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The Wings Upon Her Back
A loyal warrior in a crisis of faith must fight to regain her place and begin her life again while questioning the events of her past. This gripping science-fantasy novel from a Nebula and Locus Award-winning debut author is a complex, action-packed exploration of the costs of zealous faith, brutal war, and unquestioning loyalty.
Five gods lie mysteriously sleeping above the city of Radezhda. Five gods who once bestowed great technologies and wisdom, each inspiring the devotion of their own sect. When the gods turned away from humanity, their followers built towers to the heavens to find out why. But when no answer was given, the collective grief of the sects turned to desperation, and eventually to war.
Zenya was a teenager when she ran away from home to join the mechanically-modified warrior sect. She was determined to earn mechanized wings and protect the people and city she loved. Under the strict tutelage of a mercurial, charismatic leader, Zenya became Winged Zemolai.
But after twenty-six years of service, Zemolai is disillusioned with her role as an enforcer in an increasingly fascist state. After one tragic act of mercy, she is cast out, and loses everything she worked for. As Zemolai fights for her life, she begins to understand the true nature of her sect, her leader, and the gods themselves.
Five gods lie mysteriously sleeping above the city of Radezhda. Five gods who once bestowed great technologies and wisdom, each inspiring the devotion of their own sect. When the gods turned away from humanity, their followers built towers to the heavens to find out why. But when no answer was given, the collective grief of the sects turned to desperation, and eventually to war.
Zenya was a teenager when she ran away from home to join the mechanically-modified warrior sect. She was determined to earn mechanized wings and protect the people and city she loved. Under the strict tutelage of a mercurial, charismatic leader, Zenya became Winged Zemolai.
But after twenty-six years of service, Zemolai is disillusioned with her role as an enforcer in an increasingly fascist state. After one tragic act of mercy, she is cast out, and loses everything she worked for. As Zemolai fights for her life, she begins to understand the true nature of her sect, her leader, and the gods themselves.
336 pages, Paperback
First published April 23, 2024
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November 27, 2023Really fucking great. Spoke to me and my many questions about the world in a very particular way that I think will also speak to many others—and with the characteristic beauty I’ve come to expect from Mill’s short fiction.
April 30, 2024
There’s a now-classic sketch from comedians David Mitchell and Robert Webb called
“Are We the Baddies?”
. It’s worth a watch if you haven’t seen it, but to spoil the bit, it’s about two SS officers having a conversation on the front line in which it gradually dawns on them that they might be the bad guys in this war. Involving Nazis in your comedy is always a dicey proposition, but Mitchell and Webb pull it off: the sketch illustrates how challenging it can be to break the cognitive dissonance required to rationalize one’s place in human suffering on a mass scale. The Wings Upon Her Back does the same thing. Through an intimate story told across two times, Samantha Mills illustrates how it’s harder to stand up to fascism when every step towards that fascism felt logical and just at the time. I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for my review.
Zemolai has spent the past decades of her life as a Winged. She flies through the air on mechanical wings attached to her body via implants. This technology is a gift from the gods, specifically the Mecha god, one of the five who sleep watchfully over Zemolai’s city. At the start of the novel, Zemolai makes a tragic mistake that leads to her downfall. Cast out of her paradise, she finds herself the unwilling companion of the rebels she has spent so long despising. Mills intersperses these chapters with a look back at who Zemolai was before she was Winged: Zenya, a descendant of scholars who dreamed of flying and set her sights on being a warrior who could protect her city.
Mills doesn’t pull punches here. This book is laser-focused, restricting its perspective almost entirely to Zemolai or her younger self, Zenya. The parallel storytelling drives home the central theme with startling clarity: Zenya is idealistic and optimistic, driven to impress Vodaya at all costs, devoted to the mission; Zemolai is bitter, tired, divided, and eventually resentful of Vodaya’s deceit. Like two ships passing in the night, Zenya’s radicalization proceeds apace with Zemolai’s deprogramming. The result is a kind of synergy foreshadowed by one of the city’s scholars: we are who we always were, all our selves across all points of our existence. She is Zemolai and Zenya, even if it takes her a while to recognize this.
You’ve seen elements of Zemolai’s story in plenty of media before. The prisoner who eventually comes around to the side of good, the face turn, is a common enough trope, particularly in science fiction and fantasy. So Zemolai’s gruff, half-hearted cooperation with Galiana and the others feels familiar. However, it has been a while (if ever) that I’ve read this story from the prisoner’s point of view. To have such a direct and personal audience to someone slowly being deradicalized is a fascinating experience. As the cracks appear in Zemolai’s faith in the mission, her desperation becomes palpable. It’s hard to come to terms with one’s complicity in causing suffering.
It’s also hard to write such a flawed protagonist. It’s easy to write a shining hero, someone who’s always trying to do the right thing (even if they misstep occasionally). That’s not Zemolai. She believes that what she is doing is for the greater good, of course. But each chapter, each decision, compromises Zenya’s connection to her past and her community a little more. She is such a sympathetic figure, but it’s hard to call her a good person, and that’s the point.
Few people set out to be the baddie. Zemolai certainly didn’t. Mills expertly depicts how Zenya endures the perfect storm: Vodaya’s manipulations, Zenya’s idealism, the secretive politics of the city’s most powerful, etc. (The nature of the gods lurks in the backdrop, a tantalizing mystery but not one that ultimately matters all that much to the overall plot.) All of Zemolai’s pain, particularly the deterioration of her relationship with Vodaya, is so bold on the page. I was really invested in seeing this story through to the end, and I really like where Mills chooses to end it.
This is a tight, contained novel with an excellent setting and a strong protagonist who can carry this story on her shoulders, much like she carried her wings for twenty years. In a time where we need to reflect more on our own complicity (those of us who live in countries that benefit from companies exploiting child labour in Congo, or countries that fund genocide), The Wings Upon Her Back offers a potent combination of admonishment and hope. You can’t wipe your sins away simply by announcing you’ve had a change of heart. You can’t excuse away your actions by pointing to the influences that shaped you into that person. But it is never too late to make a choice, to turn around, to embrace that past self that has been inside you all along.
I picked up The Wings Upon Her Back because I was intrigued by the idea of mechanical angels protecting a city. I got so much more than I bargained for: a story of fascism and abuse, of resilience and rebuilding, of loss and pain and sorrow. This is a poignant but worthwhile read, one I highly recommend when you are ready for it.
Originally posted on Kara.Reviews.
Zemolai has spent the past decades of her life as a Winged. She flies through the air on mechanical wings attached to her body via implants. This technology is a gift from the gods, specifically the Mecha god, one of the five who sleep watchfully over Zemolai’s city. At the start of the novel, Zemolai makes a tragic mistake that leads to her downfall. Cast out of her paradise, she finds herself the unwilling companion of the rebels she has spent so long despising. Mills intersperses these chapters with a look back at who Zemolai was before she was Winged: Zenya, a descendant of scholars who dreamed of flying and set her sights on being a warrior who could protect her city.
Mills doesn’t pull punches here. This book is laser-focused, restricting its perspective almost entirely to Zemolai or her younger self, Zenya. The parallel storytelling drives home the central theme with startling clarity: Zenya is idealistic and optimistic, driven to impress Vodaya at all costs, devoted to the mission; Zemolai is bitter, tired, divided, and eventually resentful of Vodaya’s deceit. Like two ships passing in the night, Zenya’s radicalization proceeds apace with Zemolai’s deprogramming. The result is a kind of synergy foreshadowed by one of the city’s scholars: we are who we always were, all our selves across all points of our existence. She is Zemolai and Zenya, even if it takes her a while to recognize this.
You’ve seen elements of Zemolai’s story in plenty of media before. The prisoner who eventually comes around to the side of good, the face turn, is a common enough trope, particularly in science fiction and fantasy. So Zemolai’s gruff, half-hearted cooperation with Galiana and the others feels familiar. However, it has been a while (if ever) that I’ve read this story from the prisoner’s point of view. To have such a direct and personal audience to someone slowly being deradicalized is a fascinating experience. As the cracks appear in Zemolai’s faith in the mission, her desperation becomes palpable. It’s hard to come to terms with one’s complicity in causing suffering.
It’s also hard to write such a flawed protagonist. It’s easy to write a shining hero, someone who’s always trying to do the right thing (even if they misstep occasionally). That’s not Zemolai. She believes that what she is doing is for the greater good, of course. But each chapter, each decision, compromises Zenya’s connection to her past and her community a little more. She is such a sympathetic figure, but it’s hard to call her a good person, and that’s the point.
Few people set out to be the baddie. Zemolai certainly didn’t. Mills expertly depicts how Zenya endures the perfect storm: Vodaya’s manipulations, Zenya’s idealism, the secretive politics of the city’s most powerful, etc. (The nature of the gods lurks in the backdrop, a tantalizing mystery but not one that ultimately matters all that much to the overall plot.) All of Zemolai’s pain, particularly the deterioration of her relationship with Vodaya, is so bold on the page. I was really invested in seeing this story through to the end, and I really like where Mills chooses to end it.
This is a tight, contained novel with an excellent setting and a strong protagonist who can carry this story on her shoulders, much like she carried her wings for twenty years. In a time where we need to reflect more on our own complicity (those of us who live in countries that benefit from companies exploiting child labour in Congo, or countries that fund genocide), The Wings Upon Her Back offers a potent combination of admonishment and hope. You can’t wipe your sins away simply by announcing you’ve had a change of heart. You can’t excuse away your actions by pointing to the influences that shaped you into that person. But it is never too late to make a choice, to turn around, to embrace that past self that has been inside you all along.
I picked up The Wings Upon Her Back because I was intrigued by the idea of mechanical angels protecting a city. I got so much more than I bargained for: a story of fascism and abuse, of resilience and rebuilding, of loss and pain and sorrow. This is a poignant but worthwhile read, one I highly recommend when you are ready for it.
Originally posted on Kara.Reviews.
July 3, 2024
An enjoyable and intense steampunk fantasy novel about authoritarianism, abuse and complicity, the role of religion and the military in society—I enjoyed this one a lot, read it quickly, and was left with a lot to think about.
This book follows a warrior named Zemolai in two separate timelines, developed in alternating chapters. In the front story, Zemolai is around 40 and growing dissatisfied with the military cult she belongs to, when a chance decision causes her to be brutally expelled and she’s forced to reckon with her history and question everything she believed to be true. In the backstory, she’s a young teenager nicknamed Zenya, joining the military cult and falling under the sway of a charismatic and sinister mentor, Vodaya.
