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3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
Actual rating: 4.5
The full review is available on my blog: starlitbook.com/2018/09/19/symphony-of-the-wind-by-steven-mckinnon/
I've read it as part of SPFBO, however my rating doesn't affect the later results. Check out my SPFBO4 page where you can follow FBR's progress.
I was a bit weary when I started to read Symphony of the Wind. Partly because it’s 660 pages long, and partly because I had no idea what to expect. I probably wouldn’t have picked it if it weren’t for Emma, and while we tend to have similar opinions, that’s not exactly a guarantee. Thankfully this book exceeded my expectations, and wouldn’t be surprised to see it rise in SPFBO this year.
Dalthea is trying to recover after a war in which thousands of people lost their life, most of them thanks to a bomb set off in the bay by the rival kingdom, Idari. Thanks to this, the poison veil hanging over the bay and the destruction made in other places, Dalthea suffers a great loss, the people as well as nature. The land lays barren, and the only source of water comes from rain, produced by the help of Spires which generate storms. It’s the job of the raincatchers to gather the water and bring back to Dalthea where it’s portioned and given to people in exchange of water tokens. Dalthea has a post-war-steam-punk kind of feel to it. This threw me off at the beginning, because couldn’t really decide if it’s novel set in a modern-post-war world, or a 18th century feel steampunk-post-war world. In the end it doesn’t really matter, and the truth is probably somewhere in between. The Spires and the airships – especially the warship Schiehallion – represent “advanced” technology with their complex build. Also, there are Info Towers all around the town informing people about the news in every hour and giving orders in time of need. This aspect reminded me a bit of The Giver for some reason.
The war might be over, but peace is relative. The Prime Minister is pretty adamant on Idari wanting to erase Dalthea off the map, and is not afraid to take desperate measures. Let’s just say, people die in this book. Some have ugly death, some uglier. No one is quite what they seem to be and good luck with keeping up with all the revelations. There are several layers to the plot and I’m not exactly sure I got every nuance, so this one definitely needs a reread at some point. Once you are settled down in the story, and the different plotlines starts to come together, and you think you figured things out, there always will be some kind of twist that will throw you off.
We primarily follow the story through two main characters’ eyes: Serena and Gallows. The former is a 17-year-old orphan girl who works for the raincatcher until an accident happens and things go to hell. She not only ends up neck-deep in a plot against Thackeray (Dalthea’s Prime Minister) and finding out unpleasant truths about her past and heritage. Extra points for McKinnon to use choosing a not so cliché creature! I can’t wait to see what’s in store for her in the future. Serena is, well, a quite typical 17-year-old girl, who is headstrong, knows everything better and doesn’t really care about rules. She has a rebel heart which makes her pretty likable. Having a sense of sarcastic humor doesn’t hurt either.
"’Bite your tongue off and swallow it,’ said Serena.
Enfield’s eyes wrenched open.
’Guess it ain’t words, then.’ Serena sounded disappointed."
It’s a pity we don’t spend much time in her POV, especially in the second half of the book, she becomes kind of forgotten with everything. She slowly realises what powers she wields and experiments with it, but we only get glimpses. She has so much more to her though.
The other main character is Gallows, ex-soldier, currently works as a Hunter alongside Damien. Both of them are mysterious, and harbour their own secrets and scars. We learn quite a lot about them during the book. They have rocky friendship, but their bond proves to be strong and the chemistry works well between them.
"’Are you feeling okay?’ asked Damien.
’Fine. You?’
Damien’s voice was coarse like crushed glass when he spoke. ’Somewhat nervous. Treason. Violence. Death. And above all, I can’t remember if I left the stove on.’"
Symphony of the Wind is written in third person, omniscience and besides the main characters, we follow several who each get their POV at some point. Can’t say I’m a fan of this kind of writing, because it makes it hard to connect with characters. And maybe that’s one of my biggest critic for this book: even though I liked the characters and they are really well fleshed out, I just couldn’t get all that invested emotionally. Not saying I didn’t root for them, or hate them with a passion, because oh boy, I did. Pierro and Korvan definitely creeped me out no doubt about it. And Thackeray’s way of thinking… don’t let me start on that. What kind of monster does things like that? He and Hitler probably could have been besties if they knew each other. Besides there were too many POVs sometimes which made the pace a bit dragging at times and while I appreciate that McKinnon tried to show the events from different angles, I could do without some of them. On the positive side, even the side characters have their distinct personalities and I liked them all. Except some of the assholes, but then they weren’t meant to be likeable anyway.
Steven McKinnon is undoubtedly an extremely talented author, who handled the many layers and plotlines very well. The book starts slowly, and it takes about half of the book for the pace to pick up, build up the world and the character arcs. And it does take time because, this world is very well detailed: the religion consists of a handful of gods (I really would like to learn more about this aspect of the world), the kingdom, the society, the way the different guilds and military forces work together. Or not. Anyway, after everything gets in place, there is no stopping. One event follows the next and you can hardly have time to take a breath. What saves the first half of the book is McKinnon’s vivid imagination and fluid writing. A little example:
"Wind forced rubbish to waltz in the street, accompanied by the faint smell of blood. Sharp points of shattered glass in window frames caught sunlight, like threads of a ripped white dress. Funny how the presence of soldiers and coppers made everything less safe."
Or one of my favorite lines which gives back so perfectly the drug addict Buzz’s personality and state of mind:
"And Buzz knew, oh Buzz always knew, he knew it all, pray sweet Songstress, beautiful Musa, God of Music and of Poetry and Bliss."
