All the Birds in the Sky
core novel 2016 All the Birds in the Sky
Record
| First published | 2016 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.59 (49,353 ratings, collected 2026-09-05) |
| Page count | 316 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780765379948 |
Synopsis
All the Birds in the Sky follows Patricia and Laurence from childhood into adulthood. Patricia discovers at age six that she can speak to birds and has other magical abilities she cannot yet control, while Laurence is a tech-obsessed child who builds his own gadgets. Both are bullied and isolated at their junior high school, and their paths diverge sharply: Patricia is accused of witchcraft, flees, and is eventually recruited into a hidden school for witches where she learns to master her powers, while Laurence is sent to a military-style reform school by parents unable to handle his nonconformity. Years later the two reconnect as adults in a city gripped by escalating environmental disasters, wars and social breakdown known as the Unraveling; Patricia has since joined a witches' cabal and Laurence works with technologists building a wormhole generator, and their rekindled friendship is strained by their fundamentally opposed views on how -- or whether -- magic and technology can save a collapsing world.
Where it sits
- Universe: All the Birds in the Sky
- Series: not part of a registered series (standalone work within its universe)
- Author: Charlie Jane Anders
Awards (verified)
- Nebula Award (Best Novel), 2016: won
- Locus Award (Best Fantasy Novel), 2017: won
Notes
- Standalone novel following a witch and a technologist who reconnect as adults amid environmental catastrophe, combining magic and speculative technology to avert it. A separate universe from Anders' Lessons in Magic and Disaster (already in the canon); the two share no characters or setting.
Sources
← All the Birds in the Sky dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.