Shadows of Aeronauts

10/9/2015

So this is kind of an aside, but I've missed at least two big fantasy releases while I've been chugging along on the book: The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher and Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson.

I've actually read a little Aeronaut, but I know that if I got too far, I'd be sucked in and lose several hours of prime writing time. Same for Sanderson. So I have to read things that don't interest me enough to distract me, like sci-fi.

But I'm sure there are some of you out there who have read one or both of these books, and I crave knowledge. How were they? How excited should I be? Does The Aeronaut's Windlass get better after the first couple of chapters?

Tell me. Let me live vicariously through you.

37 Comments

Matt

10/9/2015 11:46:04 am

Literally just finished The Aeronaut's Windlass and was checking your website to see if Of Dawn and Darkness was available yet. I stumbled upon this entry in your blog and decided I'd chime in on the book. In typical Jim Butcher fashion, the story just builds and builds and gets better as you go through. The ending climax is amazing. Some things are pretty transparent along the way but there are great twists along the story that keep it incredibly captivating. I'm a big fan of Dresden and Codex Alera so I am partial to his writing and therefore might be slightly bias. But all in all I think it's a great book and opens up a lot for future stories. That being said, I'm excited for your next book and I dig the dual perspectives. Very unique and also shows both sides of a very captivating story line. Thanks for your nooks and keep up the good work!

Will Wight link

10/9/2015 01:20:51 pm

Great timing, Matt!

I'm a huge fan of Jim Butcher's writing, but the first few chapters of Aeronaut really weren't doing it for me. Gwen's dialogue felt forced, I frankly didn't care if Grimm got his ship back or not, and none of the other humans particularly intrigued me. Except the etherealists, they were pretty cool.

HOWEVER, since I knew it was Jim Butcher, I knew it likely got better from there. And I like the cats.

Aaron J.E.

10/9/2015 12:05:46 pm

Of the two, I highly recommend you read SoS first. The Cinder Spires was off to a decent start with great characters, but it is not quite in the Dresden Files' league. SoS absolutely trumped Alloy of Law, and had some absolutely fantastic character and Cosmere moments.

Both are great, but Sanderson is the King of Fiction right now.

Will Wight link

10/9/2015 01:22:58 pm

If I could magically turn myself into any one person, it would be Brandon Sanderson. I didn't have huge hopes for SoS, honestly, but I'll read any fantasy novels that Sanderson puts out.

Very glad to hear it's a step up from AoL. I liked Alloy, but I didn't particularly want more of it unless it showed us some more of the world. More magic would be nice, too.

I love me some magic.

Aaron J.E.

10/9/2015 08:57:06 pm

I think every author alive is in a love/hate relationship with Sanderson. They all know he is a great guy and a fantastic author, but the jealousy is just too strong to fully ignore.

I think Rothfuss wishes he could steal his speed-writing abilities in some kind of voodoo ritual.

Will Wight link

10/10/2015 06:15:45 pm

Is any author in a "hate" relationship with Sanderson? I think pretty much everybody likes him.

Jayson J

10/9/2015 12:22:11 pm

Shadows of Self redeemed the setting for me.
Alloy of Law was a good book, don't get me wrong, but it felt like it was lacking the hook that Sanderson usually provides with his epics, In Shadows of Self that hook is very much present and absolutely enjoyable. Once you start you'll be drawn to the end, sans interruptions. Expect a bit more of a focus on Wax.

Will Wight link

10/9/2015 01:25:01 pm

That's exactly what I felt about Alloy, to the letter.

I enjoyed reading it, I liked the novelty of a fantasy Western, and then I almost immediately forgot about it. There was nothing that grabbed me by the imagination and pulled, like you'd find in...virtually anything else by Brandon Sanderson.

Now I'm excited to read Shadows.

Zach

10/9/2015 07:00:50 pm

I counted 4 paragraphs that could have been producing your stories!
Saunderson rocks with out a doubt AOL was in my opinion his worst book and the first I couldn't finish and wish he either finished Calamity or storm light which next to mistborn and travelers gate the coolest MAGIC storylines ever created.