I usually enjoy backstory/frontstory split narratives, and I enjoyed this one, finding the structure to increase tension and keep me wanting more from both stories. The two timelines connect well, revealing new information just as it becomes relevant, and fleshing out Zemolai’s experiences. The plot is fast-paced and compelling, and Zemolai is a complex and engaging character. Readers who want to agree with the protagonist’s every decision may struggle, but I loved her slow deconstruction arc, the way the values of her group and Vodaya continue to hold sway even once she’s out, because of course they do. It felt real and honest when so much fantasy has protagonists immediately discard any beliefs the reader might disapprove. And the reasons Zemolai falls prey to Vodaya and her ideology feel very real too—looking back, it all seems inevitable, no shortcuts or false notes.
This story also provides a fascinating context to explore the dynamics of abuse, because there isn’t a script for this: it made me think about the genuine disagreements that happen in the workplace every day about what’s reasonable to expect, and left me wondering where someone in the military would identify the lines and where they’re crossed here. There are aspects of Vodaya that will be immediately recognizable to anyone who’s had a bad boss, or encountered an authoritarian temperament with power (this is unfortunately timely). But I was also pleased to learn more than I expected (even if still less than I wanted) about what made Vodaya who she is, recontextualizing prior scenes.
Reflecting on the book a few weeks after finishing, what’s most striking to me is what’s not in it. There are a lot of questions about the nature of the gods, which I found very engaging, and we don’t get definitive answers, which I loved—this isn’t a neat little mystery, not everything in life has a firm answer; the important thing isn’t discovering the truth but how people handle the reality of not knowing. It initially appeared that we also never got I appreciated that there’s no romance arc: there isn’t really room for it and it’s nice to see women getting stories that don’t depend on that (though I’d have liked a brief paragraph fleshing out the story behind Zemolai’s little “hormones lie”!). And I was relieved that Zemolai and Vodaya’s relationship is not sexual, as so often happens in fiction.
This leads into the omissions I was less thrilled with: most of Zemolai’s life, for one. Despite that title and cover, we see her as a Winged warrior for only a couple of pages at the beginning, and come away with little sense of the reasons for her fall from grace (was it just because she was aging? But people older than her still seemed to be at peak performance). We learn almost nothing about the world outside this city-state, leaving me questioning why targeted rebels never think to go into exile. There’s almost no physical description of characters, and much of it consists of weird hair and eye colors that made them difficult to picture (I wound up envisioning Zemolai as a light-skinned black woman with cornrows, although as the names are quasi-Russian that probably wasn’t intended, and don’t have a coherent mental picture of anyone else). Finally, I have mixed feelings about the fantasy trend toward not acknowledging gender or sex differences: on the one hand, it’s great to see women in fantasy whose stories aren’t about romance or Being A Woman; on the other, this is a book about women in the military that entirely refuses to engage with the fact that they are women in the military. I think for instance that Vodaya’s becoming the best warrior of her generation despite being a woman probably explains a lot about her unreasonable expectations for her students, but that’s never indicated by the text. To me the story could only have been improved by showing the pressures and bonds that exist in that type of environment.
Most of that, of course, is a matter of taste. As far as actual criticisms, I do think there’s room for growth in terms of character development and prose (though both are good; Mills has a distinctive voice and the characters are believable and have some texture). And I especially hope that in future books she’ll trust her readers more. There’s just a little too much spelling things out at times, a little too much telling the reader what to think (for instance, that Zemolai’s current actions don’t make up for her past; that kind of moral judgment is the reader’s prerogative). This is ameliorated to an extent by the fact that this book isn’t pushing the hottest issues: for instance, Zemolai’s wrestling with identity is not about anything you might check on a form, but a philosophical question about whether one is always the same person.
(I will pass on some good advice I received about the Afterword: do not roll into it immediately upon finishing the novel. It consists of Mills explaining all her themes and is best read after a break.)
Overall though, I liked this a lot. It grabbed me, pulled me in and was worth the ride, and it’s more interesting and worthy of discussion than most recent fantasy I have read. I’ll be looking out for Mills’s next book and I would recommend this one.
This book follows a warrior named Zemolai in two separate timelines, developed in alternating chapters. In the front story, Zemolai is around 40 and growing dissatisfied with the military cult she belongs to, when a chance decision causes her to be brutally expelled and she’s forced to reckon with her history and question everything she believed to be true. In the backstory, she’s a young teenager nicknamed Zenya, joining the military cult and falling under the sway of a charismatic and sinister mentor, Vodaya.
I usually enjoy backstory/frontstory split narratives, and I enjoyed this one, finding the structure to increase tension and keep me wanting more from both stories. The two timelines connect well, revealing new information just as it becomes relevant, and fleshing out Zemolai’s experiences. The plot is fast-paced and compelling, and Zemolai is a complex and engaging character. Readers who want to agree with the protagonist’s every decision may struggle, but I loved her slow deconstruction arc, the way the values of her group and Vodaya continue to hold sway even once she’s out, because of course they do. It felt real and honest when so much fantasy has protagonists immediately discard any beliefs the reader might disapprove. And the reasons Zemolai falls prey to Vodaya and her ideology feel very real too—looking back, it all seems inevitable, no shortcuts or false notes.
This story also provides a fascinating context to explore the dynamics of abuse, because there isn’t a script for this: it made me think about the genuine disagreements that happen in the workplace every day about what’s reasonable to expect, and left me wondering where someone in the military would identify the lines and where they’re crossed here. There are aspects of Vodaya that will be immediately recognizable to anyone who’s had a bad boss, or encountered an authoritarian temperament with power (this is unfortunately timely). But I was also pleased to learn more than I expected (even if still less than I wanted) about what made Vodaya who she is, recontextualizing prior scenes.
Reflecting on the book a few weeks after finishing, what’s most striking to me is what’s not in it. There are a lot of questions about the nature of the gods, which I found very engaging, and we don’t get definitive answers, which I loved—this isn’t a neat little mystery, not everything in life has a firm answer; the important thing isn’t discovering the truth but how people handle the reality of not knowing. It initially appeared that we also never got I appreciated that there’s no romance arc: there isn’t really room for it and it’s nice to see women getting stories that don’t depend on that (though I’d have liked a brief paragraph fleshing out the story behind Zemolai’s little “hormones lie”!). And I was relieved that Zemolai and Vodaya’s relationship is not sexual, as so often happens in fiction.
This leads into the omissions I was less thrilled with: most of Zemolai’s life, for one. Despite that title and cover, we see her as a Winged warrior for only a couple of pages at the beginning, and come away with little sense of the reasons for her fall from grace (was it just because she was aging? But people older than her still seemed to be at peak performance). We learn almost nothing about the world outside this city-state, leaving me questioning why targeted rebels never think to go into exile. There’s almost no physical description of characters, and much of it consists of weird hair and eye colors that made them difficult to picture (I wound up envisioning Zemolai as a light-skinned black woman with cornrows, although as the names are quasi-Russian that probably wasn’t intended, and don’t have a coherent mental picture of anyone else). Finally, I have mixed feelings about the fantasy trend toward not acknowledging gender or sex differences: on the one hand, it’s great to see women in fantasy whose stories aren’t about romance or Being A Woman; on the other, this is a book about women in the military that entirely refuses to engage with the fact that they are women in the military. I think for instance that Vodaya’s becoming the best warrior of her generation despite being a woman probably explains a lot about her unreasonable expectations for her students, but that’s never indicated by the text. To me the story could only have been improved by showing the pressures and bonds that exist in that type of environment.
Most of that, of course, is a matter of taste. As far as actual criticisms, I do think there’s room for growth in terms of character development and prose (though both are good; Mills has a distinctive voice and the characters are believable and have some texture). And I especially hope that in future books she’ll trust her readers more. There’s just a little too much spelling things out at times, a little too much telling the reader what to think (for instance, that Zemolai’s current actions don’t make up for her past; that kind of moral judgment is the reader’s prerogative). This is ameliorated to an extent by the fact that this book isn’t pushing the hottest issues: for instance, Zemolai’s wrestling with identity is not about anything you might check on a form, but a philosophical question about whether one is always the same person.
(I will pass on some good advice I received about the Afterword: do not roll into it immediately upon finishing the novel. It consists of Mills explaining all her themes and is best read after a break.)
Overall though, I liked this a lot. It grabbed me, pulled me in and was worth the ride, and it’s more interesting and worthy of discussion than most recent fantasy I have read. I’ll be looking out for Mills’s next book and I would recommend this one.
August 1, 2024
A great science fantasy told in dual timelines. A girl grows into a woman under the control of a toxic but charismatic mentor/mother figure and confronts not only her own abusive conditioning, but the terrible consequences that have played out over two decades of ever more authoritarian rule and conflict in her city.
Mills sketches an original and creatively imagined environment for her characters to play out their awful but all too recognizable story. There are some excellent fight scenes and the book as a whole has a unique feel, with a storytelling style that just draws you in.
Mills sketches an original and creatively imagined environment for her characters to play out their awful but all too recognizable story. There are some excellent fight scenes and the book as a whole has a unique feel, with a storytelling style that just draws you in.
November 30, 2023
"If a city is a story, then ours was beautiful in its simplicity: they came to us, they loved us, they showed us how to live.
We defined ourselves by our gods!
And then our gods went to sleep."
This ARC surprised me in the best way, becoming my favourite story I've read this year, which is saying something. Elegant and masterful, it follows the same character in two parallel timelines, weaving together moments past and present that converge in a single magnificent ending. Both heart-rending and heart-lifting at once. This is a novel of bittersweet beauty, one of those rare books that must be read to be experienced as it's not easily summarized.
The closest novel I can compare it to is another favourite of mine, Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti by Genevieve Valentine, which shares some overarching similarities (mechanical wings, gorgeous writing, political unrest) in very different ways. But if you enjoyed that book, I think you'd really like this one too and vice versa.
Radezhda is a city at war with itself. It was founded by the Five, gods who each brought unique gifts that transformed a small valley village into a place of many wonders. Each god provided detailed instructions and supervision that led to rapid improvements and expansion.
Although the gods themselves often did not agree, progress seemed endless. Happiness assured. All religions worked together, like the spokes of the great wheel that was the ever changing, always improving city.
But suddenly one day the gods retreated to their heavens and went to sleep, waking rarely. And the citizens of Radezhda have been in turmoil ever since, wondering why they left, when they will come back, and - like abandoned children - stuck in an endless cycle of wondering what they did to cause the retreat, and how they might lure the gods back. Each religious sect built tall towers up to the rifts left by the heavenly portals in the air, determined to discover why their particular god turned away from them.
