The Surviving Sky

Rages #1

by Kritika H. Rao

This Hindu philosophy-inspired debut science fantasy follows a husband and wife racing to save their living city—and their troubled marriage—high above a jungle world besieged by cataclysmic storms.High above a jungle-planet float the last refuges of humanity—plant-made civilizations held together by tradition, technology, and arcane science. In these living cities, architects are revered above anyone else. If not for their ability to psychically manipulate the architecture, the cities would plunge into the devastating earthrage storms below. Charismatic, powerful, mystical, Iravan is one such architect. In his city, his word is nearly law. His abilities are his identity, but to Ahilya, his wife, they are a way for survival to be reliant on the privileged few. Like most others, she cannot manipulate the plants. And she desperately seeks change. Their marriage is already thorny—then Iravan is accused of pushing his abilities to forbidden limits. He needs Ahilya to help clear his name; she needs him to tip the balance of rule in their society. As their paths become increasingly intertwined, deadly truths emerge, challenging everything each of them believes. And as the earthrages become longer, and their floating city begins to plummet, Iravan and Ahilya's discoveries might destroy their marriage, their culture, and their entire civilization. 

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Romance, Adult, Queer, LGBT

416 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 13, 2023

About the author

Kritika H. Rao is a science-fiction and fantasy writer, who has lived in India, Australia, Canada and The Sultanate of Oman. Kritika’s stories are influenced by her lived experiences, and often explore themes of consciousness, self vs. the world, and identity. She drops in and out of social media; you might catch her on Twitter or Instagram @KritikaHRao. Visit her online at www.kritikahrao.com.

Reviews

[Khalid Abdul-Mumin · Rating 5 out of 5]

“A leaf contains a life / Paths form in wilderness / Two roads in sleep, and yet / I rouse to many / Balance is an unheard rhythm / Awakening occurs beyond time / We continue to live / In undying separate illusions.”

Preamble: A debut that a spins a yarn about a boy and a girl, deep from the author's vivid and lush imagination, wherein they eventually warp the plot to fit their romantic struggles. Amazingly written.

Floating cities in which the remnants of humanity now reside, within a turbulent, lush, cataclysmic and a devastatingly eco-weathering system of a planet; but also, a beautiful planet and universe worth sacrificing everything you hold dear to.

Synopsis: In a stratified society (smacking of a post-cataclysmic event thousands of years from the current timeline...), with hints of the Hindu caste system, we follow the POV of two characters, who are also partners and in conflict about their world views.

The human elements that have survived thus far have done so in separate floating cities that utilize special people, called Architects. These are the people that harness some unknown energy, to enter an infinite multiversal quantum realm which can detect consciousness as points of a monad within the hyperdimensional space, and even to shape an ever-changing tapestry of a city filled with sentient plants, floating among the cities in the midst of clouds, in a jungle wide planet full of night terrors and earth shattering tectonic plate movements.

Iravan, is one such Architect, and his wife, Ahilya, is "just" a mere Archeologist with very little societal value but brilliant nevertheless. The novel starts with a terrifying expedition of hers to the land below, that uses a lull in the deadly earthrages that constantly envelope huge sections of land, and things quickly get out of hand hinting that the knowledge, myth and lore of their people have severe holes in it and something primal has begun to interfere with their thousand year old civilization.

“Rages, Bha, of course I love her. I love her more than I can handle.”
“Then why is it so hard for you to be with her?”

It’s because you’ve taken away my choice, Iravan thought. That, in the end, was why he had stayed away from Ahilya for seven months. He’d been angry with her, yes, but it was more than simply that—it was a rebellion of his feelings, precipitated by the uncertainty of knowing whether his entire marriage had been a sham in the service of material bonds, or if he and Ahilya had only lost their way together.

The need to preserve the bonds itched at him, like shackles around his neck. Questioning the bonds was unconscionable—they were the oldest architectural tradition. Yet as the two roads opened behind his brows, he knew the one that led away from Ahilya led to freedom, to clarity, to the discovery of the Resonance and all that lay unanswered.

He could never tell any of this to Bharavi.
Friends though they were, she still held a vote in the council. In rebelling against material bonds, Iravan would fail a condition of Ecstasy immediately.

Bharavi reached low and gripped his arm. “What is the problem, Iravan?” she persisted. “This isn’t a rhetorical question.”
“This farce—it isn’t easy, all right?” he deflected.
“If you love her as much as you say, then where is the farce?”
“Loyalty is precious to Ahilya, and she’ll stand by those who are hers through a hundred earthrages, even at the expense of everything else. You saw what she was like after Oam.”
“And that’s terrible because?”
“Because I can never measure up! Because I can never love her how she wants to be loved.”
“Why in rages not, Iravan?"
“Oh, I don’t know,” he said scathingly. “Maybe it’s because I must keep so many raging secrets from her all the time.”

Thoughts: We begin with the slow exposition of our characters, hints of the plot and a refreshing, complex and unique world-building that introduces a combination of own-world structuring and lore unlike most of the regular fantasy I've read. Brings to mind the beautiful Dreamblood duology by N.K. Jemisin.

It starts a bit slow where the initial chapters (all a bit longer than usual) were slowly setting the scene and introducing our characters and universe without massive info-dumping (which is what I often personally prefer, like getting lost in your own thoughts). After that, all sorts of philosophical, romantic, mystical and dramatic mishaps break lose after the hundredth page.

"What are you doing?” Oam squeaked. “Why are we just waiting here?”
Iravan tried again. In his first vision, he saw himself as Oam and Ahilya did, feet dug into the crisscross of the nest, fists gripping branches, head bent in exhaustion. His skin glowed blindingly as trajection tattoos articulated themselves in complex fractals.
In his second vision, he approached the magnaroot star, wielding his constellation lines like a hundred whips, hunting for an opening to latch them.
The star anticipated him before he could decide his move. It expanded in his second vision, crashing into his mind, leaving him no time even to gasp.
His Two Visions merged.

At that instant, Iravan felt true terror.
His skin began to crack and bleed. Spines grew on his back, in his neck, through his eyes. He opened his mouth, but only dust blew out, tiny gray-white seedlings rushing out of him. His gums rotted, spikes under his nails, twigs yanking his hair, and he thought, Yes, good, rip, bleed, die, seed, survive. He recognized a tiny battering interference—his own—as his trajecting dust mote tried to stop from ripping his plant self apart. He smiled through bloody teeth and pressed the pain deeper into himself. The agony was beautiful; he wept in its rapture—
Iravan blinked.
He wrenched himself free, tearing through the grip of the magnaroot. He scrambled away from the star in panic."

This book incorporates a wonderful blend of Hindu philosophy and mysticism, Sci-fi and Fantasy smashed into a flattering and poetic prose. It's got sentient jungles (I mean that's just awesomely gob-smacking; Sue Burke has a duology starting with "Semiosis", an excellent excellent read too!). Then its also got an unapologetic panpyschic (from the philosophical theory of panpsychism) view about consciousness.

A book about where our sense of self (I do prefer the term, 'soul', sometimes) separates/merges and becomes undistinguishable, inseparable even, from the concept of our "I", "me", "you", "us", and also nature as with the ancient dryad religion of Dionysus.

She then combines all these thought provoking concepts with unique speculations that leaves us remembering our racial memories and our innate biases towards our perceptions of reality as well as what the species is capable of doing by just imagining, thinking, being, living...dying and transmogrifying. Changing...

End Notes: An absolute must read; it's grim, dark and marvelously violent.

The author goes above and beyond in the way of a unique own-world structuring; vivid and fantasmagoric, thereby, building a world which is rife with danger. A planet that only seems like hell when one views it from without rather than within; that inner realm where we all share our reality as mathematical probabilities full of infinite potential.

It also asks us to think about Gaia, animals, non-living autonomous cellular automata and even living beings without a signature of consciousness like dead leaves...“A leaf contains a life / Paths form in wilderness / Two roads in sleep, and yet / I rouse to many / Balance is an unheard rhythm / Awakening occurs beyond time / We continue to live / In undying separate illusions.”

I might not have totally enjoyed the main characters' relationship dynamic (lots of unnecessary bickering!) and its portrayal (including the page count dedicated to that) but at least it was well written.

I absolutely highly recommend this one for enthusiasts looking for their next fix and dose of that good 'ol literary drama, dreams, entertainment, fantasy and food for thought.