Any other cool magic suggestions.
Oh and honorable mntion to black prism

Will Wight link

10/10/2015 06:22:36 pm

I think Black Prism is a great example of a WORLD built around a magic system, and a fast-paced, action-packed STORY built around a magic system. But I'm going to be completely honest with you: I don't like the magic system itself.

Why? Mainly because, if I were given the choice to be a drafter or a normal person, I would choose to be a normal person.

Drafters have reduced lifespan, the possibility of going crazy, magic that forcibly alters their personality, and limitations on how much they can draft...and most importantly, most colors seem like they would be incredibly boring to draft. If you're an orange drafter, your superpower is the ability to create lubricant. Literally. That's it.

And only if you're surrounded by the color orange, if you have your spectacles, if you have plenty of light and time to concentrate, etc. And it shortens your life, makes you more manipulative, etc.

All for the ability to LUBRICATE at will.

Yellow? Glowing water. Sub-red? Heat. Just heat. Not fire. Red? Gasoline. Not heat. Green? Wood. I don't need magical powers to go get lumber, I just send out some Wisps. Superviolet? Invisible tissue paper.

It's marginally better if you're a blue drafter, but even then, you get the ability to create steel out of light (along with all the drawbacks above). Is that helpful? Sure, sort of. But you can only do anything really cool with it if you're a mechanical engineer working with a bunch of other drafters.

I'm not a mechanical engineer, and I'd prefer a power that doesn't require me to work in a lab for years alongside a team of mathematicians in order to accomplish anything cool.

10/13/2015 07:48:08 pm

Your criticism is actually a MAJOR tenant/plot tent pole for the series. Are any of the drafters better off for being drafters? Only politically. Is Kip in a better situation than when the book started? A resounding...sort of?

"Power and Duty," and "The Cost of Power" are great storytelling devices. Your Traveler's Gate series used them quite well.

That being said, I'd take Simon over pretty much any non-Prism Drafter in a fight.

Will Wight link

10/13/2015 08:17:49 pm

I agree with you completely; Brent Weeks is a stellar writer, and he uses all those drawbacks of the magic system to make a great story.

That's why I think the series is a great example of a story based around a magic system and a world based around a magic system. He uses it to influence his plot and his setting with an impressive level of consistency and detail.

But I still don't like the magic system on its own. It's just not...fun.

Purely my own opinion, of course. Many people out there would argue that magic doesn't need to be fun, any more than physics or chemistry need to be fun.

Zach

10/14/2015 07:39:56 pm

Agreed the magic system isn't Godlike or even cool for the most part but that kind of lends to the coolness of the story, oh and the cards and the characters and the Red... It's pretty awesome... Down side is 2 yrs for every book you and saunderson are the only guys that can produce at your uncanny rate...rothfusss is a joke I'll be dead before that series concludes I also like anthony Ryan's Raven shadow...but all in all your 2 series thus far are AWESOME! Can't really say I'd prefer any books over them.

Derek

10/9/2015 08:47:14 pm

Yeah, I got SoS just because I'm a fan of his other works, I knew AoL was just an exercise for him. But, I was still disappointed with it. Since most of the other cosmere works that he isn't happy with, he doesn't publish. You can't even get them unless you directly e-mail and ask. Like "White Sand" or "Aether of Night" . But he still published AoL, so, for me, I was left feeling like it was judt a casg book

Derek

10/9/2015 08:54:20 pm

*sorry* , my thumb got a little premature with the key tapping. But anyway, SoS seems to me to be the rest of AoL. Almost like AoL was just an extended Prequel with too many scenes to edit out. SoS gives the rest of the worldbuilding and magic development that AoL lacks. However, I dont think SoS stands by itself, like his other works. He relies heavily on AoL backstory and Mistborn backstory.

