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Griffin Mage #1
Lord of the Changing Winds
Fire fell from their wings, and the ground beneath them burned …
The desert winds have come to the village of Minas Ford. Griffins, creatures of fire, have appeared in a burning haze – searing the sky a blinding white and scorching the earth to parched, barren sand. These majestic beasts, half-lion, half-eagle, spread the arid desert wherever they roam.
Iaor, the King of Feierabiand, will not tolerate the destruction of his people’s farmland. He means to drive the griffins from his domain – whether by negotiation or brute force.
But not all those who encounter the griffins fear them. Kes, a timid village girl, is summoned to heal the King of the Griffins himself. She will discover her affinity with these creatures, and come to realise that the menace they flee is even more deadly than the blazing fires of the desert.
The desert winds have come to the village of Minas Ford. Griffins, creatures of fire, have appeared in a burning haze – searing the sky a blinding white and scorching the earth to parched, barren sand. These majestic beasts, half-lion, half-eagle, spread the arid desert wherever they roam.
Iaor, the King of Feierabiand, will not tolerate the destruction of his people’s farmland. He means to drive the griffins from his domain – whether by negotiation or brute force.
But not all those who encounter the griffins fear them. Kes, a timid village girl, is summoned to heal the King of the Griffins himself. She will discover her affinity with these creatures, and come to realise that the menace they flee is even more deadly than the blazing fires of the desert.
367 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
78 people are currently reading
1816 people want to read
About the author
Rachel Neumeier
58 books580 followersRachel Neumeier started writing fiction to relax when she was a graduate student and needed a hobby unrelated to her research. Prior to selling her first fantasy novel, she had published only a few articles in venues such as The American Journal of Botany. However, finding that her interests did not lie in research, Rachel left academia and began to let her hobbies take over her life instead.
She now raises and shows dogs, gardens, cooks, and occasionally finds time to read. She works part-time for a tutoring program, though she tutors far more students in Math and Chemistry than in English Composition.
She now raises and shows dogs, gardens, cooks, and occasionally finds time to read. She works part-time for a tutoring program, though she tutors far more students in Math and Chemistry than in English Composition.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 165 reviews
August 5, 2010
In many ways, this is a perfectly decent sword-and-castle type fantasy, and in one way it's better, because it has griffins. The griffins are the best part, because griffins are awesome and underused.
The plot is great: we have three different peoples, the griffins, the humans of Feierabriand and the humans of Casmantium, all of whom are arguing over more or less the same terrain. As with many fantasy novels, the people are rather modern and civilized in that they all desire as little blood-shed as possible and are willing to use diplomacy to get it. This was my first hurdle. The characters are all very nice to each other. Sure, they have battle scenes, but when they're not battling, they're mostly civil. They don't have that callous contempt for others (especially low-class people) that one would expect in a medieval milieu. For example, at one point a fifteen-year-old girl falls in with enemy soldiers, and everyone takes it as a given that her safety and her honor will remain intact. Not that I'm fond of violence and rape, but their decorum felt out of place in a military camp.
My other gripe was with the magic. The griffins are creatures of fire, and they create desert to live in by their special magic. This desert is hot all the time, unlike most deserts, which are very cold in winter and at night (unless they are at the equator). I don't know why I'm able to swallow magical sentient flying griffins, and yet get my feathers ruffled when authors play fast and loose with meterology and terrain, but there you have it. I wanted a real desert, like the one I live in, or like one I've visited, and it's not like that at all. This desert isn't a real landscape, just the idea of a desert, a mere symbol. Here's a quote.
"The desert was as cleanly and elegantly beautiful an any airy palace or many-towered citadel built by men, Bertaud thought. But it was not a place meant for men, or for any creature of earth."
(Deserts are not meant for men? Um, tell that to the Navajo and the Bedouins.)
The premise of the magic is that griffins are creatures of fire and air, and are thus inimical to humans, which are creatures of earth. Kes, the main character, becomes a fire mage, which means she can heal griffins and do enormous feats of magic, all of which come at little cost. Not zero cost, we learn that she will "become a creature totally of fire and not of earth" but this is so poetical that I had no idea what it meant. What does it mean to have fire in your blood? To have bones of red sand?
