Our Discussion of All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

Childhood friends Patricia Delfine and Laurence Armstead didn't expect to see each other again, after parting ways under mysterious circumstances during high school. After all, the development of magical powers and the invention of a two-second time machine could hardly fail to alarm one's peers and families.

But now they're both adults, living in the hipster mecca of San Francisco, and the planet is falling apart around them. Laurence is an engineering genius who's working with a group that aims to avert catastrophic breakdown through technological intervention into the changing global climate. Patricia is a graduate of Eltisley Maze, the hidden academy for the world's magically gifted, and works with a small band of other magicians to secretly repair the world's ever-growing ailments. Little do they realize that something bigger than either of them, something begun years ago in their youth, is determined to bring them together--to either save the world, or plunge it into a new dark ages. -Goodreads

A deeply magical, darkly funny examination of life, love, and the apocalypse.

Below are a sampling of our comments:

• Science vs. Magic, but no definitive answers – the book took the middle of the road. The conflict and divide between the two sides seemed very similar to what we are facing now in this country.
• Two misfit kids, high school hell, and as many responsible adults as in South Park – the adults were clueless and unreliable.
• One exception was Isobel who saw Laurence’s talent when he ran away to see the rocket launch. She also seemed conflicted about Milton’s plan.
• The main characters were believable and well-developed. The time jump from high school to young adulthood was a little disconcerting.
• Why was Peregrine focused on matchmaking? Was it to try to bring his “parents” together again?
• It was obvious early on that the caddy devices were really the AI – why else introduce this new technology that everyone was using? It had to play a role in the story.
• The characters were kind of jerks – they were very independent and didn’t realize that they needed other people to accomplish their goals.
• The humor lightened the story, even though terrible catastrophic events were taking place.

Please add any additional thoughts or comments you may have about All the Birds in the Sky. We gave this title the codes AI, YA, ETH, MAG, & FEM with an average rating of 3.