Will Wight link

10/10/2015 06:25:23 pm

I'm a little sad to hear he's relying on Mistborn backstory, just because I wanted the Wax and Wayne books to stand alone (with fun Easter eggs if you've read the first trilogy), but otherwise that sounds pretty good. I thought all AoL was missing was a little backstory and some worldbuilding, so ship that in SoS and I'm a happy camper.

JohnW

10/11/2015 01:18:39 pm

The thing I did not like about Shadows of Self is that the great reveal about how to beat the antagonist was obvious. From quite early after the antagonist was first discussed by the protagonists, I kept asking myself "why aren't they talking about this way to defeat the bad guy?".

Michael

10/9/2015 10:32:49 pm

Hi Will, obligatory sentence about "first time commenting" here. I have to say, I really respect (and as a fan, greatly appreciate) your commitment to finishing this book. However, I am not as dedicated to my craft and sacrificed a bit of productivity over the last two weeks to enjoy these two books (although neither one impressed me so much that I would have regretted postponing it by a couple weeks).

For me, SoS was very similar to AoL. The tie-ins to the original trilogy, which originally intrigued me in AoL, fail to do much more than remind me how much I enjoyed the first trilogy. As a story driving device, so far, I much prefer the journal entries of the original three Mistborn. Additionally, the ongoing adventure of Wax and his posse feel fairly minor when compared to the apocalyptic events faced by Vin and Co. Now, having said all that, I still really enjoyed the book and would have grabbed Bands of Mourning right away even without the couple of juicy hooks that Sanderson threw our way near the end of SoS. I'll take even a middling quality Sanderson book, which this was for me, any day of the week.

Windlass also failed to wow me. The action is good, and Butcher has created an interesting world that fits together very well. In particular, the airship operation felt very natural and utilized an excellent blend of physics and magic (one of my favorite combinations). Unfortunately, the characters felt far less natural for me. They have unique, and very dissimilar, personality traits that never really gelled for me (although they did grow on me over the course of the book). Consequently, their interactions, and the personal bonds they built over the course of the book, seemed a bit forced. For me, that was a fairly major complaint, but the excellent action, environments and quirky humor (the cats are quite well done) help make up for that. I do think this book improved after the first few chapters, but some of the plot resolutions were fairly predictable and consequently I struggled to get invested in the story. It was still an enjoyable book, but I finished it over the course of two to three days and never felt the urge to curl up with it and not uncoil until I was finished.

Will Wight link

10/10/2015 06:38:51 pm

That was exactly my experience with the first half of Aeronaut. I was enjoying it, because Jim Butcher is to writers what wizards are to other people, but I wasn't hooked.

Not because the world isn't cool (it definitely is), and not because the plot isn't compelling (I suspect even Jim Butcher's dreams follow a tight dramatic plot), but because I wasn't sold on the characters. I don't care whether or not Grimm loses his ship, Gwen annoys me, Benedict is boring, and the best half of Bridget is Rowl.

I'm overstating this for effect, just to be clear. One day, I hope to be half the writer Jim Butcher is. But as a reader, I was hoping to feel more connected to the characters than I did.

And as an aside, what's up with the Benedict / Bridget romance? It feels like that's happening just because the author decreed it so. Bridget is immediately attracted to Benedict, I get that--he's good-looking, intelligent, fit, polite, an invincible warrior, charming, rich, and he probably scored a perfect score on his SATs. His flawlessness is what makes him boring to read, but I can accept that it would be hard for him to walk across a room without women flinging themselves into his toned warriorborn arms.

But why is Benedict immediately attracted to Bridget? I don't know. Thus far in the story, she's been described as a less attractive, less polite, less confident, less skilled, less informed, equally proud version of Gwen. With a cat.

I know it's hard to tell from my stories, but I actually appreciate a good romance subplot as much as anyone. They're just...so rare. That's one of the reasons I'm so reluctant to try and write a real romance subplot, by the way: the bad ones so heavily outnumber the good ones that I'm honestly not sure I know how to write a good one.

