Aliette de Bodard

Paris in the aftermath of the Great Magicians War. Its streets are lined with haunted ruins, Notre-Dame is a burnt-out shell, and the Seine runs black, thick with ashes and rubble. Yet life continues among the wreckage. The citizens retain their irrepressible appetite for novelty and distraction, and The Great Houses still vie for dominion over France's once grand capital. House Silverspires, previously the leader of those power games, now lies in disarray. Its magic is ailing; its founder, Morningstar, has been missing for decades; and now something from the shadows stalks its people inside their very own walls. Within the House, three very different people must come together: a naive but powerful Fallen, an alchemist with a self-destructive addiction, and a resentful young man wielding spells from the Far East. They may be Silverspires' salvation; or the architects of its last, irreversible fall . . .

The House of Shattered Wings

Didi Chanoch

The House of Shattered Wings is deeply dark, and deeply beautiful. 

I won't talk about plot, as publication date is months away, but I will say this: This is a book about responsibility, anger, justice, colonialism, power and power structures. It is about intent, and its relation to effect. It is about darkness within and without. It is about depression and self worth. 

It is about all of those things, but it is also about beauty and fallen angels in a long past Paris that never was. 

Aliette de Bodard has been building a reputation as a singular talent, mostly in short fiction. This may be the book that makes her a much better know name, that levels up her career. Her skills and her command of them are certainly ready for that. 

Disclaimer: I read this book in a digital edition received for editorial evaluation.

Fraser Simons

This has a cool world. Fallen angels who don’t remember The City (heaven) and why they fell end up as powerful players in this fallen Paris... or else killed, their bodies turned into a commodity with magical properties. 

Ironically, in this world that leads people to believe in God but have no idea what what principles and morality exist in the city. 

The main character is a PoC from an entirely different faith who is very interesting. They come from the east and had previously reached enlightenment and immortality through Buddhist practices, only to be used in a war. The Jade Emperor, God, exiled him so he occupies a liminal space. Neither immortal now or human or fallen. And is old enough to know that these fundamental structures, called ‘houses’ are filled with immoral people who try to amass as much power as possible at the expense of what they refer to as dependents. 

There is an interesting mystery involving Morningstar that takes place while the narrative weaves a sort of indictment of faith, in general, which I really enjoyed. No one is ‘right’, most of the characters are fleshed out. Though, the newest Fallen and one of the main characters Isabelle, felt criminally underbaked compared to everyone else. 

It was thoroughly enjoyable, though. Neat world with other faiths, which I particularly liked because with western Catholicism it tends to drown out everything else. In a story that appears to be about angels, it was surprising to me to have the main character automatically othered. It ended up being one of the most gripping parts of the story as it shone a light on elements that people of that faith would probably gloss over. But yeah. Fallen angels, dragons, curses, magic. Good stuff.

Sahi K

I discovered the author’s novellas last year and completely fell in love with her worlds and writing style. So, I really wanted to read her full length trilogy as well, but the pandemic hit and my reading mood hit a low. But I’m so glad I decided to pick it up this year because this first book was so interesting. 

I read a lot of books but I also tend to stick to very similar types of genres and don’t experiment much. So, an urban fantasy series set in a magical war torn Paris was itself a very fascinating prospect for me. And the author truly manages to bring the devastated feel of the city to life. I will agree that the world building is not comprehensive, we only get the information that we absolutely need for the purpose of the narrative, and don’t get to know much about the history of the war or details about how the Fallen came to inhabit this land. Nevertheless, it was still a very immersive world that I wanted to know more of. The writing style might take a bit of getting used to if you’re unfamiliar with her other works, but it took me just about 2 chapters to get fully engaged in it. The pacing is more on the steady side, with lots of mystery solving and twists happening along with intrigue, but this is not in any way an action packed novel. 

This is thoroughly a very character driven story. Madeline is an alchemist who’s choices are defined by her past trauma but she is still good at heart and trying to do the right things sometimes. Isabelle is newly Fallen and the combination of her naïveté and ruthlessness was interesting to read, but she surprisingly turned out to be quite loyal. Philippe has a mysterious past and powers which everyone is trying to leverage, but it’s his longing for his homeland and his people that made me very emotional. And then there are the heads of the various houses... Selene, Claire, Asmodeus etc.. Their rivalry and fight to get one up on each other is really played like a delicate dance and it was quite enjoyable to read, even if the consequences tended to be quite devastating. I obviously am biased towards Asmodeus because I’ve met him already in a spin-off novella, and can’t wait to read more of the series from his perspective. There are also many side characters who had very important parts to play and I felt that the author did justice to all of them. 

In conclusion, this was a very marked change from the kind of fantasies I usually read but it was cool. If you like urban fantasy settings outside of the US/UK with great characters, fallen angels and magicians, and lots of dark political intrigue, this might just be the series for you. I’m already so excited to binge read the whole trilogy.

Jennifer

I found the concept of the magic system and worldbuilding rather interesting: it's a lush blend of alternate Paris, diverse characters, and it also incorporated multicultural flavour in the magic system. i.e. There is a wonderful potential in the concept of angelic politics. 

While I found the things that were introduced to the book quite promising, unfortunately these failed to realise in the novel:

1) The pacing is too sluggish for an urban fantasy book. There isn't enough action and plot. I had to deliberately push through the book. I think plenty of chapters could be trimmed.

2) While the description of the magic system is wonderful, I feel like there could be a better balance in terms of the showing & telling.

3) Due to the amount of complexity introduced in the magic system, I feel like the too-slow pacing also complicated the coherence of the novel. Normally something about a book would eventually click for me & everything made a lot of sense, but I'm not getting this in The House of Shattered Wings. 

4) While I appreciated the diversity in the characters, they felt pretty flat and one-dimensional to read. For a slow-paced novel, it's really important to make up the deficiency of the plot with the characters but I'm not seeing sufficient character development here either. 

5) I think this out of my personal preference: I felt pretty uncomfortable reading the anatomy stuff. Like, this novel contains the following triggers: illnesses, gore, violence, and death - hence due to the content I've shelved it in my 18+ Goodreads shelf.

Because of the potential in the characters & the magic system, I really hope that the follow-ups will have better characterisation & more suitable writing style for the genre.

Ben Nathan

So much delightful ambience and world building. The use of early 1900's Paris for this was a stroke of brilliance and made an already interesting and well told story even better. Excited to get to the other books soon :)

The House of Shattered Wings

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