P.S
I just finished the final book in the trilogy full steam ahead!

Read I: 2022;
Read II: 2024;
Read III: 2025.

[Khadidja · Rating 5 out of 5]

" We were always each other's completion, each other's ruin."

Anyone who knows me knows that i am a huge SUCKER for book featuring an already married couple who's going through some sort of a relationship crisis. These people would also know that i eat up every well written sci-fi fantasy book. And guess what? This book is about a couple going through a marriage crisis AND it's SFF. I geniunely think the author is romancing me specifically with the concept of this book and i fear to say it IS working.

I don't realy like including synopsis in my reviews because i think that's boring (no offense to those who do i just have personal beef with book summaries in general) but i'll try give the gist of what this is about.
This book is set in a sort of post-apocalyptic world where the remaining humanity lives in a planet(?) in the sky that is held by people who posess the power to manipulate plants and those people are called architects. The book has two POVs one is the husband's, Iravan's, who is a sexy pushing forty senior architect and the other is the wife's, Ahilya's who is an intelligent smart brave beautiful stubborn archeologist who, despite being married to an architect, doesn't like the fact that their community depends and gives too much importance to architects and kind of disregards normal citizens like her.

For someone as dumb as i am i loved how well thought and excuted the worldbuilding was! it was not simple i didn't get the image sometimes (especially at first) but that is totally on me because if you are big on sff books with complex worldbuilding and magic system you WILL eat up this one and have no difficulty understanding it.

Did i read this book solely because a friend told me that it had a failed marriage? yes i did. But did i stay for the couple only and not the plot? Also kind of yes because i am a shallow person although the impeccable writing and original plot did play a huge part. I just absolutely loved the way Ahilya ans Iravan's relationship was written GOD i just love fully grown characters acting their age it's just so chef's kiss.

