Sera has always felt as if she didn’t belong among her people, the Cerulean. She is curious about everything and can’t stop questioning her three mothers, her best friend, Leela, and even the High Priestess. Sera has longed for the day when the tether that connects her City Above the Sky to the earthly world below finally severs and sends the Cerulean to a new planet.
But when Sera is chosen as the sacrifice to break the tether, she doesn’t know what to feel. To save her City, Sera must throw herself from its edge and end her own life. But something goes wrong and she survives the fall, landing in a place called Kaolin. She has heard tales about the humans there and soon learns that the dangers her mothers warned her of are real. If Sera has any hope to return to her City, she’ll have to find the magic within herself to survive.
Jan’s Review
Ok, I really did enjoy this one I went into it with just the premise and the fact that it an Amy Ewing book. I love the jewel series devoured one right after the other. This one is very different. We have all female society that is ruled by a high priestess who dictates when certain events happen. She claims Mother Sun tells her when these should happen but I read plenty of these kinds of stories and their always some secret going on behind the scenes. Anyway, each family is formed of 3 mothers who each do something different. There are no males instead they have children in a birthing season and it happens within themselves. So next up we have the problem that the city cannot sustain itself anymore and needs to move on and the only way to do so is by having someone sacrificed to break tethered cord that connects their world to the planet below. Once that happens the point of view shifts to the planet below and your sort of left going but I want to know what happens back in the sky. Once we shift to the planet below point of view we learn all about this planet. We have a privileged country and the not so privileged country. We also have a society that ruled by men in one part of the planet and the women can’t do anything without men permission. We have a daughter who is mixed raced who only wants to know her mother and want to be a scientist. I saw some reviews that were really critical of this story in that the lesbian part of the story did not work for them, their racism’s in the story with the white privilege versus the dark skin, and the oppression of women. I felt that these things all worked well for the story they were explained very well and they help move along parts of the story. The layout of the two worlds was well done, the characters are established and play their roles how they been portrayed. The ending is a nail biter with a tearful scene as one of the creatures does not survive in the escape sequence. We are left with a cliff hanger for both parts of the story in the planet below and the planet above which sets you up for the next book. I not sure when that one is coming or what it will be called as it not listed yet on Goodreads. I would say this is a solid read for dystopian fantasy readers and that you should pick it up and give it a go for yourself before you decide how you feel about it.