This book really has everything you might be looking for: secret underground places, monsters, chasing, fighting scenes, ruthless villains, dead bodies, heart wrenching and uplifting moments, and a few unanswered questions which makes you want to read the next installment. Symphony of a Wind is a real roller coaster ride and one which require your full attention to catch everything what’s going on. Personally I was waiting some big twist at the end which didn’t come, but I had so many WTF moments during reading that I don’t really mind. Is Symphony of the Wind perfect? Nope. Do I care? Not really. It is an awesome first book from a debuting fantasy author. One for whom I’ll throw away whatever I’m reading at the moment when he releases his next book.
Symphony of the Wind is intricate, surprising, and doesn’t shy away from giving punches. If you like your fantasy dark, don’t mind if the pace is a bit slower, want to be surprised and don’t see what happens next, you should absolutely check this out!
The full review is available on my blog: starlitbook.com/2018/09/19/symphony-of-the-wind-by-steven-mckinnon/
I've read it as part of SPFBO, however my rating doesn't affect the later results. Check out my SPFBO4 page where you can follow FBR's progress.
I was a bit weary when I started to read Symphony of the Wind. Partly because it’s 660 pages long, and partly because I had no idea what to expect. I probably wouldn’t have picked it if it weren’t for Emma, and while we tend to have similar opinions, that’s not exactly a guarantee. Thankfully this book exceeded my expectations, and wouldn’t be surprised to see it rise in SPFBO this year.
Dalthea is trying to recover after a war in which thousands of people lost their life, most of them thanks to a bomb set off in the bay by the rival kingdom, Idari. Thanks to this, the poison veil hanging over the bay and the destruction made in other places, Dalthea suffers a great loss, the people as well as nature. The land lays barren, and the only source of water comes from rain, produced by the help of Spires which generate storms. It’s the job of the raincatchers to gather the water and bring back to Dalthea where it’s portioned and given to people in exchange of water tokens. Dalthea has a post-war-steam-punk kind of feel to it. This threw me off at the beginning, because couldn’t really decide if it’s novel set in a modern-post-war world, or a 18th century feel steampunk-post-war world. In the end it doesn’t really matter, and the truth is probably somewhere in between. The Spires and the airships – especially the warship Schiehallion – represent “advanced” technology with their complex build. Also, there are Info Towers all around the town informing people about the news in every hour and giving orders in time of need. This aspect reminded me a bit of The Giver for some reason.
The war might be over, but peace is relative. The Prime Minister is pretty adamant on Idari wanting to erase Dalthea off the map, and is not afraid to take desperate measures. Let’s just say, people die in this book. Some have ugly death, some uglier. No one is quite what they seem to be and good luck with keeping up with all the revelations. There are several layers to the plot and I’m not exactly sure I got every nuance, so this one definitely needs a reread at some point. Once you are settled down in the story, and the different plotlines starts to come together, and you think you figured things out, there always will be some kind of twist that will throw you off.
We primarily follow the story through two main characters’ eyes: Serena and Gallows. The former is a 17-year-old orphan girl who works for the raincatcher until an accident happens and things go to hell. She not only ends up neck-deep in a plot against Thackeray (Dalthea’s Prime Minister) and finding out unpleasant truths about her past and heritage. Extra points for McKinnon to use choosing a not so cliché creature! I can’t wait to see what’s in store for her in the future. Serena is, well, a quite typical 17-year-old girl, who is headstrong, knows everything better and doesn’t really care about rules. She has a rebel heart which makes her pretty likable. Having a sense of sarcastic humor doesn’t hurt either.
"’Bite your tongue off and swallow it,’ said Serena.
Enfield’s eyes wrenched open.
’Guess it ain’t words, then.’ Serena sounded disappointed."
It’s a pity we don’t spend much time in her POV, especially in the second half of the book, she becomes kind of forgotten with everything. She slowly realises what powers she wields and experiments with it, but we only get glimpses. She has so much more to her though.
The other main character is Gallows, ex-soldier, currently works as a Hunter alongside Damien. Both of them are mysterious, and harbour their own secrets and scars. We learn quite a lot about them during the book. They have rocky friendship, but their bond proves to be strong and the chemistry works well between them.
"’Are you feeling okay?’ asked Damien.
’Fine. You?’
Damien’s voice was coarse like crushed glass when he spoke. ’Somewhat nervous. Treason. Violence. Death. And above all, I can’t remember if I left the stove on.’"
Symphony of the Wind is written in third person, omniscience and besides the main characters, we follow several who each get their POV at some point. Can’t say I’m a fan of this kind of writing, because it makes it hard to connect with characters. And maybe that’s one of my biggest critic for this book: even though I liked the characters and they are really well fleshed out, I just couldn’t get all that invested emotionally. Not saying I didn’t root for them, or hate them with a passion, because oh boy, I did. Pierro and Korvan definitely creeped me out no doubt about it. And Thackeray’s way of thinking… don’t let me start on that. What kind of monster does things like that? He and Hitler probably could have been besties if they knew each other. Besides there were too many POVs sometimes which made the pace a bit dragging at times and while I appreciate that McKinnon tried to show the events from different angles, I could do without some of them. On the positive side, even the side characters have their distinct personalities and I liked them all. Except some of the assholes, but then they weren’t meant to be likeable anyway.
Steven McKinnon is undoubtedly an extremely talented author, who handled the many layers and plotlines very well. The book starts slowly, and it takes about half of the book for the pace to pick up, build up the world and the character arcs. And it does take time because, this world is very well detailed: the religion consists of a handful of gods (I really would like to learn more about this aspect of the world), the kingdom, the society, the way the different guilds and military forces work together. Or not. Anyway, after everything gets in place, there is no stopping. One event follows the next and you can hardly have time to take a breath. What saves the first half of the book is McKinnon’s vivid imagination and fluid writing. A little example:
"Wind forced rubbish to waltz in the street, accompanied by the faint smell of blood. Sharp points of shattered glass in window frames caught sunlight, like threads of a ripped white dress. Funny how the presence of soldiers and coppers made everything less safe."
