Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader and is about posting the first line of the book you are currently reading. Friday 56 is a meme hosted by Freda’s Voice, where you turn to page 56 (or 56%), find a snippet, short and sweet and post it!

— First Line —

He was born with an eleventh finger. A small bead of flesh and bone beside his right pinky. The doctor calmed the worried parents and told them the nub was a harmless thing. “But still,” he said, unlacing a small pouch, “a farmer needs only 10 fingers to work the dhuba.”

— Page 56 —

The flute from Macaw,

Cheaply made and out of tune,

Was a terrible 

Was without

Had no

— The Book —

Any guesses?

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The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez

Bold, lyrical and imaginative, this space opera is a must for fans of Becky Chambers and Alastair Reynolds

Nia Imani is a woman out of place and outside of time. Decades of travel through the stars are condensed into mere months for her, though the years continue to march steadily onward for everyone she has ever known. The captain of a transport ship contracted to the Umbrai corporation, she lives only for the next paycheck, until the day she meets a mysterious boy, fallen from the sky.

A boy, broken by his past, and hunted by his present. For he is one of the few born with the gift of the Jaunt. The ability to travel instantly anywhere in the universe. An ability that threatens the vicelike control of the settled worlds by corporations such as Umbrai.

Fumiko Nakajima, the great scientist responsible for the design of bird-like Stations that Umbrai uses to control vast tracts of space, has been searching for one such as he for a thousand years.

Together, they set out to protect the boy, a journey that will cross the decades and light years all the way out to the fringes of settled space where the laws of civilisation do not apply, and they will have only each other to rely on.

I’m about 2/3 of the way through and really enjoying the book. It does some interesting things with time and story structure and really curious to see whether someone’s gamble will pay off.

Image by lil_foot_ from Pixabay