A unique and inventive sci-fantasy novella! A Palace Near the Wind took a bit for me to get into, but but once I understood what was going on I was riveted. The sci-fi elements slowly develop through the book, but they are all seen through the eyes of a woman with no context for technology.

Lufeng is from a group of tree people essentially, with bark-like skin and deep communion with nature, able to harness the wind. Now she follows her mother and two sisters being traded to the King as a bride in exchange for their forests surviving a little longer. She leaves her home and travels to a palace made of bone to prepare for the marriage ceremony. She is deeply disturbed by the palace, and things are not as they seem...

This was fascinating and twisty. Also I'm by no means a vegan or vegetarian but the way the author describes people eating meat etc. is extremely grotesque, and clearly on purpose. It does make sense from the perspective of the main character though. I don't want to say too much and spoil anything, but I found the suspense to be very effective and I'm curious to see where the next installment might go. I received a copy of this book for review via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

I wish this novella was longer! I would have loved to dive more into the world, more descriptions, and a little more time with each character as we moved forward in the book. I can’t wait to read the second novella in this duology to see what happens, and hopefully this may turn into a longer novel down the line. 3.75/5

The writing style is very unique for this book and my brain had trouble understanding what was happening. As this is a shorter book and the cover is beautiful, I plan to purchase this one to have on my shelves forever. Usually the books with the most complex writing styles end up changing my perspective the most, so I want to pick this one up again.

Thank you for the opportunity to sample this book! I am leaving honest feedback voluntarily.

I tried so hard to like this book because the premise seems so interesting but in my opinion, the storyline was not done very well. It seemed very hard to follow the world building as it was all describe in a round a bout way and then to find out that she married her father half way? Yeah that sealed the deal for me unfortunately.

Rating: 4/5

Quick Synopsis
This is a science fiction novella that tells the story of Lufeng, the eldest princess of Feng Royalty as she becomes the next bride to the human king. As she learns more about the history of her people, she seeks to save her family and home from humans.

Review
Although this is a short story, I really liked this novella. I found the concept of these “tree-like” people. In the beginning I was a little bit confused about the characters but I understood more as I kept reading. This story talks about oppression and rebellion. I think the author does a good job of depicting these things. If you are interested in science fiction with non human characters as well as depictions of characters rising from oppression then I would definitely recommend this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

As expected, this is wildly imaginative and ambitious like all of Ai's other works. I can't get enough of that brand of hers. Seriously. Give me more of these brain worms, please.

At the end of this novella, however, I was left asking far too loudly: "Why didn't they give us one complete novel instead of two novellas?"

So, while I do love Ai’s storytelling (both short form and long form) in the darkest depths of my soul, I think the chosen format doesn’t do the storytelling (read: the pacing) justice in this particular case.

When you're as impressively versatile and prolific as Ai is, I'm not surprised that the format can slip at times. It won't stop me from reading the next installment, however, and whatever else that she writes.

While the concept is spectacular, the execution was lacking. This should have been a full-length novel instead of a novella. The descriptions and world-building were practically non-existent, which made it very hard to visualize the world and understand what was happening. I also could not connect with the characters at all because they did not feel developed enough. I was not rooting for them at all because of that and because their motivations and actions were not explained at all. I really thought I would love this book, and I am very sorely mistaken.

Thank you to the publisher for the e-copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A palace near the wind by Ai Jiang holds a lot of potential. It has a promising plot and wonderful world building but the problem lies in the execution. I'm struggling to write a review for this because I really did not grasp the concept of this book, and maybe thats just on my part?
This was a luscious blend of sifi and fantasy, with an intriciate magic system however it felt too overcrowded. The concept was amazing though, the idea of nature (tree-people) having to struggle to not be assimilated by humans who depend on machinery, really had me exited for an Asian steampunk. However, this was just too short. I wish it were longer so that I recieved more content to connect with characters and wrap my head around the plot.
It took me 50 pages to finally dissect the writing, which was also confusing due to the use of capatilizng simple nouns. I felt like information was being thrown out in waves between scenes and the book starts off a bit abruptly. Overall, I would suggest to take your time reading this because it does take an effort to understand.