Also i would like to mention that the narrator's for the audiobook were absolutely phenomenal and i definitely recommend it.

~~~~
4.25 rounded up to 5 because i NEED this book to be hyped

God i love marriage in crisis

RTC. soon trust.

[Thibault Busschots · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last surviving humans live in floating plant-made cities above a dangerous jungle planet. The select few who rule are the architects. They have all the knowledge about their history, the plants that make up their floating islands and the storms that ravage the planet. They don’t share that knowledge with everyone, even though the storms start to threaten their entire way of life. Because that knowledge is their source of power over the others.

Archeologist Ahilya doesn’t appreciate the architects who refuse to share their knowledge. She wants to explore the jungle down below, where they originally came from. She wants to find the truth about their society for herself, no matter how stacked the odds are against her.

Senior architect Iravan has found an irregularity in the architect’s system and wants to investigate it further. But he hasn’t been home and he hasn’t even contacted his wife in seven months after they’d had a serious argument. His mentor is pushing him to get his relationship back under control, or it could mean the end of his career as a senior architect. So he forces himself into his wife’s exploration mission to the inhospitable jungle planet down below, hoping to save their marriage.


The husband and wife relationship is the heart of the story and it is exceptionally well done. Because so much attention goes to the two protagonists, other characters can feel a bit underdeveloped in comparison. But the protagonists are fleshed out so well, which does compensate for that in my opinion. For example, the husband is very careful when he’s talking to his wife. He’s afraid of losing her, so he’s desperately trying to find the right words whenever he speaks. She interprets his carefully chosen words as charming but also as cold and calculating, a way to manipulate her into forgiving him. She explodes into frustrated anger in return. Her words cut deep into his very core, but he refuses to let it show. Because he thinks reacting to her outrage could irreparably damage their relationship, which is already hanging by a thread. Which unfortunately frustrates her even more. And the thing is, she doesn’t even care about his actual response. She lashes out because she wants to get some actual genuine emotions from him. She wants to see how he really feels, deep down inside. To see if he’s still the man she fell in love with.

The husband and wife both wanted to change the way their society works. That’s what brought them together. They wanted to change the system from within, that is why Iravan became a senior architect in the first place.

Since Iravan doesn’t want to change the system anymore after his latest promotion, Ahilya wants to find a way to get rid of this unfair system as a whole. She wants to explore the jungle down below, where they originally came from. Because that’s where they can possibly live again, without having to rely on the architects.

Iravan thinks his wife wants to explore the jungle planet because she wants to elevate her own social status. So she can finally change the system from within, as was their original plan. But after his latest promotion, he isn’t looking to change the system anymore. He is the system now. And he knows that the architects are doing everything they can to simply ensure their survival. He is already overexerting himself to protect their way of life, he doesn’t have the energy left anymore to defend it against her too. So he wants her to support him and give up on her own ambitions.

The thing is, their polar opposite visions for the future of their society is driving them apart. But it’s clear that they still very much love each other. They would like nothing more than to fix their relationship. They just can’t seem to find some common ground anymore, a way for them to reconnect again. That’s what’s driving them both nuts. And the jungle mission is what will define their future. Not just of their marriage, but also of their entire society.


The world building is very imaginative and an incredibly unique blend of science fiction and plant-based fantasy. It’s a fascinating and creative jungle world that quickly comes to life. It grabs you and doesn’t want to let you go. And the magic of the architects is fascinating to say the least. Though I do feel like we’ve only scratched the surface of this fascinating world. It feels like there’s so much more left to explore.


It takes a while for the plot to really get going. And even then, it’s pretty slow-paced. But the strong characters and the mesmerizingly creative world building make up for it. Once the plot kicks in, it does a great job of incorporating the characters and the world building. It really makes it feel like everything is connected in this story and in this world, which ultimately makes this such a satisfying read.


Overall, a character-driven, immersive and imaginative experience. The world building immediately sucks you into the story and the slow-paced mystery plot keeps you guessing, but it’s the two protagonists that make you keep turning the pages. This is the author’s debut. It’s not perfect. But there were moments where I was so captivated by the story that I actually forgot I was reading a book. And that’s something you really don’t come across very often.

[BJ Lillis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an extraordinary debut, poised between tenderness and fury. Granted, I have deep interest in stories about power struggles within relationships; likewise novels that probe the family lives of the powerful, the intimacy of politics and the politics of intimacy. The writing itself is vivid if a little unremarkable. Certainly there are better prose stylists out there. But Rao’s living city is lush enough to outshine her prose, and her dialogue and scenecraft are utterly immersive—explosive fights, tearful reunions, backstabbing, politicking, betrayals real and imagined. Rao eschews easy answers, while creating real narrative tension through the overused yet underutilized device of alternating points-of-view.

Rao’s worldbuilding is intricate and uncontrived. Even the novel’s most mystical moments remain grounded. Great mysteries are exact, not vague. Think of any major religion—how granular it is, its fractal quality, reiterating its mysteries at a variety of scales. The novel’s philosophical ambition is in itself hugely satisfying.

Rao’s limitations come to the fore in the novel’s eroticism—or lack thereof. Literary sex depends on highly sensitive description, not Rao’s strength. But she excels at misery, which luxuriates in obsessive thoughts and half-truths and self-justification. Anyway, the idea that these characters would have mediocre sex and find it earthshattering is itself totally apropos.

[s · Rating 2 out of 5]

Going to caveat by saying that perhaps this is a ‘it’s not the book it’s me’ situation.

For me, this book committed the worst crime an sff book can commit - it was boring.

The beginning was compelling enough but as we plod on the repetitive philosophical debates, increasingly info-dumpy world-building, and segue’s into already established pillars of Iravan’s powers made this a chore to get through.

Moreover, the world simply didn’t feel lived in enough. Personally, for the world to feel lived in we need compelling side characters, backstory that is shown and not told, and a distinct atmosphere. The book lacked all three to great degrees.

The failmarriage aspect could’ve also been better but I felt like I didn’t know about Ahalya and Iravan’s backstories enough to really be able to root for them or at least enjoy their tension.

However, the building blocks of a compelling narrative are there and hopefully the second book builds on them better.

[gauri · Rating 4 out of 5]

read this review on my blog!

If I have to start with something, I’d say the cover perfectly visualises the setting of this book. The Surviving Sky is an upcoming science fantasy that follows Ahilya, a non-architect who hopes to gain an influence on the matters of the city by finding solutions in the history of their world; and Iravan, her husband and one of the most revered senior architects. Quite a lot of this book impressed me, so let me get to that.

a worldbuilding so detailed and unique
The story of The Surviving Sky primarily takes place on a floating ashram, Nakshar, while the world below is plagued by earthrages. The catch is, these floating cities are kept afloat by architects who “traject” the life forces of plant consciousness and while the earthrages grow frequent, these architects are also growing weaker. I loved reading all scenes containing trajection, it’s so interesting to see what it does and how it impacts the surroundings.

Filled with cosmic energies, interesting technology and a treacherous world left to explore, Rao cleverly builds this world to heighten the stakes. It’s true when she said this book is super nerdy, because there’s a lot to learn about the world and all its workings.

hindu philosophy inspired
There are plenty of philosophical elements I could pick up while reading the book, especially that of duality, rebirth and consciousness. It serves an interesting exploration of how nature and societies evolve over time to write their own histories, or even doom. The way the magic system focuses on manipulating the consciousness of plants but it’s also a reflection of the architect’s own conscience is portrayed by Rao in a smooth way. And that part about duality? You’ll come across many contrasts while reading it, but the one that stood out the most to me was how these humans formed a civilisation floating in the sky with an arcane technology. Also, the reach into archaeology, history of their world and the yakshas to figure out a way to survive the deadly storms is a wonderful addition.

a troubled marriage at the centre of it all
Now this is an element we don’t often see in SFF. Ahilya and Iravan, the somewhere-in-the-30s headstrong and insufferable characters are tied together in a marriage of ups and downs. And since Iravan needs his marital, societal and power related bonds intact to be a capable architect, he needs Ahilya on his side. Their misunderstandings and anger manifests from their understanding of each other for so many years together. Theirs is an interesting dynamic, of imbalance in power opposing ideologies, with Ahilya disliking the architects’ privileged tendencies. It’s even more interesting to see how they’re also similar to each other and weave through the pressures of marriage and duties.

Though we know plenty about their personalities as separate characters, I would’ve liked to be given more depth to their marriage dynamic, outside of their disagreements. Their arguments are a good portrayal of how they can harm one another but I wanted to at least feel their love and understanding of each other through their years of marriage. Secondly, after passing the climax I think it all depended on the reader to put together the pieces of the puzzle that is The Surviving Sky‘s worldbuilding.

Overall, The Surviving Sky is a fresh blend of sci-fi fantasy and apocalyptic setting added to SFF books with a queernormative world, great twist and take on philosophy induced magic. I’d definitely recommend you to read it for yourself if you like any of the aspects mentioned in this review. I’m eager to see where the sequel takes us!


original:
creatively written with an interesting worldbuilding, the surviving sky might take a while to suck you into the story but the perilous storms and the two main characters at the heart of it will keep you hooked till the end.

[✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans) · Rating 3 out of 5]

💀 DNF at 31%.

Actual rating: 2.758569489 stars rounded up because I'm generous like that.

When non-stop relationship drama gets in the way of wonderfully creative world-building and an intriguing plot, and slows the pace down to a crawl...

[Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars
Video Review: https://youtu.be/Kri0TLzmctk