Now, the Five speak only through their appointed Voice, a liaison who can visit the incomprehensible and hostile ethereal realm and relay commands, blueprints, scientific schematics and other information to the people below. But tension and unease run rife, and philosophical and political quarrels between the sects worsen into violence.
Zenya was the child of scholars who only wanted to wear the mechanical wings of the Mecha God's chosen soldiers. Originally intended to keep the city safe from the outside world, the Winged are now overtaxed trying to cope with Radezhda's unrest and its unsatisfied citizens. Although her family did not approve, Zenya devoted herself to becoming accepted among the ranks of the Winged, joining the academy and quickly becoming a part of the most elite unit, trained by Vodaya, who eventually became the Mecha God's Voice.
Her early years spent idealistically learning a new religion and earning her wings are contrasted with the disillusioned fatigue of current day Winged Zemolai, the warrior Zenya became:
"Zemolai focused on wiping down hundreds of individual feathers. They were thin and flexible and expertly wired to a hollow frame - not actual copper, but a more conductive compound developed by the creator god's finest engineers.
Zemolai didn't pray anymore, but in this way she showed her devotion. She bottled up her worries, her fears, her anger and despair, and she spent that energy on every joint, every wire, every gear. She buffed out scratches and smoothed out dents. She lost herself in the work.
A body was a machine and a machine was an extension of the body. The mecha god crafted them, and in return they crafted themselves."
As the civil unrest in the present provides a new perspective on the events of her past, Zemolai must decide who she really is at heart, what she truly believes and what is worth fighting for.
It is incredibly refreshing to follow a complex character like Zemolai through personal victory and then see the other side. What happens once a heart's desire has been achieved? What if what you thought you wanted wasn't what you thought it was at all? And if you have spent your life in service to an imperfect ideal, is there any way of making amends for the mistakes you made in good faith?
The Wings Upon Her Back is full of such thought-provoking questions, and seems especially timely amidst the current global political climate. What does it mean to have faith and keep faith in the face of challenges and changes? When you have to look within your own soul instead of relying on societal norms and narratives?
The story of Zenya/Zemolai fighting to become themselves and then struggling to come back to themselves is unforgettable and compelling and I found it incredibly moving. The author's Afterward is also very affecting. Highly recommended and I look forward to reading whatever Mills writes next!
Digital ARC provided by Tachyon Books via NetGalley in exchange for honest review; releases April 23, 2024.
Thanks also to the GR reviewer who linked Mills' free short story in Uncanny Magazine, Rabbit Test; I read this first to get a sense of Mills' writing before requesting. Another highly timely look at what abortion rights and bodily autonomy might become in the not too distant future. Also very thought provoking.
We defined ourselves by our gods!
And then our gods went to sleep."
This ARC surprised me in the best way, becoming my favourite story I've read this year, which is saying something. Elegant and masterful, it follows the same character in two parallel timelines, weaving together moments past and present that converge in a single magnificent ending. Both heart-rending and heart-lifting at once. This is a novel of bittersweet beauty, one of those rare books that must be read to be experienced as it's not easily summarized.
The closest novel I can compare it to is another favourite of mine, Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti by Genevieve Valentine, which shares some overarching similarities (mechanical wings, gorgeous writing, political unrest) in very different ways. But if you enjoyed that book, I think you'd really like this one too and vice versa.
Radezhda is a city at war with itself. It was founded by the Five, gods who each brought unique gifts that transformed a small valley village into a place of many wonders. Each god provided detailed instructions and supervision that led to rapid improvements and expansion.
Although the gods themselves often did not agree, progress seemed endless. Happiness assured. All religions worked together, like the spokes of the great wheel that was the ever changing, always improving city.
But suddenly one day the gods retreated to their heavens and went to sleep, waking rarely. And the citizens of Radezhda have been in turmoil ever since, wondering why they left, when they will come back, and - like abandoned children - stuck in an endless cycle of wondering what they did to cause the retreat, and how they might lure the gods back. Each religious sect built tall towers up to the rifts left by the heavenly portals in the air, determined to discover why their particular god turned away from them.
Now, the Five speak only through their appointed Voice, a liaison who can visit the incomprehensible and hostile ethereal realm and relay commands, blueprints, scientific schematics and other information to the people below. But tension and unease run rife, and philosophical and political quarrels between the sects worsen into violence.
Zenya was the child of scholars who only wanted to wear the mechanical wings of the Mecha God's chosen soldiers. Originally intended to keep the city safe from the outside world, the Winged are now overtaxed trying to cope with Radezhda's unrest and its unsatisfied citizens. Although her family did not approve, Zenya devoted herself to becoming accepted among the ranks of the Winged, joining the academy and quickly becoming a part of the most elite unit, trained by Vodaya, who eventually became the Mecha God's Voice.
Her early years spent idealistically learning a new religion and earning her wings are contrasted with the disillusioned fatigue of current day Winged Zemolai, the warrior Zenya became:
"Zemolai focused on wiping down hundreds of individual feathers. They were thin and flexible and expertly wired to a hollow frame - not actual copper, but a more conductive compound developed by the creator god's finest engineers.
Zemolai didn't pray anymore, but in this way she showed her devotion. She bottled up her worries, her fears, her anger and despair, and she spent that energy on every joint, every wire, every gear. She buffed out scratches and smoothed out dents. She lost herself in the work.
A body was a machine and a machine was an extension of the body. The mecha god crafted them, and in return they crafted themselves."
As the civil unrest in the present provides a new perspective on the events of her past, Zemolai must decide who she really is at heart, what she truly believes and what is worth fighting for.
It is incredibly refreshing to follow a complex character like Zemolai through personal victory and then see the other side. What happens once a heart's desire has been achieved? What if what you thought you wanted wasn't what you thought it was at all? And if you have spent your life in service to an imperfect ideal, is there any way of making amends for the mistakes you made in good faith?
The Wings Upon Her Back is full of such thought-provoking questions, and seems especially timely amidst the current global political climate. What does it mean to have faith and keep faith in the face of challenges and changes? When you have to look within your own soul instead of relying on societal norms and narratives?
The story of Zenya/Zemolai fighting to become themselves and then struggling to come back to themselves is unforgettable and compelling and I found it incredibly moving. The author's Afterward is also very affecting. Highly recommended and I look forward to reading whatever Mills writes next!
Digital ARC provided by Tachyon Books via NetGalley in exchange for honest review; releases April 23, 2024.
Thanks also to the GR reviewer who linked Mills' free short story in Uncanny Magazine, Rabbit Test; I read this first to get a sense of Mills' writing before requesting. Another highly timely look at what abortion rights and bodily autonomy might become in the not too distant future. Also very thought provoking.
Want to read
November 7, 2023yes i read the author's short story "rabbit test" early 2023 and i will read anything she writes
August 25, 2024
Yeah a fuck load more people need to read this. This book is fucking incredible.
It's a book that, somehow all at once, manages to explore the fanatic loyalty and isolation that comes with abusive relationships or cultish commitment to a cause. And the hurt and introspection that comes with breaking that cycle of abuse. All in the wrapper of a steampunk-y revolution with mecha-winged warriors and apathetic & unknowable gods.
It's impeccably structured, carefully crafted, and has a defined, narrow focus that complements the themes perfectly, and makes it so that every chapter means something.
I'm sure with a bit of time I'll have some nitpicks. But for now, I'm in that heady, thrilled stage of having just finished an outstanding book.
For fuck's sake, go read it.
It's a book that, somehow all at once, manages to explore the fanatic loyalty and isolation that comes with abusive relationships or cultish commitment to a cause. And the hurt and introspection that comes with breaking that cycle of abuse. All in the wrapper of a steampunk-y revolution with mecha-winged warriors and apathetic & unknowable gods.
It's impeccably structured, carefully crafted, and has a defined, narrow focus that complements the themes perfectly, and makes it so that every chapter means something.
I'm sure with a bit of time I'll have some nitpicks. But for now, I'm in that heady, thrilled stage of having just finished an outstanding book.
For fuck's sake, go read it.
February 1, 2024
THE WINGS UPON HER BACK is the debut novel by Hugo, Nebula, Sturgeon, and Locus Award winner Samantha Mills. Mills won all four of those awards last year for her short story "Rabbit Test". There was an itch at the back of my mind that needed to be scratched, so I did a bit of digging around and found that she had a story in "The New Voices of Science Fiction", edited by Hannu Rajaniemi and Jacob Weisman, published back in 2019. So, she's been around for at least a little while. Based on "Rabbit Test" and now THE WINGS UPON HER BACK, I believe she is going to be around for a very long time.
The setting for the story is the city of Radezhda which was founded by five gods, each of whom brought a different gift, a different discipline, to the city. Each god helped to bring prosperity and advancement to the people of Radezhda. As is the way of things, the five gods didn't always agree on things, but together they helped bring progress and improvements to the city. Until one day, the gods left the city, going high into the sky and falling into a deep sleep. The disciples of each of the gods all had something in common: the desire to determine why the gods had left them. Each of the five disciplines built skyscraper-like towers in an attempt to reach up to their god and bring them back home. The leader of each faction is called the Voice, and those leaders are the only ones that get to talk to their gods, and infrequently at that.
Eventually, and again as is the way of things, without the leadership of the gods conflicts arose, and the city came to war with itself. As each of the factions had different viewpoints, the city was being torn apart by violence. The Mechas, a warrior sect originally tasked with the job of protecting the city from outsiders, added the task of protecting the city dwellers from themselves. The Voice of the Mechas is the ruthless and power-hungry Winged Vodaya.
Zenya, the true focus of the story, is a teenager in a family that is in the scholar sect. She is unsatisfied and unhappy being a scholar. Her goal is to join the Mecha sect, get her wings, and become one of the protecters of the city. She runs away from her family and joins the Mechas, and soon shows enough aptitude that Vodaya takes Zenya under her wing (no pun intended). Eventually Zenya earns her Wings and becomes the Winged Zemolai. As time wears on, Zemolai gets weary of the constant fighting and battles and, in a rare (as in never) show of mercy, lets a spy who infiltrated the Mecha sect from the Scholar sect, go free after she discovers his treachery. This gets her Wings torn away, and she is cast out on the street with nowhere to go.