Or one of my favorite lines which gives back so perfectly the drug addict Buzz’s personality and state of mind:
"And Buzz knew, oh Buzz always knew, he knew it all, pray sweet Songstress, beautiful Musa, God of Music and of Poetry and Bliss."
This book really has everything you might be looking for: secret underground places, monsters, chasing, fighting scenes, ruthless villains, dead bodies, heart wrenching and uplifting moments, and a few unanswered questions which makes you want to read the next installment. Symphony of a Wind is a real roller coaster ride and one which require your full attention to catch everything what’s going on. Personally I was waiting some big twist at the end which didn’t come, but I had so many WTF moments during reading that I don’t really mind. Is Symphony of the Wind perfect? Nope. Do I care? Not really. It is an awesome first book from a debuting fantasy author. One for whom I’ll throw away whatever I’m reading at the moment when he releases his next book.
Symphony of the Wind is intricate, surprising, and doesn’t shy away from giving punches. If you like your fantasy dark, don’t mind if the pace is a bit slower, want to be surprised and don’t see what happens next, you should absolutely check this out!
I’m still not sure how I feel about Steven McKinnon’s Symphony of the Wind. An ambitious and gritty epic fantasy series starts here, in the technologically advanced world. People conquered skies and filled them with airships. Different fractions and ethnicities fight for power while citizens suffer. Tormented heroes must stop a conspiracy before the kingdom falls to ruin.
Sounds simple? Well, it isn't. Unless you're a battle-hardened Malazan veteran, that is*. Slowly revealed and nuanced plot with multiple arcs and even more characters requires undivided attention and a trained memory. It's easy to lose track of the secondary characters' motivations and backstories.
The world-building is simply amazing. I have no other words to describe the world, the science, dark magic, monsters and airships. Mind-blowing stuff guys.
McKinnon’s prose is visceral, precise and descriptive, feeling both spare and lush. His pacing varies from breakneck to measured at the beginning of the book. The closer to the end we get the faster it becomes. Near the end, the events told from different POVs flash before our eyes.
Story's characters – flawed, complicated, human – are enormously compelling, and their self-discoveries and betrayals are fascinating to follow. Some of them turn their beliefs into weapons and inflict their will upon others. Others try to remain human despite their urges or conditioning. I can't choose a favourite character, but if you insisted I would probably indicate Damien - poised and cultural psycho-killer and a living weapon. His fight scenes became my instant-favourites.
Both secondary characters and villains feel fully fleshed out as well.
At this stage, some of you may start to wonder why on earth I gave SotW three stars if everything's so exciting?
Let's get to it.
I like multiple third person POV, but switching characters too frequently irks me. McKinnon does it all the time. Too quickly. Sure, there’s no real rule about how long a particular scene should be for any character, but switching back and forth between characters makes the prose confusing.
I loved the world and the story and I was interested in the individual characters but the sheer amount of them and constant jumps between different POV's wore me down.
To be fair, the scenes for each POV are clearly separated. Despite this, I struggled with the story 's structure and abrupt perspective changes. It felt fragmented and unclear. As a result, I started feeling distant and disengaged from its action and characters.
Let's clarify things - McKinnon is an imaginative writer and, paradoxically, this is hurting his ability to tell a convincing story. The writing, as impressive as it is, with its constant perspective changes, just keep getting in the way.
This book has so much awesome stuff that I would love to praise it. But I can't because of the aspects of the book that I can’t handle and that pull the rating down.
* In this case, approach it like a childish puzzle with a twist. Or two.
Disclaimer: I'm one Fantasy Book Critic SPFBO judges, but this review doesn't reflect our collective rating or opinion. It's just my opinion.
Sounds simple? Well, it isn't. Unless you're a battle-hardened Malazan veteran, that is*. Slowly revealed and nuanced plot with multiple arcs and even more characters requires undivided attention and a trained memory. It's easy to lose track of the secondary characters' motivations and backstories.
The world-building is simply amazing. I have no other words to describe the world, the science, dark magic, monsters and airships. Mind-blowing stuff guys.
McKinnon’s prose is visceral, precise and descriptive, feeling both spare and lush. His pacing varies from breakneck to measured at the beginning of the book. The closer to the end we get the faster it becomes. Near the end, the events told from different POVs flash before our eyes.
Story's characters – flawed, complicated, human – are enormously compelling, and their self-discoveries and betrayals are fascinating to follow. Some of them turn their beliefs into weapons and inflict their will upon others. Others try to remain human despite their urges or conditioning. I can't choose a favourite character, but if you insisted I would probably indicate Damien - poised and cultural psycho-killer and a living weapon. His fight scenes became my instant-favourites.
Both secondary characters and villains feel fully fleshed out as well.
At this stage, some of you may start to wonder why on earth I gave SotW three stars if everything's so exciting?
Let's get to it.
I like multiple third person POV, but switching characters too frequently irks me. McKinnon does it all the time. Too quickly. Sure, there’s no real rule about how long a particular scene should be for any character, but switching back and forth between characters makes the prose confusing.
I loved the world and the story and I was interested in the individual characters but the sheer amount of them and constant jumps between different POV's wore me down.
To be fair, the scenes for each POV are clearly separated. Despite this, I struggled with the story 's structure and abrupt perspective changes. It felt fragmented and unclear. As a result, I started feeling distant and disengaged from its action and characters.