And in my mind, No Romance > Bad Romance. Despite what Lady Gaga would tell you.

Mike

10/10/2015 10:08:30 am

I haven't finished Butchers book yet but I'm about 50% done with it. I agree that the beginning seems a little forced which is so strange for Jim Butcher because I pretty much love anything he does. The book does get better but so far I'll say it's not nearly the same league as Dresdan. I love the cats and I have begun to really enjoy Grimm but some of the other humans just aren't quite doing it for me and I personally find Gwen to be rather annoying sometimes. All this said now I'll finish this comment so I can finish the book!

Will Wight link

10/10/2015 06:46:48 pm

You know, when I first bought the book I swore I wouldn't compare it to Dresden, but it's just so hard.

It's kind of funny, because I never had that problem with Codex Alera. I virtually never compared it to Dresden while I was reading it, and (except in a few places where one of Jim's favorite phrases would pop up) I almost forgot they were from the same author. It stands alone in my mind, with its own set of strengths and flaws.

But it's hard for me to do that with Aeronaut. It just doesn't feel like its own thing yet.

Maybe it will, though, and I've read WAY more Alera and Dresden than I have Cinder Spires. I'm not counting it out just yet. I was just hoping to get hooked on the characters right out of the gate, and thus far everything's working for me EXCEPT the characters.

Although come to think of it, I wasn't sold on Tavi for the first book or two either. I probably just need to give them time.

Anyway, let me know what you think when you finish!

Mike

10/11/2015 08:18:25 am

I agree with you that I never really compared Codex with Dresden, instead I viewed them as a completely different entity and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the Codex series. I think the reason I've been comparing the Windlass with Dresden is because personally I'm not completely sold ever on steampunk novels, as it seems like I have read more that I wasn't crazy about then ones that I was.

To be completely honest, I probably wouldn't have bought Windlass if it wasn't a Butcher, but for few authors that I know that I will enjoy their books I purchase all of there books, no matter what I initially think. These include yourself, Jim Butcher, R.A. Salvatore, and Robert J. Crane.

Now that I have finished Windlass I am quite happy that I did make the leap and purchase it. It is not the best book in the world, but it kept me reading and I ended up enjoying it. Are there rough spots? Yes there most certainly is. But if you like pirates (which using Sherlock Holmes like skills I have deduced that you do through subtle clues in your writing) then the book is a good read. Overall, I have to say the book is certainly worth the time that you will put into reading it.

Will Wight link

10/15/2015 09:30:03 am

I finished it, and I'll definitely be reading Book 2. I was entertained the whole time.

I only wish there had been a little more to the main cast.

ZaCh

10/14/2015 07:55:15 pm

I've never read butcher and if Will says it's a go then I must...what's his best book?

Mike

10/14/2015 08:00:42 pm

Jim Butcher only has three series out. The newest is the one that this post is about and the others are the Dresden Files and the Furies of Calderon. I would recommend starting with Storm Front. It's the first of his Dresden Files series which is like a supernatural mystery. You really can't go wrong with Jim Butcher.

Will Wight link

10/15/2015 09:28:09 am

The Dresden Files is the most popular and best known, and also my favorite. It begins with Storm Front, but you really have to give it three books (they're not very long) before it gets going.

Honestly, his other two series--Codex Alera and The Cinder Spires--are both great as well. I'm just being picky about The Aeronaut's Windlass (first book of the Cinder Spires series). It's definitely worth a read.

For real, though, Dresden Files.

Andrew luscomb

10/10/2015 07:27:33 pm

I just finished both aeronaut was surpisingly good. The characters coulda used more development but the ship had awesome characyer which i feel is very important to any tale with a crew on a vessel. Sorry im a certified brown coat.

Will Wight link

10/15/2015 09:34:16 am

You know, it's funny you say that, because I thought of Grimm the entire time as a watered-down version of Mal.

That said, Captain Grimm split his screentime pretty evenly with five or six other characters. I suspect that by the end of next book I'll be fully onboard.