The story is told in two different timelines. One covers Zenya's story, her background, and how she came to be one of the Winged. The other is Zemolai's story after she gets cast out of the Mecha sect, and how she comes to find out that things are significantly different than she thought they were while she was one of the Winged. But there are two additional sides to the novel. One is that THE WINGS UPON HER BACK is a straightforward action adventure story, complete with a maniacal, single minded leader who is blinded by her ambition and who tries to take complete control of her domain. The other is a story of discovery, of a person learning who they are after they've achieved their life's goals, who their friends really are, and what really is going on in the world around them, the world they thought they knew well but really didn't know at all.
It's early in 2024, and there are a lot of books yet to come, many of which will be terrific. Many will come from authors that have been in the field a long time, and authors that are new. But for me, THE WINGS UPON HER BACK is the best book I've read in 2024 so far. Sure, Samantha Mills has been around a few years now, but it appears that her star is just now starting to take off. If THE WINGS UPON HER BACK is any indication, Mills will be providing us with great reads for a long time. I look forward to what she'll be bringing us in the future.
The setting for the story is the city of Radezhda which was founded by five gods, each of whom brought a different gift, a different discipline, to the city. Each god helped to bring prosperity and advancement to the people of Radezhda. As is the way of things, the five gods didn't always agree on things, but together they helped bring progress and improvements to the city. Until one day, the gods left the city, going high into the sky and falling into a deep sleep. The disciples of each of the gods all had something in common: the desire to determine why the gods had left them. Each of the five disciplines built skyscraper-like towers in an attempt to reach up to their god and bring them back home. The leader of each faction is called the Voice, and those leaders are the only ones that get to talk to their gods, and infrequently at that.
Eventually, and again as is the way of things, without the leadership of the gods conflicts arose, and the city came to war with itself. As each of the factions had different viewpoints, the city was being torn apart by violence. The Mechas, a warrior sect originally tasked with the job of protecting the city from outsiders, added the task of protecting the city dwellers from themselves. The Voice of the Mechas is the ruthless and power-hungry Winged Vodaya.
Zenya, the true focus of the story, is a teenager in a family that is in the scholar sect. She is unsatisfied and unhappy being a scholar. Her goal is to join the Mecha sect, get her wings, and become one of the protecters of the city. She runs away from her family and joins the Mechas, and soon shows enough aptitude that Vodaya takes Zenya under her wing (no pun intended). Eventually Zenya earns her Wings and becomes the Winged Zemolai. As time wears on, Zemolai gets weary of the constant fighting and battles and, in a rare (as in never) show of mercy, lets a spy who infiltrated the Mecha sect from the Scholar sect, go free after she discovers his treachery. This gets her Wings torn away, and she is cast out on the street with nowhere to go.
The story is told in two different timelines. One covers Zenya's story, her background, and how she came to be one of the Winged. The other is Zemolai's story after she gets cast out of the Mecha sect, and how she comes to find out that things are significantly different than she thought they were while she was one of the Winged. But there are two additional sides to the novel. One is that THE WINGS UPON HER BACK is a straightforward action adventure story, complete with a maniacal, single minded leader who is blinded by her ambition and who tries to take complete control of her domain. The other is a story of discovery, of a person learning who they are after they've achieved their life's goals, who their friends really are, and what really is going on in the world around them, the world they thought they knew well but really didn't know at all.
It's early in 2024, and there are a lot of books yet to come, many of which will be terrific. Many will come from authors that have been in the field a long time, and authors that are new. But for me, THE WINGS UPON HER BACK is the best book I've read in 2024 so far. Sure, Samantha Mills has been around a few years now, but it appears that her star is just now starting to take off. If THE WINGS UPON HER BACK is any indication, Mills will be providing us with great reads for a long time. I look forward to what she'll be bringing us in the future.
August 17, 2024
‘The Wings Upon Her Back’ by Samantha Mills is an awesome novel which accurately describes what I think of as the ecstasy of worship. I know, I felt it once in a church where I was dragged by friends. Emotional exultant feelings caused by worship can happen when standing in the shadow of someone or something which feels powerful, someone or something whom you admire or wish you could be. It always translates from the mental/brain world of feeling into the world of extremely powerful physical all-over body sensations. If the cause is because of religious belief, or a lot of other similar emotion-inducing mind/brain experience phenomenons like an intense admiration of a celebrity or adoring an animal’s characteristics or skydiving or rock climbing without aids or the first time looking out the window of the International Space Station (I imagine), the feeling is boosted by the presence of other believers, amplifying your emotions with other folks’ affirmations and perhaps seemingly accepting you into their sect of worshipers.
A crowd of fellow worshipers definitely hits all of the mental/physical buttons of needs every human requires! Go Mariners! Go Seattle Storm! Go Seahawks! Go Sounders! Go Seattle Kraken!
However. But. As many ex-believers of all stripes discover, belonging to any group of admirers of something or someone comes with strings. Specific group laws, rules, judgements, rituals, even involving what clothes and hair styles are acceptable to fully belong to the inner circle of a group, and increasingly severe punishments for so-called ‘disobedience’, must be obeyed. Most believers are unaware such rigid enforcement of inner-circle rules are slowly erasing individualism, personalities, burning out whatever common sense or sense of self-protection true believers may have once possessed before joining any ‘The Group’ of so-called elites of unfaltering faith. A person’s sense of self can be replaced with group-think, or a belief in a seemingly superior-to-you person’s authority to rule, think, exist. Talk to almost any abused spouse and you will hear affirmations of the abused spouse’s absolute unquestioning faith that the abuser is all-powerful, whose strength resides in an innate superiority of knowledge and power over everyone else. These ideas are always accompanied by the abused spouse’s belief they are lesser beings, and their protection from bad things can only be provided by the powerful spouse, and from living in the powerful spouse’s shadow or circle of power.
I have copied the book blurb:
”A loyal warrior in a crisis of faith must fight to regain her place and begin her life again while questioning the events of her past. This gripping science-fantasy novel from a Nebula and Locus Award-winning debut author is a complex, action-packed exploration of the costs of zealous faith, brutal war, and unquestioning loyalty.
Five gods lie mysteriously sleeping above the city of Radezhda. Five gods who once bestowed great technologies and wisdom, each inspiring the devotion of their own sect. When the gods turned away from humanity, their followers built towers to the heavens to find out why. But when no answer was given, the collective grief of the sects turned to desperation, and eventually to war.
Zenya was a teenager when she ran away from home to join the mechanically-modified warrior sect. She was determined to earn mechanized wings and protect the people and city she loved. Under the strict tutelage of a mercurial, charismatic leader, Zenya became Winged Zemolai.
But after twenty-six years of service, Zemolai is disillusioned with her role as an enforcer in an increasingly fascist state. After one tragic act of mercy, she is cast out, and loses everything she worked for. As Zemolai fights for her life, she begins to understand the true nature of her sect, her leader, and the gods themselves.”
I have often wondered about those folks who seem to require rules developed by others, especially those rules and rituals which are punitive, designed to redefine a human body or mind into agonizing pretzels of illogic that are damaging to a person’s life. Why do some people require punitive rules and group-think acceptance to live their lives? Once was enough for me. But those under the spell of trying to experience self-induced emotional exultant worship over and over from whatever the cause appear to be like drug addicts to me.
I have experienced exercise ecstasy, caused by running track in high school. It is an unreal emotional/physical rush! If you push the body physically by running, some of us can become overwhelmed by a sense of fantastic well-being and more, a natural high. I wanted to run more and more to achieve that rush, but it didn’t happen as powerfully as it did the first time. Anyone who is a former smoker can also relate because of the experience of that first cigarette of the day. Or it happens in a more milder fashion with the first cup of coffee, right? My point is that that emotional mental rush of ecstasy actually has a physical experience component. Religious ecstasy can be induced as a physical experience by mental processes, especially a need to attach to something or someone that seems like a better, more powerful thing than yourself. Young folks, or people who feel they are close to death, especially desire the existence of a powerful something or someone who can fix it. As a kid, my ‘group’ of elementary children often carried a lucky charm for protection or power, like a coin, jewelry or a rabbit’s foot.
I understand after finishing ‘The Wings Upon Her Back’ much better why there are literally billions of versions of the five main religions. Zenya is a person who requires a person/object/thing to worship, otherwise, she misses the emotional exultation of worshiping. Since all faith erodes eventually into the disappointment of overfamiliarity or in noticing failures of supposed omniscience, or in having become aware of many falsehoods behind the supposed presentation of power and authority, sometimes the worshiper cannot give up the act of worshipping, and of being a follower of something they feel is perfection/bigger/better/faster/stronger. So, they create/seek a new god/person/object/thing to worship to recreate that feeling of what I am naming worship exultation.
In my life, I lost my religious faith, so I grok Zenya. Like Zenya, I never felt like looking for something else to recreate that worship exultation. Some of us finally understand there are no gods, and that worship is harmful to one’s sense of self, like any drug of addiction.
A crowd of fellow worshipers definitely hits all of the mental/physical buttons of needs every human requires! Go Mariners! Go Seattle Storm! Go Seahawks! Go Sounders! Go Seattle Kraken!
However. But. As many ex-believers of all stripes discover, belonging to any group of admirers of something or someone comes with strings. Specific group laws, rules, judgements, rituals, even involving what clothes and hair styles are acceptable to fully belong to the inner circle of a group, and increasingly severe punishments for so-called ‘disobedience’, must be obeyed. Most believers are unaware such rigid enforcement of inner-circle rules are slowly erasing individualism, personalities, burning out whatever common sense or sense of self-protection true believers may have once possessed before joining any ‘The Group’ of so-called elites of unfaltering faith. A person’s sense of self can be replaced with group-think, or a belief in a seemingly superior-to-you person’s authority to rule, think, exist. Talk to almost any abused spouse and you will hear affirmations of the abused spouse’s absolute unquestioning faith that the abuser is all-powerful, whose strength resides in an innate superiority of knowledge and power over everyone else. These ideas are always accompanied by the abused spouse’s belief they are lesser beings, and their protection from bad things can only be provided by the powerful spouse, and from living in the powerful spouse’s shadow or circle of power.
I have copied the book blurb:
”A loyal warrior in a crisis of faith must fight to regain her place and begin her life again while questioning the events of her past. This gripping science-fantasy novel from a Nebula and Locus Award-winning debut author is a complex, action-packed exploration of the costs of zealous faith, brutal war, and unquestioning loyalty.
Five gods lie mysteriously sleeping above the city of Radezhda. Five gods who once bestowed great technologies and wisdom, each inspiring the devotion of their own sect. When the gods turned away from humanity, their followers built towers to the heavens to find out why. But when no answer was given, the collective grief of the sects turned to desperation, and eventually to war.
