The Surviving Sky
by Kritika H. Rao
Recommended if you love: techno utopias, Hindu philosophy and stories of surviving climate change.
The Surviving Sky takes place in a future where the Earth’s surface is no longer habitable. Instead, humans live in floating, plant based cities above the surface. Within these seemingly idealistic communities, there are still tensions and power dynamics that provide the conflict in the book’s story line.
Many science fiction books given minimal consideration the "science" part of the genre. This book was impressive not just in the detail of the world building but particularly in the rational and functioning of the technology in that world. I have never experienced a book that merged the mystical and the scientific with such coherence in a world where living floating cities escaping the storms on the planet surface are maintained by architects who can connect with the energy of plants to shape them. Even at its most mystical moments with multiple dimensions, unified consciousness and interdimensional beings the explanations of their use of "the Moment" and plant life forces the science still felt grounded and explained. The plants in this world are noteworthy parts of the story--flowers that bloom when someone lies to themselves or others, trees that heal wounds, alcove homes built from live bark.
Amidst this incredibly well imagined world is a story of power--the power dynamics between a married couple in conflict, the power dynamics in a society where only some have the power to harness or "traject" the plants and the power at play in the erasure or rewriting of history of how humans ended up taking to the skies. It's also a philosophical reflection on consciousness and our connection to the material world; without giving away any plot there's interesting pivots that center around an idea of Ecstasy that echo some of the tenants of Sufism and other belief systems of connecting to a larger consciousness.
If you’re looking for high literary work, the prose might not move you, though I didn't necessarily need it to be since the world was so fascinating. The last major "action scene" felt a bit drawn out, but maybe it's just because it's a long book overall and so I was less patient. But despite these two aspects, I loved the book and might go as far as to say it's one of my favorite's this year in terms of the unparalleled creativity of the world building.
-Sara