My favorite part was the ending, as it left the prospect of hope amongst the family and was a neat wrap up to such a short story.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

A palace near the wind follows LuFeng as she is forced into a sacrificial marriage with the king. A fate her mother and sisters also entered into and she hasn't heard anything from them since. Upon entering the palace she slowly realises things aren't quite what they seem.

This novella has an intriguing premise but it unfortunately falls very flat. To compare this to Princess Mononoke and T. Kingfisher is frankly insulting.

The world building is essentially non existent and falls short with a number of logical inconsistencies. The author leaves the reader to mostly "figure it out as they go" with how the world works and what things are. There are a number of plot points that our FMC should be actively challenging as they do not make a lick of sense but she does not. I guess her sister was right, being the oldest sibling does not make her the wisest.

The characterisation of our FMC lacks any nuance of development. She is very cut and dry and one note. Not only does the author fail to create an interesting world but the cast of characters are lackluster as well.

Very disappointing as I was looking forward to this read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I want to start off this review by saying thank you to Netgalley and Titan books for the opportunity to read this eArc in exchange for an honest review!

Unfortunately, this book fell flat for me. I was very excited to start it given that the concept was so interesting; however, I think there were too many issues present with the world building, plot, and character development.

To start with world building and setting, I really liked the concept of Wind Walkers and Feng as a lush and magic filled place. I wish that Jiang delved a bit deeper into the magic system present, especially because it has been marketed mainly as a fantasy novel. Halfway through the novella, it felt like a sharp turn was taken from fantasy to sci-fi/dystopian, which would have been fine if it wasn’t so confusing. With the fact that this book is less than 200 pages, trying to create a magic system for Feng and then switching before the reader can even understand that felt jarring. I think if Jiang made this a longer book with more development, this world building and genre shift would have been a lot more successful.

The plot of this book felt repetitive, as did the writing: I found that the author started stating things rather than showing them. For example, she writes that “[he] had specifically placed it there for me to find without alerting anyone else of its existence” which I feel was unnecessary as the “it” being talked about was found in a hidden place which Jiang already mentioned in the previous sentence. I don’t want to be too harsh when it comes to things like this; however, I feel like it is important to acknowledge that statements like this are made in place of details regarding world building.

Regarding the plot, Lufeng is next in line to marry the king in order to protect her people from being wiped out, yet she has made a plan to murder the king instead. This plotline is dropped a little before the halfway point, and as the book goes on, Lufeng changes her mind several times, which displays her as an uncertain character. This portrayal of her is contradictory to what I thought going in, especially with her rebellious plans to kill the king. Because of her uncertainty and ignorance to the world around her, I began disliking her character. When she does take action, these actions are futile and land her right back at square one, something that happened at least twice and was largely a part of the plot. I found myself being able to predict what was going to happen, especially after the first plot twist involving the King. I believe that after this twist, every other twist involving someone’s intentions was obvious and not surprising enough to be considered a twist.

Being a little less technical with the story, there were a handful of scenes of Lufeng eating meat that felt very strange. She doesn’t usually eat meat and when she does for the first time she is completely repulsed and vomits, but then a few chapters later she is dreaming of the flavor of the meat she had at this same dinner. It felt like there was almost character development here, showing that she was accepting her role as the King’s new wife, but then didn’t?

I’m not sure if I would recommend this book, but I do also understand how difficult writing a story can be due to all the things an author must think about. I believe if the book was thought out a little more and was longer than a novella, it could have the potential to be both more understandable and more enjoyable.

We follow Liu Lufeng, the eldest daughter and the next in line to lead the people of Feng, as she is to enter a sacrificial marriage with the King and enters the Palace to ensure her land survives and the Palace stops its expansion.

But soon Lufeng realises that nothing is what it seems, and she must learn how to make allies and who to trust.

The story is full of twists, intrigue, family loyalty and betrayal.
The world Ai Jiang created is truly fascinating. It's a shame this book is just a novella, but I hope we'll get more from this world in the next novella.
Truly, the only downside for me was the beginning. It felt too slow and too much information in too few pages.

Overall, an incredible work with beautiful prose and an interesting world.

“A Palace Near the Wind” by Ai Jiang

A princess from the kingdom of the wind is forced to leave her home and enter a new empire of modernity for the sake of protecting her people from its expansion.

