The Surviving Sky has a very unique and detailed worldbuilding that makes it thoroughly enjoyable. I loved the concept of the city, it was very original. The magic system was also incredibly unique and interested, loved the hindu influences. The novel has some very philosophical parts that make it a bit slow but I still enjoyed them and felt like I learned a lot. The only element that was a bit weaker for me was the relationship of the main characters.

This sounded interesting and once again I was suckered by a pretty cover, but I've since learned some of the content doesn't align with my internal compass in a way that I cannot get past the first few pages.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC of The Surviving Sky by Kritika H. Rao.

I was hoping for some fast-paced-sci-fi-adventure on a floating island- and although the world building was great, there was far too much focus on the crumbling relationship of the main characters than sci-fi.

Lots of arguments and bickering that left me wanting to start the story again with different characters- as the world is so interesting!

The worldbuilding in this novel is incredible and was my favorite part. We follow two main characters, Iravan and Ahilya, who are in a struggling marriage. Because of this, the plot is very focused around their relationship, which got a bit old and did not vibe with my personal taste. However, I absolutely loved the world and the plot outside of the struggling marriage. This was a reasonably strong debut, and I look forward to continuing on with the series!

I was so excited by the premise of this book but it just did not live up to what I expected.
The world the author created is fantastic; but there was not enough focus on it. The relationship between the two main characters was extremely tedious and I lost the will to live a little bit towards the middle of the book. Powered through in the hope that it would get better, but alas I was wrong.

I really wanted to love this book and it sounded so interesting. Unfortunately it just didn’t work for me. The worldbuilding was quite confusing so it took me a while to get through the book. I think others will enjoy it though.

What I expected:
Science-fantasy adventure story in a jungle set on a floating island.

What I got:
500 pages of a bickering couple with lots of marriage problems.

I think the idea behind this novel was very cool, but too much time was spent on the characters' marriage problems and less time was spent on the plot and the setting, and I think it should have been the other way around. While the ending left off on a small cliffhanger, I am not interested in reading the sequel because I don't want to spend any more time with these characters.

It was a little too clear that Iravan was in the wrong; he was obstinate and arrogant and dismissive all while gaslighting Ahilya into believing that she's the problem. Perhaps if we'd had a better first impression of him, I would have been more patient as he transforms, but honestly he irked me. There's a little too much "debate the value of human life" and not nearly enough plot/action/movement. We don't really understand how magic works in the first half of the book; we don't get a picture of society in the first half of the book; we don't get a "so what".

The descriptions in the beginning were so engaging but I ended up being so thoroughly disappointed (and bored) as I progressed because of the sheer amount of focus on this doomed marriage (TLDR; Iravan is an asshole and Ahilya should stop letting herself be gaslit and just leave him) and not enough care given to magic, worldbuilding, and plot.

I want to live in this world! This was so beautifully done, and this book will live in my head and heart for the rest of my life. If you are in a reading slump I recommend picking this up!

I know I shouldn’t play favorites, but The Surviving Sky is possibly one of my personal favorite books on this list. Jam-packed with action yet written with so much empathy, Rao’s debut novel has so much heart to it—you cannot help but be torn between the feuding husband (Iravan) and wife (Ahilya), seeing each person’s perspective but knowing that there are no easy solutions. And the best thing is that this intimate conflict takes place in an epic world and is closely tied to their city’s survival.

Ahilya’s frustration and desire to change the city’s power structure, which puts plant architects like her husband at the top and non-architects at the bottom, is a struggle I deeply relate to as someone who doesn’t have much agency in the world I live in. Iravan himself is a highly compelling character; Accused of pushing his extraordinary powers to forbidden limits, he needs Ahilya back on his side but is unable to see her perspective as that of someone who is powerless.

Rao is also a master of pacing and setting up the emotional stakes; The Surviving Sky, from its first page, grabs your heart by its claws and doesn’t let go until it’s broken, but lovingly puts it back together in the final act. As a practicing Hindu, I adore how Rao has woven yogic philosophies on life, karma, and rebirth into the core of this novel. An intimate epic, The Surviving Sky is a great start to what promises to be one of fantasy’s biggest trilogies of this decade.

The fact this book is a debut BLOWS me away. If you love the genius of N.K. Jemisin's works and worlds, you'll ADORE this, this is the first time, I've read something thought an author had come close to Jemisin's genius.

The concept and idea behind this novel is imaginative and captivating and I can't wait to see where the author goes next with the world they have created. Whilst the world is captivating, The Surviving Sky remains a character focused tale in which we mainly follow a married couple. It's not only their marriage thats failing but society. Both characters have very different views on how to fix it and save the flying cities which allow their survival.

The relationships, conflicts and growth with this worlds characters are sublime and truly the strength of the novel.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2023, largely because of the gorgeous cover but also because I’m always looking for stories that blend sci-fi and fantasy elements.

