An appealing protagonist in an interesting and intriguing fantasy world
Nial has a problem. She has, or thought she had, a very minor talent in controlling the wind, one of three so-called Wisps in the village of Allon-li. But when she sets up a spirit kite for the soul of her deceased husband, one year dead, the unexpected happens, especially given that she is now an adult. She gets exalted as a full Kitemaster. While Wisps and their minor talents are common, Kitemasters are rare, with their ability to control the winds, a gift from the Dragons themselves. And a newly exalted Kitemaster is going to be noticed, quite quickly. Nial’s quiet life is not only gone, but she is propelled into conflict, intrigue and adventure that she cannot imagine. And moral quandaries as well.
This is the story of Jim C Hines’s Kitemaster.
Kitemaster’s strength is in the rich world that Hines presents here. I won’t bury the lede: Kitemasters, in this world, have the capacity and ability to sense storms and manipulate wind. As a result of these magically blessed individuals, the setting features kiteships, which basically are galleon-like ships festooned with kites that the kitemasters on board (typically 2-4, depending on size) keep aloft in the air. Kitemasters have some other abilities as well, including some clever uses in hand-to-hand combat as well.
The state monopoly on kitemasters, and the fact that they derive their abilities from dragons put me in mind of the universe of White Wolf’s Exalted, in particular one of the types of the Dragon Blooded: The Air Exalted. There aren’t kiteships like Hines’s creation in the Exalted setting, not exactly, although there are airships of a somewhat different caliber, run by Air Exalted, working for the Empress. The parallels work rather well, although the nature of the dragons in Hines’s world is very different, but to say more of them would be rather spoilery of the back half of the novel.
And we do get a lot of Nial training to be a kitemaster, especially on a kiteship as well as just the general training of her powers. Hines has put a lot of thought into how his kiteships work, and how to live and work upon them. Even more than being at sea, being on a ship high above the ground, sometimes in rather windy conditions, can be a nerve-wracking and dangerous enterprise. And yes, we do get scenes of what happens when kiteships and their kitemasters come into conflict. Some of these action sequences are among the most pulse-pounding, page-turning parts of the novel.
There are some other unusual bits to the worldbuilding that take a little getting used to and coming to terms with compared to more standard fantasy novels. Even with unusual nonhuman creatures, a monarchy, and other elements you might expect from a secondary world fantasy, Hines has much more than just the kiteships up his sleeve to provide a unique world, such as the very variable nature of the night sky. The fact that the night sky is not at all the fixed bowl of stars in our own world is a real indicator that, for all of its similarities, this is very much not a world next door, but one at least a few blocks away, multiversally speaking. The inciting incident, the setup of a spirit kite for Nial’s dead husband, is an opening not just for her exaltation, but reveals an interesting afterlife for souls in this world.
More than the worldbuilding in the importance of the novel is the character of Nial herself. We start off with her at her lowest point; it’s been a year since her beloved husband has passed away. It’s her connection with that, perhaps (it is deliberately mysterious) that causes her exaltation as a kitemaster. And then her story is off and running. Questions of duty, necessity, privilege, and doing what is right with the gifts that one is given fill her story, and the stories of those who become her companions. For all of the aforementioned world we get, this is a very character-focused novel. Nial is already an adult in her early 20s, but in many ways, this feels like a coming-of-age novel, something more akin to YA than anything else. To be absolutely clear, it would not be YA by any standard definition¹. But given her relative youth, and the feel of her story and position in the village and among her family and friends, this is a book whose protagonist is in the “next cohort” past YA and thus shares at least the afterglow of the tropes from that category. Being from an isolated village, and not greatly aware of the greater portion of the three kingdoms, or the world, her journey from the village, and eventually the capital and quite beyond, takes on the form of a Bildungsroman.
This works both in terms of personality as well as growing into the role. Nial learns what it means to be a kitemaster, but more than just the raw power and the abilities and the coolness of that, she learns some rather painful lessons about how other people can and do act when given power, and learns how to step forward, take risks, and when needed, take a stand.
Thus, beyond the worldbuilding, and tied into the character study, are the ethical and social questions that the novel engages with, all centering around power. I had expected a coming-of-age story around Nial’s unexpected gift, and her coming to terms with it, and her changed life. And I hoped for some additional resolution regarding her deceased husband, since his spirit kite is quite literally the inciting incident for the entire novel. We get all that. But when Nial realizes that her hazy glow of respect for the Queen is terribly misplaced, there are some real ethical and social questions here: What is her duty? What is the right thing to do? Nial doesn’t always gets it right, and in fact often gets it wrong. The novel engages with these questions, and Nial’s decisions and the ultimate arc of the story engages with her moral choices, which in the end boil down to her growth and maturation.
I went into Kitemaster expecting a fun, fresh and fascinating world and main character, as I have come to expect in Hines’s work. I was thinking this would just be a coming-of-age story, and would have been satisfied with just that. What I didn’t expect and also got in the bargain was something more: a meditation on war, conflict, autonomy, and the justice and injustices of a ruler.
Highlights:
- Appealing and engaging protagonist
- Immersive and interesting worldbuilding with a highlight on the titular kitemasters
- Interesting social and moral questions around rulership, right action, and more
Reference: Hines, Jim C. Kitemaster [Caezik, 2025].
¹ I acknowledge the Realpolitik of the publishing industry and the prejudices and perceptions by readers. If Jane C. Hines had written this book, Kitemaster would have, without question, been marketed and described as YA, even if it does not fit those boundaries. But that, as they say, is a story for another time. I will also note that the cover feels more like a YA cover with how Nial is depicted.
