Those Above

I came to Polansky via his highly enjoyable Low Town books, essentially crime novels given a fantasy spin. Those Above is a much more traditional kind of epic fantasy, set in a world where humanity is subject to the titular creatures, a sort of avian race that have effortlessly mastered us. The book follows four characters at various levels of society, from the highest to the lowest. And that is really my main problem, because that is all it does. There is very little plot, a bit of enjoyable politicking in one strand, but mostly a slow observation of characters and their interactions with others. The world building and character drawing is strong, and I enjoyed reading it a lot, but the end of the book has barely advanced from the beginning. I understand it is part of a two book series, and this has done a good job of putting pieces in the right places, but the second volume needs to deliver on story. I wonder if this would have been better served by being published as one big standalone novel - it works for Guy Gavriel Kay, after all.