Dystopian, sci-fi isn’t my typical go to but the cover and book description caught my attention.

I enjoyed the world building and the dystopian themes worked well here.

I appreciated the language; it was easy to read and follow along with. The story had a nice flow and pacing was well done, as well.

Thank you to the author and the publisher,Bindery Books, for sharing an ARC of this book with me on NetGalley.

More like 3.5 stars for me.

This is the type of book where I like everything except the main characters... and the plot 😅.

I like the idea of the world. An oriental dystopia based on limited access and ending “deposits” of a substance that drives technology and the economy. It's not exactly a source of energy like our fossil fuels, but more of a panacea for everything - medicine, fertilizer and fuel. But it's easy to imagine what will happen to our world when the oil fields are depleted. And it's easy to remember how countries colonizing the world mindlessly consumed other countries' resources.

However, the first 25% of the novel was quite difficult to digest. And it's not because of the world-building, here we get a very nice balance, we're not saddled with lengthy descriptions, and we learn about the world through the events and comments of the characters. There is a lot going on, and the chapters are fragmented and it's hard to figure out the passage of time. Are we still in the same square in the slums, or is it another day and another encounter? The action rushes headlong before the reader has time to get a good feel for the world, the rhythm and the characters. Before the mysterious meeting is properly outlined, we get a town fire that lasts half a page and we end up in jail. This is a treatment that works well in describing the climax rather than outlining the action. The frequent POV changes mean that we only get to know the characters well, somewhere in 3/4 of the novel.

The author conducts a dispute about colonization, we get two POV of the characters representing the native population of Teyjomaya city and one POV of the daughter of the leader of the occupying council. And this plot is really well conducted and developed. Different points of view, different social classes, resentment, contempt, but also some forced coexistence and cooperation. There were many beautiful and heartrending moments and musings - about freedom, loss, sacrifice and duty.

Great worldbuilding (too bad it's limited only to city), an interesting place of action, engaging, and a difficult theme. The idea is really good. However, the plot, the plot is the problem here. We have a clearly outlined main plotline, but we can't get into it for too long. The characters circulate, reminisce, ponder, and take pointless actions. There is a lot going on, but nothing of greater significance. In addition, the secondary characters are more interesting than the main ones.

This book had its brilliant moments, when the puzzle fell into place with a satisfying click, but it also had many awkward, unflattering and detached scenes that ruined the experience. The trio of Zain, Theron and Leander was an awful stretch, as a reader I don't believe in this plot, I don't buy it, it has no justification for me. It's needed, but it's simply badly introduced and motivated. The whole POV is lost in the fact that Zain is clearly not the smartest fish in the pond. A tedious circle of bad decisions and self-pity.

In conclusion, the story is worth telling and paying attention to, while it would still need refinement. Both the plot and the characters and the interactions between them were artificial and forced in places. At times I had the impression that I was reading a very long elaboration, and it turned out that this book in paperback is supposed to be less than 400 pages. This was caused by the fact that the important events and interesting action were described in bulk and too quickly, while the aimless wanderings of the characters around the city took up too much space. However, I intend to keep an eye on the author, because for a debut it is quite an interesting, ambitious position, and the writing is very good.

Something of a slow start, but it all becomes worth it in the second half of the book. Seriously, the build up is worth every second.

Well written, with sharp world building, this is a desperate blood-soaked tale of revenge and redemption, power and all that comes with it.

I thoroughly enjoyed the intertwined backstories that gets slowly revealed throughout the book, and the premise of - what happens after the good guys fall apart after trying to change the world? Were they even the good guys in the first place?

I digress. This was an excellent book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I really enjoyed this dystopian climate fantasy that doesn’t seem too far-fetched. Dealing with issues of colonialism, internal feuds, and politics, it’s like a fast-paced thriller. The south asian characters with their familiar names feel more real somehow and I could picture them clearly. Skies weeping blood can be traumatic to read about but it’s a very timely book with an important premise.

