After the dust settles, the City of living bones begins to die, and more trouble brews beneath the clouds in this stirring companion to Fran Wilde's Updraft.
When Kirit Densira left her home tower for the skies, she gave up many things: her beloved family, her known way of life, her dreams of flying as a trader for her tower, her dreams. Kirit set her City upside down, and fomented a massive rebellion at the Spire, to the good of the towers--but months later, everything has fallen to pieces.
With the Towers in disarray, without a governing body or any defense against the dangers lurking in the clouds, daily life is full of terror and strife. Naton, Kirit's wing-brother, sets out to be a hero in his own way--sitting on the new Council to cast votes protecting Tower-born, and exploring lower tiers to find more materials to repair the struggling City.
But what he finds down-tier is more secrets--and now Nat will have to decide who to trust, and how to trust himself without losing those he holds most dear, before a dangerous myth raises a surprisingly realistic threat to the crippled City, in Cloudbound.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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Review
"Cloudbound is a return to Fran Wilde's hugely inventive world of bone towers and residents who strap on wings and take flight, but hero Nat's dilemmas hinge on threats to his loved ones.... What makes this a must-read are the further explorations of Wilde's City of Towers and the residents who soar the skies between them. Those who have always wondered what was beneath the clouds will finally get their answer." 
~ Library Journal
"Action in the skies remains fun, fast, and exactingly rendered, and the ongoing mystery drives a fast and furious plot. Wilde confirms her status as one of the best new writers in SFF with a sequel that delivers on the promise of the original, and then some." ~ James Killen, Tor.com
"A fantastic follow up to UPDRAFT--I liked it better than its predecessor, particularly for what it says about the politics of fear and prejudice, and how giving people what they want isn't always the best thing." ~ Aliette de Bodard, Award-winning author of House of Shattered Wings
"Wilde's worldbuilding remains one of Cloudbound's delights. The revelation at the novel's conclusion - which I will not spoil, because it's worth coming to in its own good time - of what the bone towers actually are is a perfect example. But throughout Nat's sojourn in the clouds, the slow revelation of the world below the clear air of tower society comes with a damp and atmospheric logic, a lowering sense of threat and claustrophobia, that adds immeasurably to the novel's tension.
... In terms of pace, style, structure, and sheer flair? Cloudbound represents the opposite of a sophomore slump. It's that rare bird, the follow-up to a highly praised first novel that doesn't just equal its predecessor's accomplishments, but exceeds them. I felt Updraft was a promising debut effort; Cloudbound sees much of that promise realized, with hints of more to come." Excerpt From: Locus Publications. "Locus, September 2016."

About the Author
FRAN WILDE is an author & technology consultant. Her first novel, Updraft was published in 2015. Her short stories have appeared in Asimov's, Nature, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Wilde also blogs about food and genre at Cooking the Books and for the popular social-parenting website GeekMom. She lives in Pennsylvania with her family.