This was a beautifully written, wonderfully imaginative story. I read an eARC of this book so thank you to the author and the publisher.

There is so much richness to this book and it is absolutely jam packed with world building, fantastical elements, political intrigue. I did want this to be longer. It felt like there was so much packed in and I wanted more time to learn more about it, immerse myself in the world, understand the different elements, characters and factions more. This is such a short book (a novella) and it really deserved to be longer to allow us to spend more time learning about this world.

We follow a character who is being sacrificed as a bride to the human king following the same sacrifice her mother had to make. She intends to kill him. She is described as bark skinned and having sap and is horrified by eating meat. She makes this sacrifice to save her people and stop the human expansion. We see commentary around the horrors humans inflict upon the world. Compounded by later discoveries by the main character.

There was so much in this book that was absolutely amazing! The imagination and visual splendour was wonderful and I wanted to immerse more in it! I was intrigued by the statements the book appeared to be making and I would have loved more content to explore.

Beautifully written, with an interesting and mysterious premise. Despite this being a novella I unfortunately was unable to finish in time. I had a hard time connecting with the characters and the descriptions of how the tree beings exist was a little confusing to me. At times they had very human functions, and at others they were vastly different. Unfortunately I started reading this right when work got very busy for me, so that definitely impacted my ability to stick with it. I would like to return to the story when time allows and give it the focus it deserves.

3.5 rounded up for Goodreads

Title/Author: A Palace Near the Wind by Ai Jiang

Page Count: 192 pages

Publisher: Titan Books

Format: Hardcover novella

Other Books I Enjoyed by This Author: Linghun

Affiliate Link: https://bookshop.org/a/7576/978180336...

Release Date: April 15th, 2025

General Genre: Sci-fi, Eco-Fantasy, High fantasy

Sub-Genre/Themes: Industrialim, nature, arranged marriage, colonization, culture, identity, climate change and the preservation of natural resources, family, royalty

Writing Style: thought-provoking, imaginative, unique

What You Need to Know: "a richly inventive, brutal and beautiful science-fantasy novella. A story of family, loss, oppression, and rebellion."

My Reading Experience: I typically don't venture out into the SFF territory too often, but I'm a big Ai Jiang fan, and she has written some speculative horror fiction too, so I had to check this one out. The main character, Liu Lufeng, is a princess with bark skin and braded branches for limbs. She also has "hair made of needle threads".
It was hard for me to picture this unless I allowed it to play out like an animated movie, so once I let go of live-action visuals and went with a more Studio Ghibli vibe, I settled in.

"We are the people of Feng and Feng itself—a part of the trees, a part of the wind. Just as we borrow the wind, the wind also borrows us."

Still, I think there could have been more intentional scenework where the author could describe the Feng, "Wind Walkers," more cinematically.
A lot of attention is given to world-building and setting which does slow down the pacing and the sense of urgency. The story revolves around a pivotal time for the main protagonist, who has arrived at her new home, a palace, to marry the King, who is responsible for treating her people and the land as resources to use up and spit out in the name of industry and progress. The marriage is just a business arrangement.

"I’d thought the Land Wanderers wanted to convert us all. But no, what they wanted to do was steal all that made us who we were, use us, then toss us away."

There is a huge cast of characters for such a small book and I feel like they don't get enough page-time to make them special or people I could emotionally invest in. Perhaps this will be taken care of in later installments since this is only book one in the scope of a larger project.
I am out of practice and out of my element jumping into high fantasy--so I feel a little rusty. I was confused a lot of the time but I always enjoy Jiang's imagination and storytelling voice.

Final Recommendation: For fans who enjoy colorful, whimsical high fantasy about destiny/fate and a strong female protagonist willing to rebel against choices that have been made on her behalf.
"Yet the need to rebel, to break the agreement, simmered within me."

Comps: Green Teeth by Molly O'Neill

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this story.
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

This was such an interesting novella. I kept trying to wrap my head around the images of beings made from nature. I loved the concept of it as it felt so alien but also not at the same time? If that makes sense. The plot twists were also abundant for such a short story. Learning bout her parents and her siblings and the experiments they were undergoing all made for a very compelling read. I'm wondering if there will be more from this author about these characters. It seemed like something that continue but I'm unsure.

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.

Due to some of the hype I’d heard about this #book, and the fact it’s a fairly short #novel I was keen to squeeze it in.

“Brutal and Beautiful”, “Devastating” and “Heartbreaking” were some of the words I’d heard. Maybe I’m a 🤖 but I didn’t get any of that.

Really interesting lore and world building, and it’s not a bad #book - just didn’t deliver the emotional hammer blow I was wanting and expecting.

