The Vanished Birds is a sweeping epic journey through time and space. But it is written in such a gorgeous, almost poetic, way, that swept me away. It is a bit like a novella that leads to a novel, and then leads on to an epic novel, then circles back and leaves you going, "OH." There was a little bit of flipping back and going, wait, "who was that?" But not much, and Nia, Ahro, and the crew on the ship were all very well done with their own voices and characters. Absolutely lovely.

The past hungers for him, and when it catches up, it threatens to tear this makeshift family apart.

Dynamic cast of characters, beautifully written, and fascinating premise.

I can not express how happy I am that I found this book. I have read several Sci-fi books, and I have enjoyed very few of them. This was such an enjoyable book. The characters are fantastic, the found family aspect of it all. Thinking about it, it gave me FireFly vibes a little.

The first few chapters, or the first chapter (they are long chapters), follows a different boy over the course of his life, from birth to his death and the time over the years where he meets Nia and wants to have something more than he as a farmer, but learns that he's not as special as he thought. After his story is done, it follows a different boy (Ahro) and Captain Nia.

This was beautifully written, the characters are all wonderfully diverse. And the plot, while not entirely clear at first is really interesting. There are parts that lag a little, and some of the off-shoots of the plot aren't clear how they fit in with Nia and Ahro, quickly weave together nicely.

Vanished Birds is a mysterious science fiction tale bathed in beautiful prose that offers glimpses of a future of seasons changing, stars within reach, technological marvels, corporate greed, and metaphysical depth.

Starting with a distant world, a colony frozen in time except for brief decades-apart visits from offworlders. You get a strong juxtaposition of the few backward souls living simple lives and the grand civilization out there. A young boy exploding from the stars ✨ changes everything. And, his future appears special. He's mute. He doesn't belong anywhere. But he may just be the one everyone in the cosmos has been waiting for. Or not.

Meanwhile, a thousand years earlier, a designer baby changes everything and puts in motion things unimagined. The question is always what matters most, personal affections or human progress. Is it the job or the relationship that's important? Is loyalty to your friends, shipmates, companions paramount or setting aside a nest egg? Ultimately are we all disposable, interchangeable, useful? And what are the limits of corporate greed? Will it take us places we never thought we'd go?

This is a metaphysical story, not a bang bang shoot em up. It's filled with a sense of wonder and magic. Although I enjoyed it, I'm not certain everyone will.

What I think makes this novel work so well is that you never really know where the story is going. At first, you think one is the main character, but then there's a shift and the story focuses on someone else in another part of he universe becomes the focus. A lot of the story takes place on an aging ship with a motley crew, but it's a few giant steps till you get there. First, you have to flee the dying earth and it's not necessarily fair who gets to go. First, you have to have the oddest extramarital affair imaginable. First, someone has to predict what may come to be.

In any case, the writing is captivating, mystical. And takes the reader on a
One strange trip through ugh time and 🚀 space.

The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
The Vanished Birds
by Simon Jimenez
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Sherry 's review Aug 18, 2019 · edit
liked it

I soooo wanted to love this. Started out with interesting short stories then morphed into the main story which I found extremely long and tedious. Sort of a space opera on choosing family. A boy is found crash landed on a space station and one of the captains of a space traveling ship wants to adopt despite being told it was impossible. I kept thinking how I would have livened this up a bit. I DNF'D at 75%. I just wasn't interested enough to go on. Arg!