This was such a stunning read! Went into depth about issues relevent today and we saw the characters develop and grow as they learned the truth of what was happening. Similar plot development to Babel or Blood over Bright Haven, I think this will do so well for sci fi fans!!! The characters felt so real and lived in and I couldn't put it down!

2.5☆
Thank you to Titan Books and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really didn't know what to feel reading through this. Initially I was drawn in with the promise of learning more about the word and its people but I honestly struggled throughout to determine whether the races are actually tree and water people or just described as such due to their isolation (hair being described as both needles and silk like for the people from Feng definitely contributed to my confusion). Where were they humans with elemental powers? I would flip flop between yes and no to answer this question.
The cover art, while pretty, definitely gave me an entirely different expectation of the book.
The world could have been fleshed out more, but that would have allowed even less to describe the characters, most of which read pretty 2 dimensional and weak.
The beginning and the last 3 chapters were the most interesting. The rest needed more planning and focus.

I have been on a recent hunt for dreamlike novels/novellas and found this amongst recommendations so was excited to see this on NetGalley - thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for the eARC.

Sadly it didn't quite work for me. I thought the premise was very interesting and the world creative however found the writing to be quite clunky which is one of the factors preventing my immersion into the story.

I appreciate the message of the story presented - indigenous rights and nature vs colonialism but ultimately this is a story that you need to feel connected to in order to feel moved and I wasn't. The characters felt flat and everything needed more development in order to feel like a fully fleshed out tale.

I do love a novella and most of the time I'm fine with us getting a smaller story but this is one of the occasions where I felt it needed more.

A Palace Near the Wind is dreamy and flows like the wind. I was swept into the story and its abstract nature. The world has magic clashing with realistic ideas. There are a few different themes covered from grief and responsibility to identity. This is one of those books where the prose sings but the content can be confusing. I would likely have to reread a few times to understand what I just read and even then it’s open to interpretation. It’s interesting and vivid in a dreamlike way as I couldn’t tell you what I actually visualised at points. I think with further world building development and a more gentle introduction this would have helped my enjoyment levels.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

A Palace Near the Wind is a beautifully written story with a dreamlike atmosphere and lyrical prose. The themes of memory, loss, and identity are compelling, but at times, the narrative feels a bit too abstract, making it hard to fully connect with the characters. While the writing is undeniably poetic, the pacing can feel slow, and some moments could have been more emotionally impactful. Overall, it’s a unique and thoughtful read, but it may not resonate with everyone.

The Wind Walkers of Feng are dryad-like beings, one with the trees, who face the threat of extinction at the hands of humanity. To protect their home, Lufeng is sent to wed the human king, with the secret mission to assassinate him and free them all from his tyranny. What Lufeng doesn't realize, however, is that the world outside of Feng contains secrets and truths she must face if she is to free anyone.

The worldbuilding and writing are beautifully atmospheric, painting a lush picture of a magical, natural world versus an industrial monstrosity. A Palace Near the Wind is about both colonialism and environmentalism, and Lufeng's journey within the human castle explores the complicated emotions that come with losing your heritage and donning the culture of your colonizer. While this is a novella, Jiang manages to paint a compelling picture that reflects our own world. The cost of industrialization, the erosion of identity, the circumstances that lead one to accept or reject imperialism. I will also say that, without giving away too much, I found the twist to be quite interesting as it played on our own expectations of the premise.

My main issue came with the pacing as the story ramped up to its finale. Things got rushed and cut off in an awkward manner at odds with the rest of the story. We certainly leave off at a gripping point in the story, but our journey there was a little bumpy. Still, I'm very excited to read the next installment!

I struggled a bit with “A Palace Near the Wind”, mostly due to the lack of information in the beginning of the novella. I was confused for a good portion of the story, and felt as though there were many things that were not explained fully. For example, the machines such as the Travelers and the larger version of Travelers - I was unable to properly visualize these as I could not grasp their descriptions. The events of the story also felt a bit rushed, and could likely have benefitted from having more time spent on them. I was excited by the premise and appreciated that the story was essentially a look at the nature versus industrialization conflict. I liked the theme of the importance of family, and the emphasis on Lufeng’s sense of responsibility and duty based on her status as the eldest daughter of her lineage. Lufeng seeks to preserve the wildness of her home, Feng, and desires to resist the encroachment of the Palace and its people on the sanctity of her people’s land. Forced to marry the King, she signs a contract she cannot read and is bound by its terms. I am not sure if I would read the second installment, but I would like to think I would give it a chance.