Zenya was a teenager when she ran away from home to join the mechanically-modified warrior sect. She was determined to earn mechanized wings and protect the people and city she loved. Under the strict tutelage of a mercurial, charismatic leader, Zenya became Winged Zemolai.
But after twenty-six years of service, Zemolai is disillusioned with her role as an enforcer in an increasingly fascist state. After one tragic act of mercy, she is cast out, and loses everything she worked for. As Zemolai fights for her life, she begins to understand the true nature of her sect, her leader, and the gods themselves.”
I have often wondered about those folks who seem to require rules developed by others, especially those rules and rituals which are punitive, designed to redefine a human body or mind into agonizing pretzels of illogic that are damaging to a person’s life. Why do some people require punitive rules and group-think acceptance to live their lives? Once was enough for me. But those under the spell of trying to experience self-induced emotional exultant worship over and over from whatever the cause appear to be like drug addicts to me.
I have experienced exercise ecstasy, caused by running track in high school. It is an unreal emotional/physical rush! If you push the body physically by running, some of us can become overwhelmed by a sense of fantastic well-being and more, a natural high. I wanted to run more and more to achieve that rush, but it didn’t happen as powerfully as it did the first time. Anyone who is a former smoker can also relate because of the experience of that first cigarette of the day. Or it happens in a more milder fashion with the first cup of coffee, right? My point is that that emotional mental rush of ecstasy actually has a physical experience component. Religious ecstasy can be induced as a physical experience by mental processes, especially a need to attach to something or someone that seems like a better, more powerful thing than yourself. Young folks, or people who feel they are close to death, especially desire the existence of a powerful something or someone who can fix it. As a kid, my ‘group’ of elementary children often carried a lucky charm for protection or power, like a coin, jewelry or a rabbit’s foot.
I understand after finishing ‘The Wings Upon Her Back’ much better why there are literally billions of versions of the five main religions. Zenya is a person who requires a person/object/thing to worship, otherwise, she misses the emotional exultation of worshiping. Since all faith erodes eventually into the disappointment of overfamiliarity or in noticing failures of supposed omniscience, or in having become aware of many falsehoods behind the supposed presentation of power and authority, sometimes the worshiper cannot give up the act of worshipping, and of being a follower of something they feel is perfection/bigger/better/faster/stronger. So, they create/seek a new god/person/object/thing to worship to recreate that feeling of what I am naming worship exultation.
In my life, I lost my religious faith, so I grok Zenya. Like Zenya, I never felt like looking for something else to recreate that worship exultation. Some of us finally understand there are no gods, and that worship is harmful to one’s sense of self, like any drug of addiction.
March 10, 2024
This is one of those weird reviews (or just a weird reviewer I guess LOL) where I don't really have a good sense for the book as a whole. Basically I quite enjoyed it, but have a series of +ve and -ve comments to make and am hoping that just listing them all out will produce a useful review as I can't really capture the book in its entirely.
I think that comes from my first bugbear: that the story is written across two timelines. The first, where the story begins, is our Winged MC Zenya provides a small mercy for character found to be in violation of strict religious law - and then finds herself instead under the gaze of harsh judgement.
The second basically follows Zenya's lifestory, and basically how she found herself eventually 'winged' in the first - but the main gist of the backstory detailing and explaining the tyrannical setup of the world she lives in.
(its with not small irony to note that most of the story is about Zenya not actually having wings as its almost all before and after)
Anyway this juxtaposition of timelines created quite a number of challenges for the story. At the most basic I felt there wasn't enough grounding in each timeline to instantly recognize where we were. There was any number of times that I actually got confused and had to flick ahead or back to check where we were, there wasn't really a strong sense within Zenya or the setting in general to distinguish between the two, nor something majorly symbolic in the setting or otherwise.
The second more thematic problem with the two timelines is they sort of undermined each other. A lot of Zenya's character was (skilfully) revealed in the opening scenes - her entire backstory doesn't really give us much new other than putting "Fact" to the feelings we already have. While the backstory did contain a lot of world-building, GOOD worldbuilding btw, my feeling was the backstory timeline could have been much abridged to a few action and 'setpiece' heavy scenes that gave us a sense of the history, not an entire narrative.
My other critiques of this book is that their simply isn't a lot of characterization, or narrative and thematic develop of other characters. Given that the story is about being disillusioned with one's Gods (among others) it seems like a story ripe for a variety of characters or more importantly their responses to the strict religious world they live in. And technically they are there, they just don't get a tonne of screen-time or much development. It was confusing because in both timelines Zenya as a sort of 'team' around her but in neither was there enough material on minor characters that I can explicitly bring to mind anything about them.
However that all sounds super negative - here are some of the GREAT things about The Wings Upon her Back.
The World itself is super intriguing and interesting. The Gods are "real" in this book and directly intervene in people's lives (or do they?) the interplay of this creates a huge amount of tension and drive for the story and its great. While I did critique some elements of the worldbuilding in the above paragraphs what World was Built in this book was awesome and so interesting to read about.
In fact I give this a double bonus because some of the reveals towards the end about said Gods and the theology were just brilliant in the way the mythology interacting with the action of Zenya and her Antagonist - I don't want to spoil too much but the way it plays out is well done.
Finally the villain of this story really played out disturbingly realistically, in terms of having a very toxic relationship with Zenya - how that relationship impacted our MC, and as above how it tied into everything that went on. There were moments where the story almost sounded a bit like a psychological thriller in terms of the mind games.
So yeah in conclusion I'm not actually sure how to capture this book as a whole. It has some great bits, some less than, some flaws - a bit like life really!!
I think that comes from my first bugbear: that the story is written across two timelines. The first, where the story begins, is our Winged MC Zenya provides a small mercy for character found to be in violation of strict religious law - and then finds herself instead under the gaze of harsh judgement.
The second basically follows Zenya's lifestory, and basically how she found herself eventually 'winged' in the first - but the main gist of the backstory detailing and explaining the tyrannical setup of the world she lives in.
(its with not small irony to note that most of the story is about Zenya not actually having wings as its almost all before and after)
Anyway this juxtaposition of timelines created quite a number of challenges for the story. At the most basic I felt there wasn't enough grounding in each timeline to instantly recognize where we were. There was any number of times that I actually got confused and had to flick ahead or back to check where we were, there wasn't really a strong sense within Zenya or the setting in general to distinguish between the two, nor something majorly symbolic in the setting or otherwise.
The second more thematic problem with the two timelines is they sort of undermined each other. A lot of Zenya's character was (skilfully) revealed in the opening scenes - her entire backstory doesn't really give us much new other than putting "Fact" to the feelings we already have. While the backstory did contain a lot of world-building, GOOD worldbuilding btw, my feeling was the backstory timeline could have been much abridged to a few action and 'setpiece' heavy scenes that gave us a sense of the history, not an entire narrative.
My other critiques of this book is that their simply isn't a lot of characterization, or narrative and thematic develop of other characters. Given that the story is about being disillusioned with one's Gods (among others) it seems like a story ripe for a variety of characters or more importantly their responses to the strict religious world they live in. And technically they are there, they just don't get a tonne of screen-time or much development. It was confusing because in both timelines Zenya as a sort of 'team' around her but in neither was there enough material on minor characters that I can explicitly bring to mind anything about them.
However that all sounds super negative - here are some of the GREAT things about The Wings Upon her Back.
The World itself is super intriguing and interesting. The Gods are "real" in this book and directly intervene in people's lives (or do they?) the interplay of this creates a huge amount of tension and drive for the story and its great. While I did critique some elements of the worldbuilding in the above paragraphs what World was Built in this book was awesome and so interesting to read about.
In fact I give this a double bonus because some of the reveals towards the end about said Gods and the theology were just brilliant in the way the mythology interacting with the action of Zenya and her Antagonist - I don't want to spoil too much but the way it plays out is well done.
Finally the villain of this story really played out disturbingly realistically, in terms of having a very toxic relationship with Zenya - how that relationship impacted our MC, and as above how it tied into everything that went on. There were moments where the story almost sounded a bit like a psychological thriller in terms of the mind games.
So yeah in conclusion I'm not actually sure how to capture this book as a whole. It has some great bits, some less than, some flaws - a bit like life really!!
June 12, 2024
Told in two timelines set twenty years apart, we follow Zemolai as she grapples with the choices that she makes in good faith coming back to firmly disillusion her. Leaving her scholarly family behind, Zemolai trains to be a mecha--a warrior with mechanical wings -- charged with protecting the citizens of Radzedha. She is mentored by Vodaya, a charismatic mecha leader who brooks no opposition or independent thought.
This is a wrenching, beautifully written tale of understanding and growth, and loss of faith. It is about learning the hardest lessons from your choices, and understanding how those choices shape you. It is also about learning that you do, indeed, have choices, even when you don't think that you do, or you lack enough information to make good choices.
This is a book about learning resilience the hard way. It's not emotionally easy, but the characters are compelling, and the worldbuilding is interesting and engaging. Highly recommended.
This is a wrenching, beautifully written tale of understanding and growth, and loss of faith. It is about learning the hardest lessons from your choices, and understanding how those choices shape you. It is also about learning that you do, indeed, have choices, even when you don't think that you do, or you lack enough information to make good choices.
This is a book about learning resilience the hard way. It's not emotionally easy, but the characters are compelling, and the worldbuilding is interesting and engaging. Highly recommended.
July 11, 2024
Author Samantha Mills examines how someone whose good intentions can be compromised and twisted, and even radicalized by a charismatic leader of a flawed system. How this can lead to committing acts of great harm and violence, and to a willful blindness to the authoritarian system one has bought into. Mills deals with these weighty things through the life of Zemolai, who has spent decades of her life as a Winged.
The Winged are powerful, granted intricate, metal wings which are fused to their body via implants and multiple surgeries. Only some are made into Wings, as this is technology granted by the gods. The Winged use their wings to patrol the borders against enemies, but more importantly, the Winged enforce the rigid laws maintaining the differences amongst their class-based society.
Zemolai starts as the idealistic Zenya, who never quite fits in with her scholar family, and longs to join the Winged. She is granted the opportunity to join, leaving her caste and family behind, and she works incredibly hard to impress Vodaya, her mentor and the second in command of the Winged.
Author Mills switches back and forth between Zenya's sacrificing everything, including her morals, to excel so she can get her wings, and the older, hardened and bitter Zemolai, who has discovered Vodaya's duplicity. When Zemolai is expelled from the Winged, and stripped of her hard-won metal wings, she must figure out whether her faith meant anything, and what all her sacrifices really gave her, and what will she do to get them back.
