The Aeronaut's Windlass: Review

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So, I’ve mentioned before that I’m a longtime fan of Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files. But I decided to give another series of his ago this week; The Cinder Spires, which, at this moment, has only one book; The Aeronaut’s Windlass.

The Aeronaut’s Windlass is a steampunk book set in a fictional world where all fo humanity is lives in these massive, hollowed-out rock spires which tower above the ground, which is inhabited by a series of ghastly monsters. Humans navigate between these spires via the use of airships, which are slightly reminiscent the spaceships from the old Treasure Planet movie. It’s aboard these airships that we meet our first protagonist; Captain Grimm.

Grimm is a privateer for Spire Albion, and is the captain of the gunship Predator. He’s the sort of rouge anti-hero that will be very familiar to Jim Butcher fans — though he’s a far more serious protagonist than Harry Dresden. We also have Gwen, the semi-spoiled daughter of one of Albion’s noble “habbles,” who has gone against her mother’s wishes to join Albion’s fleet. And then we have Bridget, the daughter of one of Albion’s poorer habbles, who joins the fleet after her loving father orders her too. And finally, we have Rowl, the talking cat who provides most of the comic relief in the book. As this motley crew comes together, their spire comes under attack by a rival spire called Aurora, and they fight to defend their home. But it soon becomes apparent that there may be more nefarious forces at work.

Aeronaut’s Windlass should feel very familiar to fans of Jim Butcher’s work. It has all of his characteristic wit and intrigue, and his talent for world building remains undiminished. The novel is, in fact, a showcase of everything Butcher has learned since he first began the Dresden Files all those years ago.

Steampunk is, in my opinion, a critically underexposed genre, and to see an author like Butcher try his hand at it is truly a treat. Butcher has created a truly unique world to explore that sci-fi and fantasy enthusiasts will fall in love with. It’s a world of mad magicians and terrifying monsters, dashing pirates and grand emperors, all of it taking place thousands of feet above the ground. Read it.

The book is not without a few minor flaws; Butcher occasionally uses a bit too much exposition, and some of the character development is just a little bit iffy. But these are minor problems in what is otherwise a gem of a book. If you’re a fantasy fan, then you should enjoy this book to no end.

The only problem with Windlass is that at the moment, it’s the only book in the Cinder Spires series. Butcher has said he’d start work on book two when he finished writing Peace Talks, the next novel in the Dresden Files series. As of his last update, Peace Talks is almost finished, but even if Butcher finishes it tomorrow and starts working on book two, it’ll be at least two years before it hits the shelves — and if I was a betting man, I’d say that book two is at least three years out. This is a bit disappointing, because the world of the Cinder Spires is the kind of world I want to immerse myself in. And I can’t wait until book 2 comes out.

5/5 stars