Who Would Like This Book:
Adventure lovers and fans of swashbuckling tales will have a blast! The Aeronaut's Windlass serves up nonstop action, creative worldbuilding, and a dash of quirky magic - with flying ships, mysterious spires, and a memorable cast that includes kickass women, a roguish captain, eccentric wizards, and yes, a wonderfully sassy cat. If you enjoy fantasy with a hint of steampunk and love the idea of sky-high battles and clever team dynamics, this one's for you. Dresden Files fans should be excited to see Butcher try something new and expansive, with lots of room for both character growth and epic showdowns.
Who May Not Like This Book:
Readers who prefer tightly focused stories or need rich, detailed worldbuilding explained up front might get frustrated. The book's large cast and brisk pacing can leave the setting feeling a bit fuzzy at times, and some felt the characters fall into archetypes before developing depth. Those not keen on talking animals or who aren't charmed by cats may find those sections a little much. If you dislike action-heavy narratives or long airship battles, it might feel exhausting - or even repetitive. And if you're seeking a true steampunk or something deeply original, the mashup of genres might not fully deliver.
About:
The Aeronaut's Windlass is a steampunk fantasy novel set in a world where people live in towering spires and travel using crystals and energy. The story follows Captain Grimm and his crew on the airship Predator as they embark on a dangerous mission to protect their spire from an impending attack. The book introduces a diverse cast of characters, including feisty young women, disgraced steamship captains, magicians, and a snarky, arrogant cat named Rowl. The plot is described as quick-paced and easy to follow, with elements of political intrigue, swashbuckling adventures, and a looming evil that the heroes must confront.
The writing style of The Aeronaut's Windlass is praised for its world-building, character development, and engaging storytelling. Readers appreciate Jim Butcher's talent in creating immersive worlds without lengthy info-dumps, allowing them to dive straight into a realm of unique characters and ideas. The book is noted for its blend of steampunk elements, fantasy, and science fiction, with a touch of humor that strikes a good balance between Butcher's other series, Codex Alera, and The Dresden Files. The audiobook narration by Euan Morton is also commended for bringing the story to life effectively.
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From The Publisher:
Jim Butcher, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Dresden Files and the Codex Alera novels, conjures up a new series set in a fantastic world of noble families, steam-powered technology, and magic-wielding warriors…
Since time immemorial, the Spires have sheltered humanity. Within their halls, the ruling aristocratic houses develop scientific marvels, foster trade alliances, and maintain fleets of airships to keep the peace.
Captain Grimm commands the merchant ship Predator. Loyal to Spire Albion, he has taken their side in the cold war with Spire Aurora, disrupting the enemy's shipping lines by attacking their cargo vessels. But when the Predator is damaged in combat, Grimm joins a team of Albion agents on a vital mission in exchange for fully restoring his ship.
And as Grimm undertakes this task, he learns that the conflict between the Spires is merely a premonition of things to come. Humanity's ancient enemy, silent for more than ten thousand years, has begun to stir once more. And death will follow in its wake…
Ratings (63)
Incredible (21) | |
Loved It (23) | |
Liked It (10) | |
It Was OK (6) | |
Did Not Like (3) |
Reader Stats (127):
Read It (69) | |
Want To Read (43) | |
Did Not Finish (3) | |
Not Interested (12) |
7 comment(s)
A fun read and a nice break from the Dresden Files. Some great action sequences both on land and in the sky. The characters formed up nice and interesting by the end of the book.
Some of the events at the start really felt a bit flat for some reason, two characters getting attacked and almost killed randomly in the tunnels of one of the most affluent levels of the habble happened with little comment. The decision of the Spirearch to send the main characters on the mission in the first place was really hand wavey and my hopes that would be firmed up by the end of the book went sadly unfulfilled.
Despite this it was an enjoyable read and I do look forward to reading the rest of this series between the harder hitting Dresden series. I think I might need to go back and check out the authors other fantasy trilogy too.
Aeronaut's Windlass at least managed something original in my experience: it made me care more about the main character's pasts than their future. Some potentially interesting past events are alluded to repeatedly, I don't really think it's a good thing that I'm more interested in them than the potential future of the world Butcher creates in this book but hopefully he writes in both chronological directions.
Si algo puedes esperar de Butcher es acción y se le nota, y si además lo unes a sus historias ágiles y a una idea de universo bastante poco usada lo que te encuentras es este señor libro.
La historia no tiene pausa, y lo mismo te encuentras con duelos verbales que con batallas aeronavales, templos-bibliotecas o caricias a gatos.
Todos los personajes están bien montados para que empatices con ellos, o para que los odies a primera línea, y Rowl es lo mejor que le podría haber pasado al libro.
Ahora me va a tocar estar pendiente de cuando van a ir saliendo el resto de partes, porque va a merecer mucho la pena leerlas.
This book gets way more flak than it deserves. I've got to be completely honest about a few things before I get into why I think that though.
First of all, I have never finished a Jim Butcher book before this one (I started the first Codex Alera book but didn't finish it). What I mean by that is this; I have almost no basis of reference for this author's work. Maybe his other series completely overshadow this one, maybe not. Either way, I don't know. Second of all, I very rarely (and I mean RARELY) read any sort of sci-fi (especially steampunk sci-fi). I've dabbled a bit in the genre here and there, but have made no major connections to a series or author. That being said, The Aeronaut's Windlass has got to be one of the best steampunk, and honestly just one of the most straightforwardly enjoyable, books I've read in quite a while.
The biggest complaint I see about this book is that readers feel that the author is selling out, or jumping on the proverbial bandwagon. Maybe I'm too much of a surface reader at the moment, but this book didn't feel like that to me at all. It felt like a book written by an author with a sincere interest in the genre. The technology and world-building were interesting without being overly complicated, and thus spared me (a semi-newbie to the genre) the headache of attempting to wrap my head around concepts entirely foreign to my brain.
What really set this book apart for me, however, were the characters. It's hard to find a book with so many alternating POVs that make you genuinely care about each individual. This book accomplished that. From the very first page, I was completely entranced. Every character that was introduced after the first simply built my enjoyment even further. Sometimes I would finish a chapter to see that the next was being taken over by a new POV and think, "Ugh, I just want to get back to MY characters!" After a few lines in each new POV, however, I found myself inevitably hooked. That's quite a lot being said already, and I didn't even go into the subject of cats in this book!
Take my advice: Buy this book, read this book, love this book. You won't regret it, even if you have only a sliver of interest in the genre.
I really enjoyed it. I appreciated the world building that went into the setting, and I like the characters. The cats were really a stand out part of the book for me.
This book has so many POVs, and they are all balanced so well. The best of them is the talking cat
Butcher shows the same wonderful storytelling as we've come to expect, with an intricate world where you crave to discover the mystery of what happened to the surface and the ancient peoples.
What can you read after
The Aeronaut's Windlass?
About the Author:
A martial arts enthusiast whose résumé includes a long list of skills rendered obsolete at least two hundred years ago, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher turned to writing as a career because anything else probably would have…
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