Read All About It: All the Birds in the Sky

Charlie Jane Anders is someone I have admired from afar, and All the Birds in the Sky proves that everyone should admire them as much as I do. This novel won the 2016 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and is a national bestseller, so if you don't believe me then you can believe them! Please, please, please check out this brilliant book and its quirky author, and you can thank me later.

A dynamic meld of fantasy and near-future science fiction, we get a story centered around a pair in their own coming-of-age story. It showcases both the bitter and hopeful sides of humanity, and is endlessly creative and genuine.

Patricia and Laurence are unlikely friends in a world where they're both social outcasts, one a witch and one a nerd. Growing up isn't all it's cracked up to be, and the two split. Patricia to witch school and a duty to save the earth, Laurence to a science and match high school and a technological startup that is trying to save the human race. The two organizations go to war, but Patricia and Laurence have a bond that forces them to choose between the planet and mankind, and with international chaos, newly recognized love, and no possibility of compromise, they've got quite a task on their hands.

Anders is brilliant. They created one of the most refreshing melds of genres, completing tossing old rules to make way for a new age of literature. Yes, this story has a love story in it--but don't let yourself be put off by that. It's a well done love story, and Patricia and Laurence are quirky and chaotic in a way that makes you fall in love with them yourself.

Patricia is playful and selfless, but never less than what she needs to be. Laurence is selfish and brave, and the creator of something the world needed the most. They're independent protagonists who contribute individually and jointly with input from rounded background characters. And those background characters are equally as important, because they help us as readers gain insight and look at the larger picture.

The narrative is strong and steady, while the plot is intricate and focused on the identity of mankind and its individual members. It's playful while it tugs on your heartstrings, and viciously open-ended when you're dying for a clean resolution. Anders doesn't give a clean answer to the questions she raises. Instead, her novel is a rich breeding ground for more and more questions, genre bending, and exploration into the heart of modern novels.

There's some philosophical thoughts in this one--big thoughts, hard questions, tough answers (or, really, non-answers). Are humans dependent on Earth? Vice-versa? How subjective do we need to be in order to consider things objectively? What is the deal with that tree? Well, that last one probably didn't make sense, but read the book and it will! This novel is a revolutionary combination of well-worn genres into a tangled narrative of philosophy and fiction, and it deserves your full attention. Also, if you buy the Tor Books paperback, there's an interesting discussion guide at the back that has some great questions that help you delve deeper into the novel itself.

Let yourself fall into the emotional words and mutual weirdness that combine to form this amazing novel, and fall in love with a new kind of genre fiction. Until we meet again on the battlefield of magic and science, watch out for what the birds are telling you. It's important.