Let's clarify things - McKinnon is an imaginative writer and, paradoxically, this is hurting his ability to tell a convincing story. The writing, as impressive as it is, with its constant perspective changes, just keep getting in the way.
This book has so much awesome stuff that I would love to praise it. But I can't because of the aspects of the book that I can’t handle and that pull the rating down.
* In this case, approach it like a childish puzzle with a twist. Or two.
Disclaimer: I'm one Fantasy Book Critic SPFBO judges, but this review doesn't reflect our collective rating or opinion. It's just my opinion.
Originally published over at booknest.eu for SPFBO 4.
Symphony of the Wind is impressive in its scope, a novel that’s intricate in its characters and ambitious in its worldbuilding; more impressive is the fact that it’s Steven McKinnon’s first self-published book. Ambition, McKinnon certainly does not lack.
The biggest compliment I can throw at McKinnon is this – reading Symphony reminded me of the first time I picked up Erikson’s Gardens of the Moon; the action starts early on and it hardly ever lets up. McKinnon throws us readers deep into a world that feels fully formed though unknown and he’s not afraid to let us sink or swim on our merit. He’s provided the tools to dig deep into a fictional world that runs on ignogen, a material that’s as unstable as enriched uranium; its myriad applications make the dangers of its extraction and use worthwhile, however.
I haven’t read such an interesting twist on steampunk since Senlin Ascends (though no two stories could be less alike). Symphony of the Wind is a story of rebellion, of corruption and the excesses of power and religious zeal but more importantly – of men and women struggling in the dark, attempting to make it out into the light. Thank all things dark and evil that it’s 660 pages, else I don’t know how the author would’ve tackled as much as he did as well as he has.
McKinnon writes well. I tell you, he does! His prose is elegant and visual; reading some of the action scenes in the later half of Symphony was like getting shot after shot of adrenaline right into my spinal cord. One high stakes chase scene in particular, as well as a secondary villain by the name of Pierro, made for a spectacular sequence that had me cheering for heroes Serena and Gallows throughout. And Pierro…rarely have I disliked a large chap as much as this one. I just wish someone smacked his big stupid face with a brick!
Speaking of Pierro, Symphony’s villains are a memorable lot, and one that I loved to hate every step of the way. Again, I’ll draw a parallel with Malazan; none of these bad people are evil for evil’s sake. It’s either fate or purpose or...okay, there’s a pair of villains that’re just led my vainglorious personal ambition and greed for power, as well as an absolute psychopath that’ll give any Resident Evil 2 player a flashback to Mr X, but—BUT—about half the villains of the novel truly believe that what they’re doing is for the best. That’s the stuff of truly memorable fantasy villains.
What didn’t mush quite well enough for?
Gallows, one of our two main PoV characters, was somewhat polarizing. At times, I really liked him but at others, he seemed overwhelmingly judgemental of the behaviour of other characters, or their skills, when he was guilty of similar behaviour or worse. There’s an argument to be made that this makes him more realistic but there was a little something that bugged me about the sudden switch from badass action hero to judgy lad.
Several of the characters and their PoVs played a small enough part that they didn’t leave an impression. It was almost as if their existence were a reason for major protagonists and antagonists to have further connections to one another, reasons to push them further into conflict. I can’t help but feel that McKinnon is compelled to show where every thread of the story eventually goes in detail; sometimes, less is more.
One more thing worth mentioning is, there was something off with the speech of a couple of the characters. Too many ‘reckon’-ings perhaps, a few too many interesting characters given cliched military jargon and other choices in vernacular that were used without nearly enough measure.
From this point onwards, I can only see Steven McKinnon improving. He’s set up a world I’m excited to read more about, characters I want to follow, and though I dislike a few things, these don’t take away from the enormous amount of enjoyment and thrills I got in my time with Symphony of the Wind.
My score for Symphony of the Wind is an 8 out of 10 for SPFBO 4, and 4/5 stars on Goodreads! I can heartily recommend this to:
• Anyone who loves well thought-out fantasy with wonderous world-building;
• Dark stories that’ll get darker;
• How-to guides to nearly successful dictatorships;
• Cool leads, cooler antagonists;
• I’m serious, you’ll just want to punch, claw at and stab all the villains! They’re just so sleazy and nasty, all of them!
• So much excellent action! Gunpowder, treason and plot! Plots. Multiple plots.
• And more! Prob’ly!
Symphony of the Wind is impressive in its scope, a novel that’s intricate in its characters and ambitious in its worldbuilding; more impressive is the fact that it’s Steven McKinnon’s first self-published book. Ambition, McKinnon certainly does not lack.
The biggest compliment I can throw at McKinnon is this – reading Symphony reminded me of the first time I picked up Erikson’s Gardens of the Moon; the action starts early on and it hardly ever lets up. McKinnon throws us readers deep into a world that feels fully formed though unknown and he’s not afraid to let us sink or swim on our merit. He’s provided the tools to dig deep into a fictional world that runs on ignogen, a material that’s as unstable as enriched uranium; its myriad applications make the dangers of its extraction and use worthwhile, however.
I haven’t read such an interesting twist on steampunk since Senlin Ascends (though no two stories could be less alike). Symphony of the Wind is a story of rebellion, of corruption and the excesses of power and religious zeal but more importantly – of men and women struggling in the dark, attempting to make it out into the light. Thank all things dark and evil that it’s 660 pages, else I don’t know how the author would’ve tackled as much as he did as well as he has.
