Not as good as his last book

Cloud Cuckoo Land By Anthony Doerr, HarperCollins, $35

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You know when you've read a perfectly wonderful book you can't wait to read what the author comes up with next? That's what I was hoping for when Cloud Cuckoo Land arrived. All The Light We Cannot See was beautiful. But this is something very, very different. It opens in Constantinople, where a young orphan girl is living with women who embroider the robes of priests. She learns to read, and reads the story of Aethon as her city is under seige. Then we leap to modern times and a library in the US. An old man is rehearsing children in a play about Aethon. But there's a bomb planted by a troubled teen among the books. Then there's a space ship and young Konstance is copying the Aethon story which her father has told her. If you were hoping for another great Anthony Doer story you'll be disappointed. — Linda Thompson