A Palace Near the Wind by Ann Jiang
Publication Date: 15th April 2025

Thank you to Titan books, for this stunning ARC!

A Palace Near the Wind is a wonderful oriental adventure, reminiscent of Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke and with elemental elements that may seem reminiscent to Avatar: The Last Airbender. It follows Liu Lufeng on her quest to marry and kill the Emperor, by travelling from her airborne homeland, to the mechanical and grounded environment of the Palace.

To begin with, I loved the world-building, and how the natural lands that Liu came from were so different to the mechanized and hostile environment of the Palace. This made Liu’s perspective of everything, from food and transport to shoes, really fascinating to read about. I particularly liked the big mechanical creatures that the people of the Palace traveled around in, too.

The plot was a little back and forth, giving answers without really giving them, while the main character walked aimlessly around like a video game character – in search of plot points. This slowed the pacing, and allowed the story to lose tension at key moments: especially just after Liu arrives at the Palace, and towards the climactic end point. However, the highlights were most definitely in the politics of the story and the numerous plot twists, which were masterfully done and provided this novella with necessary intrigue.

As for characters, Tin and Zinc ended up being my favorites, as characters caught and molded by the court. At times, the revelations as to who the characters were and what they knew were points of interest, but often these things were kept vague and left me questioning their relevance to the wider plot. This also took a toll on many of the characters, especially Liu. Liu was a weak protagonist, who gets lost amid so many other strong personalities and intriguing individuals in the narrative. Moreover, her motivations and thought processes weakened towards the end, leaving me to passively watch the plot through her eyes, rather than experience the story through her character.

This led to a rushed ending, where a lot happened at once, with some plot points making sense and others seemingly coming from nowhere. This, I believe, is because of how the novella tried to do a lot within a short amount of pages. The plot itself, let alone the character arcs, could have easily fit into a 500 book – giving everything more room to develop and breathe. Overall, whilst this is a fascinating novella and the start to what could be a compelling series, it falls short in its own attempts to achieve too much within a limited space.

I really enjoyed this one. Though it's short, it's filled with interesting and well developed characters, and has some great world building.
I really liked our main character and found the entire story overall, to be very engaging and fast paced.

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for giving me an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This novella had some really ideas with a fun world surrounding it. I don't always think it pulled off what it was going for, but I am excited to see where the story goes from here. If you are interested in a shorter read with some interesting magic, I would give this book a read.

An interesting concept, executed in quite a heavy handed way. I don’t think the short novella form lends itself to this story because it’s such ambitious world building and I felt like it needed much more time dedicated to how this world functions.

It reads very Nature Good Technology Bad in a way that kind of hits the reader over the head with it, I wish it was a bit more subtle in the delivery of the central themes. That being said I enjoyed the commentary on colonialism and the evils of consumerism/wealthy totalitarian oligarchy, and I’m excited for book two which will hopefully expand on everything much more!

Thank you to Titan Books and NetGalley for the ARC

This novella feels a lot like an allegory for uncontrolled industrialisation and its effects of nature; you have the entity called Engine and humans named Zinc (related to a corporation called Z INC) and Copper, whereas the nature-related people beyond Feng are named things like Geyser. The bulk of this installment involved Lufeng trying to uncover the truth behind the contractual agreement between the people of Feng and the Palace, while also plotting to kill the King of the Palace that she is meant to marry—only everything is not as it seems, and there may be a deeper plot between Feng and Engine that Lufeng has yet to uncover.

The writing is beautiful to read, but considering how little our narrator-protagonist knows about the larger plot, and all the things she needs to unlearn and relearn, the story itself only picked up much later in the book (say, around 70% in). It does end on a relatively hopeful and exciting note, so perhaps the second book will be when things get properly satisfying?

A Palace Near the Wind had the potential to be a captivating read, with an intriguing premise that immediately piqued my interest. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to the expectations I had for one of my most anticipated books of 2025.

The novella follows Feng, a Wind Walker—one of the unique races in this world who can command the wind and has tree-like features. Feng’s community faces an existential threat as industrialization encroaches upon their way of life. To combat this, Feng is married off to the King, a political maneuver meant to prevent the destruction of their people’s home. What follows is a journey into the heart of a palace filled with experiments and mysteries, and an escalating threat from the city’s corrupt rulers.

The world-building in A Palace Near the Wind is undoubtedly interesting, but it feels underdeveloped. The setting is presented in vivid detail, but the book spends so much time on the world itself that the plot and character development take a backseat. This results in a slow-paced narrative that leaves me struggling to connect with the characters or fully understand the stakes. I found myself trying to piece together the mechanics of this world—how the Wind Walkers fit in, how the society operates, and what the overall conflict is.