For the most part, I enjoyed this sci fantasy novel. I was particularly intrigued by the world building and would like to see it fleshed out further in later books.

The plot is very relationship focused, which did not appeal completely to personal tastes. The characters felt young and their interactions often felt immature giving this novel a YA quality.

For a debut, I thought this book was reasonably strong and I would be interested enough to continue on with this series

Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

[richa ⋆.˚★ · Rating 4 out of 5]

At last, I have found my favourite read of the month! Delving deep into Indian Mythology, The Surviving Sky emerges a light fantasy novel. It has moving islands - with my imagination I find it akin to Howl's Moving Castle.
While the fantasy might take a back seat, what gripped me was the soft marriage in crisis issue that the two leads are grappling with. It was a strong motivator amongst the chaos. Some of the concepts I found were inspired from the different meditative states one can encounter. I was utterly transfixed with the book and it only took me a day to complete. Very well written. If you're a fan of Broken Earth Trilogy, Tasha Suri's works do give it a fair chance.

[Nils | nilsreviewsit · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The will of the city grew inside her, all the citizens, attuning their consciousness, to keep everyone safe, and then-Stillness.
The city hovered briefly.
A moment of weightlessness.
Exhalation.”

The Surviving Sky is the debut novel by Kritika H. Rao, due to be released in 2023 from Titan Books. This is a story which cleverly blends a whole host of genres from fantasy to sci-fi, dystopian to futuristic and even eco-fiction. Rao’s debut bursts with wondrous inventive worldbuilding, reflects on privilege and class divisions and centres on a marriage ruptured by secrets.

Set on a jungle planet uninhabitable due to destructive storms called earthrages, the last of humanity survives by living on plant-based floating cities run by architects. These architects are honoured above all others for their ability to physically shape the architecture of the city, thus stopping it from colliding into the jungle, and also for their ability to sense earthrages. Nakshar is one such city and upon it lives Iravan and Ahilya, our thorny married couple. Iravan is a powerful senior architect, his abilities are so ingrained into his being that manipulating the surrounding plant architecture comes as natural to him as breathing. Whilst most respect his status, his wife Ahilya sees architects as oppressors who are privileged and use their power to deliberately make citizens reliant upon them. Ahilya cannot manipulate plants, they do not bend and shape to her desire as they do for Iravan, and she feels the absence of this keenly. Ahilya nonetheless has talents of her own, she’s an archaeologist, a scholar, a strong-headed woman on a mission to find a way for humanity to once again survive in the jungle, free from the reliance upon architects. This puts Iravan and Ahilya directly at odds with one another, but with the earthrages lasting longer, and Iravan being accused of pushing his abilities to forbidden territory, and Nakshar on the threat of destruction, both must work together to save the last of civilisation.

When first beginning The Surviving Sky I immediately became fascinated by the innovative magic system which centres around consciousness and desire. Architects use a term known as trajection, this is where they have the ability to enter Two Visions, one of the world around them and one of a plant’s consciousness called the Moment. Within this Moment architects can manipulate plants to respond to their desires, they can influence nature’s consciousness forcing it to change form, thus shaping plants into building structures and such. The concept of this form of power completely engrossed me and although I tend not to compare books to others within my reviews, to give you an idea of the type of magic system Rao creates, I found similarities to Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives and Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time in the way that they both use nature and spirituality. As the novel progressed I desperately wanted to explore more and Rao obliged by crafting further intricate layers and complexities, particularly by adding limitations, for if an architect pushes their ability too far they can become Ecstatic which leads to them becoming destructive. I won’t go into any more detail as I don’t wish to disclose too much but I loved the way that even the characters did not fully understand the extent or true histories of their own powers, therefore by the end the magic system took some wonderfully surprising twists.

Although this novel does not incorporate a religion as such, a lot of the themes are clearly inspired by Hinduism. A central aspect of the Hindu religion is that of rebirth and spirituality. Each of the characters have lived a diverse range of past lives, of which most don’t remember, but as we delve into Iravan’s character more closely we begin to see that each life a person has lived can help unlock buried secrets and help to understand the world they live in today. History records can always fall short on their accuracy from being altered or manipulated by others yet a person’s first hand experience, even if only remembered in fragmented pieces, does not. I thought this was really cleverly done. However, my favourite part of the worldbuilding was the yakshas which were gigantic animals such as elephants, tigers and gorillas who still inhabited the jungle. In Hindu philosophy yakshas are depicted as nature spirits, and I loved the way they were portrayed in this novel. These creatures were majestic and mystical, once again compelling me to discover more. Rao’s worldbuilding is consistently richly detailed, her concepts are as fascinating as they are wondrous and enchanting.

The worldbuilding is most certainly central to the narrative but so too are the cast of diverse characters. Rao gives us a queernorm world where every character is also POC. Prejudice does not come because of the colour of a person’s skin, but rather from their social privilege. Ahilya is a character who is ashamed and angered by her inability to perform trajection. Her entire life she has felt inadequate, lesser, powerless and that is exactly how ordinary citizens are treated in Nakshar. Her skills as an archaeologist are dismissed, she and her colleague Dhruv, a sungineer (an inventor) have to continually prove that their findings have worth, that they deserve a place on the Council because they truly can help. Yet they are both restricted in the data they can access, refused a seat on the council, restricted in the places on Nakshar they are allowed to enter and only rarely allowed to step foot in the jungle planet during a lull in the earthrages to carry out their experiments, they must rely solely upon the authority of an architect at all times. Ahilya’s anger at this is more than apparent! What she doesn’t realise though is that in a way the architects have been indoctrinated to believe they are a higher being, they are trained into their trajection abilities from childhood and brought up to believe that their way is the correct way. Iravan may hold more privileges, but can he truly be blamed for that? But on the other hand can Ahilya be blamed for her animosity when her own husband, Iravan, does not see her role as an archaeologist as vital as the jobs the architects do?

Iravan and Ahilya always fail to understand each other, as I have stated they are our thorny couple. Did I want to knock some sense into both of them? Absolutely, because underneath all the built-up resentment, I could see how together they compliment each other immensely. They are both similar in many ways, both headstrong, both care about sustaining life whether that be in the jungle or on the floating cities, but they are both set in their ways, always on the defensive. It is no surprise given the insistence on architects to be married and have material bonds such as children, for good reasons as you’ll discover, but that kind of pressure takes its toll eventually. Many Indian cultures often apply this same pressure and it more often than not leads to conflict. Rao’s reflection on this was significant, as was the way she illustrates an unequal partnership. Iravan and Ahilya in essence are a fantastic depiction of what happens when the power and privilege within a relationship is unbalanced, when one has all the opportunities and the other has to struggle for theirs.

The Surviving Sky is a fast-paced, fascinating novel wrapped in philosophy and spirituality. Rao’s debut will dazzle many.

Early ARC provided by Kritika, thank you so much for the copy! All quotes used are taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.

[Rebecca Eisenberg · Rating 1 out of 5]

A terrible debut novel that spends more time justifying the basis of socially-constructed heirachies like racism, sexism, and caste, than it spends time world building. I found the politics vile at best, reactionary/fascist at worst... and most of all, completely out of place in speculative fiction, which usually challenges status quo rather than reinforces it!

But because this is a debut novel and the writing was ok, albeit overwrought, I will start with some good things before getting into the bad and ugly:

The Good:

- diverse writer
- fascinating context of Hindu philosophy
- decent (not great) world building.
- some lesbian and gay representation (yet see below)
- writing is clean (not a lot of typos, like I sometimes see in debut novels) albeit overwrought.

The Bad:

- Overwrought writing. Too much hand-wringing and self-blaming, especially by the (shocker!) female protagonist. Too much time spent on the emotional pathology of the characters, and too little on world building and plot progression.

- Hugely sexist and heteronormative. Author tries to make up for it by putting women in positions of power, but the most powerful character is male, and women still universally exhibit traditional values of putting themselves second to their partner, focusing on the home over the universe, etc etc etc.

- Strict binary gender divisions foremost: Has some gay and lesbian characters, yet actively excludes the possibility of (1) genders beyond M and F, and more frustratingly (2) the possibility of a culture where binary gender is not the primary differentiator amongst individuals. This is particularly galling and distracting in the context of a world where *plants have consciousness*- yet humans can only be M or F, nothing else. It is literally my pet peeve when science fiction writers can imagine worlds where cities fly but cannot imagine worlds where gender is not the biggest dividing line amongst humans. These folks can manipulate plants with their minds, but they are somehow bound by the social constructs of binary gender? There is a passage in the book where this (unenlightened) author thinks she is being progressive by saying "male, female, and unidentifiable." She literally cannot imagine any other genders, and she completely denies any identity that is neither M or F. If something differs her narrow concept, that does not make it UNIDENTIFIABLE. This author should not be writing SF, or possibly anything, unless and until she takes some time to become educated about a greater range of human potential. Perhaps she could read Nnedi Okorafor, or NK Jemisin, or Octavia Butler, Marge Piercy, Margaret Atwood, or even Ursula LeGuin? (I wonder if she reads books by women.)

- Strangely reactionary and nonsensical plot, which plods along then goes nowhere.

- Utter lack of consistency in scientific and technological context. These humans can manipulate flying cities, and can wear high-tech bead bracelets, but they have no system of blasting announcements and no walkie-talkies or cell phones. They have tablets but no media. Worst of all: THEY HAVE NO CAMERAS!! Lack of cameras made zero sense. There are up in the sky. A camera relies on elements that are readily available, e.g. sunlight (and other light sources) and a mirror. Similarly, they have no batteries. This technological inconsistency was wholly irrational and arbitrary and for any fellow fan of science fiction, I am guessing it will make you insane as well.

