Synopsis: Journey and the Great Sky Library
Adelie is a woman of many things. A seal-shepherd, a wire-weaver, a sister, a mother. But Adelie and her people have been devastated by a parasite, a boneworm. It has cost her life and limb... and she is pregnant again and cannot tell if the kick in her stomach is her baby coming alive or the parasite devouring it within her. If quarantine isn't broken, they may all die.
With her young daughter and her seal, Adelie makes her way across Antarctica, N’tart’ka, the Melted Continent, in a desperate last bid to find a cure.
There is one folktale that keeps her going—from the penguin flocks and fairy oysters of the Grass Sea to the elephant seal shepherds along the coast and their fantastic feud with raft cities—Everyone has the myth of the Great Sky Library, a compendium of all human knowledge lost to the atmosphere, which dates back to before the Migrations. The only people that could tell her how to find it are broken from the storm and there’s no promise the mysterious and immortal pilot, the Librarian, will have all of the answers.
JatGSL is a culturally rich and loving interpretation of a future Earth where humanity and hope persevere, though global warming is never stopped. Fans of media such as Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Horizon Zero Dawn, Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet, Lois Lowry’s Giver quartet, Jeanne DuPrau’s Book of Ember series, Lost Terminal, and other post-dystopia climate-fiction should find this to be an enjoyable read. (Once it’s finished, which may be never.)
