Simply put, in “The Aeronaut’s Windlass” (Cinder Spires 1) Jim Butcher has created a novel with superb storytelling. With the next book coming out in less than a month, I wanted to go back and re-read the first book. In doing so, I remembered everything I’d loved about this world and the storytelling.

First, every character has a reason for being in the novel. From Mawl the cat warrior to Captain Grimm, everyone is integral to telling the story. Each character has a moment to shine and they are complex and dynamic characters. I love that the story is told from different points of view. In such a complex novel, it’s necessary so that the reader can gain the full scope of the narrative. Jim Butcher does this so skillfully. Even though the story switches voices throughout, the story never feels like it drags and the narrative always picks up right away. 

I also love the dynamic and compelling quality of the storytelling. The story moves with a quick pace but leaves room for slower moments of dialogue and character development. The descriptions of the etheric energy and how it works never drags down the narrative but adds to the action. Each character is a delight to read and the overarching story is addictive. The resolution of the story gives a taste of what’s to come and I cannot wait to read the second book in The Cinder Spires series. The Aeronaut’s Windlass is superb storytelling and well worth reading again.

Blog post will go live on release day

The Aeronaut's Windlass is the first book in Jim Butcher's steam-punk-inspired series. This first book took a while to grab my attention, but I enjoyed the adventure once I got settled into the world. Cinder spires have airships, hellish creatures, varied characters, and cats. Reading other people's reviews, they seem to fall into two camps: loved and the cats or hated it, and the cats needed to go. I am in the camp of cats. I think it added a unique element to the story and the fact that cats are not a regular thing. This first book has been out for a while, and this release in October is a rerelease with a new cover for the series to go with book two release in November.
We get to one part of the story where two cats have an hour-long standoff, and it is spot on how cats interact. Did Jim spend lots of time observing cats while writing this series? The Cinder Spires series is a welcome change from the Dresden files, and I am eager to continue with book two and see where the story goes.

This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart


I reviewed The Aeronaut's Windlass in 2015 when first released and read a print paperback ARC. I loved it with all the hearts. I am going to repeat my 2015 review here and follow with my update of reading in 2023 with an eARC and the audio I purchased. I am relieved I decided to reread before the new installment, The Olympian Affair in November, because there is much I have forgotten.
This is steampunk? If so, it is perhaps my first one and I loved it. I am uncertain if this story is in the past or in the future, an alternate universe for certain. The ships seem a combination of old and new with some being made from wood and then some armored, with sails, but also special crystals for other power. The ship’s weapons include cannons and guns. People have knives and swords and rifles and gantlets.

The characters are lovely and we get a broad spectrum of types, from low to high members of society. And there are competent and the not so competent. There are confident and the doubtful. But all of them are multi-faceted and not just a cliché of style. I love them, the good, the bad and the ugly.

I guess I would say there are supernaturals in The Aeronaut’s Windlass or at least other species. The warrior-born and the etherealised are two of the types to learn in this world. Cats also have an interesting role.

The story is a bit war / military like with lots of great action, but this is more like a swat team against terrorists at the beginning of a much larger conflict story. The foundation here is solid and fascinating, but there is more to come. One of the reasons I love military and battle stories is the technology described; I found that here.

For me, the icing on the cake in The Aeronaut’s Windlass is the humor. There is also a touch of romance and some great relationships, not just romantic relationships but many types. It makes it real for me and gives all the feelings. An excellent start for this new series – I can’t wait!



I agree with my previous review in all aspects. The world and characters are rich and diverse and fascinating. Gwen and Bridget are both brand new to military service. They get thrown into the deep end and are wildly successful to the confusion of all sides of the conflict. I found this hilarious.

Normally in a longer fantasy book, I rely on the audio performance to keep it moving for me and help me pronounce all the different names and places. This was a very unusual case because I found I connected better when reading the print / ebook than while listening to the audio.

The story is far from finished at the ending. The world is on the brink of war, which the agressors were beginning in a clandestine surprise opening salvo. There is much yet to learn about the magic and the reasons for the war. No doubt the ragtag, oddball team we met here will be up to their neck in it. I do highly recommend The Aeronaut's Windlass and reading it now, especially if like me it has been 8 years since your first read.


Giggle worthy quote:
“Miss Lancaster, having taken note of your talents and your, ah, determination to stay the course, regardless of how ill-conceived it may be, I am sending you to be a smoother.”

“A what?”

“Your duty is to smooth the way for Master Ferrus’s inquisition. The inquisition must keep moving forward. You are to avoid, overcome, or knock down any obstructions that may block your path.”

Gwen found herself frowning. “I’m not sure I know how to do that.”

“I’m not sure you understand how to do anything else .” Benedict quipped.

3.5* -- good characters, less humor than expected/desired (although Rowl's perspective was a treat), not the clearest worldbuilding, an inappropriate title, and a somewhat unsatisfying ending; I'll continue the series for the characters, through the next book at least.

"Jim Butcher, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Dresden Files and the Codex Alera novels, conjures up a new series set in a fantastic world of noble families, steam-powered technology, and magic-wielding warriors…

Since time immemorial, the Spires have sheltered humanity, towering for miles over the mist-shrouded surface of the world. Within their halls, aristocratic houses have ruled for generations, developing scientific marvels, fostering trade alliances, and building fleets of airships to keep the peace.

Captain Grimm commands the merchant ship, Predator. Fiercely loyal to Spire Albion, he has taken their side in the cold war with Spire Aurora, disrupting the enemy’s shipping lines by attacking their cargo vessels. But when the Predator is severely damaged in combat, leaving captain and crew grounded, Grimm is offered a proposition from the Spirearch of Albion—to join a team of agents on a vital mission in exchange for fully restoring Predator to its fighting glory.