- If the world created in the Surviving Sky were a window curtain, it would have more light shining through than being blocked. The rules of the world are literally never created, so you have zero ability to predict what will happen next. Bonds that are supposed to be unbreakable are broken without any commentary or notice. Individuals whose powers are limited all of a sudden have unlimited powers, with unsatisfying explanations given that nothing literally changed. Things exist or don't. (Per above), complicated tech is available but simple tech like cameras is not. History stories come out of nowhere to define and redefine what supposedly happened in the past. There is little desire to care because few even question the status quo, which I address below as my final criticism:

THE UGLY:

- Racist/classist pre-determination that sounds and acts like Eugenics: Without saying spoilers, you learn right away that the community is divided into two classifications of humans -- one with magical powers and one with nothing. It is assumed -- but NEVER questioned -- that the magical powers are strictly genetic and cannot be taught. That assumption is literally NEVER tested, never questioned. Hence, this is a world where factors that you are BORN with determine whether you are respected or not.

- The COMPLETE embracement of the eugenic heirarchy by ALL members of society, even the lower caste. That is fully completely not believable and utterly out of place in a speculative fiction novel. I entered into reading this, expecting it to follow the well-accepted and beloved narrative of the lower castes rebelling and gaining some share of the power. But in this world, ALL of the lower classes accept and embrace their disempowerment without question. There is literally NONE as in ZERO character who fights against their assigned status. That IS NOT BELIEVABLE and is wholly absolutely offensive.

The two above observations for me combine to reflect an author who must be from a highest caste and who spends a great deal of her time justifying that the castes are valid and justifiable. As a highest caste member, she also evidently tunes out the millions of lower-caste people who actively fight against the unfair circumstances and deprivation of opportunity imposed upon them by higher caste people.

If someone wants to write a justification of the caste system, fine. But I do not appreciate such reactionary and racist/classist propaganda in the form of -- of all things!! -- a speculative fiction book. The entire point of speculative fiction is to imagine worlds that are DIFFERENT and either better or worse. It is abuse of the category to use SF as an opportunity to justify, defend, and further an unjust social classification system that harms the many for the betterment of the few -- especially when the justification involves building a world where the exploited and oppressed are 100% happy with their lower status.

As a final note, a defender of this ignorant and reactionary book may use the often-used justification that the low status people are not lower-class and mistreated, but rather that they are special in their own ways. That is literally the oldest and most well-tread justification of racism, classism, and especially sexism, in the history of the world. Being "different in your own way" does not imbibe you with the same rights and opportunities as those who hoard all the power. Women are still to this day told that they should not insist on being paid wages equal to men for the same work because they "make it up through their husband." Nevermind women who do not marry, or if they do marry, do not marry men!! It is this accepted and celebrated bigotry that fuels this book, and honestly, if I could give it zero stars, I would.

There are other fantastic speculative fiction novels by Indian authors, and honestly I recommend any other one of them over this.

Zero. Stars.

[Anna Stephens · Rating 5 out of 5]

World: one of the most intricate and immersive I've had the pleasure of reading. Truly original.

Characters: messy, complex, and extremely human - the protagonists are not clear cut heroes; in fact, they're selfish, arrogant, condescending and more. And we love them for it, because they're us. Deeply.

Plot: this did not go where I thought it would! I thought I knew what this book was and then it grew and expanded and changed like Nakshar itself. It became so much more and at the same time it asks what that means for people. Can we be more? Can we break out of the narrow confines of our existence and embrace our true selves? And are we/were we/could we be monsters?

Verdict: astonishing.

[L (Nineteen Adze) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I landed on 3 stars for this one, with quite mixed feelings. The setting is amazing: the surface of the planet is torn up by devastating storms called earthrages, destroying everything in their path, so people live in flying cities that are built and steered by architects with the power to transform plants into any shape and structure in their life cycle.

The framework of Iravan and Ahilya trying to find their way back together was interesting to me because we don’t see that much in genre fiction; it’s more common to see a couple getting together for the first time and then riding off into the sunset. In the end, though, I wasn’t that invested in whether they stayed together or not. During a magical trial, Iravan is shaken by warped memories of how he’s treated Ahilya, versions of events where he was delighting in having power over her, but they don’t feel that warped! He has magical power and institutional power that she doesn’t, and both forms of power come with knowledge that’s being kept from Ahilya and the other ordinary people of the ashram. Throughout the story, he makes big gestures trying to reconcile, but he also makes equally heavy-handed gestures like destroying all of her best friend’s research and almost killing Ahilya in his outburst. He’s not maliciously abusive, but when his major actions result in risk to her life and his minor ones are things like “didn’t speak to her for seven months after a fight,” it’s hard to see this as a relationship between two flawed people rather than a microcosm of the way architects abuse their power for personal gain.

The issue to me is that the narrative starts to ask interesting questions and then doesn't follow through on them. Around the halfway point, we get some great details of some parts of the city shrinking and becoming less functional because the architects can’t spare the power to sustain them. Soon after, Ahilya sees how the architect-only work and training areas are as beautiful as ever, full of convenience and lovely flourishes just for aesthetics when the ordinary people are struggling with basic needs. From the start, Ahilya’s insistence that non-architects are treated as less significant and excluded from major decisions rang true as a worthy struggle. Unfortunately, she (and the narrative itself) lean into architect concerns at the expense of everyone else.

I challenged myself to name characters who aren’t architects, architect spouses and children, or sungineers (who I think only got council seats within the last decade, but it’s unclear if that’s true of other ashrams). As I suspected, it’s hard. Ahilya wants to fight against the architect stranglehold on decision-making, but she and the story are preoccupied with power struggles among architects and the high council. I don’t even know what jobs ordinary people have except the vague suggestion that they need broad branches to sell their goods. What’s it like to work in a city where the most powerful people are using trajection to grow the food, build the houses, and even heal people with plants? What other jobs are essential to the city’s function, and how does having fewer of those positions give the ordinary citizens less leverage? Where are the cooks, the teachers, the weavers? I want to be invested in this struggle, but it seems like Ahilya’s interest in fairness extends primarily to getting a council seat for herself.

It’s a shame, given the powerful social dynamics. We know that people move between ashrams, but it sounds like this isn’t entirely voluntary. For example, the head sungineer is pressured to trade some of her staff to another city in exchange for architects if they can’t deliver faster results. Do the sungineers get to choose who stays and who goes, and are family ties taken into account? Can people travel freely between cities, or do they need permission from the council? Ahilya also worries that she won’t be allowed to continue the research work she loves unless she gets results in a hurry: she might be pushed into studying other (architect-centered) history with no ability to refuse, and it sounds like other careers can be rerouted for the good of the ashram as well. In short: how much autonomy does the average citizen have to determine big things like their job and where they live?

I had hoped for some serious exploration of those questions, but the story goes in a different direction instead. If the conclusion of a book hinges on discovering a new Uppercase Magic Noun, my interest immediately drops out, and this book has several, culminating in significant revelations that aren’t adequately foreshadowed. To someone with more of a taste for big mystical endings, this might be great; for me, it landed as a wall of “okay, I guess that happened.” My early interest in both the characters and this odd techno-magic system went off a cliff, and by the end I was just ready to be done with that system and with the word "rages," particularly in its clunky swear-word usage.

I won’t be continuing with this series, but I may keep an eye out for Rao’s future work on standalone books or a different series (especially if the entries are shorter).

//A weak 3 stars for me, which is a shame after how interesting I found the first few chapters. This is a fantastic setting with a vivid world and a great hook of two estranged spouses trying to find their way back to each other and save their home. Sci-fi/ fantasy crossover novels are always tricky, though, and I don't think this one manages to do justice to either side. I was also rooting for the couple to not get back together, which is a bad sign. RTC.

[Esmay Rosalyne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, I am not going to lie, I added this book to my TBR purely based on the cover. What’s more, I even loved the cover so much that I used it as an inspiration for my latest tattoo… so, you know, it would be nice if I ended up actually loving the story inside this gorgeous book as well. And luckily for me, The Surviving Sky did not disappoint in the slightest. This is the dystopian sci-fantasy that I didn’t know I needed in my life.

This dual POV story focuses on a husband and wife, Iravan and Ahilya. He is a senior Architect and highly respected member of their city’s council, while she is a female scientist whose research goes against everything the Architects stand for. Needless to say, their marriage is not exactly thriving at the moment. And yet, they can’t seem to stay away from each other, especially not when hidden truths about their world come to light and their entire civilization turns out to be on the verge of collapse.

Now, I absolutely wouldn’t describe this as a romance story, but the narrative does hinge on their passionate yet incredibly troubled marriage. I loved the complex dynamic between these two and I thought it was refreshing to see two mature adults navigate their way through their complicated feelings for each other. There is clearly a lot of love and mutual respect between the two, but their conflicting ideals just keep tearing them apart.
They are both such headstrong people who are very passionate about the things they believe in, so it’s really only natural that they clash so often. I loved Rao’s masterful depiction of this slightly toxic yet incredibly believable relationship that tugs on your heartstrings and makes you feel conflicted in all the best ways!

Speaking of masterful, the world building here is absolutely astounding and completely breathtaking. Most of this story takes place on a floating plant-city that flies high above a jungle-covered planet that is being ravaged by Earth-rages. These cities are kept in the sky by the trajection magic of the Architects, hence why they are so revered in their society.
