Avians

by Timothy Gwyn

Orphans. Runaways. Thieves. The Avians don’t ask questions about a girl’s past. Or her age. To maintain their vital link to the airships of the Converts, they need glider pilots, and the smaller the better. Raisa is fourteen. Born to a line of powerful silk merchants, her rebellion against an arranged marriage is doomed. The Avians are her only alternative. Mel is the young servant blamed for Raisa’s disappearance. She meets an Avian recruiter and seizes the chance to spite her employer. When Mel and Raisa are sworn in with two other girls to form Blackbird squad, their simmering conflict undermines the whole team. The flying is difficult, the discipline is fierce, and the older pilots don’t even bother to learn their names. The Blackbirds are starting to look like the weakest squad in years. Then a deadly accident reveals the only the best survive.

Genres: Young Adult

308 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2017

Reviews

[Yesha- Books Teacup and Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

*** Note: I received a review copy of this book via LibraryThing, in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to publisher and author. I am glad I got a chance to read this book. ***

One. Two. Three. Avians are ready to fly.

I have to rewrite this review a lot, I was not sure how much to say about the book and finally settled with this and tried my best without including spoilers. Two thing were the heart of the story. The trade business that connects everything and characters and loved this two things of the book. I have little elaborated the world here, just to make it easy to understand the book for reader. I hope I’m not giving away much.

World-building– Basically, People were living on green, very hot, and more oxygenated Celadon planet, looked like migrated from earth (why new planet and what happened to Earth! I don’t know! Time period was not mentioned in the book). There were two kind of people: One, Naturals – normal city humans, like us, and Avians- gliders who soloed first 35% of the book. Second, Coverts – kind of super humans- they live longer almost forever, plagued, and very secretive. They have reasons for being secretive which was explained in last few chapters. They live on airships that travels with Goods and receive and deliver it on various mountain range across the planet. Apparently there were 3 sister ships- Sitka, Sequoia, and Douglas. These people come in picture after Anians were done with their solo i.e. after 35% of the book, they made the book even more interesting. There is this third too –Spacer, who live outside the ring but nothing much mentioned about them in the book.

Honestly, it was hard to understand for me this whole thing. It was not like explained all in one chapter. As I progressed the book, I could join the pieces. I liked this dystopian world and it was amazing! Phewww, this world gave me quite a brain work.

Characters– Story was narrated by Mel, Raisa and Corby’s point of view- main 3 characters of the book. There are many diverse characters with different abilities in the book but it focuses on these 3 more.

Corby Corvid– Chief of Avians – who was strict, keeping everyone on their toe, but always doubting her position and her ways of leading Avians. She is my favorite character of the book. Mel– former servant later Blackbird- was acidic in nature but turns out a good squad leader. Raisa– hungry for freedom but not for food, I loved her defiant nature. These 3 were very interesting to read in the book and was all the charm of the book and their development was brilliant.

What I liked? Needless to say, world-building and characters. I loved this female oriented glider concept of the book. Motto of Avians was amazing- ‘Small, Smart and Strong’, I loved Avians. The best was the training part of Blackbirds and how blackbird chose their names that was fun to read. Whole detailed instructions of flying gliders and trade business was so nicely written, I could understand the flying terminologies, though I don’t know anything about it, and I could imagine flying glider myself.

Corby was very fierce, strong and strict with them all. I loved the way she motivated everyone and treated them equally and her constant efforts to save more life. The way she dealt with troublemakers or the rule-breakers and the punishments she gave to them was brilliant. She always knew how to turn the weakness of any squad into strength that benefited everyone. I admired her for this ability. I even liked the family drama in the book. I enjoyed that part and learning about the Wing dynasty. I was so amazed how all characters faced the difficulties and how cleverly they solved the problems.

Second half, The adventure of Corby to Little Etna was mesmerizing! Why she didn’t come to action before! The volcano eruption part was so brilliant that I was tempted to give it full star. And major second half was ‘Sitka life’- I disliked Sitka people (converts). Agghh! They were so mean. Okay! I understood why they were so persuasive to convert one of the character but, that’s not a right way and I just hated how they tested her all the time. :/ I agree with Corby’s thought about them. However, they made book dramatic and interesting specially the story of former squad member. It also helped in understanding world-building little more.

