Book Summary (goodreads):
The universe of Orberana is a place of great wonder and peril, a dizzying landscape filled with clouds that can talk, clockwork beings that mark their own time, and painted animals that awake in the night.
Shiewo Morose is the captain of a flying ship powered by music. She is also a determined young woman on a mission: a quest to find the Wishing Fish that created Orberana.
Sailing above the clouds, Shiewo and her crew (Erduu the bamboo, Theo the cloud, Livingston the goldfish, and Felix the painter) are headed for worlds of crazed clockwork bureaucrats, tyrannic kings, and tornado children–worlds that will test not only the crew’s bravery… but their very understanding of adventure.
Theirs is the odyssey of a lifetime…
What I Expected: actually, from the cover and the book trailer, I thought this was a pre-teen type book. And it’s definitely a good read for the pre-teen group, because it contains elements of fantasy that’ll appeal to that age group.
My Thoughts
The story starts with a prologue that had me a little confused, but then I read on to chapter one, which started off with a painter who’s a little too into his imaginary world. And then the action started.
It’s been a while since I read the ebook, and I admit that the contents of the story and the characters are a little blurry to me, but I did like Felix, the eccentric painter. I could relate from his point of view the best, and he was definitely a well-rounded character.
I loved Theo, the cloud. Yes, a cloud was a character in the story. I loved Theo’s innocent comments, most of which made me laugh.
As for Shiewo herself, I thought she was presented very mysteriously. The description of her given was, along with the other descriptions in the book, very vivid.
I also wanted to share a wonderful message from the author in the acknowledgements:
I believe that we are all on a search of something more from life: a search for somewhere to belong, a mission to achieve a dream, or perhaps a quest to simply understand and express who we really are. But above all else, I believe that we are all adventurers deep down. With this in mind, I wish you the best in your own quest.
I thought that was really sweet of the author, and it also sums up the story beautifully.
Rating: 4/5. I enjoyed reading this book, and I feel that it’s great as a middle-grade fantasy.
Note: I received this ebook from Ciye Cho for review.