A River from the Sky - Ai Jiang - ★★.½

AUTHOR: Ai Jiang

SERIES: Natural Engines #2

GENRE: High Fantasy

PUBLICATION DATE: April 21, 2026

RATING: 2.5 stars. 

In a Nutshell: A high fantasy with elements of science fiction and family trauma. Highly imaginative, highly complicated. Though a direct sequel, the content feels very different, making this book feel like a different genre. I didn't expect the change, and this, combined with the complex character set, affected my experience. Might better suit readers who enjoy intricate high fantasy. The second novella of the Natural Engines duology and needs to be read in series order.

Plot Preview: (This preview contains spoilers from Book One. The rest of my feedback is spoiler-free.)

After their daring escape, Lufeng and her two younger siblings are on their way to Gear to meet Sangshu. When they are just moments away from the island, they are kidnapped by rebels, from whom they learn about the dangerous experiments Zinc has been conducting on their people.

Sangshu herself has been subject to the experiments, and though earlier loyal to another party, is now trying to fix the mistakes of the past. But reparation is not so easy, especially when there’s family involved.

The story comes to us in the first-person perspectives of Lufeng and Sangshu.

This novella continues directly from the ending of Book One: A Palace Near the Wind. As such, it cannot be read as a standalone.

I had read the first book last year and while it wasn't a favourite, I still enjoyed the clever allegory employed to depict the reckless colonising of nature as well as of indigenous populations. As the story ended on a critical cliffhanger, I had been keen to find out what happens next. When the sequel came in my hands, I reread Book One to refresh my memory and jumped to Book Two. But instead of getting a proper continuation, I feel like I saw the same characters but in a different genre.

There’s not just a difference in tone – the earlier book somehow felt more intimate while this one has a more distanced, expository approach – but also a difference in content. The first novella was a high fantasy with elements of suspense and drama; this sequel is an out-and-out high fantasy, with the *species* (for lack of a better word) and locations from the earlier story getting more prominence.

The world is dense enough but the characters are even more mind-boggling. I am not an avid high-fantasy reader, so I struggled a lot to keep things straight. This isn't helped by the fact that many characters have multiple names and even their species have multiple names, with further labels for those having a mixed background/skillset. As any of these details could be used to refer to a person/species, most of my reading energy went in remembering the who's who and what's what. 😫

There is a helpful glossary detailing all the species and locations. I appreciate that this was placed right at the start of the book and that it finally explained what “Natural Engines” were; the first book had left me befuddled about the series name.. However, it is never convenient to flip back and forth in the digital edition, and this book really requires a lot of cross-referencing. I wish there had been a pictorial map as well; I especially needed one to picture Gear and Engine. 😬

The earlier book came only from Lufeng's perspective, but this time, Lufeng and Sangshu share the narration, though not equally. (Lufeng’s share is much smaller, which is disappointing because I was more invested in her fate.) Both POVs are written in first person, resulting in a little confusion at times as their tone sounds quite similar. Only the events (and the label at the start of each chapter) help us remember who is speaking.

Sangshu's initial chapters are from a few months prior to the events of the cliffhanger and hence contain a lot of telling to catch us up on her life story. This also made me zone out as there was a lot of infodumping with no clear passing of time. Her later chapters continue in parallel with Lufeng’s timeline. However, even then she continues with the ‘telling’ approach but without including her reasons and motivations. It’s a strange and distanced narration, which is really sad because whatever quandaries she faced were morally tricky.

The story continues with the allegorical approach, with the theme still focussed on person vs. nature balanced with a person vs. person conflict. The allegory runs much deeper this time and as such, is insightful as well as intricate. If there’s one thing I appreciated the most, it is how the book establishes that none of us stand on our own. And no nationality/religion/ethnicity is superior to any other, no matter what they claim. We are all in this together, and under our exterior differences, we are the same flawed creatures making a mess of this beautiful world.

The writing is as poetic as before, which, combined with the complicated dramatis personae, ensures that the pacing is on the slow side.

The ending is decent but not exactly what I thought it would be. Some parts are left open. I would have liked a little more closure, especially connected to the key people from Book One who didn’t reappear in this sequel. I would have also liked more details on Zinc and Copper. They were crucial characters in the first book and deserved an extended role in this story too.

I repeat my complaint about the cover pic. While the artwork is truly stunning, the girl on the cover simply doesn’t resemble Lufeng (or Sangshu) as described in the content. The Feng girls are supposed to be tree-like creatures, with barked skin and needle-thread hair. Why sketch them like generic East-Asian girls?

I had mentioned in my review of Book One that it could have been a single novel instead of a duology. Do I still feel the same? Yes. In fact, we could have had Sangshu’s background story coming more gradually interspersed through Lufeng’s narrative, thereby eliminating the lengthy catch-up chapter.

Overall, I am a bit disappointed at how this sequel went. While it did continue the story, it changed tracks so hard that it was like reading a different genre altogether. I'm not used to high fantasy, so a major handicap in my experience was my limited capability to visualise the intricacies of this new world and its denizens. But I genuinely feel that 50-70 more pages would have helped this novella to be properly fleshed out.

Recommended to high fantasy fans who enjoy allegorical narratives. This sequel cannot be read as a standalone and if possible, read both books back to back because the plots are too complex. As they are both novellas, the combined length is that of one novel.

2.5 stars. (I cannot give it only 2 stars because the imagination is way above average, and I cannot give it 3 stars because I didn’t understand it enough to like it. 😬 Rounding up mainly for the astounding creativity of the author.)

My thanks to author Ai Jiang and Titan Books for providing the DRC of “A River From the Sky” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.