Although it made the book a bit slow and confusing in the beginning, the suspense is maintained until the very end. Told from the perspective of three main characters, it also has depth and necessary details.

If you like climate-based fiction or dystopian worlds, this might be a good fit for you.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Bindery Books, and the author for this chance to review And the Sky Bled. Speaking of, what a captivating title, that combined with the description I knew I was going to be hooked.

In this book, the world is dying. The sky has split open and from it falls the blood rains carrying to desired but deadly calor. We explore this dying world through three main characters. The first being Zain, a "leech" under the thumb of Tejomaya's most dangerous don which has become more than she can bare and her journey to end his rule will lead her on a collision course with the colonizing forces. Then there's Iravan another don of Tejomaya, a lifetime of loss and grief has cut him down, but when their beloved homeland is in danger will he raise to the occasion? Lastly, is Anastasia, a daughter of the council that rules from a far, stripping the city of any wealth, but Anastasia won't be happy until the slums are crushed under her boots.

The world building in this book was impeccable. It is such an interesting concept and the names of places, phenomena, and positions are invocative and capture the imagination so readily. The only thing I wish I understand more is the science (or magic) behind the blood rains, I would've liked to know more about the catastrophe and how it caused the blood rains. That part was a bit confusing, but other than that I applaud the author for such a unique world, and I think it's a testament to her debut novel that I would love to know more about Tejomaya's past.

The only thing that kept me from giving the book 5 stars is how the characters backstories were revealed. I thought I was almost crazy for feeling this way, but several reviews mentioned it as well. From the start of the book we know there's been this huge traumatic event that ties everybody together, but all we get are allusions to it. Which is fine, that builds suspense, however, when you have three POVs with allusions to the same event it kinds makes you want to grab somebody and shake them till they give you a straight answer. I think that getting at least one character's POV of the event earlier would've allowed the reader to connect with the characters more and make later revelations more impactful.

All in all I would highly recommend this book and I've even talked to my students about it, as we are currently learning about dystopian stories. It is very topical and combined with the world created around the message, its a must read for any fantasy lover. I hope this is just the first of many books for this author as I love her creativity and her writing.

I would rate this book a 2.5 rounded up to a 3 star. I found this book extremely hard to get into and didn't find myself getting into the story until about 55% - 60% through the book. I think this story is such a unique concept and story, yet it just wasn't my cup of tea. The biggest concept holding me back from this book was the multiple point of views. This is something that for me is really hard to be done well enough in order to not be confusing and to stay engaging. The three POV's wasn't engaging enough, and in my opinion was too confusing from the beginning, even though at the end it made sense. I appreciate being able to read this book as it opened my eyes to a new genre and style of books that might interest me.

thank you for the advanced copy netgalley and bindery books.
3.5⭐ dnf at 36%
while i did love the concept (and the fact it's a stand alone fantasy), i simply could not get into the story. i thought the pov shifted too much too soon to introduce the characters and the setting effectively.

Thank you NetGalley and Bindery Books for giving me early access to this book! All opinions are my own.

What a poetic and emotional book! The way a single action 10 years ago (in the book) affected the 3 main characters, and how they grew afterwards was so moving. For the character growth and writing alone I would recommend this book! There were times that the book was confusing, especially regarding calor? But, honestly I don’t think the main story is about the scarce resource, more about the resilience of mankind, especially when you have a community to support you. 4⭐️

3.75 stars
Spoiler free review.

First, a huge thanks to NetGalley and Bindery for an e-Arc of And The Sky Bled by S. Hati.

This story grabbed my attention immediately and I kept wanting to read and read. The world itself was extremely intriguing (I mean the sky literally bleeds) and ambitious, but I found at times, that certain things were not fully explain and left me wondering at how they work. However, the story was still engrossing and I can see what the author was trying to achieve.