This is a character driven story. The narrative switches between Iravan and Ahilya’s perspectives, and the heart of the story is their failing marriage and their different ideas for the future of their society. In that respect, this reminds me of N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season which had a similar dystopianesque sci-fantasy world and there’s a group of humans with environmental magic but the focus of the story is a family drama plot. But where I adore The Fifth Season, I’m pretty ambivalent on this. I loved so many of the ideas presented but I think there were some pacing issues that made the book feel too long and overwritten. There were certain plot elements that led to what felt like the main characters rehashing the same arguments again and again. This book is over 500 pages and it really didn’t need to be. I think if it had been 400-450 pages with a bit of a tighter narrative, I would have adored it.

I think this was a really ambitious debut and I would be interested in seeing what Kritika H. Rao writes next because I think the imagination put into this world is incredible and I liked the depth of character we saw from the two main characters, but I’m not sure if I will continue in this series.

The cover of this novel is stunning, and the story was just as stunning. This is a well-written Hindu philosophy-inspired fantasy. The world-building and characters are masterfully crafted. Most of the story takes place in a floating city above a jungle-covered planet being raved by “Earth-rages.” The Architects are revered for their magic, which keeps the cities floating. The magic system in the book in the beginning was a little confusing, but as you keep reading, you’ll get it. It’s so fascinating. The novel explores many themes such as complex familial relationships, different hierarchies based around born magic, etc. I cannot wait to read the next novel in the series!

The Surviving Sky is the debut novel from Kritika H. Rao, and tells the story of a married man and woman whose relationship is close to breaking point, and who are trying to find a way to reconcile. It’s also a story about the last of humanity surviving the end of the world on giant floating cities made from plants, so there’s something a little bit more unusual thrown into this well crafted human drama.

The book takes place in Nakshar, one of a number of flying plant cities. At some point in the past the Earth became uninhabitable thanks to Earthrages: massive, destructive storms that move across the surface, destroying all human life that they come into contact with. In order to survive, humanity took to the skies.

Thanks to a specialised group of people called engineers, humans found a way of manipulating plant life, shaping it to their will. These engineers are able to enter a special state called trajection, where they’re able to see both the world around them as it exists, and the life-force and connective pathways of flora. Using these connections, engineers can transform plants into everyday objects, from furniture to the buildings that people live in, and even the floating cities that humanity uses as their refuge.

Whilst this has allowed humanity to survive, it has also resulted in fraught tensions within the last of humanity. The engineers are held up above other citizens, as their survival means the survival of all of humanity. Treated as the best of the best, the engineers have become the leaders of Nakshar; reluctantly sharing a few council seats with the sungineers, the inventors and mechanics of Nakshar.

Iravan is one of the best engineers on the council, able to manipulate plant life in ways others could only ever dream of doing. Despite being one of the best in the city, his marriage has taken a turn for the worse. His wife, Ahilya, is an archaeologist, a profession most see as useless, and is looking into humanity’s past to try to find better ways to exist in the future. Sadly, this often brings the two of them into conflict, especially as she thinks engineers treat those unable to traject as lesser people.

When Nakshar lands on the Earth below during one of the lulls in the Earthrages, Ahilya sets out into the jungle with a small expedition group to study the animal life that manages to survive the massive disasters, hoping to find information that could lead humans to do the same. However, when a disaster leads to one of the group being killed, and the city is forced to take to the sky again, Iravan is accused of being close to becoming Ecstatic, a state in which engineers lose themselves in their powers and become destructive. However, Iravan insists that something is wrong in the trajection, and that it could spell disaster for the entire city. Now he and Ahilya will have to work together to try to figure out what’s wrong, not only to clear Iravan’s name, but to save all of humanity.

The Surviving Sky is one of those books where you have to double check that it’s a debut novel. There are a lot of times where you see an author’s first novels and you can tell that they’re still trying to find their feet, still figuring out the style they want to use, and how to clearly tell their story. Kritika H. Rao, on the other hand, seems to have arrived on the scene with a firm grasp on the kind of writer they’re going to be. This is not a simple story, nor is the world that Rao has created an easy one to describe.

It has a complex system and a very alien way of living that could result in a book that leaves the reader left behind as they try to figure everything out, but Rao is able to make the most impossible and alien feel real and relatable. More established and experienced writers have tried to craft complex worlds like this, and have failed to convey things in as clear and easy to understand a way as Rao does here. Add onto that, they’re able to craft a wonderfully realistic and engaging human story at the heart of the book too, and this is an author whose career you’re going to want to keep an eye on.

Speaking of the human relationship, Ahilya and Iravan are messy people. They’re complex, they have flaws, and whilst they both clearly love each other they also both frustrate each other in a lot of ways too. They’re not one of these romantic couples whose relationship is in trouble who just spend a little bit of time together and fall back in love all over again. No, they have to work hard, they have to get over their flaws and annoyances and learn to look past that at what really matters. Their relationship feels incredibly realistic because there are no easy answers for them here, just like there are none in real life.

