "A Sci-Fi Dragon Dystopia à la Jane Austen," and immediately clicked "buy" without reading any further. It's even better than I hoped. I've been reading this book just a tiny bit at a time, because I want to savor it, and I'm sad that I only have a couple of chapters left. I never would have thought that so many different genres could blend together so perfectly--it's kind of George Saunders meets Regency romance and dragons? I think my favorite thing about it is how almost none of the characters are exactly likable, but I still want to root for them.
Loved the quirky characters and the unique setting -- a decaying futuristic city plagued by dragons. The author has a wonderful way with language and there are some zinger lines in here and en pointe, one-sentence descriptions.

Enjoyed reading this so much I'd like to listen to the audio version, too.

Reminded me of Margaret Atwood's The Heart Goes Last and MaddAddam Trilogy -- funny, witty, thoughtful, engaging writing. It plays with some interesting themes and ideas without a trace of didacticism.
Right up until the end I thought “ok this is going to really go somewhere”. But no. Nadda. The ending was pointless. The “magic” was pointless. If the point was to BE pointless then bravo. This is a book that snuck up on me how unbelievably lame it really was. Abby was the only important character and she got to exist simply to make it okay for “society” to continue to be useless.

Science made great things, then botched it, made another great thing that took 50 years to simply fix the mistake. On and on. Why would you want to read about that? We already know that our own crappy society is destroying itself. Either fix it or end it. But noooooooo. Not these weak ass characters who literally DO NOTHING for 400+ pages. What a damn waste.
This book is not about talking dragons or village-saving adventures. It's about weird human beings in a futuristic world-gone-wrong as they test one another and their own limits. Smith sets up the story as a comic satire, but always slips in something serious, beautiful, hopeful, or sad. Basically, the writing is gorgeous and fresh, and the emphasis on character development is equally refreshing. I noticed a lot of contrasts, with big shifts in tone, point of view (between scenes), format (song, memo, screenplay, journal, currency chart, video game...), and even genre. Yet it always seems purposeful. I was floored by the bold choices and sharply drawn, sneakily poignant characters.

"Bold choices" is also the key to the plot. The jacket outlines it fine Three young people in a worn out/decadent society have their lives upended and they have to forge their own paths through a dragon-besieged city. If something seems strange about the larger story, it's the way it blends genres. Most of the first act is an old-fashioned arranged marriage story. If that goes over your head then you might think it's slow, but I found every scene did plot work within this context. (As the mother of the bride says, "You are about to enter into a binding legal contract. That is the urgency.") I also thought it was a clever way to discover what's at stake for the characters and their world, which satirizes America's gradual slide back into aristocracy.

And that world! The people, technologies, plot twists (including the topsy-turvy one that concludes Part 1), and maybe even the dragons spring from it. Empire Island combines the best and worst tendencies of modern culture with a blend of current/futuristic/obsolete tech (flying cars AND limos driven by oxen!?), heedless environmental destruction, genetic engineering, and extreme economic inequality. Duncan Ripple encapsulates one end of this. He's a media-savvy reality star with "foie gras for brains" from an ultrawealthy real estate family. (Sound familiar...?) Of course his dad has to fix him up with someone competent to manage the family assets. Enter bride-to-be Swanny, a young aristocrat on the brink of ruin. She is smart, stubborn, romantic, and naive, with a strange, possibly terminal medical affliction brought on by the local water supply. Maybe an Edith Wharton or Jane Austen type. And the wildcard is Abby, an enigmatic tarzan-like girl who saves Ripple after a dragon encounter and then becomes his lover.

The secondary characters are also unique. Just a quick example One of my favorites is Duncan's wheelchair-bound uncle Osmond, a hard-drinking, snarky guy who veers between eloquent flashes of wisdom and brash scorn. He truly gives a wedding speech for the ages.

Despite the satire, I ultimately don't think this book is dour in its outlook on humanity (unlike, say, "Black Mirror"). For one thing, Smith lavishes sympathetic detail on the initial absurdity of the characters. And Swanny, Duncan, and Abby struggle in earnest to understand and push back against the lives they've inherited. They end up being complex and memorable. Real people.

No spoilers, but I was genuinely affected by the way some arcs resolve, including for secondary characters. I did roughly predict an important plot point at the end, but I still found it surprising in what it means for the main characters and so movingly written that I had to put the book down for a moment. Spoiler-free, but you can tell a good ending by how it refuses to satisfy rigid expectations while still pulling threads together that you didn't even know were waiting to be connected.

All told, everyone in The Sky Is Yours reaches their limits and pays a certain price for the world they want to live in.