This story follows three POV’s; Zain, Iravan & Anastasia who are looking for a reserve of calor, which is a very rare and dangerous energy source responsible for driving everything in this world (though I do feel like this took a backseat at times with everything else going on). All 3 characters are connected by a past event that affected them all. I will say the “secret” of this event got old at times as it was brought up over and over again but it is slowly to be revealed which caused me to be frustrated with the whole thing.

There’s mystery, vengeance, romance, many betrayals and lots of twists that I did not see coming.

Solid debut novel and I definitely recommend to those who are looking for a climate fantasy.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. As such, all quotes are taken from an advanced reader's copy and aren’t final. Please refer to a finished copy.

3.75/5

<I>"I have ruined this city. I drowned a decade ago, and it never stopped. I'm still drowning."</i>

And the Sky Bled is, I suppose, a standalone dystopian fiction. The world here runs on "calor," which falls from the sky like bloody rain. The resource is mostly non-renewable in that most of it has been used, and it comes in such short supply that the characters, including our 3 POV characters and several others, are all in a race to find a "hidden" source of it that has been rumored but never found. Tejomaya is our continent here, and it is effectively separated between the slums, the upperclass, and the bloodstrippers (who are guards, soldiers, and oppressors). Ultimately, there are hints of revolution and colonialism, but we barely scrape the surface of both.

<I>People spoke of rebellion like they did about good habits-- insistently and with no intent.</i>

Our main POVs are Zain, a somewhat privileged orphan (as much as you can be, I guess) slash leech, Iravan, one of the primary mob bosses of the leeches, and Anastasia, a councilwoman. I will admit that Zain and Iravan greatly overshadowed Anastasia's chapters for me. I found that the politics were extremely lacking when it came to the ruling class and instead preferred the political nuances of the slums. Other important characters include Leander and Theron, who are bloodsplitter brothers, and Iravan's partner in crime, Dev.

Ultimately, this was a fantastic read with a few flaws that I think were personal preferences. I found myself annoyed by an incessant hinting at our characters' pasts without showing anything for it. Even when they talk to other characters about the events of the past, it's almost like a big black line has been stricken through it and we're not allowed to know until the climax of the book. I also loved how the romance in the book was important but not overshadowing. There is no smut, which is refreshing for an adult fantasy. Though I will say, all of the characters seemed a little younger than they were (Zain read like a teenager, and Iravan a young man) which gave it a YA with swear words feel to it.

<I>They would never understand why Zain refused to put her gun down. It didn't matter that it was never loaded.</i>

Everything else was really great. The writing is poetic and beautiful, and the despair and hopelessness each character faces in the bleak reality they live in hit hard. I found myself on the brink of tears a few times just because of some of the mental roadblocks the characters experienced that were relatable. There is so much to learn from these characters about letting yourself be loved when you think your past is a reason to keep your distance.

While this climate fantasy boasted an intriguing premise and three nuanced characters, the narrative fell flat and was often confusing, repetitive, and impenetrable.

Right from the start, And the Sky Bled leans toward overwhelming readers with info-dumped descriptions and a too-wide range of undeveloped characters. The world in which the three main characters live is not fully fleshed out, so as the reader it is impossible to fully understand what is going on. As the narrative continues, each of the three perspectives begins to sound overwhelmingly similar, and most of the dialogue and setting revolves around a shared, "hinted" traumatic event that is used to heighten the tension. This event, unfortunately, only serves as throwaway character-building, which, by the end of the novel, doesn't seem to matter to anyone at all.

I think if this book was a little shorter and only featured Zain and Anastasia's viewpoints, it would've been more compelling, as Iravan's perspective didn't serve to heighten tension or really add to the narrative as a whole.

2 stars. Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read this e-arc. This book will be published October 15, 2024.

And the Sky Bled is an expansive take on climate change fantasy. With multiple perspectives, and motivations, it's a twisty debut which demands care. Seemingly all of our main characters are working for themselves, at odds with each other. However, And the Sky Bled ties their fates together in a journey that began a decade ago. What I enjoyed the most about And the Sky Bled is that no character is singularly one thing. Each has these decisions which honestly feel very questionable and are motivated by their own choices and quests. No one is cut and dry. Everyone has these shades and layers not allowing them to be put on one side.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

And the Sky Bled by S. Hati is a third person multi-POV climate fiction fantasy. When there is a drought of calor, a magical fossil fuel, the city of Tejomaya is flooded with rumors of a secret stash. Three different factions want the stash for themselves and their desires will have devastating consequences.