The first half of the book feels like a slow burn, with little happening in terms of plot. It's as though the world-building is the story, but there's only so much you can immerse yourself in before you start wanting more. By the time the actual conflict begins to unfold, it feels rushed, and the story wraps up in a mere twenty pages. The pacing is all over the place, and the abrupt conclusion did not allow for the themes or conflicts to fully resonate.

As much as I wanted to be swept away by the richness of this world, I found myself frustrated by the lack of depth in the plot and the characters. It’s a short book, but it felt like it took forever to read because of how slowly it unfolded. I can imagine that fans of the concept might still find enjoyment in it, but if you're someone who prefers a tighter plot and a more fleshed-out narrative, this one may fall short. In conclusion, while A Palace Near the Wind has a promising premise that ultimately feels like it never quite realizes its full potential.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A Palace Near the Wind is the fantasy novel for fans of Princess Mononoke or Fern Gully, a book with a strongly eco-centric motif that strives for complexity and nuance in its discussion of human imperialism and our relationship with the natural world. Jiang takes a bold position through her protagonist, offering up a unique perspective that presents the barbarism with which human "civilization" treats the natural world and its resources while also focusing on the relative cost and benefits of human civilization's "progress" through its pursuit of technology and creature comfort.

The book has a lot of twists and turns that complicate the main character's stance surrounding the gradual consumption of her home and the way her society has become pressured into complicity with imperial expansionist forces, but doesn't ever feel like it's condescending to its reader. Jiang uses a light touch in places throughout the book when Lufeng, the main character, reflects on her experiences outside her forest home, reframing the society we might most recognize in our modern era with fresh and inquisitive eyes--sort of like what Ursula K. Le Guin did with The Dispossessed. The result of that light touch is a reflection on our world's customs and mores, an alienation that can serve to open up reflection on how arbitrarily we accept change for "progress" without recognizing the real ecological and sociological impact those changes can have on the world outside our immediate human sphere. But it's not all light touch in this novella, as Jiang also trades nuance for more directly symbolic statements that help concretize the book's thematic interrogation of the complicated relationship between human civilization and the natural world and its particular ordering.

It should definitely be said that this does not feel like a complete story by any stretch, and the major themes the book wants to interrogate as regards imperialism and its destructive drive don't get nearly enough room to come to any concrete conclusion. This is the first book in a planned duology, but it definitely feels like there's more story than there is space here. How different threads and ideas will be resolved remains to be seen without the second half of the story in hand, but this opening chapter serves as a strong introduction to the duology's major concepts both narratively and symbolically.

As someone who has definitely enjoyed Jiang's work in the past, I think this one reads as the continued evolution of her particular voice and imagination for story--books that read with strong sentimentality and steadfast conviction--so if you're a fan of Jiang's previous work, this should be more of the same. But it's also rare to find a voice so sincere in its presentation of thematic ideas and conceits, which is definitely the book's major strength. Whether you come for the fantasy or for the sociopolitical criticism, I think there's enough of both in this first volume to really sell me on picking up the forthcoming response.

Disclosure Statement: I received an ARC of the novella from the author and publisher. My opinions are entirely my own and have not been influenced in any way by either party.

4.5 🌟

This book messed me up in the best way.

You know that feeling when a story slowly sinks its claws into you, and before you know it, you're completely consumed? That’s "A Palace Near the Wind". At first, I wasn’t sure what was going on—it’s a sci-fantasy world so rich and strange that it takes a minute to settle in. But once I did? I could not put it down.

Lufeng is a Wind Walker, part of a people deeply connected to nature, with bark-like skin and the ability to harness the wind. She and her sisters are being traded as brides to the human King, a desperate attempt to slow down the destruction of their land. The palace she arrives at is made of bone (yes, bone. it’s as creepy as it sounds. And things only get weirder from there), and nothing about it feels right. The more time she spends there, the more she realizes she’s trapped in something much bigger and more sinister than she ever imagined.

The story is eerie, gripping, and honestly, kind of devastating. Jiang paints a world where nature is being consumed by industry, where people are forced to either assimilate or be destroyed. The way the book describes eating meat? Genuinely unsettling. And that ending?? Just when everything starts clicking into place, it ends. I nearly threw my Kindle across the room.

This is one of those books that lingers in your mind, making you question the cost of “progress” and what survival really means. The only downside? It’s a novella, and I need more. Bring on the sequel—I'm not ready to leave this world yet.

