Cloudbound

In the aftermath of the Spire s Fall, the city of bone stands on the verge of tearing itself apart, the citizens desperate to find someone to blame Nat, the son of a man who was thrown down for defying the Spire, is now a councilman, but his political mentor appears all too eager to appeal to the city s basest instincts As he and his friend Kirit search for answers in the ruins of the Spire, they find out about the past of the city and about the dangers to its future A fantastic follow up to UPD [...]

Right This was an interesting sequel to Updraft, that continued to build the world in a deep and well thought out way However, it was also just not a good audio book for me the plot was complex, there s a ton of description, and, to top it off, I had an irrational dislike of the narrator s voice So, yeah It took me 8 months to finish I have a feeling that if I had picked it up in print I would have devoured it in several days.Oh well

Fran Wilde went from 0 to light speed with her first novel, Updraft introducing us to a strange world of bone towers and people who have adapted by building wings One of the sheer pleasures of this story is how believable Wilde has made flight it s not only the physics of flight done correctly, but skillfully depicted so that the reader can feel it to the extent of getting that stomach clutching sense of falling.I thought it a daring move to shift POV in this book This time we follow Nat, Kirit [...]

Cloudbound continues to explore the world Wilde established in Updraft a setting where living towers of bone pierce the sky, where travel is done by wing, and where it is difficult to decide whether humans or flying invisible tentacle beasts are the worst monsters Here, the threat is decidedly human With the leadership of the Spire fractured, the City enters civil war as politics escalate to outright violence.This book changes narrators to look through Naton s eyes He doesn t offer as dynamic a [...]

A really excellent follow up to Updraft with an ending that has me already looking forward to the final book in this story arc, Horizon.

I wanted to love it, I really did I think I said the same thing last time too I liked it but I didn t love it Part of the reason could be that it straddles the line between YA and adult, but not entirely successfully This could be part of why had trouble engaging, maybe part of why I found the style to be a bit bland It wasn t dramatic enough for YA or intricate enough for an adult story I felt oddly distanced much of the time and frequently wanted to skim to move things along faster, but not in [...]

3.5 starsI read Updraft last year and thought the book was just ok I LOVED the writing style, which is always a plus for me, but I never really felt any connections with the story and the backstory of the world was lacking for me But I wanted to give the second book in this series a chance Until around the last 5 or so chapters of the book, I pretty much felt the same way about this book, too It was a tough book for me to get through I listened to the book on audio, which I thought might help me [...]

There are few writers who worldbuild as well as Fran Wilde She continues to explore the world she introduced in last year s UPDRAFT but this time through the eyes of Nat which I found immensely satisfying To me, the world in which characters inhabit is the most important aspect of a story so I relished the opportunity to learn about the society especially its political scene which in many ways resonates with our current election cycle through his eyes I enjoyed seeing Kirit and the ramification [...]

3.5 stars

In UPDRAFT, Kirit changed the status quo in her city above the clouds, now in the second book, CLOUDBOUND, it s up to Nat to help deal with the resultant fallout For all that s changed since Kirit became a Singer, there s still so much change to come.If you read UPDRAFT, you have reason to be excited about this next installment where we get so many questions answered But don t think you ll understand what s going on in CLOUDBOUND if you haven t in fact you ll be completely lost from page one So [...]

I enjoyed reading this book, the sequel to Updraft In many ways, it felt like a timely read In the book, it tells the story of some characters in a society that have been involved in a rebellionter a rebellion, who emerges as a leader How do you lead And how do you avoid tyranny All relevant topics in this pre election time in the US The book took an interesting twist and something fairly huge is revealed It really makes me want to know of the backstory of the creation of the towers, though.I l [...]

I loved this book At first I was a little bit thrown by the different pov, only because Kirit is such a strong and forceful character, whereas Nat is deliberate and diplomatic it took a bit to get used to the change in tone that brought to the story But I appreciate seeing things from Nat s pov I got to see the world through different eyes and see Kirit and her actions through the lens of someone else.In this book we got into a lot of the politics of the Bone Universe I wasn t expecting that e [...]

I liked Updraft well enough but it had some problems, mostly with tone and pacing I m happy to report that Cloudbound is mature, honed plot wise, and really, really good I d return to the city of bone towers anyway the imagery is stunning But that was a much happier and enthusiastic return Nat s dilemma felt so very real, and Kirit finding herself in a new role grew as a character so much.

I love the way Fran Wilde weaves her world With the foundation firmly established in the first novel, Cloudbound shifts perspective both through the character s voice as well as through the setting which allows us to see the world within the clouds After reading Cloudbound, I feel ready to spread my wings and leap from the tower ready to explore the rest of Fran Wilde s universe.