While the idea and premise is solid, I wish I had more time with the larger world building before the author threw some curveball plot twists later in the novella. I love the idea of nature rebelling against human consumption and "progress" that ultimately ends up being destructive for everyone, but it feels a little underdeveloped in this iteration.

I wonder if reading the second book in the duo-logy might help with that, which then begs the question of why make this into a novella of it had the capacity to be a fully fledged, standalone novel. looking forward to the next one.

A Palace Near the Wind is a short but dense novella following Lufeng, a tree person who can ride the wind, as she travels to the Palace to marry the human king in the footsteps of her mother and sisters. The most interesting aspect is its peoples, which include the tree folk and their gentle, pacifist ways, and the machine-using land wanderers who build palaces out of bone. Lufeng reacts to her new home and its relationship with death with extreme revulsion, and her sympathy for the felled creatures that prop up the landscape is compelling. But I found the setting itself and its technologies difficult to visualize, and found it hard to get attached to any of the characters, as the short length and high pace of startling revelations made it hard to really settle into the idea of who anyone was or linger on the relationships.

The prose is pretty, and I think it worked best when it leaned into being otherworldly—a tree person would have a different perspective than me, and it's fun when I can feel that in the way things are described. But it struggled at describing the mundane: I still cannot picture the Travelers, which are some sort of legged vehicle, but we sure got a very detailed account of the buttons on the console to drive them; I could not put together the actual setting landscape either time it was described (either a literal map or out a window) and have no sense of scale (we can see a place called Gear from the window, are we city-sized? is this a product of the wind walkers extreme far-vision? I'm uncertain); the descriptions of people are at once extremely distinct (the wind walkers have bark and nettles, a man named Geyser appears to be actually made of liquid) and ambiguous (without spoilers, some people are described one way and revealed to be another).

I confess to reading this while ill, which certainly had some effect on my understanding, but I'm not ordinarily someone who struggles to follow what's going on, and there were multiple times where I was confused.

Much of the plot also hinges on other characters' unwillingness to explain the situation to the protagonist, which I find somewhat cheap. There are times where there were not obvious consequences for trying to explain, such as being observed or under a time crunch, and honestly I think it would do a better job to build the characters if they tried to explain but Lufeng didn't understand or wouldn't listen because it didn't match her expectations. Instead we get little pieces at a time without reason for the withholding (as we're told explicitly at one point that her sisters knew more).

I think I wanted more complexity from the moral questions—technology vs nature, the ethics of meat-eating, why someone would leave home and become someone different, there's hints of something about the idea of luxury that don't quite manifest—and less from the actual machinations of why she's here and who lied about what political thing. I like politics, but here it was cramped, and crowded out the more interesting themes.

I don't know if I will pick up the sequel. I have some lingering questions I'm curious about, but I'm not confident they will stick with me to see the next volume come out. Despite a number of interesting things in the prose and the setting, I would hesitate to recommend this right now.

I received an ARC from NetGalley.
In this science-fantasy novella, we follow Liu Lufeng. She’s a Windwalker (a tree-like creature that airbends) who is betrothed to the human king. Determined to protect her people, she plans to assassinate him. But while trying to do that, she uncovers some truths that put her on a difficult path.

This story has all the elements I typically love. It’s very imaginative—I mean, SHE’S A TREE CREATURE! This gave me Princess Mononoke undertones, which I love so much. The narrative explores compelling themes such as the conflict between nature and technology, the weight of duty and tradition, and also focus on family.

Despite these promising elements, the novella didn’t reach my expectations. While the world-building is unique and engaging, the pacing felt a bit off, particularly given the novella format.

This was such an interesting read and quite outside my usual comfort zone. I fell in love with the cover first. The blurb sounded really good and I’m glad that I asked for an ARC of this. Cannot wait to see more of this world

i loved it, however i would've liked it more if it were a full novel, nonetheless the setting was gorgeous and so were all the characters, so fully fleshed out. i really enjoy it as a whole

When I started reading *A Palace Near the Wind* by Ai Jiang, I was immediately struck by its vivid imagery and imaginative world-building. The story whisked me away to the ethereal lands of the Feng people, tree-like beings who walk on wind and live in harmony with nature. Their existence contrasts starkly with the industrialized world of humans, who threaten their lands and traditions. This novella captured my attention with its poetic prose and poignant themes, even if it left me yearning for more depth.

