The other side of the sky by Amy Kaufman and Meaghan Spooner

Wow – I wish that I had picked The other side of the sky up earlier. It had been sitting in my to-read pile for quite a while and once I got started, I couldn’t put it down. It is told in two voices, that of Nimh, the living goddess of her people, and North, a prince of a home in a city high in the sky. Nimh’s world is being overtaken by a terrifying mist and some of her people believe that the Sentinels that guard the villages should be destroyed and a safe haven constructed for the lucky few. Meanwhile North is inquisitive and has found old records of technology that has been lost and invented a glider. When he loses control of it, it plummets to the earth below where Nimh finds him, convinced that he is the Lightbringer, the one who will end the world.

Kaufman and Spooner do a great job of collaborating. The dual narrative ensures that the reader really gets to know North and Nimh, their feelings and their beliefs. North, who believes in science,  really struggles to understand the magic that Nimh takes for granted. He also finds the religious beliefs on Nimh’s world strange and the idea of living gods too weird to be true.

In the teacher’s notes Meaghan Spooner writes that one of the inspirations for the book ‘was the idea of writing a romance between characters who couldn’t touch’ and this certainly has repercussions for the feelings that the two have for each other.

The suspense is kept alive as another young woman, Inshara, claims to be the true goddess and her party try to capture Nimh and North. With a dire murder, betrayal of trust and unexpected twists and a cliff-hanger ending, The other side of the sky is a riveting read, and readers will eagerly wait for the second in this duology. Readers who enjoy books by Laini Taylor and Scott Westerfeld are sure to enjoy this.

Themes: Fantasy, Science fiction, Romance, Science, Religion.

Pat Pledger