And even as Grimm undertakes this dangerous task, he will learn that the conflict between the Spires is merely a premonition of things to come. Humanity’s ancient enemy, silent for more than ten thousand years, has begun to stir once more. And death will follow in its wake…"

Jim Butcher going all Steampunk? I approve.

Cleaning out my netgalley and I never got to this one and it's not on my kindle or I forgot to download it so just marking it off. Sorry, I never got around to reviewing this one.

This review is based on a combo of the audio book and the galley

ZOMG! I don’t listen to a lot of audiobooks, but when I had a six hour drive looming ahead of me, I downloaded a few audiobooks to keep me company. I downloaded The Aeronaut’s Windlass because I have had the ARC on my Kindle for an embarrassingly long time, and I thought that if I liked it, I could just finish reading the book after the trip. I loved this story from beginning to end, and both read ahead, and listened to the very end.

This is a big sprawling adventure, with air battles, monsters, and more intrigue than you can shake a stick at. There’s a large cast of likable characters. It’s hard for me to pick a favorite, but if pressured, I would have to say that Grimm and Rowl were the stars for me. Bridget was awesome, too, as a young woman who reluctantly goes off to fulfill her military duty for her father’s house. Rowl, a cat, is Bridget’s friend, and he accompanies her to make sure she doesn’t get into any trouble, as well as to do some recon into mysterious, irrational behavior of humans. My favorite exchange between them was:

“You saved us,” she said.

“Of course I did,” Rowl responded. “I am without flaw.”

And that sums up the relationship between them, as well as Rowl’s personality, perfectly. And don’t worry. Bridget gets to save Rowl plenty of times. The female characters kicked ass. They weren’t content to wait for rescue, but went about figuring out how to rescue themselves. And the heroes were heroic. Grimm was the calm, cool, and collected leader we all long to be when deadly danger and unbelievable pressure to make the right decisions suddenly threaten to end the lives of your entire crew. I want more Grimm.

The reader, Euan Morton, brought the story vividly to life. His voices were spot on for all of the characters, especially Grim and Rowl. His intonation and pacing kept me absolutely glued to my Bluetooth, and I actually looked forward to running errands so I could listen to more of the story (I only listen to audiobooks in the car). When I couldn’t take the suspense anymore, I would read ahead in that age old galley, and then re-listen to those passages with utter delight. Between Magic Burns and this audiobook, I am totally hooked on this new to me format. What an awesome use of my drive time!

Highly Recommended

This was an amazing book! I can't wait for the next installment in the series. It drew me in and didn't let me go until the end.

Love Jim Butcher's fantasy (and urban fantasy) worlds!

The Aeronaut's WindlassAnyone who's read Jim Butcher's books knows he loves his mashups. His Dresden Files combines a classic gumshoe-detective tone with elements and tropes from every type of fantasy fiction and mythology you can think of. His Codex Alera novels were inspired when he was challenged to write a mind-bending combination of prompts: the Roman Empire and Pokemon.

The Aeronaut's Windlass, the fun first novel in Butcher's new Cinder Spires series, is yet another mashup: a rollicking nautical(ish) tale in the tradition of C.S Forester's Horatio Hornblower set in a Steampunk world where steel rots and electricity doesn't seem to exist but the ability to use a quasi-magical substance/force called aether allows for interesting takes on familiar technology, and in which the planet's surface is barely habitable, leaving humanity confined to spires — enormous, nation-sized towers built in the distant past.

Is this taking place on Earth in an unknown future? Is this a fantasy world? Butcher's not telling — at least not yet.

The action of The Aeronaut's Windlass centers around Albion Spire — a clear stand-in for the England defended by Captain Hornblower or O'Brien's Jack Aubrey. The era seems to be parallel to those books' Napoleonic Wars, but instead of ships trading cannon fire over the waves, these wars are fought in the skies. And the great enemy, rather than being Napoleon's France, is Spire Aurora — a stand-in for Imperial Spain.

The story, which revolves around the opening salvoes of a war between Aurora and Albion, delivers excitement and daring-do in abundance — though not as tightly packed as one might expect in a Jim Butcher novel. The need to build the world and introduce the dozens of characters in this sprawling epic diffuse the narrative somewhat. The characters, however, make up for the slow patches.

Where the Dresden Files are told from the very entertaining but very limited point of view of Harry Dresden (limited in a narrative sense — you're always seeng things through his eyes, and he doesn't always tell you everything), The Aeronaut's Windlass is told from dozens of shifting points of view, each with a different perspective on the action and on the characters. Much of the focus is on the appropriately named Captain Grimm, captain of the privateer AMS Predator. However, what makes this book interesting is the trio of young women who provide much of the action in the book, and through whose eyes we view most of that action. Gwen Lancaster (whose family grows most of the Spires power-giving crystals) is a spoiled but fierce noblewoman who joins the Spirearch's Guard out of a sense of rebellion and adventure. Bridget Tagwynn joins because it's the only way to save her family (of which she and her father are the last members); she is humble, practical, and incredibly strong. Folly (another ironically apt name) is an apprentice Aetherialist — part psychic, part psychotic (think Luna Lovegood on a really bad day) — who is recruited to join the other two (along with other members of the Guard and the Navy) in a mission to defend the Spire. They're three very different characters with three very different perspectives, and Butcher manages to use those differences to keep the story moving, while also building a web of relationships that makes the book addictively engaging.

The book is packed with action, ranging from duels to pitched battles to wild airship broadsides. As always, Butcher keeps the adrenaline pumping; it is occasionally difficult at first to keep things straight, because of the huge cast of characters and the unfamiliar world. However, the book rewards the reader with a highly entertaining romp that promises an exciting sequel. The Olympian Affair, book #2 in the series, is scheduled for release in 2018.

Rating: ★★★★