End– I am so happy with the end. In this last part, I was buried under happy tears.

Why 4? Only one thing I didn’t understand how and why people came to live on Celadon / in which time period these all happened / how they were plagued and had to be separated / why only converts use metal why can’t they share it with naturals? A little clarity of these things would have make the book easier to follow. In short I need more answers. Book is already big, 400 something, 100/150 pages more explaining things would be fine with me.

Overall, this was steady paced science fiction book and kind of all descriptive reading with the story. Great, definitely not boring. I enjoyed reading it.

you can read all my reviews on my blog Books Teacup and Reviews

[Dev · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book from LibraryThing in exchange for an honest review

Before I start this review properly I'd like to give a possible trigger warning re: eating disorders and food in general. There is a lot of focus especially in the early part of this book about the main character Raisa not wanting to eat and having problems with food. At first this is because she thinks if she doesn't eat she won't 'fill out' and no one will want to marry her, since she is trying to escape an impending arranged marriage. However even after she runs away this continues because the Avians have a very strictly enforced diet since they also want to remain very small and thin so they can carry more weight in their gliders. I mean they still eat three meals a day and I'm sure this is a kind of diet some types of real life athletes use to stay small for various reasons but for me I was looking at what they were eating vs. the amount of exercise they are doing every day and there is just no way they are getting enough calories. Also at one point Raisa isn't able to work out for several days and she literally says she doesn't feel like she 'deserves' to eat because she hasn't been exercising. This all gets better as the novel progresses but it made me uncomfortable several times and I feel that people who have / have had eating disorders might have some problems with it. I wish more focus had been spent on Raisa recovering from her eating disorder or that it wasn't so prominent in the first place.

However I did very much enjoy the book overall. The world was incredibly fascinating although I do wish we had gotten more answers. The story takes place on a world colonized by people from Earth but they don't really have any advanced technology because metal is so scarce on the planet and apparently Earth doesn't have enough to spare so there are only a few things like radios that use metal components on-planet. However there are larger ships that never actually land and give the people trade goods from off-world and they have tons of metal but they have to keep it a secret I guess because people will mob them if they knew about it. I don't know if there is a sequel in the works but there is plenty of room for one. The whole thing had a vaguely sinister dystopian feel to me but that was never really explored, instead choosing to focus on a more coming-of-age type story where Raisa learns to trust and work with other people. I personally don't think she SHOULD have learned to trust some of them because they obviously didn't and still don't trust her, but it was an interesting journey nonetheless and a good message under most circumstances.

I think what really made this story shine, despite me having some problems with the plot and execution, were the characters. They all felt real and believable and they all had their own distinct personalities. This book reminded me in a way of Red Sister by Mark Lawrence just because there is a large group of girls as the main cast in a kind of school / training setting. Also because I am always just genuinely impressed when a male author writes such a varied and believable cast of female characters. Definitely a very interesting book with an original concept.

[L.T. Getty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Humans have begun to colonize other planets, one of which is Celadon, a world with oceans so hot we can live nowhere near them, and an atmosphere much thicker than that of Earth. Additionally, the planet has no real metal resources, so the airships that take people between the habitable zones tend to be light gliders wrought of wood and silk. Ideal pilots are light in frame to help them carry the heavier payloads, and it’s often young teenage girls who tend to carry out these missions. The work can make them wealthy – but it’s often considered too dangerous work for any but the desperate to attempt.

The story has three viewpoint characters – two young girls running away from the life they’ve been given, and the commanding chief of the flight base of Nufuji. When I’m at my most critical, I thought Raisa was throwing the, “I don’t want to get married!” bit around too much in the beginning – but I find that this is common, my guess is that the average editor has low expectations on their readers, so we know what she doesn’t want rather than what she wants. Raisa comes from a life of privilege but also expectation. Mel, on the other hand, is a cook’s apprentice the same age as Raisa and sees the other girl as a spoiled princess who doesn’t know what hardship is. They both run away from Raisa’s family separately, and joining two other young recruits to become pilots, able to transport cargo between the territories as well as to the mysterious airships of Converts, who I shan’t talk about here because of spoilers.