Zemolai is deeply flawed, focused only on the acquisition of wings and then on doing whatever she can to keep them, and later regain them. Despite every good intention she had, Zemolai, through her laser focus on flying, lost her connections to her family and to her ethics, constantly excusing every terrible thing she did to earn Vodaya's praise, including committing brutal acts against their own people. Mills doesn't excuse Zenya/Zemolai from her responsibility for her actions and leaves her by the novel's end to figure out how to make different choices to rebuild, rather than just destroy.
It's hard to read about someone who has willingly cast aside all her ethics and doubts to throw in with monsters. But then, this novel is about how seductive power is, and how a supposedly good leader, who is actually deeply flawed, manipulative and self-centred can entice one through a combination of bullying and praise. It's not hard to see parallels between this novel and various real world, narcissistic, duplicitous political figures with malevolent intent who can draw huge crowds full of loyalty and hate.
Though a pretty dark and tragic book, this was deeply engaging.
Thank you to Netgalley and to Tachyon Publications for this ARC in exchange for my review.
The Winged are powerful, granted intricate, metal wings which are fused to their body via implants and multiple surgeries. Only some are made into Wings, as this is technology granted by the gods. The Winged use their wings to patrol the borders against enemies, but more importantly, the Winged enforce the rigid laws maintaining the differences amongst their class-based society.
Zemolai starts as the idealistic Zenya, who never quite fits in with her scholar family, and longs to join the Winged. She is granted the opportunity to join, leaving her caste and family behind, and she works incredibly hard to impress Vodaya, her mentor and the second in command of the Winged.
Author Mills switches back and forth between Zenya's sacrificing everything, including her morals, to excel so she can get her wings, and the older, hardened and bitter Zemolai, who has discovered Vodaya's duplicity. When Zemolai is expelled from the Winged, and stripped of her hard-won metal wings, she must figure out whether her faith meant anything, and what all her sacrifices really gave her, and what will she do to get them back.
Zemolai is deeply flawed, focused only on the acquisition of wings and then on doing whatever she can to keep them, and later regain them. Despite every good intention she had, Zemolai, through her laser focus on flying, lost her connections to her family and to her ethics, constantly excusing every terrible thing she did to earn Vodaya's praise, including committing brutal acts against their own people. Mills doesn't excuse Zenya/Zemolai from her responsibility for her actions and leaves her by the novel's end to figure out how to make different choices to rebuild, rather than just destroy.
It's hard to read about someone who has willingly cast aside all her ethics and doubts to throw in with monsters. But then, this novel is about how seductive power is, and how a supposedly good leader, who is actually deeply flawed, manipulative and self-centred can entice one through a combination of bullying and praise. It's not hard to see parallels between this novel and various real world, narcissistic, duplicitous political figures with malevolent intent who can draw huge crowds full of loyalty and hate.
Though a pretty dark and tragic book, this was deeply engaging.
Thank you to Netgalley and to Tachyon Publications for this ARC in exchange for my review.
March 17, 2024
“The Wings Upon Her Back” is set in the divided city of Radezdha, ruled by the mecha sect led by the power-hungry Winged Vodaya. The story opens with Winged Zemolai making the mistake of letting a spy go free. As a result, she loses everything; she finds herself cast away from her sect and physically maimed by her god.
There’s not much she can do. Another sect rescues her, but what choice does she have? She can either venture alone into a world that hates her or fight against the only world that has ever accepted her.
The chapters alternate between two timelines: Zemolai’s childhood and her arduous training to become Winged, and her adult path of disillusionment and fight for survival. Both parts are action-packed and emotionally charged. Zemolai ran away from home to join the Winged. Without getting into details, it required inhuman sacrifices, including blind obedience and eventually getting nerves wired into mechanical wings that allowed Winged to fly.
It shows how easy it is to succumb to the allure of authority and how easily revolutionary leaders turn into oppressive rulers. But of course, it's more complex than that - the gods left Radezdha and no longer care about wars or atrocities committed in their name. Zemolai's single-minded loyalty to the cause results in pain and the initial inability to see lies for lies.
The writing is good, with a strong narrative voice, and concise style. But it's also visible and sometimes gets in the way of simply telling the story. Especially at the beginning of the story, where certain details, such as the workings of the city and the gods' influence, were presented in exposition-heavy passages.
Other than that, it's still an impressive debut novel with vivid imagery, compelling characters, and action-packed sentences.
ARC through NetGalley
There’s not much she can do. Another sect rescues her, but what choice does she have? She can either venture alone into a world that hates her or fight against the only world that has ever accepted her.
The chapters alternate between two timelines: Zemolai’s childhood and her arduous training to become Winged, and her adult path of disillusionment and fight for survival. Both parts are action-packed and emotionally charged. Zemolai ran away from home to join the Winged. Without getting into details, it required inhuman sacrifices, including blind obedience and eventually getting nerves wired into mechanical wings that allowed Winged to fly.
It shows how easy it is to succumb to the allure of authority and how easily revolutionary leaders turn into oppressive rulers. But of course, it's more complex than that - the gods left Radezdha and no longer care about wars or atrocities committed in their name. Zemolai's single-minded loyalty to the cause results in pain and the initial inability to see lies for lies.
The writing is good, with a strong narrative voice, and concise style. But it's also visible and sometimes gets in the way of simply telling the story. Especially at the beginning of the story, where certain details, such as the workings of the city and the gods' influence, were presented in exposition-heavy passages.
Other than that, it's still an impressive debut novel with vivid imagery, compelling characters, and action-packed sentences.
ARC through NetGalley
March 7, 2024
I received an advance copy via NetGalley.
A unique science fiction setting provides the backdrop for winged warriors and religio-political intrigues in Mills's fantastic debut.
Zenya is in her forties. Constant aches and pains plague her, but even more, she's left bitter and disillusioned by decades of war on behalf of her mecha sect. When she extends mercy to a worker with an illegal religious icon, she's caught and quickly persecuted, stripped of her beloved wings and her very identity. Her 'rescue' by a band of rebels seems more a curse than a blessing as she's asked to betray everything she hold dear. Chapters alternate between the present and the past, highlighting the heartbreaking contrast between a young, hopeful Zenya and her embittered present self.
I could praise the depth of worldbuilding here and the gorgeousness of the winged battle scenes, but the most brilliant aspect is the psychological manipulation and warfare that is depicted through the book. Zenya is, truly, taken in by a religious cult with a charismatic leader, and is groomed to be a war machine who commits truly horrific deeds. There are a lot of books that depict the redemption of someone young, but that difficult path feels more real, more tragic, more beautiful, when through the eyes of someone who is older and utterly broken.
A unique science fiction setting provides the backdrop for winged warriors and religio-political intrigues in Mills's fantastic debut.
Zenya is in her forties. Constant aches and pains plague her, but even more, she's left bitter and disillusioned by decades of war on behalf of her mecha sect. When she extends mercy to a worker with an illegal religious icon, she's caught and quickly persecuted, stripped of her beloved wings and her very identity. Her 'rescue' by a band of rebels seems more a curse than a blessing as she's asked to betray everything she hold dear. Chapters alternate between the present and the past, highlighting the heartbreaking contrast between a young, hopeful Zenya and her embittered present self.
I could praise the depth of worldbuilding here and the gorgeousness of the winged battle scenes, but the most brilliant aspect is the psychological manipulation and warfare that is depicted through the book. Zenya is, truly, taken in by a religious cult with a charismatic leader, and is groomed to be a war machine who commits truly horrific deeds. There are a lot of books that depict the redemption of someone young, but that difficult path feels more real, more tragic, more beautiful, when through the eyes of someone who is older and utterly broken.
September 2, 2024
There was a lot interesting with this book and sadly I still think it focused on the very mundane. This book is about power systems and a loss of faith. It has a ton of cool set dressing I kept waiting to have become integral to the story, but basically make this a story of a good Christian soldier who realizes they're sent to kill people who look just like their family, but add shiny wings to it. It could be a Vietnam or Afghanistan War vet story otherwise.
It was engaging enough, but I don't think it did what it wanted, and I don't think it used its own framework to its best potential. It was fine.
CONTENT WARNING:
It was engaging enough, but I don't think it did what it wanted, and I don't think it used its own framework to its best potential. It was fine.
CONTENT WARNING:
Read
August 4, 2024DNF at 25%. The story was not interesting enough to hook me and the god thing was confusing.
September 2, 2024
Absolutely brilliant story of deradicalization and resistance. Review to come.
April 22, 2024
The Wings Upon Her Back has a lot of things going for it but also could be fine tuned.
The cover?? Absolutely beautiful. From far away it seems it could be basic but the more you look at it, the more detail, texture, and colours come out. I also absolutely love the title, the characters names, the idea of the book. There was a lot of love that went into this book and you could tell.
It also felt like a very obvious debut to me and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it did stand out to be that some of the writing style and chapters were a bit disjointed. There was a particular depth I was missing and that may have been from the way the chapters were chosen but it took me out of the reading and kept me from fully immersing myself.
As a whole, this is a lovely debut from an authour I’m interested in keeping track of in the future. I’m excited to see how they develop and what ideas they have going forward.
The cover?? Absolutely beautiful. From far away it seems it could be basic but the more you look at it, the more detail, texture, and colours come out. I also absolutely love the title, the characters names, the idea of the book. There was a lot of love that went into this book and you could tell.
It also felt like a very obvious debut to me and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it did stand out to be that some of the writing style and chapters were a bit disjointed. There was a particular depth I was missing and that may have been from the way the chapters were chosen but it took me out of the reading and kept me from fully immersing myself.
As a whole, this is a lovely debut from an authour I’m interested in keeping track of in the future. I’m excited to see how they develop and what ideas they have going forward.
January 12, 2024
I received an ARC of this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
What do you do when the gods you worship, the gods whose love you crave, turn their faces away from you?
The Wings Upon Her Back is a fierce, aching battle cry of a book, both cinematically epic and painfully intimate. Samantha Mills has crafted a striking world of sleeping gods, disillusioned revolutionaries, and metal wings -- and from it, she wrenches equal amounts of love and pain.
The book is simultaneously a thrilling, action-packed tale of revolution and mecha-battles between warring factions -- but also, at its heart, a searingly raw look at how different people claw their ways out (or don't) from abusive relationships; with a mentor, with a loved one, or even with a god. It's a story about disillusionment, about rationalizing terrible actions, and about finding the difference between love and loyalty, leadership and control. While reading, I felt as though my chest were constricted for much of the book, but ultimately found it deeply cathartic.