<blockquote>I hated that I continued to be led, to be brought from place to place, living moon by moon according to the agenda of others. </blockquote>
You know what, I also hated that too and that was most of the book.

I do not enjoy books where the main character and myself are clearly in complete ignorance. Everyone around us knows what is happening but we are left in the dark. It really denies a sense of agency to the character and by way myself as the reader. I spent the first 2/3 of the book with little idea of what was happening, playing a game with no pieces. Even when there was supposedly big reveal moments, information was not given freely and everything remained vague. You only gain information as to what is happening in the last like 3 chapters, all jumbled together, setting up the next book, when in reality it feels like I was just given the set up to a story and told it was complete. It left me feeling like I didn't enjoy the entire thing.

The other unexpected problem that I think aided in my confusion is I found the descriptions incredibly difficult to visualise, thus all these foreign devices and places were really nebulous in my brain. Part of this I know is because Lufeng is a foreigner and it is her first time seeing these things, but I don't think I have encountered this before where I just needed a sentence or two more to help me understand. Example being "the Travelers", these devices they move in I don't understand if they are like on slits walking or how big they are, it truly baffles me.

Overall, I do not wish to continue this series. There are some interesting bits here and there but I am left frustrated.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

Ai Jiang presents a fascinating dilemma, the one which many of us have encountered in our lives and continue to do so. In this fantasy fictional world, the conflict of ideas remain familiar to our experiences. This world is rich with humans and human-like folks, where the balance of nature is tipping due to industrialization. It is at this precipice where the story picks up, and is narrated through the eyes of eldest daughter of Wind Walkers and her betrothal to the King.
A novella that I really wanted to love but struggled to connect with the characters, or even the plot. The world building takes the center stage and everything else, including the narrator "FengFeng" becomes monotone.

Having a full length novel would help in answering many questions the novella leaves open. Maybe they are incoming in next installment but as a standalone novella, it leaves us with a good chunk of questions.

Definitely reading the next part!

<i>Thank you to Netgalley and Titan Books for providing me with a free copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review. </i>

A Palace Near the Wind - By AI Jiang.

I was really looking forward to reading this novella, however, I feel there was a lot of unanswered questions raised throughout & while this may be the first of a duology, there were far to many things left unanswered and the cliffhanger ending was extremely abrupt.

This isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy the story, because I totally got engrossed in the world AI Jiang has created. I just felt that the answers simply didn’t come. The world building is imaginative, the characters & their motivations are well defined (for the main character Lufeng at least.). But ultimately with the sequel not due to drop for another year far too much is left to the imagination unfortunately.

Will I get the book when it drops? Yes for sure as this warrants a second read. Would I recommend this or others? Very much so, But most likely with the caveat to wait for the second book before doing so, as this story while very interesting & enjoyable is perhaps not quite fulfilling enough to warrant the long wait the reader will have for the answers it needs.

Overall for now this is probably a 3 star book, but I’m hopeful the answers will come in time and when they do it should sit much closer to 4 stars.

Thank you to#NetGalley &#titanbooks for allowing me the privilege and honour of this ebook copy of ‘A Palace Near the Wind’ by A I Jiang to read & review.

The comments & opinions above are solely my own & are reflective of my experience reading this book.

4.75 rounded up to 5

A Palace Near the Wind is a captivating tale that leaves you begging for more. Jiang leans into the elegant beauty of nature’s elements to create the distinct groups of people seen in this book. The world-building is conceptually straightforward, yet the prose is figurative and almost lyrical, which just enhances the imagery. It’s so easy to immerse yourself into Lufeng’s story.

It’s a relatively short read that manages to speak on SO MUCH. On the surface, it’s a whimsical fantasy/science fiction, but it’s very speculative and dystopian at its core. It’s clear from the start that there is a conflict between the Feng (wind) and the humans, which sparks questions of nature vs industrialization, contentment vs advancement, and expansion vs destruction. As we follow Lufeng, the eldest Feng princess set to marry the human king, it’s evident that the humans in this world are ready to destroy all others in the name of progress. After all, her sacrificial marriage is just one of many negotiated between her family and the humans - a bride in exchange for pausing the humans’ expansion project for another few years. Lufeng enters the palace determined to stop the cycle by taking down the king, only to learn that there is more to this “marriage” and her family origins than what she was told all her life.

As the eldest daughter with a disposition similar to Lufeng’s, her character development was cathartic. The moment she was born, she was meant to become Feng’s leader in her grandmother’s place. Lufeng is dutiful and responsible, always maintaining decorum and obediently following the procedure, often to the dismay of her younger sisters. Rebelling is not in her nature, but to truly protect her family, she must do more—she must reassess who to trust and do whatever it takes to save her family.