McKinnon writes well. I tell you, he does! His prose is elegant and visual; reading some of the action scenes in the later half of Symphony was like getting shot after shot of adrenaline right into my spinal cord. One high stakes chase scene in particular, as well as a secondary villain by the name of Pierro, made for a spectacular sequence that had me cheering for heroes Serena and Gallows throughout. And Pierro…rarely have I disliked a large chap as much as this one. I just wish someone smacked his big stupid face with a brick!
Speaking of Pierro, Symphony’s villains are a memorable lot, and one that I loved to hate every step of the way. Again, I’ll draw a parallel with Malazan; none of these bad people are evil for evil’s sake. It’s either fate or purpose or...okay, there’s a pair of villains that’re just led my vainglorious personal ambition and greed for power, as well as an absolute psychopath that’ll give any Resident Evil 2 player a flashback to Mr X, but—BUT—about half the villains of the novel truly believe that what they’re doing is for the best. That’s the stuff of truly memorable fantasy villains.
What didn’t mush quite well enough for?
Gallows, one of our two main PoV characters, was somewhat polarizing. At times, I really liked him but at others, he seemed overwhelmingly judgemental of the behaviour of other characters, or their skills, when he was guilty of similar behaviour or worse. There’s an argument to be made that this makes him more realistic but there was a little something that bugged me about the sudden switch from badass action hero to judgy lad.
Several of the characters and their PoVs played a small enough part that they didn’t leave an impression. It was almost as if their existence were a reason for major protagonists and antagonists to have further connections to one another, reasons to push them further into conflict. I can’t help but feel that McKinnon is compelled to show where every thread of the story eventually goes in detail; sometimes, less is more.
One more thing worth mentioning is, there was something off with the speech of a couple of the characters. Too many ‘reckon’-ings perhaps, a few too many interesting characters given cliched military jargon and other choices in vernacular that were used without nearly enough measure.
From this point onwards, I can only see Steven McKinnon improving. He’s set up a world I’m excited to read more about, characters I want to follow, and though I dislike a few things, these don’t take away from the enormous amount of enjoyment and thrills I got in my time with Symphony of the Wind.
My score for Symphony of the Wind is an 8 out of 10 for SPFBO 4, and 4/5 stars on Goodreads! I can heartily recommend this to:
• Anyone who loves well thought-out fantasy with wonderous world-building;
• Dark stories that’ll get darker;
• How-to guides to nearly successful dictatorships;
• Cool leads, cooler antagonists;
• I’m serious, you’ll just want to punch, claw at and stab all the villains! They’re just so sleazy and nasty, all of them!
• So much excellent action! Gunpowder, treason and plot! Plots. Multiple plots.
• And more! Prob’ly!
"A bounty hunter with a death wish. A girl with fearsome powers. A kingdom on the brink of destruction". The description caught my attention and I had high expectations but...I just could not force myself to read more than a few pages...I had to drop it as it was making no sense and so many characters were mentioned in such a short span of time.Also the language was not understandable somehow,I don't know why but it didn't seem and feel like normal English.I barely understood the overall happenings but was totally unable to get the details,and so I did not like it basically because I didn't understand it.
I'm finding this very tedious to read. There's some exciting events that occur but it's not coming together fast enough. I'm not invested in or even interested in any of these characters. I can't put into words exactly what I don't like about this but it just feels off and inconsistent. I can see what other people like about this but for reasons I can't quite quantify it's not for me.
This book is filled with a wide array of characters that makes following it difficult to begin with, however as they become fully fleshed out it becomes much easier. Filled with mystery and action it makes for an excellent read. My one gripe would be, I would have liked to see Serena use her power more but I guess I will have to wait for the sequel. I also hope there will be more of Damien's story.
“A bounty hunter with a death wish. A girl with fearsome powers. A kingdom on the brink of destruction.
Symphony of the Wind is the first book in a gritty epic fantasy trilogy. If you like hardened heroes, steampunk airships, and dark magic and monsters, then you’ll love Steven McKinnon’s visceral adventure.”
I was provided a copy of the book Symphony of the Wind by the author in exchange for an honest review. I was interested in this title after seeing it scoring highly in the SPFBO last year, seeing several comments about it being a dark steampunk novel. It was more than that as I was blown away by the book. It has everything you need in this one, tremendous world building, wonderful characters, and enough twists and turns to keep you guessing.
This is Steven McKinnon’s debut fantasy novel and I was captivated from the beginning with steampunk style airships used to collect rainwater to provide water to a kingdom that was decimated by war. Then there is the culture he has created, there is so much lore and backstory included without a huge infodump. The amount of lore and history he has effortlessly pumped in this story really adds a depth that is hard to find.
The story jumps between several POV’s from a third person perspective which I usually don’t care for, but it works with his writing style. The POV’s mainly go between Tyson Gallows, the bounty hunter with a death wish, and Serena, the young girl who is just starting to discover her powers. Some of the side characters get a turn in the POV spotlight and even they are fleshed out very well in a way that makes you care for them as much as the main characters. My favorite being Damien Fieri, the partner of Tyson Gallows, who has his own demons to deal with.
The first quarter of the book I found to be a little slower paced but after that it’s got a very quick pace without feeling rushed. The battle scenes are well done and gritty which is a plus in my book. I didn’t feel that there was an excess of gore or brutality just to have it in there but that it was all done in good taste and relevant to the story. The action is well placed and intense at times I was almost jumping with the events in the book and actually found myself with my mouth hanging open a few times when a plot twist or some other unexpected event showed up.
Overall this is one of the best put together books I have read in a long time. I really was blown away by this debut into fantasy that reads more like a book from a seasoned author. I can’t wait to get into the rest of this series to see how the events unfold. I would give this book a rating of 5 on the grimdark scale.
