A Palace Near the Wind
Ai Jiang
From a rising star author, a richly inventive, brutal and beautiful science-fantasy novella. A story of family, loss, oppression and rebellion for readers of Nghi Vo's The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Neon Yang's The Black Tides of Heaven and Kritika H. Rao's The Surviving Sky Sometimes called Wind Walkers for their ability to command the wind, unlike their human rulers, the Feng people have bark faces, carved limbs, arms of braided branches, and hair of needle threads. Bound by duty and tradition, Liu Lufeng, the eldest princess of the Feng royalty, is the next bride to the human king. The negotiation of bridewealth is the only way to stop the expansion of the humans so that the Feng can keep their lands, people, and culture intact. As the eldest, Lufeng should be the next in line to lead the people of Feng, and in the past, that made her sisters disposable. Thankful that her youngest sister, Chuiliu, is too young for a sacrificial marriage, she steps in with plans to kill the king to finally stop the marriages. But when she starts to uncover the truth about her peoples' origins and realizes Chuiliu will never be safe from the humans, she must learn to let go of duty and tradition, choose her allies carefully, and risk the unknown in order to free her family and shape her own fate. A powerfully imaginative, compelling story of a young woman seeking to save her family and her home, as well as a devastating meditation on the destruction of the natural world for the sake of an industrial future.
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Thank you to NetGalley, Ai Jiang, and Titan Books for the E-ARC! The stunning cover of this book was what drew me in, and the story and main character, Lufeng, is what made me adore it. I went into this book quite blind, and believe that that is the best way to read this book. To avoid any spoilers this review will be brief. Ai Jiang writes a beautiful story, using an entrancing writing style that immerses you into it's world of nature versus machinery. While this book is short, don't worry about it lacking on any of the world building or character development, it does an excellent job of doing both while making you want more. Plus as I said, I loved the main character Lufeng, experiencing and discovering the details of this world with her was such a pleasure! This book was hard to put down and I will be impatiently awaiting the second one! I would highly recommend you pick this up if you're looking for a book that borders on sci-fi and fantasy.
0Thank you to NetGalley and Publishers for letting me read this story!
I enjoyed this book’s concept very much I loved the mixture of sci-fi and fantasy. I thought characters like Feng and Geyser were very well written and I did feel for them given their circumstances.
I rated this book lower because I just didn’t feel the excited or betrayal from the twist of the story. In my reading I felt like the twists just didn’t give a great impact on the story. For example the whole marriage actually being a business contract should have blown my mind or that the king is her father. I wasn’t even shocked when he had sap for blood.
Overall I feel like I just wanted more to the story. I think the universe and the whole concept is just so cool but I think it could be way more developed.
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 stars
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