The story was paced so well, and every single reveal made my jaw drop. Even when my hunch was on the nose, my mind was still boggled. That’s how phenomenal the plot was. The ONE thing I needed more on was the king’s character. Was he meant to be cryptic, or was it that Lufeng just couldn’t read/trust him? By the end, it’s not clear if we will learn more about him in the next book, which left me a bit unsatisfied with what we now know about his character.

Overall, I’m so eager to read the next book! I honestly can’t even believe I have to wait a full year to continue the story. I will be keeping a look out for when the second book becomes available.

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for this ARC!

A unique tale exploring the realm of the dichotomy of "tradition" and "modernity"

"That could be the reason most of those living in Feng had been prevented from learning it, limited only to spoken Script. It was to keep us under control, from speaking out, from rebelling – at least until we signed an agreement, a contract, in ignorance, forcing us to become docile and useful."

Wow! What a unique setting and story! I can't remember ever entering a world like the one in "A Palace Near the Wind". In fact, I had a bit of trouble imagining the characters(needle threads, for example), but that could be because English is not my first language. That doesn't mean that I wasn't completely immersed in this world with every chapter, though.
The story and the plot also developed completely differently than I expected! At times I sat in front of my eReader with my mouth open and wondered how that could be - because the book manages to make a thousand questions pop up that you really want to have answered.
In addition to these aspects, I particularly liked all the strong, female characters who clearly play key roles in the story as well as playing with the question of whether it's always good to rely on "tradition" or to set aside one's own being for the sake of "modernity". We witness on multiple occasions an assimilation of the people of Feng to "fit" into the biases of the Land Walkers. It makes you feel uneasy – especially given real-world colonialism and the fact that it isn't just a fantasy setting. Aren't our differences and the fact that we can learn from each other what's really important and desirable? Because this is what I saw in Lufeng's experiences at the palace. She found some aspects of "their" life she could find a liking in, question her own biases, but never (literally) shedding her own skin to fit in. Even if it meant power and control. In a way this book is poetic, teaching us that just because this isn't "our" way of living, doesn't mean it's necessarily bad.

Overall it's an amazing book; poetic, strange and unique. I must admit that whenever I read it before going to bed, I had the strangest dreams – it made me think a lot about it, because I loved the underlying message. I can't wait for the next book, honestly!

I really wanted to love this one but the story felt rushed and slow at the same time. I really liked the world building but in such a short novella it left little room to feel connection to any of the characters. Saying that I do want to read the next one and I’m hopeful it will fill the gaps left by the first one. I’m really intrigued by Engine; I have many images in my head of it already!

The environmental themes felt very on the nose, a literary take on Nature vs Industry. It gave me Princess Mononoke vibes.

Overall I did like it but I felt like there was so much missing and a cliffhanger in such a small book is frustrating.

Thank you to Titan Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

I received this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

TLDR: This started strong with an interesting environment and race, but due to page constraints and too much plot to put in, there's not enough time to really understand the characters, their personalities and thoughts, and it lacks heavily in foreshadowing, well-built characters besides our main character, and believable consequences.

FULL:
I would like to start with: I first requested this ARC because it was showing up as a standalone, however upon finishing my read of it, I now discover it's being labelled as a first in a series. This is very annoying for I specifically go out of my way to request standalones as I already have more than enough series on-going. I would not have requested this if I had known it was a series starter to begin with.

Now going into the review, unfortunately my enjoyment of this book went down the further I got into the story.

I really enjoyed the first 40-50% of this - getting to know this world, learning how the wind people looked and lived - this was so unique and unlike something I had read before in fantasy -, how Feng coped with going to this new scary place, experiencing all these new and confusing customs that made her feel sick, I also really enjoy a part later where she learnt to read and entering the library. But once we get to the "married" part and onwards, the plot gets very weak and rushes through everything leaving me to feel very empty about the rest of the world and the other characters in it. This story should've been either one plot less, or a full novel. The second half of this story really rushes, hardly scratches the surface of what's going on, character motivations, and character descriptions and their personalities. There is almost no foreshadowing, and there doesn't seem to be any preplanning nor well-thought out ideas from our protagonist Feng - she just seems to move instantly without really thinking through what to do, what's next, and how to do it.

