karireads's review
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A compelling page turner.
maleesha's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
hawkorhandsaw's review
adventurous
mysterious
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.5
aphamilyaffair's review
2.0
An incredibly intriguing plot, but Beaulieu's style of plopping you in the middle of a complicated world and having you figure out a complex magic system was too much for me. I prefer for my epic fantasies to provide me a background, rather than using the context of the entire book to figure out what's going on. I had a very difficult time reading this book, although I thoroughly enjoyed the story at the end.
aardwolf98's review
4.0
I find the overall story interesting but the details to be confusing. The setting and cultures are different from what I usually read, more Russian than European.
kittyg's review
4.0
This book took a while for me to get into, largely due to things getting a bit busy with my uni work. However, even though this took me a while, I do think that once you get into this series it has an awful lot of potential and I am looking forward to seeing where the story goes next.
This is set on a couple of different islands which are travelled between by air ships. This immediately caught my attention as I love steampunk style writing and I thought this might be that. I'd say it's a lot more like sky-pirates, but that too is pretty cool!
We pick up the story following a division between the Landed (rulers of the islands), the Aramahn (indigenous to the islands) and the Maharrat who are fanatical revolutionaries. We also have a plague called the Wasting attacking people on the islands and stealing their lives. We follow the meeting f the Nine Dukes which is supposedly going to change the face of Khalakovo, and shape its future...
Other things I liked a lot about this book:
- It's complicated. Whilst I don't think that this book is a strong 3.5* read (it only just got the 3.5* rating) and I don't think it's anywhere near as strong as the later book Twelve Kings (not part of the same series) I do love the complexity of this book and I think although it takes a wile to immerse yourself once you do it's pretty marvellous.
- The characters. We have a few main characters that we're following and they are Nikandr, Rehada and Atiana. The two ladies, Rehada and Atiana, really did capture my attention at times and I found myself loving how they were strong when they needed to be, but also vulnerable when they needed to be. They felt like genuine characters rather than made-up puppets to keep the story going and I appreciated that. I will say that Rehada did shift loyalty a few times and was a little more focused on love than I would have liked making Atiana my favourite, but I still enjoyed both storylines.
I also liked Nikandr, but I will say that his story wasn't as consistantly interesting to me as Atiana or Rehada.
- The magic. This book has all sorts of strange things within it such as elemental spirits, the Dark (kind of like a magical in-between trance) and the Rift. We also get looks at creatures which seems mystical and there's a fair bit to take in.
- The world. I generally really liked the concept of the mountainous islands surrounded by sea and traversed by air ship. It's a pretty cool set up straight away, and it lends itself to adventuring and treachery (which both feature).
- The mystery. I think this is one of those series which reels you in slowly and even though it's dramatic straight away I didn't realise how much I enjoyed it until I was nearing the end and then I went and bought the next two in the series. There's a lot of plotting and mystery here and I really enjoyed that.
Overall I will say that although I think this does have it's flaws and isn't as easy to slip into as Twelve Kings it does have a whole heap of potential and I think that the series could become very engaging as it goes on. This story kept me interested even though it took a while to get through and there was always something new to discover or learn, which I liked. A low 3.5* but a 3.5* all the same :)
(Finally - I just want to note that the audiobook seriously helped me with immersion as I read the first 60% of this on my kindle and then switched to audio and because a lot of the words have a Slavic feel to them I think hearing them read aloud was excellent and immersive!)
This is set on a couple of different islands which are travelled between by air ships. This immediately caught my attention as I love steampunk style writing and I thought this might be that. I'd say it's a lot more like sky-pirates, but that too is pretty cool!
We pick up the story following a division between the Landed (rulers of the islands), the Aramahn (indigenous to the islands) and the Maharrat who are fanatical revolutionaries. We also have a plague called the Wasting attacking people on the islands and stealing their lives. We follow the meeting f the Nine Dukes which is supposedly going to change the face of Khalakovo, and shape its future...
Other things I liked a lot about this book:
- It's complicated. Whilst I don't think that this book is a strong 3.5* read (it only just got the 3.5* rating) and I don't think it's anywhere near as strong as the later book Twelve Kings (not part of the same series) I do love the complexity of this book and I think although it takes a wile to immerse yourself once you do it's pretty marvellous.
- The characters. We have a few main characters that we're following and they are Nikandr, Rehada and Atiana. The two ladies, Rehada and Atiana, really did capture my attention at times and I found myself loving how they were strong when they needed to be, but also vulnerable when they needed to be. They felt like genuine characters rather than made-up puppets to keep the story going and I appreciated that. I will say that Rehada did shift loyalty a few times and was a little more focused on love than I would have liked making Atiana my favourite, but I still enjoyed both storylines.
I also liked Nikandr, but I will say that his story wasn't as consistantly interesting to me as Atiana or Rehada.
- The magic. This book has all sorts of strange things within it such as elemental spirits, the Dark (kind of like a magical in-between trance) and the Rift. We also get looks at creatures which seems mystical and there's a fair bit to take in.
- The world. I generally really liked the concept of the mountainous islands surrounded by sea and traversed by air ship. It's a pretty cool set up straight away, and it lends itself to adventuring and treachery (which both feature).
- The mystery. I think this is one of those series which reels you in slowly and even though it's dramatic straight away I didn't realise how much I enjoyed it until I was nearing the end and then I went and bought the next two in the series. There's a lot of plotting and mystery here and I really enjoyed that.
Overall I will say that although I think this does have it's flaws and isn't as easy to slip into as Twelve Kings it does have a whole heap of potential and I think that the series could become very engaging as it goes on. This story kept me interested even though it took a while to get through and there was always something new to discover or learn, which I liked. A low 3.5* but a 3.5* all the same :)
(Finally - I just want to note that the audiobook seriously helped me with immersion as I read the first 60% of this on my kindle and then switched to audio and because a lot of the words have a Slavic feel to them I think hearing them read aloud was excellent and immersive!)
bluebec's review
4.0
Fantastic story. Epic fantasy set in a Russian, Siberian world. Great world building, women were present, part of the story and active participants in their lives.
I'm looking forward to reading the other books in this series.
I'm looking forward to reading the other books in this series.
sturg30n's review
3.0
I wavered on whether or not to give this 3 or 4 stars, but settled on three. It was a good story, but the writing wasn't really top notch and the plot made some leaps in places.
philippamary_94's review
4.0
Full review: https://thelittlebookowl.com/2019/07/12/the-winds-of-khalakovo-bradley-beaulieu/
More...