Symphony of the Wind is the first book in a gritty epic fantasy trilogy. If you like hardened heroes, steampunk airships, and dark magic and monsters, then you’ll love Steven McKinnon’s visceral adventure.”
I was provided a copy of the book Symphony of the Wind by the author in exchange for an honest review. I was interested in this title after seeing it scoring highly in the SPFBO last year, seeing several comments about it being a dark steampunk novel. It was more than that as I was blown away by the book. It has everything you need in this one, tremendous world building, wonderful characters, and enough twists and turns to keep you guessing.
This is Steven McKinnon’s debut fantasy novel and I was captivated from the beginning with steampunk style airships used to collect rainwater to provide water to a kingdom that was decimated by war. Then there is the culture he has created, there is so much lore and backstory included without a huge infodump. The amount of lore and history he has effortlessly pumped in this story really adds a depth that is hard to find.
The story jumps between several POV’s from a third person perspective which I usually don’t care for, but it works with his writing style. The POV’s mainly go between Tyson Gallows, the bounty hunter with a death wish, and Serena, the young girl who is just starting to discover her powers. Some of the side characters get a turn in the POV spotlight and even they are fleshed out very well in a way that makes you care for them as much as the main characters. My favorite being Damien Fieri, the partner of Tyson Gallows, who has his own demons to deal with.
The first quarter of the book I found to be a little slower paced but after that it’s got a very quick pace without feeling rushed. The battle scenes are well done and gritty which is a plus in my book. I didn’t feel that there was an excess of gore or brutality just to have it in there but that it was all done in good taste and relevant to the story. The action is well placed and intense at times I was almost jumping with the events in the book and actually found myself with my mouth hanging open a few times when a plot twist or some other unexpected event showed up.
Overall this is one of the best put together books I have read in a long time. I really was blown away by this debut into fantasy that reads more like a book from a seasoned author. I can’t wait to get into the rest of this series to see how the events unfold. I would give this book a rating of 5 on the grimdark scale.
Disclaimer: I have voluntarily reviewed this book after receiving a free copy from Hidden Gem Books.
Oh boy. I was really trying to get into this book. The description seemed interesting and I always enjoy some good steampunk elements in my fantasy, moreover the ratings on goodreads were really high so I was expecting an amazing adventure.
Sadly I didn’t get it. And as much as I hate to leave books unread, I wasn’t able to bring myself to finish this one.
One word I’d use to describe my experience with the book is “boring”. Despite things happening, there was nothing that would actually get my attention or keep my interest for a little longer. When I would actually get interested in something that was happening the POV would change into another character in some different situation and when it came back to the one I was reading about before, the events in their POV that seemed interesting would resolve in a completely underwhelming way. At 200 pages I still didn’t know what the plot actually was because things were happening so slowly. At some point i accidentally skipped about 100 pages and didn’t realise that I had missed something until I noticed the page number. There was one moment when two characters whose POVs were the main ones were about to be at one place at the same time and I was sure that’s when the story will start properly but the moment passed without them exchanging even a word. That was really anticlimactic and I kind of lost my hopes for the story ever picking up.
The characters are alright, although I found it hard to actually care about any besides Serena and Gallows. Let’s start with the first one, shall we. Serena is a sixteen-year-old orphan who when she’s not bullied by the kids in the orphanage, works at a Raincatcher airship. Raincatchers gather water for the people in the city since most water is gone after the war. She wants to have her own ship at some point and overall seems to think she’s better than others despite having close to no friends. The only one who is kind of her friend is Angelo. Angelo reads books and talks… Sometimes. Serena always knows best and bad adults never listen to her. She was annoying me but that made her interesting because I couldn’t say even that much about other characters surrounding her. Many of them, especially the ones from the crew seemed like minor characters that were supposed to introduce the reader to the world and then disappear as the heroine life changes but somehow ended up playing a bigger role.
Now let’s move to Gallows, who was arguably the best character in the book. An ex-soldier with a snarky sense of humor and deep-rooted issues. He’d lost the love of his life, his job sucks and the city he’d fought to protect is on the brink of collapse. Life’s great. I might have a soft spot for characters that mask their issues with jokes but Gallows’ banter with his partner, Damien, was pleasant to read. I was also curious about Damien’s self-control issues and their past together.
The world building would be interesting but sometimes I felt like the author had it so developed in his mind that he forgot the reader doesn’t know as much as he does. There were many names of people, places and events that were not explained and left you confused. I’m absolutely not a fan of huge exposition info dumps that try to introduce you to the whole world at once but here I found it a bit overwhelming. Sometimes a character would exclaim a name and I would think they’re calling someone when in fact they were just calling one of the many gods. I have to, however, give kudos for the idea - collapsing city without water with steampunk airships responsible for delivering it and scorched land mostly without any plants make some amazing, vivid imagery and I really regret I wasn’t able to get into it and fully enjoy this world.
I also had a little issue with how the book was written. It seemed that the author did his best to make some characters’ speech stylized but then other characters would speak in a normal, modern way which didn’t fit together and often made the book hard to read. However it’s not something that was bothersome in the long run when you already got used to this.
All in all, Symphony of Wind is a book with great premise but it lacks interesting plot and lovable characters. I can see how people for whom a nicely built fantasy world is the most important part may enjoy it but it wasn’t my cup of tea.
Oh boy. I was really trying to get into this book. The description seemed interesting and I always enjoy some good steampunk elements in my fantasy, moreover the ratings on goodreads were really high so I was expecting an amazing adventure.
Sadly I didn’t get it. And as much as I hate to leave books unread, I wasn’t able to bring myself to finish this one.
