They fly on currents of air on hand-made contraptions similar to hang gliders (as you can see on the book cover). One of the cool things about this story was the way people get around in this world. That is, if she can stay alive long enough to reveal the Spire’s secrets. But a brewing rebellion in the lowest levels of the Spire makes Kirit realize that the truth she grew up with is not necessarily what’s really going on in the City, and she vows to set things right. Kirit misses her home and her mother, and hates the dark enclosed spaces of the Spire, longing for the open skies and the freedom of flight. But on the day of the test, she unexpectedly fails, and instead, finds herself taken away from her home to live and train in the Spire, the tallest tower of the City, where people known as Singers keep the other towers safe from the lethal skymouths, invisible monsters who prowl the skies. Kirit is about to take her wingtest, a rite of passage that will grant her access to the skies as a trader, flying from tower to tower and bringing needed goods and food to the citizens of the City. Kirit is a young girl who lives above the clouds in the tower of Densira, one of many towers made of living bone that make up the City. As interesting as the world-building was, I was left with a feeling that there is so much more that the author hasn’t told us. I’m not sure if this is the beginning of series, but it sure felt like it, and I hope Wilde gets the chance to write more about this world.

Updrafthas all the elements I love: intrigue, danger, action, consequences for actions and emotional human connections, set against a backdrop that I’m dying to know more about. But it didn’t take long before the story of Kirit’s journey to become a Singer took hold and pulled me in. Fran Wilde has created a world in which everything feels unfamiliar, and so in the beginning I was struggling to latch on to something that I could relate to. Updraft is one of the most unique fantasies I’ve read in quite some time, and despite some plot and world-building elements that were a bit confusing, I enjoyed it immensely. I knew it was there, though I couldn’t hear it, because nothing else sounded so empty in the entire city. Far beyond, Lith lurked, broken and forlorn. The wind swept over the shape, slowly, then ripped around the higher towers beside it, whistling. Something low and large echoed ahead of me.

We had so many ways to describe different types of wind. The nitty-gritty: A unique and many-layered world that left me craving more world-building details, but contained some of the coolest fantasy elements I’ve read in a long time. Published by Tor Books on September 1 2015 This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Updraft novel