Red Skies Falling

Alex London

Book 2 of Skybound Series

Having captured the ghost eagle, Bryson and Kylee split up. Kylee goes to the capital to train in the hollow tongue to be able to control the ghost eagle for battle. Bryson stays in Six Villages. Each is learning about themselves, how their history has developed them into an individual with motivations and how their "twin-ness" affects their individuality. Of course, in preparation for war, nothing is quite as it seems. But this middle book is, with the war plot moving the story forward, really about identity - the discovery and the integration. I appreciate the use of falconry methods and lessons as a language to think about identity and purpose. I am probably reading way more into this than a simple fantasy series warrants, but ... that's who I am :) By the end, Kylee and Bryson are reunited, and ready to start on yet another trek.

3 stars (out of 4)

Black Wings Beating

Alex London

Book 1 of Skybound Series

Bryson and Kylee are twins living in a world where falconry and bird training is the basis of wealth, power and nobility. Living in the Six Villages, the seat of bird trapping and training, they had a deadbeat dad who is now dead and a religious fanatic mom for whom anything sky related is blasphemy. Bryson pushes the limits, but really has no talents in falconry. Kylee has "the voice", has the hollow tongue in her, which allows her to communicate with birds, but she does not want it. Circumstances drive them to a high risk trek, where they encounter the warriors of the nobility, underworld gangs and the owl mothers. And in the end, Bryson and Kylee have solidified their twin bond, love for each other and begun the process of self discovery. With falconry as the core, this is an atypical fantasy world, and the read is fast enough to be a small investment. 

3 stars (out of 4)

Babel: An Arcane History

R.F. Kuang

Apparently I am in a phase of exploring colonization (Civilizations and Sam Adams). Babel is a fantasy novel set in Oxford in the mid 1800's. England is the dominant colonizer in the world and extending the reach of her Empire. The power for this domination comes primarily from the Institute of Translation at Oxford, where magical silver-working is centered. The magic in this world manifests in differences in translated meanings. For example, if the word 'sleep' in English is matched with sleep from another language, but the new 2nd language sleep really has meaning of 'sleep comfortably', when both of these words are engraved on silver, the difference in the translation manifests. In this example, comfort. So applying this magic to a stagecoach ride would make the ride comfortable. Magical shocks. The Institute for Translation spends its time looking for useful translation pairs to do anything from holding up buildings to making war ships travel faster to making guns more powerful. Enter into this world the need for translators in new languages and our protagonist (Robin Swift) is a new student, immigrated from China (or rather, brought from China as the bastard son of a Translation professor). Robin meets his fellow first year students (an Indian boy from Calcutta, a Haitian girl, and an English noble-girl). They each must encounter and struggle with race, gender and cultural oppression while making decisions about their participation in the oppression engine of the translation institute. Really fun, while making you think about all the small ways we participate in the colonization/empire engine everyday. 

4 stars (out of 4)

The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams

Stacy Schiff

The story of Sam Adams and his role as provocateur in the lead up to the American Revolution from England. He was nearly universally regarded as the prime voice developing the push for American rights in Massachusetts and organizing a collective voice for the colonies. He was very the twitter-bot of his time, publishing in newspapers under over 15 different pseudonyms, and really not very concerned with the veracity of the facts that he published. He had a point of view and was going to promote that regardless of the truth (which is reminiscent of the fake news / conspiracy trends of the past decade). As presented in this telling, it was also very clear that the colonists were in the right in every way, so even this telling had a point of view. The blinders showed especially in letters Adams wrote to Native Americans asking for their support, suggesting that the crown would continue to abuse them, but colonialists would treat them with respect and honor their sovereignty. Maybe he really believed this, but in hindsight it is so ridiculous that is seems self serving at best. Overall, a fascinating biography. 

3 stars (out of 4)