Reviews with content warning for Colonisation - The Vanished Birds

Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez

19 reviews

jaredt's review against another edition

challenging hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

An unexpected and well explored journey over the years.

This is quite a creative take, dealing with the nature of space travel and the years that could be lost to it. Lots of buildup, backstory, and lore woven together to make all the pieces fit. After the first chapter I knew it was going to be a special, different kind of story than what I'm used to in the genre.

We meet lots of folks, and no matter how long they're in the pages, their roles carry weight, they feel like they have their own stories, and it's just what bits we get to see.

I will say this story, because of the way it is structured, probably won't be for folks that want a more typical 'we are going to follow this group of folks and ONLY this group and see how their stories end'. Everything is intertwined, and there are main characters that carry most of the way, but not everyone stays together, and its just by nature of the universe this story lives in, and the amount of years we follow through. The ending packs a weighted punch, but isn't needlessly punishing.

Overall, this is a story I really enjoyed, and think it is one that I will grow to love even moreso over time.

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quinnjuliac's review

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book was incredible. Sweeping story of finding nonbiological family and the ties that bind us, in a dysphoric future where the earth has been obliterated by climate change and misuse, and other worlds are created and then colonized by capitalism. Really beautiful, highly recommend. The first half seems to be more about the dysphoric world created by the author and traveling through it, and the second half is really about relationships and the love we find and lose, and how worth it these losses are.

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planetesastraea's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

It has taken me a little while to wrap my head around this book and write a proper review of it.

From the very first pages, The Vanished Birds has been haunting.
The book kicks off painting a world in which time goes more slowly for a group of mysterious technologically-advanced off-worlders. This perspective gives the tone for the whole novel: how small human lives can be, how fragile and fickle, a blink in the span of human history, and a speck of dust in the universe.

As I read this book, anxiety followed me with each chapter.
Even during the most light-hearted parts of the crew's every day life, the weight of the deranging unknown that has carved its shape into their lives can't be shaken off. Something inescapable looms in the dark- something that they know to be wonderful but bound to be the key to their demise.
And this incredible build-up only works because of its even somber unfolding.

Jimenez's writing speaks to his knowledge of what it is to be human, for better and for worst.
The length of humanity's cruelty only finds an equal in the endless hope and love that comes with finding a family, and fighting to keep it.

If I usually turn to more light-hearted reading I can't say I regret having read The Vanished Birds. It's a powerful read that has stayed with me ever since.

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kp_writ's review

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adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

The kind of book that makes you feel like you accomplished something by finishing. And by that I mean it was dreadfully slow, and I had to work hard to keep my interest and understand the perspective shifts (that were confusing whether they happened chapter by chapter or paragraph by paragraph or towards the end even sentence by sentence). I'm very glad to have read it, and I think it's a book I may return to eventually for a reread, but it is not an easy read.

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