Onboard Predator. Firing a gauntlet.

Matt w

10/10/2015 08:01:46 pm

I just finished shadows had to say that it was better than alloy. I feel like it brought the EPIC into the trilogy. The first mistborn books were grand in scale and implications. I just didn't get the from alloy. Now it seems to have brought the bigger than us feeling into it. I recommend Sanderson to anyone. I don't read the ya stuff he writes but hold out hopes he is serious about an Elantris trilogy.

I will say I wish I was writing this about stormlight 3 😞

Will Wight link

10/15/2015 09:36:43 am

I also recommend Sanderson first and foremost to anyone...but there's exactly ONE fantasy novel he's written that I didn't enjoy, and that was Elantris.

I don't know why, maybe because it was his first book. Not sure. So when he announces an Elantris trilogy, I'm disappointed, because I'd rather get two more books in ANY of his other series.

Especially Stormlight, because mmmmmmmmmmmmm Stormlight. I want to eat those books with a fork and spoon.

Melissa

10/16/2015 07:22:33 am

I didn't love Elantris, but The Emperor's Soul is set in the Elantris world. I loved that story, so I can be on board with an Elantris trilogy.

Jason

10/10/2015 11:21:08 pm

I'd love to tell you what I thought of Butcher's new book but I got caught up re-reading both books 1 in this Will Wight guys series and can't read Butcher's book until I've finished both books 2 in the series. ;-) So it will sit on my nightstand and wait for a few more weeks.

I don't know if I'm the only one that did this or not but the first time I read book one of each of your Elder Empire series I read one chapter in a book then switched and read a chapter from the other. I didn't want to spoil anything by knowing what was coming and it was an amazing way of reading the story. Holding off on starting Darkness and Dawn until I can do the back and forth thing again.

As always, take your time and let us enjoy your amazing stories whenever YOU are ready for them to be out there!

Zach

10/14/2015 08:02:36 pm

Right where did this Will Wight dude come from both series were killer, I thought house of blades was like amazing, the I see these other two and I'm like a pirate?... An assassin???? How droll then of course it's like the most incredible world building ever with sea gods towing his ship and a sociopathic assassin that can kill gods,
Sadly this is even better than house of blades and I think we are in for some masterpieces,,,
HOORAY FOR .WW1

Will Wight link

10/15/2015 09:40:05 am

Where did I come from? I was hatched from an egg of pure crystal, incubated in a library.

I'm delighted that you're enjoying the series so much, Zach. I can't wait to finish Dawn so that you can tell me if I've raised the stakes or let you down.

Thanks for reading, man!

Will Wight link

10/15/2015 09:38:13 am

Thanks, Jason!

You know, I've heard a few people say they read the books that way, which...honestly, I can't believe they were good. I thought they would eventually get boring and repetitive if you switched back from the same section to another.

But if it works for you, man, that's awesome! I might have to try reading them that way myself, see if I can get some new ideas for Books 3.

Mike

10/11/2015 11:30:31 pm

I finished Buthcher's new book recently and thought I would chime in here with something that occurred toe while reading it: this is his first experiment with an ensemble cast. There isn't one clear main character in the same way that Dresden or the Codex Alert have. I also thought it was a bit vague about the world and the characters didn't jump out at me, but then I realized I am learning to know several main characters all with faults and most of whom are stepping into the real world for the first time. Expecting them all to be completely well rounded doesn't fit with the style of story or even with where the characters are currently at in their own lives. By the end of the book I grew to like the characters much more, but I still have the feeling they are only getting started and I am only starting to get to know them.

Will Wight link

10/15/2015 09:32:52 am

I finished it, and I agree with you. I think he may have just spread the character development too thin, so no one person is as fully developed as they would have been in their own series.

I did like them better at the end of the book, but I was still disappointed that they weren't a little more unique (Folly excepted).

But you make a great point--I suspect they'll all come into their own in Book 2.

In which we ramble on.
And by we, I mean me.