My other gripe with this story is how convenient it all is. Feng basically gets around completely unscathed. Heavy spoilers incoming: She found Geming without getting caught; She found her mother without getting caught; She knows about a brother but no one else does; Zinc gave her photos but is apparently on the bad side; She found Chuiliu without getting caught; She escapes the castle with barely a second of restraint until he dad walks out and stops the guards; After all that she goes back to the castle and is allowed to see her mother unsupervised and makes yet another run for it completely unscathed and without a problem. It was all heavily convenient with no challenge, no struggle, no thinking, and with no consequences. While we later find out the villain of the story does know what Feng was doing and going around the castle, there's still no consequence? So, how am I supposed to be scared or worried about our main character or interested in the plot when I know nothing bad is actually going to happen? Because nothing bad actually happens? Nothing consequential (good or bad) happens.

Which leads me to my next gripe: The characters are very paper-thin (pun included). Naturally we connect to Feng the most because we're in her mind and it's her POV. But everyone else? Could not tell you much beyond their names, roundabout age, and their race. We don't really get much of a feel for ANY other character except Feng. I could not tell you their personalities, I could not tell you what they individually looked like, I could not tell you what their individual voices or speech patterns are, I would not be able to tell you the difference between them outside of very, very basic details.

There was a really confusing point related to the sisters; Heavy Spoilers again: when Feng finally meets her older sisters in Clay, they straight away blame her for their marriages. They say along the lines "you were the one who could've stopped it all, could've stopped us getting married", clearly I must've missed something because I was under the impressed Feng was a child when they got married off and this entire story, not once had we been told she was the strongest sister magically, not once were we told she had the greatest power out of all of them, so I really don't understand what they meant by this here.

This didn't work out as well for me as I was hoping. Having loved my first two experiences of Ai's work, this fell a little flat.

What begins as a fascinating allegorical tale, with some truly intriguing world building, gets lost in a too rushed plot and characters that I didn't feel I could root for or lacking considerable depth and complexity.

I fear this story suffers from being too short. A promising premise that failed to sustain itself.

Despite my own personal experience, I did find that I wanted to learn more about the world, which had a nature vs industry, science fantasy vibe, with dystopian overtones that I really appreciated.

One thing's for sure, Ai is a great writer, with a distinctive voice and one of the most exciting new genre writers out there.

Unfortunately, this novella didn't work so well for me, but I can see it being very popular with those who enjoy dystopian science fantasy that leans a little more towards YA.

A Palace Near the Wind is a glimpse into a unique and intriguing dystopian world, that feels relevant to our own.

This was a beautifully written, wonderfully imaginative story. I read an eARC of this book so thank you to the author and the publisher.

There is so much richness to this book and it is absolutely jam packed with world building, fantastical elements, political intrigue. I did want this to be longer. It felt like there was so much packed in and I wanted more time to learn more about it, immerse myself in the world, understand the different elements, characters and factions more. This is such a short book (a novella) and it really deserved to be longer to allow us to spend more time learning about this world.

We follow a character who is being sacrificed as a bride to the human king following the same sacrifice her mother had to make. She intends to kill him. She is described as bark skinned and having sap and is horrified by eating meat. She makes this sacrifice to save her people and stop the human expansion. We see commentary around the horrors humans inflict upon the world. Compounded by later discoveries by the main character.

There was so much in this book that was absolutely amazing! The imagination and visual splendour was wonderful and I wanted to immerse more in it! I was intrigued by the statements the book appeared to be making and I would have loved more content to explore.

Beautifully written, with an interesting and mysterious premise. Despite this being a novella I unfortunately was unable to finish in time. I had a hard time connecting with the characters and the descriptions of how the tree beings exist was a little confusing to me. At times they had very human functions, and at others they were vastly different. Unfortunately I started reading this right when work got very busy for me, so that definitely impacted my ability to stick with it. I would like to return to the story when time allows and give it the focus it deserves.

3.5 rounded up for Goodreads

Title/Author: A Palace Near the Wind by Ai Jiang

Page Count: 192 pages

Publisher: Titan Books

Format: Hardcover novella

Other Books I Enjoyed by This Author: Linghun

Affiliate Link: https://bookshop.org/a/7576/978180336...

Release Date: April 15th, 2025

General Genre: Sci-fi, Eco-Fantasy, High fantasy

Sub-Genre/Themes: Industrialim, nature, arranged marriage, colonization, culture, identity, climate change and the preservation of natural resources, family, royalty

Writing Style: thought-provoking, imaginative, unique

What You Need to Know: "a richly inventive, brutal and beautiful science-fantasy novella. A story of family, loss, oppression, and rebellion."

My Reading Experience: I typically don't venture out into the SFF territory too often, but I'm a big Ai Jiang fan, and she has written some speculative horror fiction too, so I had to check this one out. The main character, Liu Lufeng, is a princess with bark skin and braded branches for limbs. She also has "hair made of needle threads".
It was hard for me to picture this unless I allowed it to play out like an animated movie, so once I let go of live-action visuals and went with a more Studio Ghibli vibe, I settled in.