I'm very torn between Zain and Anastasia for my favorite POV character. On the one hand, Zain shows us more of the daily life of this world and has some very strong emotional beats, including her slowburn romance arc, while Anastasia provides a lot of worldbuilding in terms of the history of the world and her emotional beats lie more in how she's always felt abandoned. They both hit on different things for me that usually point to a favorite and if Zain wasn't there, Anastasia would be my clear favorite and vice versa.

Calor as a fossil fuel but also a blood rain was fascinating. I've read about acid rain before and know about the black rains that fell after the atomic bombs, so the blood rain felt like a culmination of all these things, both powerful and a product of something horrific. The fossil fuel aspect definitely shines through, but I found myself gravitating more to how calor impacts individuals and creates more and more problems.

The pacing is more on the slowside, letting the reader see into the daily lives of the people of a colonized city from a variety of POVs. A political fantasy that moves on the slower side should definitely focus more on character over plot and the day-to-day of the political system that is failing, and the novel certainly succeeds on that end. Anastasia at times feels both oblivious and aware of the impact her family has had on the world around her, but her childhood friend Charvi adds an extra layer to it that makes me think she ultimately thought she was doing the right thing.

I would recommend this to fans of political fantasy who want cli-fi elements, readers of mutli-POV fantasies that prefer different classes being highlighted, and those looking for a cli-fi fantasy that explores fossil fuels

And the Sky Bled is an ambitious debut cli-fi fantasy novel set in a dystopian world where a mysterious substance called calor is crucial for survival. The story follows three main characters—Zain, a determined thief; Iravan, a slumlord with a haunted past; and Anastasia, a powerful heiress—each with their own motives as they race to find a hidden cache of calor that could change their fates.

The book offers rich world-building with imaginative concepts, especially regarding the depletion of calor and the city’s reliance on it. The political intrigue and environmental themes are well-developed, and there are moments of tension that will appeal to fans of the dystopian genre. However, despite the strong setup, the novel suffers from pacing issues, with a slow start, and overly descriptive prose that stretches the story too long. Additionally, while some readers may enjoy the complex narrative, others might find the multiple POVs and lack of clear character development frustrating. The protagonists, especially Zain, often felt flat and difficult to connect with.

While And the Sky Bled has its share of flaws, particularly in character depth and pacing, the world Hati has built is intriguing. Fans of slow-burn fantasy and climate dystopias will find something to appreciate here, but others might struggle with the book’s dense structure. The author shows a lot of promise, and readers will be interested in their future work.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley and Bindery Books!

Overall I can see many people enjoying and loving this story but it wasn't for me. Multiple POV over a diverse set of characters dealing complex emotions and tragic pasts. The writing style and skill was very good. I am interested to see this authors next novel.

The prose and writing were so well done. If this author writes another novel U would happily pick that up. This being climate fantasy just wasn't personally my flavor. The concept behind how the world went south was really clever and new and not something I've read before. However tge characters fell flat for me. The only way I can describe them in my head is like cardboard. So flat and I couldn’t connect to any of them. The politics and world building were strong but I felt like this book was 2 times too long thanks to the prose. I felt myself wondering when it was going to end. Not for me personally but I know some other readers will really like this one more than me.

I feel like I would have enjoyed this much more in audiobook format because it's very descriptive and immediately throws the reader in with little explanation, which works better for me in audio format than in text.