#APalaceNeartheWind #NetGalley.

I'm not sure how I feel about this one.

I didn't really like this novella until like the last couple of pages. I almost have up on it a couple of times. It's a very confusing read. This would have been better served as a full length novel, fully fleshed out with proper worldbuilding. A novella shouldn't end on a cliffhanger either. Like, just write a whole book?

The premise of the novella is good. I like the idea of it. The idea of tree people clashing with humans and "progress", but then it's weird that these tree people, with bark for skin are able to change their appearance so dramatically that they resemble humans so much that until they bleed sap, other tree people can't tell that they are also tree people? And this never really gets explained. There's just so much missing information that could have been executed better as a full length book.

2.5 stars because I did like the ending, even if there was a cliffhanger.

It was a very interesting short story. There is a very strong Asian influence in the writing, which makes the writing feel a little different than some other fantasy stories. The end makes it seems as if there will be a sequel.

4.25 ⭐️

I need more. I want more!

The dedication was “For Mother Nature and all her unwilling sacrifices” and Ai Jiang did just that.

A Palace Near the Wind is a short novella. The eldest princess of the Wind, Liu Lufeng, has an arranged marriage contract. In hopes that it will stop the colonizing humans from taking over her enriched and beautiful land.

Lufeng plans to kill her betrothed on the night of her marriage ceremony in hopes of keeping her family and people safe. Until she start to learn the truth about her sacrificial marriage and the origins of her people.

“I wanted to reclaim the choice that was taken from us all and ensure my brother could choose when and where he might make his home.”

This is was such a gripping story, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Humans just suck and we take all the joy out of everything we touch. Lufeng is just trying to save her culture, land, and her people. This story is not just about how humans have destroyed the earth, but about hope, overcoming the odds, and taking back what belongs to YOU.

Ai Jiang uses fantastic imagery to bring her story to life. I can vividly imagine this fantasy world and all the magic that comes with it. I am certainly now a big fan and HOPING for the next installment.

A Palace Near the Wind by Ai Jiang had an interesting concept but sadly fell a little flat. I loved Jiang's novella, Linghun, and was excited about another book. However, this one felt like it needed to be a longer novel. The world-building is terrific, but I wish Jiang had focused on the characters as it is a novella. I am hoping the second book in this duology will be able to do just that now that the world has been established.

I loved the world building in this book so much. The world felt so rich and there was a sense of discovery and wonder, and it was just PERFECT.

The central themes of this book are environmental destruction, colonialism and the pitfalls of industrialization. At times that hit really, really hard. There were a few scenes (especially during the wedding) where I really had to swallow. That was so well done.

Unfortunately the world building is also kind of what makes this book fall apart. The author was obviously just as in love with this world as the readers would be, but this is a novella. So much time was spent on the world building, there was none left for a meaningful attachment to the characters. I had no real grasp or affection for any of them. There was also little space for the actual plot. Most of it only unfolded in the last third of it, so the whole pacing felt really off.

Regardless, I think I am going to pick up the sequels to this book simply because I think there is so much potential in this world and I have hope that the next books in the series will perhaps concentrate more on the character growth and plot development.

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan for a digital copy of this arc.


I went into this story expecting a magical fantasy world rich with character. The book is quite short, coming up to 192 pages which is not usually a complaint of mine as I do find novellas can pack a punch but this one failed at that which is a huge shame.

I did find the world building to be rather beautiful and unique, as we have a woodland world with people who have bark like skin and other tree like attributes, yet we are then torn away from that and placed in a claustrophobic palace that was very hard to picture aside from the bedroom and the dining hall. The side characters were strong, I enjoyed seeing how they are affected by the world and the people in charge as we got to see some reality there, as I found Lufeng to be bland and self centred.

Unfortunately those are the only pros (if you can call them that). I found the story itself would drag yet also rushed at the end, which is kind of understandable for a short story but I feel like many other authors have executed this better. The technology elements were jarring as I’ll admit I didn’t realise that this was going to be sci-fi, and it would have been fine if it was well executed but it left me more confused about the world building and how everything should look. It also ends quite abruptly so when I got to the final page and tapped to read more I was confused by what happened, as I wouldn’t really call that a cliffhanger it just ended!

My least favourite parts were the reveals. I didn’t expect the King to be Lufeng’s father nor did I like it, it was confusing especially with how he was treating her and being overall a dick, so I didn’t have any sympathy or care at all. Then you have Zinc and Copper. Like, they look similar and are also called Zinc and Copper, it’s quite obvious they’re related.

Overall, a very disappointing read and I won’t be picking up the sequel as I have zero interest in it.