Title: A Palace Near the Wind by Ai Jiang
Author: Ai Jiang
Release Date: April 8, 2025
A review by Melody E McIntyre
I was pulled to A Palace Near the Wind both by the beautiful cover and that it was written by Ai Jiang, a fellow Canadian author. I have read and enjoyed her short fiction and was long overdue to read her longer fiction. If you see Ai Jiang’s name on a cover, know that the story within will be profound and thought-provoking.
A Palace Near the Wind explores themes of colonization, environmentalism, duty, tradition, and when to break those traditions. Liu Lufeng, the eldest of her family, is not only bound to her duty, but devoured by it. She is set to be a sacrificial bride to the king, and even though she has alternate plans in mind, she must go along with what she considers heinous practices and beliefs in order to protect her kingdom.
Lufeng comes from Feng, a forest-land where the people are living trees with bark faces and hair made of needles, like pines. They can speak to the wind, a barely explained magic system that seems to have to do with movement. Jiang’s worldbuilding is intriguing – not only the people of Feng, but there are water-people and glass-people – but sadly, we do not get enough time to really dive into these different worlds. The world of humans and technology eats up much of the narrative, much like it is eating up the worlds within the book.
What I enjoyed was that this human world, while bearing a clear connection to our own, was not an exact replica of ours. We do often destroy nature in the name of “progress,” like those in the books, but the technology is different, which reflects the interaction with the other places within this world. It’s a nice touch.
A Palace Near the Wind is the first book of two, and I think that many parts of the book will work better once I have read the second part. For instance, more time may be spent on those other worlds. As well, there is a LARGE cast of characters for a novella, and I did find myself losing track of some of Lufeng’s sisters and the others introduced throughout. A second book should grant me more time to get to know them.
Lufeng herself is well-crafted. She is a brave young woman, albeit rather stuck in her ways and judgmental. I enjoyed how she stuck to her principles, despite being realistically tempted at times by this new world she is in. It added some dimension and complexity to what could have otherwise been a stuck-up character.
A Palace Near the Wind is a light read on the surface, with deep themes buried underneath. The world-building is intriguing, and the main characters are complex. I look forward to the sequel and to exploring more of the world of A Palace Near the Wind
A Palace Near the Wind by Ai Jiang
From a rising-star author, winner of the both the Bram Stoker® and Nebula Awards, a richly inventive, brutal and beautiful science-fantasy novella. A story of family, loss, oppression and rebellion that will stay with you long after the final page. For readers of Nghi Vo’s The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Neon Yang’s The Black Tides of Heaven and Kritika H. Rao’s The Surviving Sky.
Liu Lufeng is the eldest princess of the Feng royalty and, bound by duty and tradition, the next bride to the human king. With their bark faces, arms of braided branches and hair of needle threads, the Feng people live within nature, nurtured by the land. But they exist under the constant threat of human expansion, and the negotiation of bridewealth is the only way to stop— or at least delay—the destruction of their home. Come her wedding day, Lufeng plans to kill the king and finally put an end to the marriages.
Trapped in the great human palace in the run-up to the union, Lufeng begins to uncover the truth about her people’s origins and realizes they will never be safe from the humans. So she must learn to let go of duty and tradition, choose her allies carefully, and risk the unknown in order to free her family and shape her own fate.
From a rising-star author, winner of the both the Bram Stoker® and Nebula Awards, a richly inventive, brutal and beautiful story of family, loss, oppression and rebellion.
Further Reading
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