Pages read 181These books are great if you read primarily for setting, world building, and political maneuverings There s a lot that I admire about this series, but I find Naton even flatter than Kirit was, and she wasn t a particularly well built character either I m pretty sure I only stuck it out so long because I really REALLY want to love these books because the covers are so fucking gorgeous, particularly this one.If you re not as character focused a reader as I am, I d still potentially r [...]

I preferred Cloudbound to its predecessor Updraft I also preferred Nate as a main character, compared to Kirit, as Nate tries to view things at the larger level, rather than taking everything personally Kirit puts others in danger rather consistently.In Cloudbound, now that the Singers have left a power vacuum, others are scrambling to fill it There is a Council that is trying to do right, however, they don t have strong leadership and there are disagreements One of Nate s mentors, Doran, is att [...]

The danger of a sequel is that it just won t hold up to the original.I liked Cloudbound even better than Updraft Everyone talks about the world building and original the setting is, but what delights me is the depth of the characters, what drives them, and the warty understanding of humanity.It s a really good book The narrative starts a few months after Updraft ends and tackles the big issues that the first novel left unresolved Most obviously, what do you do when the hierarchy of your society [...]

I enjoyed the first book, but in this one the characters spent too much of this book plotting view spoiler and having their plots foiled hide spoiler , and I never felt like I really knew what they were actually trying to do or what it was supposed to accomplish for them I also didn t appreciate the way the book ended, which felt jarring and also lacking sufficient explanation view spoiler Personally, I wasn t bothered by not knowing how the world got the way it was, so long as the worldbuilding [...]

From my blog at miriamseidel Cloudbound is the second book in Fran Wilde s Bone Universe Series Updraft, the first book, won Wilde both the Compton Crook award for best first science fiction fantasy novel and the Andre Norton Award for outstanding young adult science fiction fantasy Updraft introduced a world where people fly on silk wings between living bone towers, and followed Kirit Densira s discovery of her destiny as a Singer, along with the machinations of the secretive Spire.Cloudbound p [...]

Just no A book has to be than just cool This one definitely has cool bits But the endless running , the endless fighting stopped being interesting way before the end And by the time we get to the big reveal, I didn t believe it and I didn t care I wanted this all to make sense and sure I m sure it can be explained, but that doesn t make it better So no And unless I see some surprising reviews, I doubt I ll read a sequel if one were to appear.

CLOUDBOUND takes us deeper into the Bone Universe first introduced by the award winning UPDRAFT deeper into a society on the verge of collapse, deeper into the characters intent on saving or destroying it, and deeper into the mysterious world of the bone towers and their origins I found myself racing to the end and what an ending.

A solid follow up to the award winning debut UPDRAFT, taking us deeper into a world of flight, danger, and intrigue both political and personal I found myself genuinely concerned for worried about the characters, and turned pages anxiously to the end.

Fran Wilde s Bone Universe is one of the truly original stories I ve ever read and I read A LOT It began with Kirit s journey in Updraft and continues with her wing brother, Nat As I said in my review of Updraft, a story isn t good unless things go wrong Everything in Nat s life has gone wrong Everything.I ll be honest, I was so wrapped up in Kirit, that I resented Nat He is impulsive, curious, headstrong, and occasionally blind to the actions of others Nat is a strong character, who drives the [...]

I loved the pov change and the plot The world was just as intricate and complex as the first book Loved it I m can t wait for 3.

Originally Reviewed on Moore FantasyDon t tell me you missed the first part of this series last year.Cloudbound is the sequel to the award winning Updraft Ms Wilde s ambitious world here is a marvelous city of living bones towers rising above the clouds, where inhabitants manage to transport themselves using mechanical wings and bridges Last time we were introduced to the world s architecture and strange laws, and the heroine Kirit was part of a grand revolution against the Singers, the rulers o [...]

This was an amazing follow on updraft lots of twists and turns to follow.

The series continues The interesting part fo the setting was already revealed, so this is the middle volume slump of the trilogy as it plays out the obligatory plot elements For whatever reason, I never really became interested in the story or invested in the characters It made so little impression that I almost forgot to enter it here on GR, until I noticed it still on my to read list.

Originally posted at archeddoorwayCloudbound Bone Universe 2 by Fran Wilde is by far one of the best sequels I ve had the pleasure to read It took me a few weeks to get the time to read it, but once I started I made the mistake of thinking I could start it, get an hour of sleep before bed and then finish it the next day Apparently I didn t learn my lesson when I did that with Updraft and found myself unable to put it down till nearly 6 AM It was an exhausting day the next day, but it was well wo [...]

Not as engaging as the first book Updraft , but once it got going it was excellent Definitely ended on a cliffhanger, so I ll be requesting the next one from the library once it s out.

I had a very bad case of sequel induced loss of memory reading this, which is not the book s fault, but did affect my enjoyment of the book It starts after very dramatic events, which I only dimly remembered By the end I was very pleased to have discovered a lot of the city s secrets I d always wondered what was below the clouds