The Vanished Birds

The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book is an interesting mash of styles. It's scope is straight-up space opera, with ships flying to multiple star systems and several competing nation-corporations. It's written in a very literary style - the first chapter is in the point of view of a decidedly minor character - and much of the story focuses on the crew of one small merchant starship. Over the course of the story, we wonder if one of the main characters is crazy, then discover that she is crazy like a fox.

I found the worldbuilding very interesting. There is some form of faster-than-light travel, except the actual time one spends on a journey as measured by people on planets could be decades. Earth, we learn, has suffered an ecological collapse and is uninhabited. The "vanished birds" of the title are names given to key space stations by one of our main characters - names of species of birds that vanished.

I can't go into great depth on the plot because there are several mysteries, the solving of which drive that plot. However, I found it interesting and I look forward to more from this author.



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