To me, the novel picks up when the girls get their wings and they’re able to run missions. Raisa and Mel are at odds with one another, due to their very imbalanced relationship at the beginning of the novel, Mel has understandable resentment towards Raisa. I liked how the author handled this, additionally he handled Raisa’s eating disorder, but it’s not really addressed as such in the story. Mel and Raisa are never exactly friends, but are teammates and sisters by circumstance. Honestly, there’s no real antagonist in the overall story arc, so the girls are dealing with circumstances they have to overcome time and time again.

I liked the novel, but I’ve been around planes and pilots most of my life so the terminology came easy for me. I think it might be a little difficult for a very young reader (younger than 12), but the author knows flight so it won’t be that hard to crack once the reader gets into it. I also really liked the world building information that made the realities of this world obvious – but I could have used more world building to see what life was like beyond the eyes of the viewpoint characters. I thought there was a little bit of a contrivance to keep Raisa among the converts, but that’s me being nitpicky.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this novel, and I highly recommend it for fans of science fiction, novels about flight, and enjoy young female protagonists. I will nag though, that my print copy didn’t always have consistent print on the left side of the book, it was a little faded but legible. You probably want the ebook copy anyway.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book review of Avians by Timothy Gwyn
Book review by Don Doell

A very impressive debut YA Sci-Fi novel. Mr. Gwyn has used his fascination with flight and alternative worlds to good effect. Avians tells the story from 3 points of view: the heroine, Raisa, a kitchen apprentice, Mel and Chief Corby, the Chief Pilot of the Avians of Mount Nufuji on the planet Celadon. The action is fast-paced with a taut plot line. Gwyn’s world is one in which a thicker atmosphere forces the inhabitants to live away from sea level as it is too hot to comfortably exist there, yet provides a comfortable habitable zone as one climbs to higher altitudes.
Celadon is encircled by a system of Saturn-like rings, has extensive oceans and few other features noted. I can say though that although it is volcanic, the author notes that few metals are available for exploitation. Thus the inhabitants have developed their technology with virtually no metals. Knives are ceramic, for example and the gliders of the avians are made of fabric on bamboo frames.
Although the inhabitants are originally from Earth, it was after a catastrophic event that made necessary a separation of two groups; the naturals and the converted. The third group of space travellers is not defined at all but must include both of the former groups with perhaps other distinctions? Perhaps a follow up novel will provide other hints.
I was impressed by the characterization as the various people do have sufficient depth to become individuals in most cases. I found myself caring about what happened to them. The settings whether in the palatial home from which all 3 main protagonists come, the airfield or the airship are all well drawn. The plot too moves at a rapid but not frenetic pace and the denouement does adequately wrap things up...although I feel this is the weakest element of the novel.
In fact, I eagerly hope for a continuation of this novel so that this world can be more completely fleshed out. Whether Raisa, Mel or Corby are maintained as the protagonists or new protagonists are brought in will be a matter for the author to decide on, but I hope that Mr. Gwyn would favour us with more stories of Celadon.

[Jamie Farquharson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Boasting diverse and compelling characters, immersive world-building, and a finely-honed plotline, Avians is a smashing spec-fic debut from Timothy Gwyn. I look forward to exploring more of Raven's Celadon!

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book.
It was maybe a bit too technically descriptive in places but that did help visualise things.
It left me wanting more :)

[E.J. Dawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! The selfishness of these young woman but their strength too made for a fascinating tale that grabs you right from the start. The initial chapters gives a great grounding for personal motivation into selfishness of the characters, which keeps you reading more. One of my favourite parts was the female driven strength. The capability of these "Angles" was endearing and I think its a great book for young women to read.

[Eric Desmarais · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful characters in a fascinating world. The author melds three coming of age stories with a unique blend of Science Fiction and flying.

[D.F. Harrington]

The author has created truly wonderful characters that you can easily warm up to, who encounter unique problems and role reversals in this entertaining aviation story.