One word I’d use to describe my experience with the book is “boring”. Despite things happening, there was nothing that would actually get my attention or keep my interest for a little longer. When I would actually get interested in something that was happening the POV would change into another character in some different situation and when it came back to the one I was reading about before, the events in their POV that seemed interesting would resolve in a completely underwhelming way. At 200 pages I still didn’t know what the plot actually was because things were happening so slowly. At some point i accidentally skipped about 100 pages and didn’t realise that I had missed something until I noticed the page number. There was one moment when two characters whose POVs were the main ones were about to be at one place at the same time and I was sure that’s when the story will start properly but the moment passed without them exchanging even a word. That was really anticlimactic and I kind of lost my hopes for the story ever picking up.
The characters are alright, although I found it hard to actually care about any besides Serena and Gallows. Let’s start with the first one, shall we. Serena is a sixteen-year-old orphan who when she’s not bullied by the kids in the orphanage, works at a Raincatcher airship. Raincatchers gather water for the people in the city since most water is gone after the war. She wants to have her own ship at some point and overall seems to think she’s better than others despite having close to no friends. The only one who is kind of her friend is Angelo. Angelo reads books and talks… Sometimes. Serena always knows best and bad adults never listen to her. She was annoying me but that made her interesting because I couldn’t say even that much about other characters surrounding her. Many of them, especially the ones from the crew seemed like minor characters that were supposed to introduce the reader to the world and then disappear as the heroine life changes but somehow ended up playing a bigger role.
Now let’s move to Gallows, who was arguably the best character in the book. An ex-soldier with a snarky sense of humor and deep-rooted issues. He’d lost the love of his life, his job sucks and the city he’d fought to protect is on the brink of collapse. Life’s great. I might have a soft spot for characters that mask their issues with jokes but Gallows’ banter with his partner, Damien, was pleasant to read. I was also curious about Damien’s self-control issues and their past together.
The world building would be interesting but sometimes I felt like the author had it so developed in his mind that he forgot the reader doesn’t know as much as he does. There were many names of people, places and events that were not explained and left you confused. I’m absolutely not a fan of huge exposition info dumps that try to introduce you to the whole world at once but here I found it a bit overwhelming. Sometimes a character would exclaim a name and I would think they’re calling someone when in fact they were just calling one of the many gods. I have to, however, give kudos for the idea - collapsing city without water with steampunk airships responsible for delivering it and scorched land mostly without any plants make some amazing, vivid imagery and I really regret I wasn’t able to get into it and fully enjoy this world.
I also had a little issue with how the book was written. It seemed that the author did his best to make some characters’ speech stylized but then other characters would speak in a normal, modern way which didn’t fit together and often made the book hard to read. However it’s not something that was bothersome in the long run when you already got used to this.
All in all, Symphony of Wind is a book with great premise but it lacks interesting plot and lovable characters. I can see how people for whom a nicely built fantasy world is the most important part may enjoy it but it wasn’t my cup of tea.
I began Symphony of the Wind with the great hope that this would be a book I would love. It has airships and bounty hunters and the world seemed well-thought out and original. The Princess Bride is one of my favorite stories of all time, and anything approaching it will undoubtedly find a soft space in my heart. I even liked the beginning of the novel. I found several of the protagonists likeable, flat-out loved a scene involving a giant snake monster, and was all set to bury myself in this SPFBO entry.
And then, as I went along, I began to find more and more issues with Steven McKinnon’s vision. At 25% in, I was feeling fatigued, and after truly stretching myself to the 50% mark, I simply had to give it up. Not only did I not want to finish Symphony of the Wind, but I was beginning to actively dislike it. I do not like to say such things about any novel, let alone one involved in a contest that is so vital to the fantasy community, but I refuse to go with the flow and simply give a book a pass because everyone else seems to love it.
There were things that I liked about Symphony of the Wind, all front-loaded towards the beginning of the novel. There are some good jokes in the book, William Fitzwilliam being one of the best. As I said before, I love high adventure where airships and bounty hunters abound. There is quite a lot of the book that reminds of me a Final Fantasy game, from the combination of guns and swords to the genetic experiments - similarities that will always draw me in for nostalgic reasons. I love multi-viewpoint narratives in the vein of Robert Jordan, particularly when they can showcase an author’s ability to speak from different viewpoints. As a recipe, I look at this book and assume I will love it, but then it gets whipped together and it’s a conflicted mess with no actual flavor.
As for what I did not like about Symphony, I am going to make a short list. This is not exhaustive, but gets to the point of why I didn’t like this novel.
-Dialogue is all over the place, like each character is from a different era of time. Conversations often feel like they are part of a comedy skit, overwrought and forced.
-Viewpoint switches seem random, haphazard almost, without contributing to a cohesive narrative.
-Format feels serial, as though this was written for a SyFy series, and it almost seems like McKinnon wants to be writing science fiction instead of this mixture of fantasy and sci-fi. He also seems more concerned with blockbuster action than with telling a story.
-Coincidences are all too convenient, contrived in a way that unmasks the author and pulls a reader out of the text, which is the last thing any reader wants.
-Characters keep hinting at their past in inner monologues, but it feels forced and shadowy when we are in this character’s head and would know what they are referring to without the secret keeping. This can be done, but I don’t think McKinnon pulls it off.
-Gallows character is inconsistent, his inner monologue is grim and dark, never happy, but he is constantly cracking jokes and appearing light. Again, this can work if there is a better transition between the inner and outer monologues. In Symphony, it feels like we are dealing with two different characters.
-Even at 50%, I had no idea what the actual plot of the book is. It spends so much time trying to push its characters towards one another that it never actually starts telling a story. Again, this can work so well if the threads are tighter and woven more adeptly.
