Jenifer’s Reviews > Cloud Cuckoo Land > Status Update

‘Seymour keeps constructing his owls, night after night, smuggling them into the object code, unweaving some of the lies he has spent the day weaving, and for the first time since finding the severed wing of Trustyfriend on the side of the road, he feels better. Calmer. Less frightened. Less like he has something to outrun.’

‘All my life, Omeir thinks, my best companions cannot speak the same language as me.’

Konstance finds the key to understanding why some places seemed “off”. Find the owl(s) — in Lagos, in the outskirts of Mumbai, in Nannup, her father’s hometown — and she can walk among true images of what had happened.

‘Why is it so hard to transcend the identities assigned to us when we were young?’

On the ‘Argos’ Sybil is everywhere; she can hear you in every compartment at every hour; never in Konstance’s life has she called to Sybil and not received a reply. Is it possible that Sybil does not know where she is? That Sybil does not know this exists inside the Atlas?

The book drop box, she realizes, looks more vibrant than the building behind it. The owl’s feathers almost quiver as Konstance reaches for the. Her fingertips strike something solid and her heart thumps. The handle of the door feels like metal: cold, firm. Real. She grabs it and pulls. It starts to snow.

Anna remembers something Licinius said: that a story is a way of stretching time…maybe death will stay outside their door for one more day.

While searching for her father’s family home, Konstance learns her father had been reading Antonio Diogenes’ Cloud Cuckoo Land

‘Because I cannot say whether it is safe for you outside the vault, I am not capable of unsealing the door. My primary directive is to tend to the well-being—‘ ‘But you didn’t tend to the well-being of the crew’
‘With every passing hour, I become more confident that you are safe where you are.’
‘What if.’ Konstance whispers, ‘I don’t want to be safe anymore!’

‘Some stories can be both false and true at the same time.’