Book Review | Plague Birds

A raging war has reduced human civilization back to an agricultural society. Villages are overseen by a central governing AI, and plague birds—powerful AI merged with humans—are the arbiters of justice in the land. Crista’s mother was killed by one. However, when a wounded plague bird arrives at her doorstep and offers to give her information about her mother’s death in exchange for becoming a plague bird herself, she reluctantly agrees.

Engrossing and richly imagined, Plague Birds by Jason Sanford presents an interesting blend of sci-fi and dark fantasy. This is a world I really enjoyed getting sucked into. There are so many cool ideas here like monks who retain knowledge in their DNA, a sentient forest, and gene-spliced human/animal hybrids.

Asides from the inventive worldbuilding, I also loved how introspective and psychologically-driven this story is. It deals with unreliable memories and characters who must wrestle with their inner monsters … or in Crista’s case, a murderous AI living inside her that she must keep in check.

My one complaint though is that—due to the shorter page length—the resolution for the climax was rushed and feels sort of anti-climactic for all its built-up. However, despite its pacing issues at the end, I’m still giving this book five stars because I enjoyed reading it that much.

All in all, this is the dark horse sci-fi novel of the year for me since I hadn’t heard much buzz around it in advance. However, I’m glad I picked it up because Plague Birds offers a truly unique and emotionally-driven work of speculative fiction.

Thank you, NetGalley and Apex Books, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Book Details:

Publication Date : September 21, 2021

Publisher : Apex Books

ISBN : 1937009947

Pages : 274

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