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From a rising-star author, winner of the both the Bram Stoker and Nebula Awards, a richly inventive, brutal and beautiful science-fantasy novella. A story of family, loss, oppression and rebellion that will stay with you long after the final page. For readers of Nghi Vo’s The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Neon Yang’s The Black Tides of Heaven and Kritika H. Rao’s The Surviving Sky.
Liu Lufeng is the eldest princess of the Feng royalty and, bound by duty and tradition, the next bride to the human king. With their bark faces, arms of braided branches and hair of needle threads, the Feng people live within nature, nurtured by the land. But they exist under the constant threat of human expansion, and the negotiation of bridewealth is the only way to stop— or at least delay—the destruction of their home. Come her wedding day, Lufeng plans to kill the king and finally put an end to the marriages.
Trapped in the great human palace in the run-up to the union, Lufeng begins to uncover the truth about her people’s origins and realizes they will never be safe from the humans. So she must learn to let go of duty and tradition, choose her allies carefully, and risk the unknown in order to free her family and shape her own fate.
A Palace Near the Wind by Ai Jiang
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9781803369389
Imprint: Titan Books
'Enchanting, mysterious, and strange, A Palace Near the Wind is a heartbreaking story of homecoming and self-discovery. Combining the best of folklore and science fiction, this eco-narrative on human greed and superhuman hope is not to be missed.' – Kritika H. Rao, author of The Surviving Sky.
'A fantastic and magical tale of survival and rebellion set against the backdrop of a struggle between nature and the forces of industry. Ai Jiang has written a beautiful and all too-fitting story that resonates with the choices we face in our times.' – P. Djeli Clark, author of The Dead Cat Tail Assassins and A Master of Djinn
'A breathtakingly imagined story of ecological disaster, torn families, betrayal, and hope. Unlike anything I've ever read before-like Ghibli retelling Tolkien through Chinese myth-with tree-like deities, political intrigue, wind magic, and mecha. Utterly enchanting.' – A.Y. Chao, author of Shanghai Immortal