Heir to the Sky
by Amanda Sun
What is it about:
As heir to a kingdom of floating continents, Kali has spent her life bound by limits—by her duties as a member of the royal family, by a forced betrothal to the son of a nobleman, and by the edge of the only world she’s ever known—a small island hovering above a monster-ridden earth, long since uninhabited by humans. She is the Eternal Flame of Hope for what’s left of mankind, the wick and the wax burning in service for her people, and for their revered Phoenix, whose magic keeps them aloft.
When Kali falls off the edge of her kingdom and miraculously survives, she is shocked to discover there are still humans on the earth. Determined to get home, Kali entrusts a rugged monster-hunter named Griffin to guide her across a world overrun by chimera, storm dragons, basilisks, and other terrifying beasts. But the more time she spends on earth, the more dark truths she begins to uncover about her home in the sky, and the more resolute she is to start burning for herself.
What did I think of it:
I really enjoyed Sun's Paper Gods trilogy so had to try this book.
And although the story has its moments I was annoyed by the lack of explanation in the worldbuilding. Monsters threatened to erase humans from the earth three hundred years ago, so a phoenix created the floating kingdom. So far so good. But I wanted to know more. Had the monsters always been there? If so, what caused the scales to tip in favor of the monsters? If they hadn't always been there: where did they come from?
As the story unfolded more questions arose that didn't get a satisfying answer. Yes, apparently Kali doesn't know everything, but that's not an excuse for vague worldbuilding.
Annoyances over the worldbuilding aside the story was entertaining, but then it ended in a way that made it hard for me to believe in the outcome, so all in all this was a nice but lacking read.
Why should you read it:
It's an entertaining Fantasy read.
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