Name: The Wind Singer (The Wind on Fire, Book 1)
ISBN: 9780786814176

William Nicholson

The Wind Singer (The Wind on Fire, Book 1)

Monicap

Really wonderful fantasy dystopia about how meritocracies and obstructionist dicks suck.

A couple of criticisms, the first of which concerns Mumpo, my favorite character from when I read this as a child: I really do love how Mumpo was given the final heroic moment of replacing the Wind Singers voice, especially as throughout the text everyone judged him and thought he was just silly and dumb but... I really do wish Kess and Bo had been a bit less judgemental of him throughout their journey? Like I feel like they only truly came to understand and genuinely like him a couple of nights before he became one of the Zars which made how they pulled him out of the Zars ring a little hollow for me? "You were my first friends" (411) he says but they only really beat the Zars by a week at most? 

I don't know, I guess technically it's more a reflection of Mumpo's character than the twins' treatment of him, as Bowman had reflected earlier in the story: "The more he knew of [Mumpo] , the more, in a strange way, he admired him. There seemed to be no malice in him, or vanity. He accepted whatever each moment brought him, and never troubled himself with matters that were outside his control. Despite the unhappiness of his lonely life, he seemed to have been born incurably good-hearted: or perhaps the one had somehow led to the other, and the many cruelties he had known had taught him to be grateful for even the smallest kindness." (336)
Unfortunately the twins are the POV characters and they aren't always very kind to Mumpo, even following the above passage "managing" him, being annoyed by his needs and telling him to shut up whenever he gets too annoying. They only seem to really care for him as a person once he becomes an old child, and he only becomes "useful" after being turned handsome by becoming one of the Zars? Idk in conclusion just treat Mumpo better 2022.


My other criticism is of the Zars themselves, or specifically how they're defeated: they're just unceremoniously killed off because they're just evil with no nuance... Except they're not. Both Mumpo and Bo were Zars but were pulled out by their connections with Kess and each other, and Kess nearly became an old child early in the story... All three of the heroes either were or nearly were Zars and for all of them it was involuntary... Doesn't it stand to reason that at least some of the other Zars were also victims? Just because they were victims long ago doesn't mean they wouldn't still deserve some consideration before being resoundly done away with? Or I guess because the other Zars likely perpetuated harm in the past they're not given consideration? Because while we know Bo was pulled out of the Zars before doing anything, I'm not at all sure about Mumpo. Idk 

Anyways really fun and inventive fantasy story which I quite enjoyed rereading it's just the only things I have to talk about are the things I'm slightly critical of!