A review by felofhe
The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Like her other, later series, The Murderbot Diaries, which led me to this book, Martha Wells' first installment of her Books of the Raksura series is a beautifully heart-wrenching and heartwarming story of an outcast looking for their place in the world. Unlike Murderbot, however, the Raksura books and their protagonist, Moon, eschew a cyberpunk futuristic space aesthetic for a world more reminiscent of high fantasy with echoes of Tolkien and Lewis. The Three Worlds, as their known, are rendered in beautiful strokes with multiple types of sentient beings, all coexisting in semi-peaceful harmony. Except for the horrific Fell, which exist as a dark mirror to the Raksura, a comparison drawn early and solidly over the course of this book. Wells' penchant for complex characters is in full force here. Every character has their own motivations and their conflicts never seem forced for dramatics. They all have deeply human motivations and reasons for antagonism. Even the Fell are rendered with enough complexity and care that they seem realistic in their motives. Wells is swiftly climbing the ranks of my favorite writers and I can't wait to continue this series.
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