Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge
When I first heard about Frances Hardinge’s books I went to my local bookshop determined to find this, her debut, novel. They didn’t have it and so I bought one of her later books, the disturbing and scary Cuckoo Song. I am glad, because it led me on to reading other stand-out stories like A Face Like Glass and the Costa award-winning The Lie Tree.
I had difficulty getting involved in Fly By Night and Mosca Mye’s story. There is evidence of Frances Hardinge’s ‘altered reality’ that runs through all her books but I feel that it has not developed here into the excellence that her later stories have begun.
I am so glad that my local bookshop did not have this book in stock back then, because I might well not have moved on to her other books which are all unquestionably, true, modern classics. This is an entertaining romp of a yarn but one that leaves me somewhat unsatisfied.