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    Julia, Skydaughter
    Julia, Skydaughter
    Julia, Skydaughter
    Ebook89 pages1 hour

    Julia, Skydaughter

    By Robin Wyatt Dunn

    2.5/5

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    About this ebook

    "Dunn immediately captures a reader’s attention with a burka-wearing 12-year-old" -- Publishers Weekly

    Julia is fighting for her country. She is twelve years old. On the outside, a burqa. Underneath, satellite communications hardware linked to her AI in orbit.

    Her mission: overthrow a theocracy.

    An immersive look at a hyper-religious technological future, JULIA SKYDAUGHTER examines questions of morality and identity in the middle of a blazing fast adventure.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRobin Wyatt Dunn
    Release dateOct 1, 2015
    ISBN9781940830094
    Julia, Skydaughter

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    Reviews for Julia, Skydaughter

    2.5/5

    29 ratings21 reviews

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    • 2/5
      An interesting concept, but I couldn't get into it. Not enough details to piece together a settings, things just keep happening. I could not get engrossed. Writing style in general was ok.
    • 3/5
      I read this book ages ago, but for some reason my review never saved here!The book is different to how you may be used to reading, it's cut into sections, like thought patterns.And, like thought patterns, the book seems to meander here and there, with little cohesiveness. However, this style of writing actually does (kind of) suit the book, but it did get a bit tedious towards the end.
    • 2/5
      It had an interesting context, but I was a bit confused as to how certain things played into the story, like the bugs and the need to sexualize the main character - considering her young age. While I understand that sexualizing a young girl is something that often happens, I'm not sure if it was really necessary for this story or even really added to it. It may have described the society a bit more, but I kind of felt gross reading about a young girl and that aspect of her life. It made it hard to continue.
    • 2/5
      This novella has an interesting storyline- a young freedom figniter workING to overthrow a theocracy. This would have benefited from fleshing out the story, as I had some difficulty understanding what was going on. It is a fast paced novella as described.
    • 5/5
      A simple, nice and well-written book that pleased me to no end.It was short and strange but infinetly palatable, showing me great sights and wanting me to last longer.But anyway, a wondeful exercise in writing.
    • 1/5
      Unfortunately I couldn't get into this book. The writing style did not draw me in. The premise sounded very interesting, but I could not get into the story.
    • 4/5
      Julia Skydaughter is the story of an almost adult woman in a burka who just wants to be devout. Well, OK, as you can imagine, this 12-year old has a lot more going on than worrying about becoming a teenager. Under her burka lurks enough hardware to run a small country, or at least enough satellite communications hardware to control the AI in orbit above her. Oh, and she wants to overthrow the theocracy running things. She is smart and sassy and obnoxiously clever. Does she succeed? Read and find out.
    • 3/5
      I received a free copy of this book as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.I only read it half way through. I just couldn't get into it.The main character is supposed to be twelve, but thinks/acts somewhat older.The sexual references really put me off.Parts of it really got me lost.
    • 2/5
      Although the writing in this book was very poetic, I did find the story itself to be difficult to follow.Set far in the future, Julia, age 12, is a freedom fighter trying to liberate her city from a male-dominated regime. She is in contact with an AI satellite, and much of the narrative is written as a stream of consciousness while under the influence of hallucinatory drugs, making it hard to follow.Unfortunately this did not live up to my expectations.*i was given a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair review
    • 2/5
      For some reason I thought this was a YA story but as I read it seemed to be geared more for older-than-YA readers even though the main character Julia is 12 (a very mature 12 - 12 going on 30). At first I was engaged with the idea of futuristic Islam but the hardened attitude of Julia, the emphasis on the terrorist mission (so stereotype), the constant references to sex, and the "traditional" setting (burquas, harems, camels {flying camels, however}, virginity as commodity) where nothing seems to have changed much (despite advanced technology) turned me off. Add extra large helpings of in-head, stream of consciousness/blog, p-o-v with little explanation of why or what (evil priests with electric beards?!) , very confusing references to a UFO, a Gate, and breeding beetles, nano-this and nano-that ... I could not engage or identify with any character. Sorta Dune-meets-Stranger-in-a-Strange-Land-meets-Kushiel-meets-Lolita set in an unnamed Middle Eastern region. Might work as a drug-induced trippy dream after reading one of the Abrahamic holy books. Not for me. Unfortunately it also reinforces my desire to avoid ebooks.
    • 2/5
      Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.Truthfully, I was only interested in this book because of the beautiful cover art. A giant antlion! What was that about?I honestly still don't know, because this book really failed to hold my interest and I quit reading about 1/2 way through. It was a strange pastiche of Stargate, cultural appropriation of traditional Arabic culture, and WTF 12 year old bride/suicide bomber. It was lovely language, but the parts didn't add up to any sort of engaging plot.
    • 1/5
      I didn't finish this book. It feels like it's trying to be New Weird, which isn't a genre I particularly care for at the best of times, but isn't quite polished enough to pull it off. Julia lacks depth, and the world feels like it's middle eastern aspects come from Arabian Nights. About a third of the way through I decided I had better things to read, I'm afraid.
