Jimenez knows just how to give each supporting character enough space to make them feel essential to the story and Nia’s makeshift family. The book also has a musical quality, picking up tempo and then slowing down before returning to familiar beats. Read Full Review >Įach tale is powerful in its own right, the structure making the novel feel more like a collection of interconnected short stories. You’re not going to want to miss this one, I promise.

If you enjoy science fiction with heart, if you love stories about stories, about people and the future and the things we do to keep making a future for each other, then read The Vanished Birds. Simon Jimenez is a brilliant author (I didn’t even get to how lush and consuming his prose is!), and a writer to watch. may be one of the best debuts of 2020, and that it should be remembered in the year to come. Jimenez shows us exactly where our main characters come from, why they are the way they are, the ironies and contradictions and quirks that make their personalities, and the hardships, torture, banality, frustrations, and pain that force them to grow or change or overcome them. The reason this novel succeeds so well, and why it made me cry, and why I think it’s so important, is that everyone’s story is given the chance to be important. The Vanished Birds is a story of one such future, and whether it’s worth it, if it means even one person suffers. As we see new worlds, visit new stars, given new technologies or advancements, Jimenez never lets us forget why science fiction succeeds as a mode of storytelling: the living, beating hearts of characters confronted with the future, and how they react to it, can tell one hell of a story. this book truly shines because of the deep, complex web of relationships, consequence, and character built by Jimenez, that start in very intricate places and then only grow richer as the novel marches on, as characters grow, are challenged, are confronted with fears and hopes and hates and loves. takes a winding, heartbreaking, joyful wandering through an immense galaxy, and answers questions about love, duty, age, time, relationships, sorrow, and so much more, while spiraling toward an answer about jaunting. an intricate, affecting, haunting, and beautiful science fiction story that spans time, space, and lives.

The vanished birds simon jimenez