Review: The Other Side of the Sky by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Most of my feelings are that I require book two. But I shall attempt a review that is of more use than that.
The Other Side of the Sky (a title I love) is a story out of two different worlds. Nimh is the living goddess of her people, she cannot be touched and is a bit late on manifesting the power all her predecessors have had. North is a prince in a technologically advanced floating city; he is at odds with his mother with his desire to explore the world below them (a world he believes to be uninhabited and desolate). The story has the two collide; we are pulled into the tension between fantasy and science fiction, fate and choice, magic, and science.
A quick aside, however pretty you think the cover is, it is nothing on the physical cover. If my shelf had the space, this would be facing out.
This book kind of has everything I love. I love a prophecy, I love a mysterious chosen one situation (though I also love an outright chosen one story, it is a good trope), I love intrigue, and I love a good romance. Also, North is a vegetarian, and I am always jazzed when we pop into books.
If you have read previous books by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner, you will know to expect romance and a high stakes world, and I think this is their most intricate and impressive plot yet. It has all the lush charm of previous books, but its scope is grander. There are portions of this book that sort of work in conversation with These Broken Stars (the whole series really, but mostly references that brought me back to Lilac and Tarver's story). There is some tracking through an unknown land, though this time, the girl has the advantage of experience, and I would maybe argue that the Orpheus and Eurydice story has stronger echos (see what I did there?) in this book than it did in These Broken Stars. I think this story tackles different topics; I am not stating that they are just rehashing previous books. Just saying that fans of These Broken Stars will fall just as deeply into this story.
We have illusions to climate change debates, but most of the book is focused on the tension between peoples differing deeply ingrained beliefs. How those belief systems can change and how they can corrupt. I always liked the explorations of corporate power, specifically the corporatization of government of the past books. Still, it is awesome to see Kaufman and Spooner exploring different ideas here.
The world-building in this book is amazing. We only get a touch of time in Alciel, the science fiction world North comes from, but his world is interesting and full of tension. I suspect I would have loved the story just as much if we had spent most of our time here and not on the world's surface. 'Below' is Nimh's world, and there is a lot of work put into fleshing out her world. We learn about the world through the eyes of Nimh, who lovingly describes her home, and North whose incredulity makes a fun lense to learn about the world. Both points of view give you just as much about the setting as they do about who the characters are in response.
If you are a Miyazaki fan, the worlds certainly have influence from his films (the authors have specifically referenced Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke). I specifically loved the magic of Nimh's world. It is connected to the mist, a force that brings death and destruction but is also where magic users draw their power. The parts of the book where the fantastic was most in conflict with the science fiction elements of the story were probably my favorite part o this book. The world is rich and lived in and I must return in book two.
The characters are so much fun. At first, I was a tad worried that I was basically falling back into a Lilac and Tarver dynamic, but that was shed as I got further into the story. Some of this probably stems from Amie being primary in character creation of the male lead and Meg being primary on the female lead. However, they have both created 5 lead characters each in published work, and I would certainly not say they are all alike. I already outlined other comparisons of the two earlier in my review, but the story grows in a different direction. I want to specifically shout out that I love that North, our male romantic lead, is bi. There are not enough bi guys in YA, and we all know I just love a bi lead in general.
Speaking of North, he has a wonderful character arc. I won't spoil it, but I really liked the way his character grew over the course of the book. I liked seeing Nimh's world through his eyes, he is funny, wry, and smart, and it is fun seeing him completely out of his comfort zone. I really liked the way he thought about the world he was separated from. So much was happening he didn't have lots of time to dwell, but the moments his old life bubbles to the surface were great. Because the story mostly takes place in Nimh's world, her story has more personal connections and feels dier in a different way to North's. Still not going to spoil anything but her emotional path was so interesting. Both have to reckon with their belief systems, and how what they want might not be possible with what they need to do.
I don't want to say too much about this story's villain, mostly because discovering which threat is the most deadly was a process I really liked about this book, except that I really liked the way the villain's story intertwined with the chosen one element. I will say this story does lean into the fantasy thing where having accumulated power caused people to view you as crazy, but this tension is played out as much in our hero as our villain. This does tend to be an odd thing with fantasy and magic, affecting a person's mind. I don't think Kaufman and Spooner handled this poorly; I just wanted to mention it in case you have strong feelings about this trope.
I critiqued Unearthed's structure, saying that I felt like book one of the duology ended at a weird place. This also being a duology, I was worried it would also feel odd at the end of the book. I can say that I did not feel this way at all! It does end with tension (aka a bit of a cliff hanger), but the story doesn't feel uncontained. I thought the plot, in general, was fast-paced and well structured. Threads are introduced and show back up in a perfect mix of expected and surprise. I also think the two-book structure will work very well in a series about the collision of two worlds.
I feel like I have written so much about this book but barely covered anything at all. I just really really had a good time in this world and look forward to coming back for book two. Also probably for a reread soon. This book might turn me back into the kind of person who scours books for clues about the sequel.
I gave this book five stars on Goodreads and The StoryGraph. I recommend this book to anyone who has loved these authors in the past, people who like sci-fi and fantasy, and are intrigued by the interplay in this book, and to anyone who likes an intricate quest story with a side dish of romance.
