Realistic Fantasy. Real Fun.

The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a fun book. I could stop there. 5 star (★★★★★!) fun. That should be enough to make you go get your own copy. But I'll explain.

The book has quirky, interesting, cheer-for-them characters, an amazing, intricate, believable setting, fast-paced action, and even a touch whimsy where I didn't expect it. I was entertained throughout.

I have frequently been encouraged to read Jim Butcher, running onto many positive reviews, and yet somehow never did so until I got this book. (Hardcover at Goodwill--sometimes you find a treasure, you know?) I've heard that he knows how to tell a story, and discovered that is absolutely true. The action scenes are great, too, as advertised, but I was pleased to see that the other parts--the drama, the intrigue, the backstory, and the action setups--were also engaging, entertaining in a different way.

Yes, the action is awesome, though, definitely still the best part of the novel, especially the last 20% of the book. The aerial warfare is as well done as any I've ever seen in fantasy. I love me some Horatio Hornblower and marvel at the fighting scenes there, but Butcher is giving us the same sort of strategy-based action in three dimensions, with ships turning and banking and climbing and diving and firing on each other in very believable and exciting action sequences that feel like they could be real.

Great stuff. Good fun.

And it matters because the characters are people you learn to care about, like Gwen and Benedict and Ferus and Bridget and Rowl and Folly, and they are living lives that matter. What happens to them matters. Even the villains are real, multi-dimensional characters with comprehensible motivations. All of this, taking place in a giant spire rising high into the atmosphere, in a land where they fly airships and blast each other with energy taken from the ether.

Realistic fantasy. I've said it, and I'm standing by it. :)

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