I would describe this book as a triumphant cocktail of Fonda Lee's Untethered Sky x the Divine Cities trilogy x Some Desperate Glory. A stunning debut.
What do you do when the gods you worship, the gods whose love you crave, turn their faces away from you?
The Wings Upon Her Back is a fierce, aching battle cry of a book, both cinematically epic and painfully intimate. Samantha Mills has crafted a striking world of sleeping gods, disillusioned revolutionaries, and metal wings -- and from it, she wrenches equal amounts of love and pain.
The book is simultaneously a thrilling, action-packed tale of revolution and mecha-battles between warring factions -- but also, at its heart, a searingly raw look at how different people claw their ways out (or don't) from abusive relationships; with a mentor, with a loved one, or even with a god. It's a story about disillusionment, about rationalizing terrible actions, and about finding the difference between love and loyalty, leadership and control. While reading, I felt as though my chest were constricted for much of the book, but ultimately found it deeply cathartic.
I would describe this book as a triumphant cocktail of Fonda Lee's Untethered Sky x the Divine Cities trilogy x Some Desperate Glory. A stunning debut.
June 11, 2024
Fine well crafted story telling. This is a story of a zealously committed young girl who learns that in order to grow she must give up her most precious dreams.
July 4, 2024
This was much darker and more depressing than I expected. At first, I thought it was like a lot of other sci-fi / fantasy stories, but it found it's individual stride pretty quickly. The world was interesting, especially as you slowly learn more about it. The story was definitely engrossing, and I found it hard to put down, but I'm not sure I enjoyed it exactly.
May 13, 2024
Adding this to the list of books that made me cry.
The MC was groomed as a child onto a path of violent fanaticism, only to be discarded as an adult and forced to learn the horrible truth behind her loyalty. Half of the book is her as an adult learning to make decisions for herself, and the other half is flashbacks to her teen years and how she was abused and manipulated by her commander/surrogate mother/idol. The flashbacks are particularly painful. We as the readers can see what's wrong, but Zenya just buries her head in the sand and follows order after horrible order. This is how war crimes are possible:
"This was what her brother had never understood: the sheer relief of placing yourself in the hands of someone who knew what was best for you; who made decisions you did not know how to make. To be a hand on the blade."
Loved that the MC was in her 40s and not another 19 year old (or younger) single-handedly changing the world, though we do have young side characters in a polyamorous relationship who are key members of the rebel group.
I'm forever doomed to want my standalones to be series and my series to be standalones. This world has so much potential for more stories. I'm fascinated by the society and the religion. I wanted the Scholar God to wake up and speak to his disciples, though that just means I've fallen prey to the same hopeless prayers of every other character in this book.
How do we know what to do when gods are silent and ignore our prayers? "We do what's right because it's right." It's all so simple.
The MC was groomed as a child onto a path of violent fanaticism, only to be discarded as an adult and forced to learn the horrible truth behind her loyalty. Half of the book is her as an adult learning to make decisions for herself, and the other half is flashbacks to her teen years and how she was abused and manipulated by her commander/surrogate mother/idol. The flashbacks are particularly painful. We as the readers can see what's wrong, but Zenya just buries her head in the sand and follows order after horrible order. This is how war crimes are possible:
"This was what her brother had never understood: the sheer relief of placing yourself in the hands of someone who knew what was best for you; who made decisions you did not know how to make. To be a hand on the blade."
Loved that the MC was in her 40s and not another 19 year old (or younger) single-handedly changing the world, though we do have young side characters in a polyamorous relationship who are key members of the rebel group.
I'm forever doomed to want my standalones to be series and my series to be standalones. This world has so much potential for more stories. I'm fascinated by the society and the religion. I wanted the Scholar God to wake up and speak to his disciples, though that just means I've fallen prey to the same hopeless prayers of every other character in this book.
How do we know what to do when gods are silent and ignore our prayers? "We do what's right because it's right." It's all so simple.
December 5, 2023
This is a deftly woven story of the protagonist's fall into conspiracy theory and the heinous actions they make because of it, and the difficulty of admitting to being wrong once they're so far inside--an all-too-relevant tale. It's well-told and deeply layered, with a protagonist you'll love even as you see them making wrong decisions again and again. I rooted so hard for Zenya to see the truth, but couldn't fault her for keeping to what she thought was the "proper and righteous way," even as I mourned her hoped-for, eventual realization.
While the book was difficult to read at times (due to its relevance), it was gorgeously written with prose that flew like those gleaming wings of copper. Ultimately, though, it's a book of hope. Hope that one CAN see through the charade, that one CAN chose the correct path even after traveling so far down the wrong one. Yet it isn't blithely simplistic, either. Zenya doesn't get an easy path simply because she sees the truth; instead we're allowed to see that the satisfaction of doing the right thing, even so late in life, is the balm the soul needs to be at peace. The amazing ending is well worth the journey taken. A highly recommended read.
While the book was difficult to read at times (due to its relevance), it was gorgeously written with prose that flew like those gleaming wings of copper. Ultimately, though, it's a book of hope. Hope that one CAN see through the charade, that one CAN chose the correct path even after traveling so far down the wrong one. Yet it isn't blithely simplistic, either. Zenya doesn't get an easy path simply because she sees the truth; instead we're allowed to see that the satisfaction of doing the right thing, even so late in life, is the balm the soul needs to be at peace. The amazing ending is well worth the journey taken. A highly recommended read.
Read
July 31, 2024SciFi and Fantasy Book Club Discussions:
First impressions (no spoilers)
Final thoughts (spoilers)
First impressions (no spoilers)
Final thoughts (spoilers)
May 9, 2024
I have always wanted to fly. I don't think the rush of it would compare to anything else. Zenya was the same, longing for the skies and wishing to protect and serve the people of her city. Now, almost three decades later, she is tired, despite the glorious wings upon her back. Who is she serving? And what are they all striving towards, in their god-abandoned city? The Wings Upon Her Back by Samantha Mills absolutely blew me away and has already become my favourite book of 2024! Thanks to Tachyon Publications and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Imagine a city, your city, above which your gods sleep. Each god has its own followers, who strive for contact by building ever higher towers. You yourself follow one of these gods and you have modified your body and mind so you can carry wings in their honour and in defense of your city, following your fearless group-leader. And then, almost three decades later, you can't help but be disillusioned. What has it all been for? Were all the sacrifices along the way worth it? And, most importantly, were all the things you did really done for the good of all? Or did you perhaps go horribly awry on your path? These questions and more echo throughout The Wings Upon Her Back and made it a read which really sank its hooks into me. It is a novel that asks us to question what and who we put our faith into, to investigate the structures of our societies, and so much more. Mills also deftly handles the personal aspect of these major questions by tracking her protagonist's growth, which prevents any of this from sliding into "easy" answers and solutions. The Wings Upon Her Back
The Wings Upon Her Back tells us the story of how Zenya became the Winged Zemolai, yet also how Zemolai became unwinged. The narrative is split across two timelines, one following Zemolai now, cast out from her sect and needing to figure out where she stands in a world marked by discord. The other timeline shows us a younger Zenya, only fourteen, who moves into this warrior sect and is trained by the charismatic Vodaya to become a winged warrior. This latter storyline, taking place almost three decades earlier, also shows us how the city Radezhda changes and develops. The two storylines are very occasionally interupted by "Interludes", which seem to present excerpts from a treatise on Radezhda itself, on its nature as a city, and its place below the gods. The way Mills weaves together the stories of the younger Zenya and the older Zemolai was brilliant, especially in the final few pages it hit me hard. While it may seem that The Wings Upon Her Back is highly thematic, it is utterly driven by the development of its main character. Zemolai/Zenya's growth is what carries the novel and this growth is supported by the characters around it, who each seem to represent or speak to different aspects of Zemolai. I also adored the world Mills created, from the gods to the traditions of each sect to Radezhda itself. Aspects of The Wings Upon Her Back could have felt a little YA, such as, for example, the city's division into five factions based upon basic character traits. (Think Divergent, for example.) However, because of the age of her protagonist and the themes Mills is working with, it becomes so much more. The contrast between passionate youth and weary adult works incredibly well in this respect, because Zemolai herself is forced to consider these harsh divides, the politics behind them, the reasons why some grab for power, why some refuse to share, etc. At no point does it feel immature or like an easy way out. On top of that, Mills explores how a religion arises, what happens when history is changed or lost, and with abuses of power. The way Mills builds up the mentor-mentee relationship between Vodaya and Zenya may be triggering to some, but I believe it's absolutely vital to the story.
The Wings Upon Her Back is Samantha Mills' debut novel, although she has won awards for her short stories already. In her afterword she describes how this book was something of a labour of love, which she repeatedly shelved and picked back up over the years. The only way in which this is noticeable is in how sharp and precise the novel is, meaning that I felt I could see how Mills had sharpened her own focus and scope of the work. All the details of the world come at the right time and the back and forth between time lines never interrupts the thrust of the plot. Something I adored about Mills' writing is how, from the first page, there was a certain narratorial tone, which I find hard to describe except through example. We are told Zemolai just had an argument with someone which did not matter, except that within brackets we are told that of course it mattered and that of course it affected everything. I don't know what to call it, but these little asides somehow elevated the personal tragedy to something slightly epic, as if we were looking at a story already completed and could pick out the moments where someone made a choice, lied, missed something, etc. Maybe at a later moment I will have a better way of describing this, but for now I can only say that I loved it. I did not really expect much more from The Wings Upon Her Back than an exciting Fantasy story with wings and so the complexity but also nuance of the actual story blew me away. The writing was beautiful, the ideas were big but always grounded, and Zemolai has won a spot in my heart. I can't wait to read more by Samantha Mills and The Wings Upon Her Back is a definite favourite.
As I said, The Wings Upon Her Back blew me away. It was so much more than I had expected and it touched upon themes I found resonating within myself very strongly. I cannot wait to read more by Samantha Mills, as her debut novel is my favourite read of the year so far.
URL: https://universeinwords.blogspot.com/...