Now, when I say that I love settings that feel like a character in itself, THIS is what I mean. I maybe wasn’t as emotionally invested in this story as I’d normally like to be, but I nevertheless couldn’t stop turning the pages because I was so completely immersed in this world.
From the very first page I was just mesmerised and I loved how the world slowly opened up as these characters make some truly earth-shattering discoveries.

The magic system was also honestly mind boggling to me, but in the best way possible. Themes of nature, consciousness, rebirth and duality are explored in fascinating ways through the magic, which really gave this book that extra layer of depth that makes it linger on in your mind long after turning the last page.
You can enjoy this riveting story on a surface level, but the true beauty can be discovered when you allow yourself to ponder all the philosophical questions that both the characters and you as the reader are challenged with as the story unfolds.
There were some concepts that probably went a bit over my head, especially when we neared the climax of the story, but in some way I thought that also fit with the overall ethereal and entrancing vibe of the book.

At its heart, this is a thought-provoking story about survival, about the dangers of blindly following tradition, and about standing up for what you believe in. This book gave me strong The Fifth Season vibes, yet where that book made me feel lost and slightly dumb, this book felt intellectually challenging in an exciting way.
All in all, The Surviving Sky is one of the most imaginative, ambitious and impressive debut novels I have ever read, and I can’t wait to see what Rao has in store for us next.

[Chantaal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, this is a conflicting one, but I am leaning toward a higher score because for all the issues I had with the book at times, it was engaging, hard to put down, and so wildly imaginative and unique.

When I first picked this up at the bookstore today, I intended only to read a chapter or two to see if I liked it - and I ended up reading 200+ pages. I bought the book, obviously, and finished it this same day. It really is easy to be enthralled by, and the pacing is so swift that it pulls you along whether you like it or not.

The world building is highly imaginative; I can easily say I haven't read anything like this before. There is a lot of Hindu philosophy built into the story as well, and that was a breath of fresh air. There were many moments when the narrative became painful to read through as it had to do a lot of heavy lifting with the world building - especially at the end, when puzzle pieces were being put together during the climax of the whole story. The come down after the climax was also a whole lot of world info dumping, which felt awfully strange. Actually, everything having to do with the climax on to the end of the book felt like a severe let down.

Because this story, with all the heavy world building and incorporation of the philosophy of the mind and of reincarnation, becomes an absolutely frustrating mess of Words being Thrown Around as the characters struggle through the climax. Despite having followed these characters through their investigation and ostensibly understanding the journey they went on, the climax was just...word salad. It was a strange, frustrating experience. Perhaps part of this is because of my aphantasia; when I read, I don't picture anything. At most, I see a black background with gray outlines and shading. If I think of an apple, I know what an apple is supposed to look like, intellectually, but I can't actually picture it in my mind. So this climax, which is almost entirely about a mental, emotional, existential crisis, did absolutely nothing for me. I just felt so frustrated. I wanted to feel what the book wanted me to feel for the characters, but nothing connected.

Speaking of the main characters, oh boy. Oh man. Oh wow. What a wildly brave thing Rao did here with Ahilya and Iravan. The book starts out with them basically estranged, and Rao really digs into their strengths and weaknesses both as individuals and as a married couple. They hurt each other and allow their insecurities to drive them, and they're not exactly easy to follow. I actually kind of hated one of them at the start, but a lot of what I was getting through the writing felt purposeful; what I disliked about the character was called out in the text, and I felt so validated. I don't think I could ever believe these two people actually loved each other, though. The book kept trying to convince me that they loved each other madly despite how fractured their relationship was, but I just wasn't buying it. They needed therapy, LOADS OF IT.

I know I've just unloaded quite a bit of my frustrations with the book, but I did really appreciate what The Surviving Sky was doing. Rao created an incredibly interesting and compelling world and story here, centering two characters and a version of a relationship that I don't often see in fantasy. Seeing this story unfold through the lens of their fractured relationship was SO interesting. I think all of the other characters could have used a bit more development, but they all served their narrative purposes very well.

The Surviving Sky, flaws and all, is a deeply imaginative and enthralling novel.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Do I "understand" what happened? No, not really, but I love Ahilya and Iravan and I got that at least half of the plot was a metaphor about enlightenment and the nature of consciousness.

This book is incredibly difficult to rate - I'm calling it a 3.5 and really struggling to decide how to round. It's dizzyingly high-concept, but as a result, it often feels muddled. Trajecting reads like a soft magic system trying really hard to be a hard magic system, which was a lot of the problem; pages upon pages upon pages are devoted to just explaining how it works and/or describing prolonged sequences of events that take place in non-space, which is hard to conceptualize as a reader. (Actually, if you're not a very visual reader and often struggle to picture things, you're going to have a difficult time with this whole book. I was constantly confused by the shifting setting, which was really unique and interesting but also raised a lot of practical questions for me personally, challenging my suspension of disbelief.)

The Surviving Sky reads a bit like a Ghibli movie at times, particularly the Nausicaa/Princess Mononoke vein of Ghibli movies: an action-packed science-fantasy environmental parable. It also reminded me a bit of A Memory Called Empire, with its elaborately imagined futuristic civilization, changeable architecture, and an investigation of a suspicious death playing a central role in kicking off the plot. Unfortunately, on a craft level, this novel just isn't as well executed as those comparable stories. It's often bogged down by the scope of its own ideas. It over-relies on telling instead of showing. I frequently found the dialogue frustratingly unnatural, running around in circles and repeating points I thought that we had already established. There are holes in the internal logic, and occasionally I felt like the story blatantly contradicted itself. The characters were also infuriatingly incurious about things that were obviously going to come back as major plot points, which any reasonable real person would have marked as important and investigated further. The pacing was TERRIBLE; it would take you from heart-pounding action to suddenly dumping you into the most agonizingly paced, circular, frustrating conversations ever which would stretch for entire chapters. Reading this is like riding in the car with a teenager learning to drive, slamming on the gas and then the brake, never quite evening out to a pleasant pace.

The most interesting element of this story to me was definitely the relationship between Iravan and Ahilya: both wrong, both kind of insufferable, both still in love with the other but too proud to admit it. I love reading about characters with a lot of complicated history between them. Married protagonists are extremely rare for some reason, as are protagonists over thirty, so these two were totally refreshing and I found them both to be really realistically flawed protagonists.

Overall I think this is somewhat of a diamond in the rough, and I'm extremely interested to see what Rao will write next.

[♥Milica♥ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I saw this book on Netgalley and the cover immediately caught my attention. I was thinking of requesting it but something in me said that I wouldn't like this as much as I like the cover, so I didn't.

Sadly, I was right. Mind you, I didn't manage to finish the whole book, I dnfed @ 35%. I could've pushed through, maybe all the way to the end, but the audiobook is 18h long, and even sped up it's a lot of time to spend on something I'm not enjoying when I could be reading something else.

In this case I don't think the book is bad or anything like that, it just failed to grip me and I'm not the right reader for it. I'm sure someone else would find it much more interesting. But yeah, I was just bored.

It started off pretty interesting, but I don't know, it could've been the writing style or the audiobook, but it didn't keep my attention as it went on. I think there's a chance I could've liked it more if I read it myself.

But will I give it another try? I'm not sure. It's also possible that this book suffered from something I finished reading right before I started this, and I absolutely loved that book, but I also have days where I read two or three 5 stars back to back so maybe not.

Either way, if you want to read this go right ahead, I hope you'll be the reader who connects with this book on every level.

[H.M. Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Surviving Sky is utterly creative, a heady and mysterious tapestry of love, duty and discovery centered around a civilization toppling from the sky, a unique magic system and an archaeological expedition into the ravenous jungle of a murder planet. Add in a slow-burn romance and Rao’s exploration of human drive, desire and consciousness - and The Surviving Sky is sure to stay with readers long after the final page.

[Renee Godding · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 stars

I added The Surviving Sky to my list of most anticipated 2023-releases based off nothing but the description alone, and I'm so happy it lived up to that promise.

In this science-fantasy future, devastating perpetuals storms known as Earth Rages have rendered the surface an uninhabitable jungle. The remnants of humanity have taken up residence in the sky, in floating cities built out of plants, arcane magic and the sorcery that keeps them bound together. The people in control of this magic, and therefore the structure of the entire city, are known as architects, and revered by all.
Charismatic, powerful, mystical, Iravan is one such architect. In his city, his word is nearly law, and his abilities are closely tied to his identity. Yet to Ahilya, his wife not born with this magical gift, they are a way for survival to be reliant on the privileged few. She is an archeologist, interested in studying the lives of generations of people before them: those able to survive without magic and in harmony with the Earth below.
With their marriage already on the rocks, a series of mystical events around the city forces the two to question their loyalties towards their personal values vs. each other.

What I loved:
The wonderfully imaginative world that Rao has created already ticked so many of my boxes on paper: a floating city in the sky, plant-based/botanical-magic, the conflict between “the old-ways” and futuristic/progressive science, and the elements of a mythology that I’m not already intimately familiar with (in this case Hindu-mythology and philosophy). Add to that a storyline that focusses on an already established adult couple having to manage their shared history and conflicts, and you have all the ingredients for a winner for me.
The world of The Surviving Sky supports its story, which is essential in a good fantasy-novel. The magic system and setting aren’t just cool window dressing, but lead organically into interesting conversations on the novels deeper themes of identity, class, consciousness and more.
