Liu Lufeng has a problem. She is the eldest daughter of the Feng family. They are wind walkers, they can talk to and harness the wind. They are literally made of wood. But she must negotiate the safety and continued survival of her people, and so Lufeng will marry the human King. But she soon learns that not is all that it appears and the people, especially her younger sister, are in more danger than they know. And the revelations will surprise the reader even more than Liufeng herself.
This is the story of A Palace Near the Wind, first in a duology.
Jiang slides us quickly into a fantastic fantasy world where we don’t know the rules, where we are immediately in a world that feels a bit like Faerie. People with bark skin, branches for limbs, the magic of wind. The proposal of marriage feels like something out of a faerie story that you may have read many times before, too. A human noble marries a faerie princess and she goes back with him to his human world. This does not all go to plan. Simple, right? Not so simple as all that Jiang keeps us off balance throughout, and slowly and surely starts revealing more and more facets about what is going on.
For you see, Lufeng has a plan to save her world. She’s the eldest daughter, the princess who has let her sisters be married one by one...and now to defend her younger sister, she will not only marry the king, instead...but will seek to end him and his reign entirely, to ensure peace and safety for the wind walkers. And so she spins a plot and plan to kill the King in order to stop the endless marriages and the danger to her people. Complicating this are threats against her, her mother (a prisoner), and the looming potential threat against her younger sister. But as soon as Lufeng arrives at the palace, revelations of who the King really is, what the palace they go to really is, and the nature of the world throw her plan off course.
And most importantly, revelations of what Lufeng and her people actually are and where they came from.
The novella is entirely from a tight point of view set on Lufeng, and it often takes others to jostle loose key information that the protagonist already knows, and has not told us. That, plus the information control that Lufeng herself has to fight through, to find her siblings, her mother and protect her people mean that the entire novella is one of slow revelation. That revelation is sometimes punctuated by violence, or outright dark fantasy or horror (such as a rather disturbing banquet scene). Lufeng and us get a real sense of the world, perhaps even more than Lufeng herself really understands. We get words, names, concepts and worldbuilding blocks that she can’t quite fit together, but I as a reader could see what Jiang was and is doing. It’s another classic case of the reader having more information than the main character.
With that said, I don’t want to get into too much detail on that front, because this novella is one of discovery, revelation, of pulling that veil aside, for the reader somewhat faster than what Lufeng manages to do. It does leave the locations (including the titular palace) and world we see as an amazing and inventive world that I truly liked immersing within, even if I kept having a Bluebeard like feeling that Lufeng’s plot and plan was doomed to disaster from the get-go. And indeed, the longer Lufeng is in the palace, the more complicated things get for her, and for the reader as those veils are pulled back. And again, it is a case of the reader knowing and understanding and putting pieces together that Lufeng is slower to come to. I think Jiang does a good job in having the reader in a tense state of “will she “get it” in time to save herself and the Wind Walkers?”
Overall, the tone and style of the fantasy reminds me heavily of Neon Yang’s Tensorate series of novellas. A wild, unusual fantasy world where elements of science fiction creep in, almost unexpectedly here and there to provide a fantasy landscape that is original, immersive and creative. This is most definitely not your typical fantasy within the Great Walls of Europe by any means. Also, as mentioned above, the revelation of information as to what this world is really like and what is going on, both to our main character and to us, is a masterful use of information control and plotting that I had previously read in Jiang’s “I am AI” .
Also, too the theme of characters who are not what they appear, even to themselves, is something very much in common in a very different subgenre, setting and main character. The revelations I mentioned above are not just about the nature of the world, but the nature of Lufeng’s family, people, the King and the rest of the society around them. While the motif and metaphor of an outlander princess getting a rapid education in court politics and history is not a new one, in this setting with the additional worldbuilding that is going on, it takes on a whole new dimension and layer of meaning.
And finally the writing. The writing and descriptions are sharp and sometimes brutal. Given the subject matter and what Lufeng goes through,there are parts of this novella, and revelations, that are not at all easy for the reader, much less the character. And there is a real wonder, too, for the reader as we are introduced, again and again, to the strange elements of the world.
This is, to be clear, really the first half of a longer text and there is no good jumping off point. The narrative stops, not very cleanly. If you like what you’ve read here, you will want to read it, knowing that, like I, I am very curious as to what “happens next”. The revelations, reveals and the slowly clarifying situation are intriguing, but it is clear Jiang has more surprises in store. And I am quite invested in seeing what those are.
--
- Inventive fantasy world, worldbuilding and revelations
- Interesting use of information control vis a vis the main character and the reader
- Sharp, sometimes brutal writing--but too, wonder.
- Gorgeous cover art
POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.