I'm pretty positive this is an issue of me being in the wrong kind of mood for it, but I just couldn't connect with what was going on or any of the characters. And reading other reviews made me think I wouldn't get the answers as quickly as I wanted to be able to understand more.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. The premise was promising, but I didn't care about the characters. A lot happened very early on, to the point that it felt like info-dumping. Paragraphs of explaining how things are made me bored and disconnected. I grew bored with the events of the book to the point that the narrative voices of the three POVs sounded the same to me. This book also feels a little more like a middle book in a larger world than a standalone story. I feel like I'm missing information, even with all the info-dumping.

It boils down to this not being a book for me over much else.

The sky did indeed bleed in this gripping, utterly fascinating debut!

We follow three main characters trying to survive in a dying world that is not actually dying, just stupidly desperate to cling to this calor substance they abused throughout the years.

The concept of calor was actually interesting, maybe at times confusing as once it came from the soil and now there a city where it rains with calor, the sky seemingly bursting with it. Imagining that was enchanting and it would've fit a TV adaptation beautifully. That said and done, the base of this novel, the drought, makes my eyes roll.

What do you mean you've used all the reserves and you know there's barely any more to last you a few years and yet, instead of trying to find and alternative, you lie to yourself and let people starve. YOU are the government, so I would assume you would know these things.

Putting that aside, I liked the action. It was balanced nicely and it was tbe aspect that kept me going honestly. Everything unraveled slowly, picking the reader's interesting gradually until you could only keep reading to find out more. The characters competing for a rumoured cache of calor, each with their own gains in mind was compelling, giving the story some urgency and the genuin feeling that things will soon go wrong.

Of course none of these would be possible without Zain, Iravan and Anastasia, who couldn't be much different from each other. Zain was the split image of your typical fantasy protagonist, providing the bridge between Iravan and Anastasia, two very intense and complex characters. Those two were my favourite. There was something about Anastasia's wit and recklessness that had me waiting impatiently for her chapters.

However, despite the many aspects I loved, there were some taking away my excitement. I think we went in quiet blindly, the characters too vague to make the reader want to keep going. By the time the real, fascinating story kicks in, you might get a bit annoyed at all the confusion in terms of world building and character backgrounds. Their past being presented gradually was a bit of a drawback and the ending felt a bit flat.

All in all, this is a debut novel and it should be read like it. The author has a ton of potential, as their writing was grotesque, immersing and captivating! 'And the Sky Bled' is a novel of desperate survival in a world unwilling to survive and fans of the dystopia genre will be head over heels for this, I promise!

''And the Sky Bled” through S. Hati is a gripping climate fable set within the dystopian metropolis of Tejomaya, wherein a paranormal fossil fuel called calor is discovered simplest within the blood rains that fall from the sky. The tale follows 3 most important characters: Zain Jatav, a tenacious thief; Iravan Khotar, an formidable slumlord; and Anastasia Drakos, a powerful heiress. Each man or woman is pushed by way of their personal motives to discover a hidden cache of magic that would change the fate of their city.

Pros:

Rich World-Building: The writer creates a shiny and immersive world, mixing elements of magic and dystopia seamlessly.
Complex Characters: The protagonists are well-developed, each with wonderful motivations and backstories that add intensity to the narrative.
Engaging Plot: The intertwining testimonies of Zain, Iravan, and Anastasia keep the reader hooked, with masses of twists and turns.
Themes of Power and Survival: The ebook explores the devastating mechanisms of power and the lengths people will go to continue to exist, making it idea-frightening and relevant.
Cons:

Pacing Issues: Some readers would possibly locate the pacing uneven, with sure sections feeling slower than others.
Complexity: The intricate plot and multiple views can be tough to comply with at instances.
Graphic Content: The ebook includes scenes of violence and bloodshed, which might not be appropriate for all readers.
Overall, “And the Sky Bled” is a dazzlingly original and epic fantasy that breathes existence right into a crumbling world getting ready to destruction. S. Hati’s debut novel is wealthy, complex, and breathtaking, deftly handling themes of environmental devastation and colonialism. While the pacing and complexity would possibly pose challenges, the compelling characters and engaging plot make it a profitable examine for lovers of the style.