The argument could certainly be made that I am judging this book too harshly, that maybe a self-publishing contest does not warrant such scrutiny. I might agree with that assessment if there weren’t so many excellent entries into the SPFBO - books that are beautifully written and edited down to the most minute word. And frankly, this is a contest that introduced the world to Senlin Ascends, one of the best books and series that I’ve ever read. I expect the winners to approach its caliber, and Symphony of the Wind regrettably does not.
And then, as I went along, I began to find more and more issues with Steven McKinnon’s vision. At 25% in, I was feeling fatigued, and after truly stretching myself to the 50% mark, I simply had to give it up. Not only did I not want to finish Symphony of the Wind, but I was beginning to actively dislike it. I do not like to say such things about any novel, let alone one involved in a contest that is so vital to the fantasy community, but I refuse to go with the flow and simply give a book a pass because everyone else seems to love it.
There were things that I liked about Symphony of the Wind, all front-loaded towards the beginning of the novel. There are some good jokes in the book, William Fitzwilliam being one of the best. As I said before, I love high adventure where airships and bounty hunters abound. There is quite a lot of the book that reminds of me a Final Fantasy game, from the combination of guns and swords to the genetic experiments - similarities that will always draw me in for nostalgic reasons. I love multi-viewpoint narratives in the vein of Robert Jordan, particularly when they can showcase an author’s ability to speak from different viewpoints. As a recipe, I look at this book and assume I will love it, but then it gets whipped together and it’s a conflicted mess with no actual flavor.
As for what I did not like about Symphony, I am going to make a short list. This is not exhaustive, but gets to the point of why I didn’t like this novel.
-Dialogue is all over the place, like each character is from a different era of time. Conversations often feel like they are part of a comedy skit, overwrought and forced.
-Viewpoint switches seem random, haphazard almost, without contributing to a cohesive narrative.
-Format feels serial, as though this was written for a SyFy series, and it almost seems like McKinnon wants to be writing science fiction instead of this mixture of fantasy and sci-fi. He also seems more concerned with blockbuster action than with telling a story.
-Coincidences are all too convenient, contrived in a way that unmasks the author and pulls a reader out of the text, which is the last thing any reader wants.
-Characters keep hinting at their past in inner monologues, but it feels forced and shadowy when we are in this character’s head and would know what they are referring to without the secret keeping. This can be done, but I don’t think McKinnon pulls it off.
-Gallows character is inconsistent, his inner monologue is grim and dark, never happy, but he is constantly cracking jokes and appearing light. Again, this can work if there is a better transition between the inner and outer monologues. In Symphony, it feels like we are dealing with two different characters.
-Even at 50%, I had no idea what the actual plot of the book is. It spends so much time trying to push its characters towards one another that it never actually starts telling a story. Again, this can work so well if the threads are tighter and woven more adeptly.
The argument could certainly be made that I am judging this book too harshly, that maybe a self-publishing contest does not warrant such scrutiny. I might agree with that assessment if there weren’t so many excellent entries into the SPFBO - books that are beautifully written and edited down to the most minute word. And frankly, this is a contest that introduced the world to Senlin Ascends, one of the best books and series that I’ve ever read. I expect the winners to approach its caliber, and Symphony of the Wind regrettably does not.
I have so many great things to say about this book I am at a loss of where to even start. The world is incredible, the characters that fill the world are very fleshed out, there is magic and science and technology. One of my favorite reads of the year, and it even taught me a new word, outwith.
Let's start with the world, the story takes place in a city called Dalthea which is really a very small kingdom. The city is struggling to survive after the war with the Idari. There is no natural water source so a guild of rain catchers who use airships to collect water for distribution. There are corrupt government officials along with the watchmen they command. There are guilds for mages, musicians and hunters.
There are quite a few characters we become acquainted with but the main two are Serena an teenager who lives in an orphanage and is training to become rain catcher and Tyson gallows who was a soldier in the war, he is now a hunter who has PTSD looking for a way out of life.
I knew nothing about this book when I started it but as soon as I read airship I was sold. If that is not enough to peak your interest there are sword fights and shoot outs, airship battles and human experimentation, car chases and mind control. There is a lot of action and a great story to go along with it.
This is the first in a series, but one of the best parts for me is that it had a solid ending. There is definitely a lot more story to come but it ended in a way that told a full story. This is great for me since I am already in the middle of so many series's, this is one that while I am very excited for the sequel I am not pissed that I don't already have it in my hands.
I recommend this to anyone looking for a great story. But if you are looking for something more specific this is a tale that involves a lot of great concepts that may make it the book for you.
Let's start with the world, the story takes place in a city called Dalthea which is really a very small kingdom. The city is struggling to survive after the war with the Idari. There is no natural water source so a guild of rain catchers who use airships to collect water for distribution. There are corrupt government officials along with the watchmen they command. There are guilds for mages, musicians and hunters.
There are quite a few characters we become acquainted with but the main two are Serena an teenager who lives in an orphanage and is training to become rain catcher and Tyson gallows who was a soldier in the war, he is now a hunter who has PTSD looking for a way out of life.
I knew nothing about this book when I started it but as soon as I read airship I was sold. If that is not enough to peak your interest there are sword fights and shoot outs, airship battles and human experimentation, car chases and mind control. There is a lot of action and a great story to go along with it.
This is the first in a series, but one of the best parts for me is that it had a solid ending. There is definitely a lot more story to come but it ended in a way that told a full story. This is great for me since I am already in the middle of so many series's, this is one that while I am very excited for the sequel I am not pissed that I don't already have it in my hands.
I recommend this to anyone looking for a great story. But if you are looking for something more specific this is a tale that involves a lot of great concepts that may make it the book for you.