The two protagonists and their rocky relationship are probably going to divide readers a bit, but personally, I thought their dynamic was an interesting one to follow. Yes, both are very flawed and at times unlikable characters and yes, their relationship can’t be called healthy. Then again, with the heavy focus on romance in fantasy, we don’t get to follow already established and multifaceted relationships nearly enough. I really applaud Rao for taking that risk and showing us something unique.

What I didn’t love:
There are some issues, typical of a debut, that kept The Surviving Sky away from its full 5-star potential. Pacing could've been optimized, especially near the midpoint where some of the conflicts began to repeat themselves. Additionally, it was a little heavy on the exposition-through-dialogue when it came to worldbuilding. If you’re familiar with the concept of “butler-dialogue” (one character explaining something about the world to another character, that they should already know, just for the benefit of the audience), Rao employs a very specific variant of that quite often. I might just have been hyperfocussing on it, but there was a trend of arguments and conflict being used as a vessel for exposition. Character would fight amongst eachother and shout worldbuilding information mid-argument. Whilst I appreciate the attempt to incorporate worldbuilding within character-conflict, this felt extremely clunky and unrealistic, and I hope that Rao will find different ways to do this in book 2.

That being said, I had a blast with this novel, can’t stop thinking about this world, and I can’t wait to continue on with this series once the sequel arrives. Highly recommended!

[Natasha Leighton · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exquisitely detailed and masterfully written debut with a compelling, character driven story that blends Hindu philosophy with environmental issues in this dystopian Sci-Fi Fantasy I couldn’t get enough of!

Told through the eyes of Ahilya and Iravan a married couple trying to work through the cracks of their crumbling relationship. Or the secrets Iravan (whose job as an architect involves manipulating plants to keep their city afloat) is duty bound to keep from his wife—due to her status as a non architect.

But their differing opinions on inequality (between Architects and non-architects) isn’t their only concern. For their floating city (called an Ashram) is under threat. As earth rages (cataclysmic storm that has kept the ground uninhabitable for centuries) are lasting longer than ever, and the energy required to keep the city afloat is waning… If Ahilya and Iravan can’t find a solution/m, their home (and everyone who lives there) will plummet to their deaths.

I really loved this! It’s such a clever and intricately woven story with a unique, climate based magic system that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The world building—which takes us from a lush, futuristic floating paradise (perfectly captured on the book’s cover) to a chaotically beautiful (and land based) jungle landscape— was soo detailed and wonderfully immersive (though I did finish reading during a heatwave which definitely added to the jungle experience.)

I LOVED the depth we get to explore with our main characters, whose alternating POVs drive the entirety of the plot. Ahilya is quite a wilful and determined character desperate to find any semblance of non-architect history (given all preserved history in this world focuses solely on the architects and their achievements.)

Iravan is also a strong willed character, whose apparent callousness to his wife’s career and his sense of duty to the betterment of the city(often at the expense of Ahilya) is what causes the cracks in his relationship to begin with.

I honestly didn’t think I’d enjoy exploring his POV but, despite his flaws (and not so great, spur of the moment decisions) I found his perspective rather compelling. In fact, despite their quite obvious differences I really liked both Ahilya and Iravan—and hoped that they could find a way to reconcile (or at least communicate at little more.)

I will say that, as someone still fairly new to Sci-fi fiction the complex and cerebral nature of the plot did make me hesitate but I promise, it’s actually quite easy to understand—and if any of the terms do trip you up, there’s a glossary at the back of the book.

Overall, a gripping Sci-Fi Fantasy that explores privilege, class and the inherent human drive to survive; set within a rich and creative, queer normative world I can’t wait to see more of.

Also, a huge thank you to Olivia at Titan Books for the finished copy

[Spencer Orey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cool science fantasy with south asian characters and big marriage and society drama. The cover is lovely. I was hooked by the cli-fi idea of floating islands and earthrages.

[L'encre de la magie · Rating 5 out of 5]

comme toujours je ne peux pas être objectif, c'est tout ce que j'aime et veux voir en Fantasy.
Une Hard Eco Science Fantasy épique, avec des personnages incroyables et vibrants de réalisme ! Des inspirations non eurocentrées, venues d'Inde et de la philosophie hindouiste 🤩.
bref j'adore cette trilogie et la traduction est de qualité 💖👍

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Failed marriages and struggling marriages and imperfect marriages are something I really enjoy reading about (granted that neither person involved is unforgivable), so I had to pick this up.

A husband and wife who don't see eye to eye for countless reasons are caught between the crossfire of their entire world being upended. The blurb describes this as science fantasy, but for the purposes of fulfilling my agenda, I'm calling it science fiction. This book is, for lack of better terms, bizarre. I do not read sci-fi, so this book could have some popular tropes or common events or whatever, I don't know. To me, it felt like something I hadn't read before. I don't really want to describe it because I feel like it's always better to just live through it and be surprised than to know what's going to happen, but I also feel like I have to let people know that this book takes a wild turn at some point. The kind of turn that change the tone of the book, but also makes a completely new visual image. Is that vague enough to not be a spoiler but specific enough to convey the message?

Basically, this is a very world-building-heavy book. It even has a glossary in the back. It's the type of book where you ought to pay attention to how society and the magic (?) system works. I think that's pretty standard, but I'm the type of person to block out that kind of thing because I don't really care about world building. I'm more of a character-heavy type of person, which is why the book didn't 100% click with me, but it was still really interesting (especially when it takes a turn). I'd say, if you're someone who likes sci-fi or who likes more attention to the world, this is the book for you.

Thank you to the publishers for an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Amanda at Bookish Brews · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't even begin to explain to you how excited I am for this book. I mean look at the cover? The synopsis? The author? I'm screaming!!! You're going to want to pick up this book with me!!!

[christinac_reads · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don’t think I’ve read a book that has hurt me so much as reading this book. Objectively it has well written prose and quite an interesting concept, but it was honestly extremely painful to read and finish and not in that way that is cathartic, but simply hurts.

The Surviving Sky by Kritika H. Rao is a South Asian SciFi Fantasy book that has been marketed by the author and by social media influencers as a queernorm book. I believe this description is inaccurate.

Being queer and existing under the intersectionality of queerness means that underneath the rainbow of pride we each have our own little rainbows with its own spectrum of color and calling a book “queernorm” is a nod to that mindset on how the society, the government, and all of its people and beliefs are able to look at different queer people and allow them to exist unquestioned.

Authors who choose to reject the world we live in and write queernorm books that have been created to welcome the things for which I am discriminated against in today’s society becomes a safe haven for marginalized readers like myself.

In diverse books, the color of my skin and my gender and sexuality are allowed to exist unquestioned. I don’t even need to see my specific identity within a book’s pages to know that if I chose to imagine myself in a fantasy book written to have POC characters and be queernorm, I’m not worried that I’m going to be discriminated against within this society.

However, a book being marketed as queernorm where a society has been constructed to have political and cultural norms, that intentionally or not, discriminates against people on the asexual and aromantic spectrum, hurts so much to read about.

The Surviving Sky is a character driven novel where nature causes relentless destruction to mankind and the only people are archeologists with different powers who hold up cities in the sky. We follow a 30-year-old couple whose troubled marriage is central to the storyline. Through their relationship, the author explores a caste system where society embraces some sort of eugenics as those architects with magical powers are revered and those without magic are actively discriminated against and are treated horribly.

Marriage seems to be foundational to this society where couples and their marital bonds are essential to the society’s stability and are therefore revered. The true test of their commitment to the marital bond is the couple’s willingness and ability to have children and so are *highly encouraged* to have them with spouses pressuring each other to bear kids. About 70% of the way through the novel the author starts some really good conversations about how some women might not wish to bear children, about abortion, adoption, and the emotional exploration on just how devastated the FMC feels being forced to have to carry a child she actively worked against having.

There is no question that this book is gaynorm. There are sapphic FF couples and achillean MM couples represented in the book and they exist happily in marriage unquestioned. Some are even pregnant. And yet the lack of trans, nonbinary, and intersex characters that are portrayed in a book that is marketed as queernorm seems so incredibly surprising to me. This society seems to have very strict gender binary and cisnormative beliefs, which is contrary to the freedom and creativity regarding gender and gender expression that are central to queerness.

The fact that there are queer identities that don’t seem to be welcomed in this universe, with some being absent while another being discriminated against by the politics and the cultural norms in a book purported by the author herself and social media influencers to be “queernorm” is so frustrating and so hurtful.

The representation of queerness in a queernormative world must go above and beyond adding one or two letters of the alphabet in the narrative. Queerness is not just about sexuality but is also a political identity and stance; it is a radical rejection of the pressures and expectations of what society dictates we must be and do.

Normalizing queerness and embedding queerness in a book until such time that the political elements of queerness are no longer not only necessary, but no longer possible because society no longer makes those demands of us, centering those of us who are currently othered in society, and rejecting the status quo, is what queernorm is.

Queernorm must be queer.

Members of the aro/ace community face so much social prejudice and dehumanization, especially with the way marriage and biological children are seen as pillars of society. This community experiences so much corrective assault and conversion therapy. Throughout the United States and around the world, if you don’t consummate marriage, that’s grounds for divorce. There is a word that very much applies when you’re forcing someone to have sex with you, to have them marry you, to have them bear your children when they don’t want to.