The Surviving Sky is a wonderfully creative and interesting story, set in a world unlike any other you’ll have seen before. It’s a wonderful mix of science fiction and nature magic that takes the best of both worlds to craft something wholly its own. It’s also a wonderfully inclusive world, filled with loving queer characters, and is inhabited by people of colour (it’s amazingly refreshing to have a story with no white people in it for once). The central mystery will very quickly draw you in, and the realistic human stories will get you invested. The Surviving Sky is a superb debut novel that is hard to find fault with, and I can’t wait to see what the author does next.

We step into Nakshar, into a flying jungle of Architects’ design, into conspiracy and into a fraught marriage.

This new imaginative world where humans are capable of directing plants in order to build, heal, protect and somehow fly amongst the clouds — all to escape from the death-dealing ground below whose instability shakes, breaks and is incompatible with life.

The Surviving Sky is told through two point of views, one of power and influence, the other lacking both. So it was odd that these two POV characters were married, less so when you saw their relationship bristling with so much animosity, distrust and lack of understanding. But it is a relationship that was formed from an unexpected and passionate love, and you can see that love at the core, even as it’s overshadowed by secrets.

This is a stunning debut by an exciting new voice to the genre! Can’t wait to see what comes next!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an EARC in exchange for an honest review.

This one was fifty/fifty for me. I was really invested and interested in the world and it was very fresh – from a really intriguing power system, to political moves and semi-sentient reactive plantlife – sign me up. It was refreshing to have a older married couple as our protagonists, with their own troubles. It’s in the second part of the story that I got lost. I found it harder and harder to visualize all the different layers of the expanding universe, and because of that I felt disconnected from the struggle and the characters. There were a ton of conversations about the intricacies of the power system, the world – and while I love that academic atmosphere, as I lost track of the details in these discussions it all went a bit over my head.

A city that can fly! I love it!

I love the world building in this - the magic system is well thought out, I love how they make the city fly, the politics of it all, how non architects and architects react to each other, the secrets that are being with -held.


This was-an entertaining story. We follow two POV., from the wife (Ahilya) and husband (Iravan). it was pleasant to see the differing sides of their story and both sides of their issues with each other.

The main focus of the story is the wife and husband relationships , how they are struggling with what they want, how they talk to each other and it makes the matter worse.
But its all worth it the end.

I loved the conclusion to this story, how the magic system
Expand and their relationship.

I highly recommend this story. I can't wait for book two

I enjoyed some aspects of this, such as the unique strands of worldbuilding, but I found the character work, including the main relationship to be unengaging. Plot-wise, it was somewhat stale, and the “fal-marriage” slant was never developed in a way that felt as if it added significantly to the overall vibe of the book.

The Surviving Sky is a brilliant debut, set in a world where humanity has had to take to the skies and live in airborne cities called ashrams, which are described much like that on the cover.

The genius comes in with the how this happens; some are born with the ability to become ‘architects’, able to manipulate plants around them through plants’ consciousness.

Of course, with such an important role it brings about a bit of a power play between citizens, and this is an important theme in the book as it’s part of what causes a rift between our two married main characters, Ahilya (a non-architect archeologist) and Iravan (an extremely talented senior architect).

Ahilya is determined to find another way for humanity to survive, studying the land they left behind due to tremendous earth rages, whilst Iravan wants to be the best architect he can possibly be, he doesn’t see any other way than how things are managed already.

They argue, a lot, but with every instance of them finding common ground you can’t help but hope they’ll make it through and be stronger for it.

The concepts involved in the world building, such as consciousness, may take some getting used to at first but Rao has included a glossary at the back which comes in handy! There’s a lot more to The Surviving Sky than I’ve mentioned here, and it’s a fantastic start to a new trilogy that I can’t wait to continue.

Go grab this from your nearest bookstore if you’re after a book that will fill you with emotions whilst giving you a lot to think about! And DEFINITELY grab it right this instance if you’re a fan of intricate world building

The Surviving Sky...a book that may not have been my on my radar initially that captivated my attention much more than I could have ever expected it to do, I have always been in love with mythology though Hindu Mythology was never something that I have ever even looked into. That in itself made reading this a bit challenging in the beginning until I was entranced by the world building.

In the beginning I was unsure which of the two main characters I could relate to and often found myself siding with one of them in the early chapters. Then like any good character development, I found myself switching teams often as more and more details of the character came out. In the end I think I appreciate both of them and felt it in my heart how things were left off between the two...hopefully a decision that will be beneficial for both of them as we continue their journeys. Very excited for the continuation of this universe.

Thanks to NetGalley and Titan Books for the chance to read this before being published. Sorry for the delay on the review!