Fledgling

How it reads

Fledgling is science fiction (literary science fiction, specifically), and its dominant mood is dark. It goes to difficult places and doesn't look away. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.

It's set in several locations, in the future, told in the third person, staying close to one character. Its central concerns are identity, survival and power and politics. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.

It opens a series. The ending is left open, for you to argue about. At 310 pages it's a quick read. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.