Imagine a city, your city, above which your gods sleep. Each god has its own followers, who strive for contact by building ever higher towers. You yourself follow one of these gods and you have modified your body and mind so you can carry wings in their honour and in defense of your city, following your fearless group-leader. And then, almost three decades later, you can't help but be disillusioned. What has it all been for? Were all the sacrifices along the way worth it? And, most importantly, were all the things you did really done for the good of all? Or did you perhaps go horribly awry on your path? These questions and more echo throughout The Wings Upon Her Back and made it a read which really sank its hooks into me. It is a novel that asks us to question what and who we put our faith into, to investigate the structures of our societies, and so much more. Mills also deftly handles the personal aspect of these major questions by tracking her protagonist's growth, which prevents any of this from sliding into "easy" answers and solutions. The Wings Upon Her Back
The Wings Upon Her Back tells us the story of how Zenya became the Winged Zemolai, yet also how Zemolai became unwinged. The narrative is split across two timelines, one following Zemolai now, cast out from her sect and needing to figure out where she stands in a world marked by discord. The other timeline shows us a younger Zenya, only fourteen, who moves into this warrior sect and is trained by the charismatic Vodaya to become a winged warrior. This latter storyline, taking place almost three decades earlier, also shows us how the city Radezhda changes and develops. The two storylines are very occasionally interupted by "Interludes", which seem to present excerpts from a treatise on Radezhda itself, on its nature as a city, and its place below the gods. The way Mills weaves together the stories of the younger Zenya and the older Zemolai was brilliant, especially in the final few pages it hit me hard. While it may seem that The Wings Upon Her Back is highly thematic, it is utterly driven by the development of its main character. Zemolai/Zenya's growth is what carries the novel and this growth is supported by the characters around it, who each seem to represent or speak to different aspects of Zemolai. I also adored the world Mills created, from the gods to the traditions of each sect to Radezhda itself. Aspects of The Wings Upon Her Back could have felt a little YA, such as, for example, the city's division into five factions based upon basic character traits. (Think Divergent, for example.) However, because of the age of her protagonist and the themes Mills is working with, it becomes so much more. The contrast between passionate youth and weary adult works incredibly well in this respect, because Zemolai herself is forced to consider these harsh divides, the politics behind them, the reasons why some grab for power, why some refuse to share, etc. At no point does it feel immature or like an easy way out. On top of that, Mills explores how a religion arises, what happens when history is changed or lost, and with abuses of power. The way Mills builds up the mentor-mentee relationship between Vodaya and Zenya may be triggering to some, but I believe it's absolutely vital to the story.
The Wings Upon Her Back is Samantha Mills' debut novel, although she has won awards for her short stories already. In her afterword she describes how this book was something of a labour of love, which she repeatedly shelved and picked back up over the years. The only way in which this is noticeable is in how sharp and precise the novel is, meaning that I felt I could see how Mills had sharpened her own focus and scope of the work. All the details of the world come at the right time and the back and forth between time lines never interrupts the thrust of the plot. Something I adored about Mills' writing is how, from the first page, there was a certain narratorial tone, which I find hard to describe except through example. We are told Zemolai just had an argument with someone which did not matter, except that within brackets we are told that of course it mattered and that of course it affected everything. I don't know what to call it, but these little asides somehow elevated the personal tragedy to something slightly epic, as if we were looking at a story already completed and could pick out the moments where someone made a choice, lied, missed something, etc. Maybe at a later moment I will have a better way of describing this, but for now I can only say that I loved it. I did not really expect much more from The Wings Upon Her Back than an exciting Fantasy story with wings and so the complexity but also nuance of the actual story blew me away. The writing was beautiful, the ideas were big but always grounded, and Zemolai has won a spot in my heart. I can't wait to read more by Samantha Mills and The Wings Upon Her Back is a definite favourite.
As I said, The Wings Upon Her Back blew me away. It was so much more than I had expected and it touched upon themes I found resonating within myself very strongly. I cannot wait to read more by Samantha Mills, as her debut novel is my favourite read of the year so far.
URL: https://universeinwords.blogspot.com/...
November 13, 2023
This book was different from a lot of other books I’ve read in the sense that it hit me emotionally from a different angle than I’m not usually hit at- it was a bit hard for me to follow the plot with the time jumping, which is the only reason it’s 4 stars and not 5- but the character development, world building, and pacing was done beautifully!
July 9, 2024
A warning: if you're the kind of person (like me) who likes explanations in books, you won't really find any here. The "why" isn't really the point. This is a book very much about an abusive mentor-mentee relationship which is paralleled by the worldbuilding (I use that term loosely), rather than about a mysterious sci-fantasy world and how it came to be. I honestly should have DNF'd this book at about 60% of the way through when I realized what this book was going to be, but I was hoping I was wrong.
This book isn't bad, by any means. It's just not what I expected. The format is present day chapter, flashback chapter, present day, flashback, all the way through the entire novel. This made the present day plot feel dragged out and slow for me, because the flashback chapters just kept getting longer and more involved. And the flashbacks' purpose was less "explaining what happened" and more vignettes of moments in this mentor-mentee relationship.
The novel is well-written, and the characters are vibrant and interesting. I even think the world itself is interesting, I just wish we'd gotten more answers about it. It felt like the book was establishing a mystery, but that was my misinterpretation, I think.
As a metaphor for escaping evangelism, and as a representation of how abuse can manifest, this book absolutely achieves its goals. It has a very strong message, and it can be hard at times to read through what Zenya endures despite her unwavering beliefs.
But as a fantasy novel, it fell flat for me. I wanted more. I wanted why.
This book isn't bad, by any means. It's just not what I expected. The format is present day chapter, flashback chapter, present day, flashback, all the way through the entire novel. This made the present day plot feel dragged out and slow for me, because the flashback chapters just kept getting longer and more involved. And the flashbacks' purpose was less "explaining what happened" and more vignettes of moments in this mentor-mentee relationship.
The novel is well-written, and the characters are vibrant and interesting. I even think the world itself is interesting, I just wish we'd gotten more answers about it. It felt like the book was establishing a mystery, but that was my misinterpretation, I think.
As a metaphor for escaping evangelism, and as a representation of how abuse can manifest, this book absolutely achieves its goals. It has a very strong message, and it can be hard at times to read through what Zenya endures despite her unwavering beliefs.
But as a fantasy novel, it fell flat for me. I wanted more. I wanted why.
March 8, 2024
*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book*
I absolutely loved "The Wings Upon Her Back". While it is scifi-fantasy-ish (mechas!!!) it was mostly about disillusionment and a military member losing her faith after decades of service. It's also a tale of fascism, power struggles, and how it never helps to put people into boxes and expect them to stay there. The book was easy to read, the prose was compelling, the characters interesting even though I did not trust the golden general from the beginning.
World-building wise it was also a very interesting take on the "sleeping King" / gods trope (Arthur in a cave anybody?) but much more sci-fi-y/trippy. Fascinating, I would like to know more. That was a bit of a bummer, that we didn't get to learn more about the sleeping mecha gods...
I would like a sequel now, please? Yes?
5 stars
I absolutely loved "The Wings Upon Her Back". While it is scifi-fantasy-ish (mechas!!!) it was mostly about disillusionment and a military member losing her faith after decades of service. It's also a tale of fascism, power struggles, and how it never helps to put people into boxes and expect them to stay there. The book was easy to read, the prose was compelling, the characters interesting even though I did not trust the golden general from the beginning.
World-building wise it was also a very interesting take on the "sleeping King" / gods trope (Arthur in a cave anybody?) but much more sci-fi-y/trippy. Fascinating, I would like to know more. That was a bit of a bummer, that we didn't get to learn more about the sleeping mecha gods...
I would like a sequel now, please? Yes?
5 stars
April 2, 2024
"It is terrible, in its way, terrifying, to be responsible for the course of one's life, with no higher authority to blame. But there is freedom in it, as well.
The freedom to choose what comes next."
I knew this ARC would be a top read for me just from the first chapter. Mills has a very strong sense of style that I personally loved. I thought her use of parenthesis throughout the prose was cheeky and clever.
This is a slow book, best enjoyed when you take the time to really absorb the story that has been intentionally crafted here. (At least, that's how I read it.) This is a story written in two timelines, following the same character both into and out of an abusive relationship of sorts. Mills details the complications of this kind of entrapment and liberation beautifully, showcasing a isolationist community at war with itself, to the detriment of their all their citizens, even the ones presumed to have the upper hand.
To shadow what Mills says in her afterword, I think you can find something resonant in this story if you are a survivor of any kind of abuse, but I also kinda hope you can't.
(The only reason it’s at 4 stars is because it was heavy enough for me that I probably wouldn’t read it again. But it was fantastic!)
The freedom to choose what comes next."
I knew this ARC would be a top read for me just from the first chapter. Mills has a very strong sense of style that I personally loved. I thought her use of parenthesis throughout the prose was cheeky and clever.
This is a slow book, best enjoyed when you take the time to really absorb the story that has been intentionally crafted here. (At least, that's how I read it.) This is a story written in two timelines, following the same character both into and out of an abusive relationship of sorts. Mills details the complications of this kind of entrapment and liberation beautifully, showcasing a isolationist community at war with itself, to the detriment of their all their citizens, even the ones presumed to have the upper hand.
To shadow what Mills says in her afterword, I think you can find something resonant in this story if you are a survivor of any kind of abuse, but I also kinda hope you can't.
(The only reason it’s at 4 stars is because it was heavy enough for me that I probably wouldn’t read it again. But it was fantastic!)
April 19, 2024
I finished this and then just had to stare at the wall for a moment. I keep meaning to write a review and just struggling to put together my thoughts.
I absolutely loved this. The writing is just beautiful. There are so many lines that I stopped and highlighted, because I absolutely loved them. The world building is fascinating and I love how it is trickled in as necessary instead of given upfront or info-dumped. This book follows the main character through two different storylines (similar to Witch King by Martha Wells) and is a deep examination on faith, fascism, and the power of indoctrination. every single character is so flawed and yet you really understand why they are making the absolutely awful decisions that they are making (similar to The Unbroken by CL Clark). It's emotional, it's full of pain, it's got TWO absolutely gripping storylines, and I couldn't put it down.
Just, wow.
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy to review.
I absolutely loved this. The writing is just beautiful. There are so many lines that I stopped and highlighted, because I absolutely loved them. The world building is fascinating and I love how it is trickled in as necessary instead of given upfront or info-dumped. This book follows the main character through two different storylines (similar to Witch King by Martha Wells) and is a deep examination on faith, fascism, and the power of indoctrination. every single character is so flawed and yet you really understand why they are making the absolutely awful decisions that they are making (similar to The Unbroken by CL Clark). It's emotional, it's full of pain, it's got TWO absolutely gripping storylines, and I couldn't put it down.
Just, wow.
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy to review.
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