Much better than the cobbled together first book.
I felt the characters were all reasonably developed and generally likable.
Didn't pick up any of the misogyny from the first book.
I liked the way the plot came to a sudden climax towards the end with one of the threads that had just been quietly bubbling along almost in the background pulling all the other threads together. ( )

When I read To Ride Pegasus last year, I was distressed by its sexism and racism. Thus, I approached sequel Pegasus in Flight -- a cherished childhood favorite -- with trepidation. Would it live up to my rose-colored recollection?

Well. Yes and no. It's incredibly creepy to see the novel treating its dystopia as a utopia. For example, the government enforces mandatory sterilization for all the poor slum-dwellers, and all the heroic characters denigrate those poor breeders who keep selling their illegal children to organ-harvesters. (Gee, characters, maybe if these women had any economic options, they wouldn't need to sell their kids!)

And this doesn't even go into some of the questionable plot developments, such as all the characters applauding a middle-aged man falling in love with a twelve-year-old who looks nine. (I'm having horrible flashbacks to Damia!)

But. What I still love is pre-pubescent Tirla scrambling through the slum ducts and playing all sides against one another with a mercenary zeal. Despite some questionable quirks, the core elements -- the unionized Talents, crippled Peter, and scrappy Tirla -- hang together in a relentless (if brainless) plot. There may be some unpleasant ideological assumptions operating in the background, but the surface of Pegasus in Flight is smooth and sleek. And I really love Tirla. ( )

Earth has reached its darkest moment. In subterranean warrens, the poor eke out precarious lives where jobs are scarce and children are sold for labor—while on the surface, a privileged few enjoy lives of luxury. As the population surges and unrest spreads, a disaster of epic proportions seems inescapable. The only hope: a platform under construction in space from which starships will be launched to colonize distant planets. But the project is critically behind schedule.

In the midst of the chaos, Rhyssa Owen and her fellow Talents—telepaths who read minds, kinetics who manipulate matter, and precogs to whom the future is an open book—struggle to survive. Then two children are discovered whose extraordinary psychic gifts have the potential to avert the looming catastrophe—or hasten its ominous arrival. . . . ( )

To read more reviews in this series and others, check out my blog keikii eats books!

82 points, 4 ¼ stars!

Quote:

“How can there be that many illegal children in the Residentials?” Jerhattan City Manager Teresa Aiello demanded of Medical Chief Harv Dunster. “Your people are supposed to tie off after a second pregnancy.”

Review:
Well, Pegasus in Flight was definitely less troublesome than To Ride Pegasus was. I mean, I still have some major "what the fuck" issues. Yet those issues aren't anywhere near as many or as glaring as I had with the first book. It helps that this book was written nearly twenty years after the first was. The world had changed a lot in those twenty years, and the book reflected that change. Thank god.

Pegasus in Flight is about two generations after the events of the first book. The Talents world has moved on from learning psychics exist. They have adapted to having psychics around. And boy have they adapted. Their entire way of life is structured around the fact that they exist. The entire world seems structured in such a way that the Talents live and work for the good of all. I genuinely love this adaptation. I love the worldbuilding that it entails.

In this book there are two different plotlines, which take place in two different worlds, all on Earth, with two very different people. Yet in the end, it is all the same.

The first plotline is what I have dubbed the "Good" plotline, because it has genuinely good people in it. It follows two threads. The first is that there is a quadriplegic teenager who has been trapped in a hospital bed, yet is reaching out with his psychic powers for help. Peter ends up being the strongest telekinetic in the world, as is able to use his Talent to propel his body. Wrapped up in this plotline is that Earth is building a Space Station, for the good of mankind. Earth is overpopulated, and they're trying to do something about it. And they're leaning on telekinetics in any way that they can.

The second plotline is the "Bad" plotline, because the people in it are horrific. These horrifying people are wrapped up in the worldbuilding. In this book you see the near utopia of the previous plotline contrasted dystopian nightmare hellscape of this one. It is a hell of a trip.

This second plotline is located in what is essentially the slums. People are only allowed to have two children, since Earth is overpopulated, and they have to curb growth somehow. And once they have two children, they are forcibly altered so they can have no further children. So in the slums, they decide this is (in my opinion, somewhat rightfully,) an infringement on their rights, and so they have illegal children. Only, they end up selling those children when they get old enough for money to people who prostitute their children out. Charming.

Overall, I found Pegasus in Flight to be an interesting social commentary. Until the end. When a guy in his mid to late twenties falls in love with a 12 year old. Seriously. And they decide to wait for each other, because the guy had a premonition that she'd be ready for him. In four years. When she is sixteen.

Sigh.

This was mostly free of the glaring ethical issues that plagued the first book, just a whole lot of societal issues. Yet I chalk the societal issues up to worldbuilding, because that whole sterilization thing was horrid, but it made some sense. This... "relationship" was just unnecessary with a whole helping of what the fuck.

I genuinely love reading about this world, though. I loved the main characters. I just sometimes wish this was written today, instead of nearly 30 years ago. I wish it was written by a different author. But this is the story I got, and I'm sticking to liking it. ( )

Personal prejudice against stories about children sexually assaulted, used by parents and sold. The sections about finding new talents and the first of those with Rowan's talent. I also do not like when a bad guy/woman gets away with bad behavior using law against the good guys and never getting her comeuppance.