Monday Review: The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher
I really, really wanted to like this book.
Bet you think you know what’s coming next? Sad trombones. World’s tiniest violin.
NO!
I loved it. And that makes me happy on so many levels.
Jim Butcher is an author I respect and whose books I have loved for years. As those of you who have been following the blog/pod know, I have been suuuuuuuper disappointed with the last few Dresden Files incarnations (now you can cue the sad and itty-bitty orchestra). Why, then, did I pre-order The Aeronaut’s Windlass? Gut reaction I promptly forgot about long before past the time I could cancel. Like, I forgot until it arrived at my door. Once I had it, I figured I might as well read it.
It is fantastic.
Swashes are buckled in grand fashion, the repartee is witty as fuck, and there are cats who think and behave in exactly the fashion you always knew in your heart cats thought and behaved. Intrigue, honorable privateers, mysterious “warrior born,” pirates, and monsters. All excellent, if not uncommon, things always enjoyable when executed well.
Let’s move on to where it departs from the norm, shall we?
The Steampunk Elements:
As so often satisfies that particular itch of mine in satisfactory fashion, while integral, the goodness serves the story rather than vice versa. Yay. Another bit that Butcher has added, however, one that I’ve never experienced before (which doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist) is that he explains their presence in his world. Airships, for example, aren’t clunky dirigibles; they’re actual sailing ships that use both electricity generated by crystal and actual sails to move. The sails don’t capture wind; they use mysterious, but logical in world, “etheric currents.” Aeronauts wear goggles because, first, they’re high in the atmosphere where the light is brighter, second, because the weapons discharges from their cannons are blindingly bright, and third, captain’s goggles have telescopic sights so they don’t have to carry extra equipment to scope out that which is outside normal human vision. The ships may be sentient, which also helps to explain their function. The aeronauts wear safety lines during maneuvers so they don’t fall off the ship when it dives or banks or rolls and maneuvers are signaled so that random objects can be secured, as can patients in the infirmary. And everything that needs, for wherever reason, to be iron or steel is coated in copper because the ships travel high enough the air is always wet and copper doesn’t rust.
Magic Has a Price:
Magicians, called etherialists here, can talk to and manipulate the same forces that help to propel the ships but there is a serious price for use of power: according to one of our heroes, Captain Grimm, “All etherilaists are mad.” Folly, an apprentice etherialist explains the madness as, “holes that must be filled.” Magic should always have a price lest fantasy become the stuff of Superman and thus, boring. Having to make a decision on when to use it, when to stop, or if one should use it at all, always adds depth to a story.
The Characters:
One of the reviews of Aeronaut’s Windless I read complained that Butcher seemed to be ticking off trope boxes in character expression. I disagree. Do each of the characters start out that way? Sure. Have to start somewhere. But where Butcher deviates is that each of the tropes: the rich brat, the only-half accepted nobleman, the newb, the honorable pirate, etc grows far beyond his/her origins by the end of the 600+ pages. They learn, they change, they grow, they evolve. They are not the same people at the end they were at the beginning and not always for the better. They each find a darkness within themselves they must assimilate without falling prey to. I found myself invested in each of them because I watched them grow and I’m looking forward to meeting up with them again in the future.
Also, the cats. I can’t even… whole tribes of cats who, as mentioned above, are so perfectly characterized and infuriating and wonderful… I’m giggling just thinking about it.
If you haven’t read any Butcher, this is good place to start. First in a new series with absolutely no baggage what so ever. A solid, fun, engaging adventure.
Four out of five fingers on the Hand of Glory for The Aeronaut’s Windlass.
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