The protagonist, Lufeng, is the eldest princess of the Feng people, burdened with the duty of marrying the human King to ensure temporary peace for her people. Her journey was captivating, and I found myself sympathizing with her desperation to protect her homeland and her family. She’s a strong character, but what resonated most with me was her vulnerability—the way she struggled with the weight of tradition, duty, and the fear of losing her identity. Her love for her younger sister, Chuiliu, added an emotional layer that made her fight even more compelling.

The world Jiang created is nothing short of fascinating. I was enchanted by the descriptions of the Feng people—their bark-like skin, needle-threaded hair, and their ability to harness the wind. These details made their connection to nature feel tangible. On the other hand, the human world, with its cold machinery and metallic names like Copper and Zinc, felt oppressive and alien. The clash between these two worlds mirrors real-life struggles between Indigenous cultures and industrialized societies, which made the story feel both relevant and timeless.

That said, the novella’s short length was both its strength and its weakness. While it allowed for a tightly woven narrative, it left so much unexplored. I wanted to spend more time understanding the magic, culture, and history of the Feng people. The themes of assimilation, cultural erasure, and resistance were powerful, but they felt rushed. Similarly, the ending arrived too quickly—it felt like reaching the climax of a much larger story, only to have it abruptly cut off.

The prose was beautifully written, but at times it became so dense that I struggled to fully grasp certain descriptions. This occasionally pulled me out of the story, though I appreciated the lyrical quality of Jiang’s writing. The characters, too, while intriguing, didn’t feel fully fleshed out. I connected with Lufeng, but I wished I had more time to understand Chuiliu and even the human King. Their motivations and arcs deserved more exploration.

Despite these shortcomings, the themes of family, cultural preservation, and the fight against colonization deeply resonated with me. Lufeng’s unwavering love for her homeland and her family reminded me of the importance of standing up for what we hold dear, even when the odds seem insurmountable. The story’s underlying message—that progress and tradition don’t have to be at odds—lingered with me long after I finished reading.

Reading *A Palace Near the Wind* was an emotional and thought-provoking experience. While the novella’s brevity left me wanting more, its lush world-building and poignant themes made it a story worth reading. If you enjoy atmospheric tales that explore the clash between nature and industry, tradition and modernity, this book is for you.

I would recommend this novella to anyone who loves *Princess Mononoke*, Nghi Vo, or T. Kingfisher. It’s a beautifully written story that offers a glimpse into a fantastical world while reflecting on real-world struggles. Though it left me wishing for a full-length novel, I’ll definitely remember the haunting beauty of the Feng people and Lufeng’s courageous journey.

4.5/5

A Palace Near the Wind by Ai Jiang is a hauntingly beautiful science-fantasy novella that blends lush, poetic prose with a powerful story of cultural preservation and rebellion. The tale of Lufeng, a tree-like princess forced into an arranged marriage to save her people, is both heartbreaking and inspiring. Jiang’s vivid worldbuilding and exploration of themes like industrialization, imperialism, and identity make this a standout read. While I wished for more depth in some areas, the emotional impact and imaginative storytelling left me deeply moved. Perfect for fans of Studio Ghibl!

*A Palace Near The Wind* is a wonderfully crafted sci-fi fantasy novella that captivated me from start to finish. This is my first time reading work by Ai Jiang, and her prose, along with the imaginative concepts in this story, have definitely inspired me to check out her other books.

Liu Lufeng is such a well written character but I found myself wanting to spend more time with the other characters in the story as well. I was expecting this due to the length of the novella but I do wish it was a full-length novel so we can dive deeper into the world. I loved the nature vs technology themes and the world-building, particularly the descriptions of the Feng world was stunning and one of my favorite aspects of the novella.

I’ve already reread this story twice and I’m eagerly awaiting the release of the second part of the duology to get the resolution I’ve been craving. I highly recommend this novella for anyone looking for a beautiful yet quick read.

A Palace Near the Wind is a fantasy/sci-fi novella. This is a beautifully written story and the world building is fantastic, unlike anything I've read before. The story is compelling throughout and the characters are well written. I hadn't read anything by this author before but I will definitely be checking out her other books.