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A review by jaedia
A Palace Near the Wind by Ai Jiang
challenging
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
A Palace Near the Wind is a decent enough read, but I had a lot of struggles with it, personally. As such I think my rating is more of a 2.5 or 2.75, but I've rounded up for this one as there were pieces of it I enjoyed.
Once I worked out the dreamy prose style, it was easier to feel somewhat immersed. The overall atmosphere was pretty ethereal, like a living dream, which in some parts was nice but for the entire novella I felt it lost a lot of depth. The story began very much like a Fern Gully or Pocahontas and around midway it gets a little more Black Mirror, a lot more sci-fi than you're led to believe at first. Which while interesting and I think was done okay, definitely felt a little odd, tonally.
This is where I had the most trouble: as the dreamy quality of the prose wasn't immediately clear to me, everything felt a little lacking in depth. I couldn't get hold of a scale, stakes, much of anything. I think the author was going for the vibe of this is just how Lufeng sees the world, right? But it came across like a fairy tale written for young adults. Very little depth, a little bombastic with it's style in areas with characters and settings that felt cartoonish, and very hard to grapple onto. You really have to give yourself into the dreamy quality for this one. It's very strange.
The characters felt too flat for me, though colourful. A little like 2d animation or a comic book.
The pacing of the story was okay, though it lacked in areas. We're told months pass and very little happens and then everything happens, and then very little again. It felt odd. There were so many points where I just wanted more depth (apologies to keep repeating myself but this really is the sticking point for me, sadly). I wanted to see Lufeng working through her plans, connecting with others, but it just never quite goes there and that made it so difficult to connect to the story and what was going on. Sadly. Because there's a really solid story and world in here, beautiful, even, I just couldn't get invested like I wanted to.
Things just feel too unclear. I could grasp that her plans were flawed because she had no prior experience with needing to act calculated and murderous, or education or information about how things are and what's really going on, but that was a deduction I made, it's not made that clear in the writing. The characters do act the way I'd expect them to act, (except for the mysterious teleporting jade necklace at the end), but yeah it's just... disappointing.
Overall I didn't love this one the way I hoped I would. The concept is incredible, there's a world in here I could really latch onto, and it is beautiful and ethereal, certainly sad, but sadly it reads too young for my personal tastes and it lacks in the depth I like in my books. There certainly is depth here, I'm not saying it's entirely lacking, I wouldn't have been able to finish if there was none, but it just didn't do what I need a book to do. The 'promise' wasn't there to connect to the 'progress', and the 'payoff' never felt like it made it.
I do think if you're down for a Fern Gully meets 1984 (how up-to-date are my references!) young adult dreamy science-fantasy with a lot of elemental magic trying to survive in a world that wants to crush and use them for its own means, you might love this one, but it wasn't quite for me.
Once I worked out the dreamy prose style, it was easier to feel somewhat immersed. The overall atmosphere was pretty ethereal, like a living dream, which in some parts was nice but for the entire novella I felt it lost a lot of depth. The story began very much like a Fern Gully or Pocahontas and around midway it gets a little more Black Mirror, a lot more sci-fi than you're led to believe at first. Which while interesting and I think was done okay, definitely felt a little odd, tonally.
This is where I had the most trouble: as the dreamy quality of the prose wasn't immediately clear to me, everything felt a little lacking in depth. I couldn't get hold of a scale, stakes, much of anything. I think the author was going for the vibe of this is just how Lufeng sees the world, right? But it came across like a fairy tale written for young adults. Very little depth, a little bombastic with it's style in areas with characters and settings that felt cartoonish, and very hard to grapple onto. You really have to give yourself into the dreamy quality for this one. It's very strange.
The characters felt too flat for me, though colourful. A little like 2d animation or a comic book.
The pacing of the story was okay, though it lacked in areas. We're told months pass and very little happens and then everything happens, and then very little again. It felt odd. There were so many points where I just wanted more depth (apologies to keep repeating myself but this really is the sticking point for me, sadly). I wanted to see Lufeng working through her plans, connecting with others, but it just never quite goes there and that made it so difficult to connect to the story and what was going on. Sadly. Because there's a really solid story and world in here, beautiful, even, I just couldn't get invested like I wanted to.
Things just feel too unclear. I could grasp that her plans were flawed because she had no prior experience with needing to act calculated and murderous, or education or information about how things are and what's really going on, but that was a deduction I made, it's not made that clear in the writing. The characters do act the way I'd expect them to act, (except for the mysterious teleporting jade necklace at the end), but yeah it's just... disappointing.
Overall I didn't love this one the way I hoped I would. The concept is incredible, there's a world in here I could really latch onto, and it is beautiful and ethereal, certainly sad, but sadly it reads too young for my personal tastes and it lacks in the depth I like in my books. There certainly is depth here, I'm not saying it's entirely lacking, I wouldn't have been able to finish if there was none, but it just didn't do what I need a book to do. The 'promise' wasn't there to connect to the 'progress', and the 'payoff' never felt like it made it.
I do think if you're down for a Fern Gully meets 1984 (how up-to-date are my references!) young adult dreamy science-fantasy with a lot of elemental magic trying to survive in a world that wants to crush and use them for its own means, you might love this one, but it wasn't quite for me.