"We are the people of Feng and Feng itself—a part of the trees, a part of the wind. Just as we borrow the wind, the wind also borrows us."

Still, I think there could have been more intentional scenework where the author could describe the Feng, "Wind Walkers," more cinematically.
A lot of attention is given to world-building and setting which does slow down the pacing and the sense of urgency. The story revolves around a pivotal time for the main protagonist, who has arrived at her new home, a palace, to marry the King, who is responsible for treating her people and the land as resources to use up and spit out in the name of industry and progress. The marriage is just a business arrangement.

"I’d thought the Land Wanderers wanted to convert us all. But no, what they wanted to do was steal all that made us who we were, use us, then toss us away."

There is a huge cast of characters for such a small book and I feel like they don't get enough page-time to make them special or people I could emotionally invest in. Perhaps this will be taken care of in later installments since this is only book one in the scope of a larger project.
I am out of practice and out of my element jumping into high fantasy--so I feel a little rusty. I was confused a lot of the time but I always enjoy Jiang's imagination and storytelling voice.

Final Recommendation: For fans who enjoy colorful, whimsical high fantasy about destiny/fate and a strong female protagonist willing to rebel against choices that have been made on her behalf.
"Yet the need to rebel, to break the agreement, simmered within me."

Comps: Green Teeth by Molly O'Neill

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this story.
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

This was such an interesting novella. I kept trying to wrap my head around the images of beings made from nature. I loved the concept of it as it felt so alien but also not at the same time? If that makes sense. The plot twists were also abundant for such a short story. Learning bout her parents and her siblings and the experiments they were undergoing all made for a very compelling read. I'm wondering if there will be more from this author about these characters. It seemed like something that continue but I'm unsure.

A Palace Near the Wind is a decent enough read, but I had a lot of struggles with it, personally. As such I think my rating is more of a 2.5 or 2.75, but I've rounded up for this one as there were pieces of it I enjoyed.

Once I worked out the dreamy prose style, it was easier to feel somewhat immersed. The overall atmosphere was pretty ethereal, like a living dream, which in some parts was nice but for the entire novella I felt it lost a lot of depth. The story began very much like a Fern Gully or Pocahontas and around midway it gets a little more Black Mirror, a lot more sci-fi than you're led to believe at first. Which while interesting and I think was done okay, definitely felt a little odd, tonally.

This is where I had the most trouble: as the dreamy quality of the prose wasn't immediately clear to me, everything felt a little lacking in depth. I couldn't get hold of a scale, stakes, much of anything. I think the author was going for the vibe of this is just how Lufeng sees the world, right? But it came across like a fairy tale written for young adults. Very little depth, a little bombastic with it's style in areas with characters and settings that felt cartoonish, and very hard to grapple onto. You really have to give yourself into the dreamy quality for this one. It's very strange.

The characters felt too flat for me, though colourful. A little like 2d animation or a comic book.

The pacing of the story was okay, though it lacked in areas. We're told months pass and very little happens and then everything happens, and then very little again. It felt odd. There were so many points where I just wanted more depth (apologies to keep repeating myself but this really is the sticking point for me, sadly). I wanted to see Lufeng working through her plans, connecting with others, but it just never quite goes there and that made it so difficult to connect to the story and what was going on. Sadly. Because there's a really solid story and world in here, beautiful, even, I just couldn't get invested like I wanted to.

Things just feel too unclear. I could grasp that her plans were flawed because she had no prior experience with needing to act calculated and murderous, or education or information about how things are and what's really going on, but that was a deduction I made, it's not made that clear in the writing. The characters do act the way I'd expect them to act, (except for the mysterious teleporting jade necklace at the end), but yeah it's just... disappointing.

Overall I didn't love this one the way I hoped I would. The concept is incredible, there's a world in here I could really latch onto, and it is beautiful and ethereal, certainly sad, but sadly it reads too young for my personal tastes and it lacks in the depth I like in my books. There certainly is depth here, I'm not saying it's entirely lacking, I wouldn't have been able to finish if there was none, but it just didn't do what I need a book to do. The 'promise' wasn't there to connect to the 'progress', and the 'payoff' never felt like it made it.

I do think if you're down for a Fern Gully meets 1984 (how up-to-date are my references!) young adult dreamy science-fantasy with a lot of elemental magic trying to survive in a world that wants to crush and use them for its own means, you might love this one, but it wasn't quite for me.