It's 2097 and teens can fledge and grow wings. Fifteen year old Prissi Langue loves flying, school and her friends. However, after Prissi finds pictures of her dead mother working alongside the man who invented fledging, she begins an investigation that uncovers long hidden world altering secrets. Suddenly, it seems like everyone wants Prissi dead. Can Prissi fly far enough and fast enough to escape her enemies?
When I found this book on the Kindle store, I thought it was going to be interesting, being that it’s about a future where people can grow wings and fly. But when I started reading it, I started losing interest. There was something about the book that didn't quite grab my attention all that well. I would say a no for this one.
Prissi Langue is fifteen years old and a second year student at Dutton School. Despite her age, she is already enrolled in some seemingly very difficult classes, such as Chinese and Fi-Sci II, short for Advanced Field Science. Dutton School is a boarding school, meaning she lives there during the year except for holidays. She shares a room with her best friend “Nasty” Nancy Sloan. Prissi also has a NQB (not quite boyfriend) named Joe Fflowers. At nearby Bissell School, there is about to be a dedication ceremony of a new science center to one named Joshua Fflowers, who is one of the handful of people to have discovered the process of human fledging. Prissi already has her wings, but Joe wants to avoid them so he can keep playing hockey. He and Prissi both know that his parents would not allow that, so Joe secretly plans to run away to avoid fledging. It was at this point that I gave up reading the book.
Prissi is an energetic “teener” who likes Chinese, Science, and playing 3-D Frz-b. Joe is another energetic teener who likes to play hockey, and really despises the fact that he doesn’t really have a choice if he wants to be muted for wings. “Nasty” Nancy Sloan is Prissi’s best friend and roommate. She also has wings but is overweight and Prissi estimates that she is nearly going to be called out to have her wings clipped, leaving her grounded. Joshua Fflowers is a very old man who was once very much adored by people, at least until his fledging project literally went up in flames when his lab exploded with everyone inside.
The story takes place during a time well into the future in a semi-busy Manhattan, New York. The streets have flooded and forced citizens to build elevated catwalks and higher doors to escape the water. Because a majority of people can fly, they are able to simply go over the water to their next destination, but the few that can't fly have to walk long distances.
If this kind of stuff interests others, I would recommend this book to young adults with a liking for relatively slow-paced science-fiction.
So, I decided to pick this book up because it resembled my favorite series Maximum Ride in some ways. It did just with the whole avian DNA part. Nothing else really. The book was extremely silly with the names and the characters were quite immature for their age. I couldn't stand the main character she seemed like an airhead. While I got a good laugh at the names I just couldn't take a read like this seriously. I wish I would've liked it because I was so excited to find something so close to Maximum Ride, unfortunately like I said the only similarity was the avian DNA part.
The idea and plot were really interesting. The world-building was extravagant. Hetzner depicts a future in which technology has changed so much that life is both unbelievably different and completely understandable. However, (perhaps it was the version I read) I was unable to enjoy most of it due to being poorly written. Anything from straight grammatical errors to confusing descriptions to unintelligible characters who act for the plot and not their own history of feelings and actions. And please, Neil, not every thing needs a slang term and an acronym. A good once-over by an editor would have brought the book up to at least 3-stars, and I think a more concise ending would have made me, personally happier with it. Still glad I read it despite the low rating due to the interesting sci-fi ideas brought in.
Super well written and exciting! This should be made into a movie. The details are immensely well thought out especially for a sci-fi novel. Wonderful!
I was a bit confuse reading this book. I had some hard time understanding what was Prissi found that causes her to live a life of running away from everything she knew. I was a bit more confuse when Joe didn't went back to the forest to find her. The ended of the book was pretty good, but I wish it turn out better though. I think it was really selfish of Joe's uncle and Jack's father to try to kill his self. I thought Jack was wrong for leaving Prissi alone and confuse. It didn't make any sense to me that he did that. I rank this book 2 or 3. Also I recommend this book to people who likes mystery, scientific, futuristic, adventure and action. And if you like mystery, scientific, futuristic, adventure and action books then this is the book for you.
I only made it a quarter of the way through. At that point, I had not found any questionable content, but I found it pretty boring. The story just seemed to drag and take forever, and then I realized how much more there is to this. In the end, it just didn't seem worth my time.
I believe that all people who like fiction books will love this book. The plot was fast, and at some parts confusing. The characters were well built and thoroughly explained. I loved this book so much I was sad when it ended.