And while this book definitely discusses the problematic aspects of these societal pressures and the negative impacts it has on people feeling forced into these things,
1) the way it would uniquely impact the ace and aro communities is not acknowledged and
2) to have such a system of oppression that affects ace and aro people in a way unique to them compared to allo people in a book presented and marketed as queernorm is erasing our existence as part of the queer community.

Reading the extent of the perhaps unconscious prejudice in this “queernorm” book had me literally sobbing and feeling so very, very hurt.

Ultimately, prejudice and discrimination can come in from any angle, whether unintentional or not. I was promised a queernorm book and instead the baggage of real world that I face as a member of the queer community is reflected in this book.

Amplify all the pain the FMC is feeling and the things she has to process and multiply that. It hurts being forgotten, being discriminated against. Being erased in an immersive fantasy book that promised comfort in a queernorm world was so incredibly painful to experience.

[Sahitya · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has been on my top most anticipated lists since the first time it came onto my radar but I didn’t want my horrible reading slump to affect my reading experience, so I decided to wait till I got both a physical copy and audiobook before I attempted to read it. And wow this was everything I wanted.

It’s scary to go into a book from which you have too many expectations. It can be particularly heartbreaking if doesn’t live up to it. But I’m glad I didn’t have to worry about that here. Not that there’s no heartbreak here, it’s just the more cathartic and satisfying kind. The writing and plot took its time to make me feel invested because this is a very complex world, and the author dispenses information very slowly, like peeling an onion, so that we can try and understand the things which are left unsaid. I felt very reminiscent of The Broken Earth trilogy while reading this one because both have a commonality of the home planet being ravaged by geological disasters - in this case, earthrages - and the author does a brilliant job of creating a fantasy world inspired by Hindu philosophy/ mythology but which also has an in-world scientific base. I particularly loved the usage of the concept of rebirth from Hinduism, and how even if we don’t have concrete memories of the previous lives, there is still an imprint of our desires and regrets that we carry forward. The way the philosophical elements and the magic/science of trajection tie in together towards the end is masterfully written.

I was very excited to meet our main characters because it’s so rare to have protagonists in their 30s with marital problems in the usual kind of SFF books I read. And both Ahilya and Iravan are a delight to read - they are aggravating and got on my nerves and I wanted to give them a good shake many times over, but it was still a lot of fun to get to know them. However, what we mainly get to see is a marriage in trouble, one where the power imbalance and both of their stubbornness has led to a loss of trust and buildup of anger - and while I did feel amused by some of their arguments which really went nowhere (I did relate to some of them too deeply), I also would have loved to get some more glimpses of the good times so that I could believe more convincingly that their love was strong enough to weather the various storms.

In the end though, all I can say is that I finished the book feeling immensely satisfied. The beginning took a bit of time, but I breezed through the second half in just a couple of days. I really have to thank the author because it’s been a while since I’ve read a book so fast. It also immensely helped that I could alternate between the book and audio, very beautifully narrated by Sharmila Devar and Pranshu Mishra. I have been thoroughly thrilled by this debut science fantasy, with a very unique and complex world which got my brain working quite a bit, and characters who could be infuriating but I couldn’t help but love them. Can’t wait to see where this story goes next coz the possibilities are very intriguing.

[♥Xeni♥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a tough book to swallow. It's ambitious for a debut, but perhaps it was too ambitious.

The worldbuilding is the star of this show. Sadly, while it is described in excruciating detail (multiple times, throughout the entire work) I still have no idea how it actually works. There is a lot of breadth but it never really clicks into place. Add to that that most of the descriptions of places, clothing, food, etc. are all quite rudimentary, I never really felt grounded in this world. Perhaps that was the intent (it is, after all, mostly taking place on a flying piece of earth) but I craved more richness so I could fix things more in my mind. That said, this is still quite a visual-heavy book. I think people who can't visualize things well will have difficulty with how the magic works.

The main characters are an estranged-married couple, Iravan and Ahilya, who are both incredibly flawed characters. These kids need therapy. I didn't like them from the beginning (Iravan acts like a narcissistic ass most of the time) and I stopped liking Ahilya much by the end as well. All the side characters are incredibly shallow, with one character trait each at best. Druv, the sun-engineer and Ahilya's childhood friend, sums up their relationship best when he tells Ahilya that they "deserve each other". I was hoping for a much better and interesting relationship between Ahilya and Irvan. It's so rare to have a married couple as protagonists in speculative fiction. Sadly, this was not it. I was rooting the entire time for them to finally divorce and leave one another (and the book dangles that in front of you for *so long* it should be outlawed). They never actually process any of the stuff they have to work though, so I can't see their relationship being better in future books. Also, since we meet them in the middle of a SEVEN MONTH estrangement in which Iravan played deaf and dumb and never came home, them resolving even a bit of their tension (which happens every few chapters, this isn't a real spoiler) never feels satisfying. They both never clicked for me; I couldn't see any sort of connection they had to begin with. If anything it felt like they married young, had a bunch of lust, and now it's time for the regular 5-year divorce.

Which brings me to the actual plot. The plot is... fairly basic yet the worldbuilding aspects make it extremely convoluted. Essentially: it's harder for their piece of floating earth to stay afloat, there are a lot of political shenanigans going on, and also Iravan and Ahilya have to work through their issues. The plot relies heavily on all the esoteric and intense magical foundation of this planet. The whole last part of the story is one reveal after another of how this world works, but it never feels satisfying because we had no foundation of how the world works to begin with. It made me feel quite lost and bored.

Which sums up my experience with this book fairly adequately. I was often bored. I was often annoyed and angry at the characters and wished they'd just divorce already. But it's not a bad story overall. It had a lot of imaginative elements that worked well off one another. 2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher.

CHARACTERS
🔲 mary-sue party
🔲 mostly 2D
🔲 great main cast, forgettable side characters
🔲 well-written
✅ complex and fascinating
🔲 hard to believe they are fictional

PLOT
🔲 you've already heard this exact story a thousand times
🔲 nothing memorable
🔲 gripping
🔲 exceptional
✅ mind=blown

WORLDBUILDING
🔲 takes place in our world
🔲 incoherent
🔲 OK
🔲 nicely detailed
✅ meticulous
🔲 even the last tree in the forest has its own story

ATMOSPHERE
🔲 nonexistent
🔲 fine
🔲 immersive
✅ you forget you are reading a book

PACING
🔲 dragging
🔲 inconsistent
🔲 picks up with time
✅ page-turner
🔲 impossible to put down

Pure genius.

[Korynne · Rating 2 out of 5]

What I expected:
Science-fantasy adventure story in a jungle set on a floating island.

What I got:
500 pages of a bickering couple with lots of marriage problems.

[Isabelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Surviving Sky by Kritika H. Rao was a highly anticipated debut that didn’t disappoint! It managed to take my least favorite trope and flipped it on its head in a way that I truly enjoyed and had a magic system that was fascinating to learn about.

The main themes of this book were fascinating to uncover. I am not a religious person myself but seeing how authors apply their beliefs in fantasy worlds is really interesting to me. Desire, belief, and community in particular were addressed in a way that I loved. I liked seeing how these themes affected both an individual on their own as well as their ashram as a whole. Community especially factored heavily. How they work together for the greater good but also how some groups of people get left behind because they aren’t seen as important.

The Surviving Sky is one of those books that gave me something that I didn’t know I needed more of: Nature. Nature is its own character in this book and it couldn’t have been more fascinating and terrifying at the same time. Mixing the magic system with science was even cooler to me and I hope we get to see even more of that in the rest of the series. I’ve always wondered what would happen in fantasy series if their worlds developed more scientifically so having this done in combination with a post-apocalyptic feel to it was really cool.

While I did think the exploration of the surrounding relationships lacked in depth, the main relationship — the marriage between the MCs — was absolutely fascinating to follow along with. What I originally thought was potentially going to be a dragging out of my least favorite trope — miscommunication — ended up being an intriguing exploration of the complicated feelings that can arise when a couple’s ideals and goals develop in different directions. What at times felt like an absolute train wreck would turn into a hopeful reconciliation that then took a nosedive again. The ups and downs had me in my feelings so much but I found the overall trajectory of this relationship very realistic and relatable considering the high stress environment and struggles of the individuals involved. I know some people will hesitate if they hear about a romance being so integral to this book but it’s so different to what we usually see with that. Their conflicts reflected the events of the rest of the book so eerily and I really enjoyed that impact.

As I said earlier, I find the inclusion of religion in books interesting but I did find some aspects of the intersection of this and the magic system too confusing for my taste. It worked for me through the majority of the book with only minor unclear instances but I definitely struggled a bit more with it towards the end. It took a tiny bit away from the climax of the book but overall it was still very exciting and more than worthwhile the confusion for me.

I can also see how some of the things I felt were unclear while reading them were probably done so purposely to help with the mystery that the characters needed to unravel. They took different approaches on doing that, which led to varying reveals that I really enjoyed. Some of them were pushed to their limits in ways that made them question their own beliefs and view their world from other people’s perspectives. The decisions they have to make that once would’ve seemed so easy now were viewed in a completely different light. I adore books that allow me to theorize and philosophize throughout and this one was perfect for that!

This book really piled on the things that I enjoy: fascinating themes, characters that felt realistic, beautifully conveyed emotions, and a mystery to explore. Despite having a couple of things that didn’t entirely work for me, it still managed to be one of my favorite reading experiences of the year and I am really looking forward to reading more from this author. I don’t know what the plans are for the rest of the series but I will be at the very front of the line, hoping to read them as soon as possible.