    • 2/5
      Beautifully descriptive, and good flow, what I was reading seemed well written. But I wasn't quite sure what was going on most of the time. Futuristic setting, with traditional Islamic culture weaved in was interesting but confusing. I kept on waiting for it to clear up, but it never did.
    • 2/5
      More of a work of poetic storytelling than a regular novel, Julia, Skydaughter, by Robin Wyatt Dunn is a fast-paced and fantastic read. The imagery was really fascinating and brought up some interesting concepts. A fundamentalist religious background meets a futuristic technological setting, including burqas and priests, robot bugs and flying camels, and AI satelites communicating with our heroine.Some aspects of this novel were a little hard to swallow. The titular character, Julia, is supposed to be 12, but thinks and acts like a sexually mature, albeit naive, adult. Strange weirdness seems to be thrown in to the story for the sake of weirdness, not for any discernable purpose or to further the story. The whole thing seems half-baked, like there could be a good novel here, but this is a stream-of-consciousness brainstorm for that good novel. However it was a quick read, and I received it like an art student's short film final project.
    • 1/5
      I did not like this book . Towards the end of the book , the stream of consciousness seemed to go haywire and did not make any sense . Although the idea is good , I thought the execution was weak .
    • 3/5
      [Full disclosure: I received this eBook as part of the LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program]While this book was certainly interesting, I'm not sure that I really "got" it. I thought the conversations between the protagonist and her "eye in the sky," Robin, were funny for the most part. It seemed like what one would imagine a freedom-fighter's life would be like in a society that seems to be the Middle East-esque, but a few hundred years in the future. I also liked that the protagonist ACTED like a 12-year-old girl, who also happens to be a freedom fighter. She didn't just say she was 12 at the beginning of the book, and then act like an adult for the rest of it. She was tough, and smart, but also had child-like thoughts. This is most evident in her repeated references to Batman & Robin, which are the code names for herself (Batman) and her "eye in the sky" (Robin), as well as her proud ownership of "Batman wings," (attachments to her burqa) as she calls them. I just don't feel like I was really getting the whole experience of the book, and I'm not sure if that's my issue, or the author's.
    • 2/5
      This short book was simply too 'way out' for me. The idea of the 12 year-old girl freedom fighter in a repressed and over-controlled futuristic society was good and I liked her interaction with the orbiting AI unit (called Robin). It just took a turn for the worse with the introduction of the alien beetle creatures which were tilling the fields - they were not adequately explained and there was no background, so it seemed unnecessary. I also found some of the sexual references a bit uncomfortable, considering the girl's age.
    • 3/5
      An engaging science fiction novel where Julia, age twelve, plays an heroic role in the revolution of her universe. The plot is fast moving until it slows to “quarky” bits at the end where she reflects on her age and marriage. Dunn presents an arduous tale with greater literary flourish than one of his previous novels Mr. Dee.
    • 4/5
      A girl wearing a burqa rides a beetle. With such a cover, this sci-fi surely gets your attention, no? Julia’s burqa is not what it seems, though. Not only has she glued wings to hers, it also hides hardware which she needs to communicate with a satellite named Robin. She’s his Batman. Her mission is to overthrow a theocracy. But will all go as expected? Will she stand strong and keep faith? A fast-paced novella packed with action. And a lot to think about!
    • 2/5
      I should like this novel as it deals with subjects that interest me using a genre I enjoy reading. It promises “An immersive look at a hyper-religious technological future” examining “questions of morality and identity in the middle of a blazing fast adventure” but does so, for me, in an unsatisfactory manner.The story is written in short, fast paced episodes identified by bold headed details of place and time. Unfortunately the formatting in my copy failed to do this in a consistent “bold” format, resulting in me being thrown out of the flow of narrative when I realised that the last read sentence was in fact a header description and break to the next scene.That aside I still have problems with my suspension of disbelief, essential when reading a futuristic text. Julia, our storyteller, seems at times a very precocious twelve year old but nowhere are we told if this is the norm for this future or not. Indeed, there is much we're not told but left to figure out for ourselves, perhaps a deliberate ploy on the part of the author. The result for me is like viewing the story through varying levels of gauze. Sometimes you catch a glimpse of clarity but then the wind blows and you're back grasping for clues.I kept getting the impression that, as it's the future, anything is possible so there's no need to justify how or why we got there. The writing is evocative in descriptive detail in places but light on explanation. Maybe Julia, our storyteller, is herself unclear but a lot of the writing implies that she knows things we're not allowed to share.In short I am frustrated by this book. Everything is there but it just doesn't come together in a suitable fashion for my tastes. Maybe I'm too old and this is written for a younger market or maybe I just don't get what the author intended. Either way, this isn't a book I'll be rereading in the future and I'm sad that I wasn't able to like it more.
    • 3/5
      Good premise and moments of humor, but it was difficult to stay tuned into the story.

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    Julia, Skydaughter - Robin Wyatt Dunn

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