I really like my fantasy grounded in reality. I want to know where Kes sleeps when she's in the desert, what she eats, what she drinks when she gets thirsty (only the dead do not thirst), and if it bothers her that her clothes are dirty or if she's used to that. She doesn't eat anything until about 200 pages in, and then she doesn't eat very much. Having people with no earthly needs makes me think of them as dreamers, and if the story is just a dream, that its outcome doesn't mean that much to me. Neumeier lapsed into florid prose when describing how beautiful and glorious the griffins were, and about the red sands of the desert, etc. but without description of the mud and squalor to counterpoint it, the descriptions just felt like trite poetry.
As for characters, we have Betraud, advisor to Iaor, the king of Feierabriand, and Kes, the girl who lives with the griffins and heals them. Kes did not interest me, as her personality felt too passive and malleable; she occasionally threw a tantrum when the plot required it, but mostly she just did what people asked of her. She has power, but it comes too easily, and she doesn't really seem to want anything, except for her friends not to die. Bertraud had a lot more potential. He loves his king, but he comes to admire and respect the griffins too, and he finds himself caught between them. I think I could have found his story quite engaging, if the novel hadn't been bogged down with unnecessary description, ungrounded descriptive prose, and explanations of a magic which felt at its core to be based on flawed premises. (Everyone knows that the opposite of fire is water, not earth.) I wanted a horse-and-castle fantasy in which plausible griffins were folded into the ecology, and instead I got a fable with fairy-tale physics.
The plot is great: we have three different peoples, the griffins, the humans of Feierabriand and the humans of Casmantium, all of whom are arguing over more or less the same terrain. As with many fantasy novels, the people are rather modern and civilized in that they all desire as little blood-shed as possible and are willing to use diplomacy to get it. This was my first hurdle. The characters are all very nice to each other. Sure, they have battle scenes, but when they're not battling, they're mostly civil. They don't have that callous contempt for others (especially low-class people) that one would expect in a medieval milieu. For example, at one point a fifteen-year-old girl falls in with enemy soldiers, and everyone takes it as a given that her safety and her honor will remain intact. Not that I'm fond of violence and rape, but their decorum felt out of place in a military camp.
My other gripe was with the magic. The griffins are creatures of fire, and they create desert to live in by their special magic. This desert is hot all the time, unlike most deserts, which are very cold in winter and at night (unless they are at the equator). I don't know why I'm able to swallow magical sentient flying griffins, and yet get my feathers ruffled when authors play fast and loose with meterology and terrain, but there you have it. I wanted a real desert, like the one I live in, or like one I've visited, and it's not like that at all. This desert isn't a real landscape, just the idea of a desert, a mere symbol. Here's a quote.
"The desert was as cleanly and elegantly beautiful an any airy palace or many-towered citadel built by men, Bertaud thought. But it was not a place meant for men, or for any creature of earth."
(Deserts are not meant for men? Um, tell that to the Navajo and the Bedouins.)
The premise of the magic is that griffins are creatures of fire and air, and are thus inimical to humans, which are creatures of earth. Kes, the main character, becomes a fire mage, which means she can heal griffins and do enormous feats of magic, all of which come at little cost. Not zero cost, we learn that she will "become a creature totally of fire and not of earth" but this is so poetical that I had no idea what it meant. What does it mean to have fire in your blood? To have bones of red sand?
I really like my fantasy grounded in reality. I want to know where Kes sleeps when she's in the desert, what she eats, what she drinks when she gets thirsty (only the dead do not thirst), and if it bothers her that her clothes are dirty or if she's used to that. She doesn't eat anything until about 200 pages in, and then she doesn't eat very much. Having people with no earthly needs makes me think of them as dreamers, and if the story is just a dream, that its outcome doesn't mean that much to me. Neumeier lapsed into florid prose when describing how beautiful and glorious the griffins were, and about the red sands of the desert, etc. but without description of the mud and squalor to counterpoint it, the descriptions just felt like trite poetry.
As for characters, we have Betraud, advisor to Iaor, the king of Feierabriand, and Kes, the girl who lives with the griffins and heals them. Kes did not interest me, as her personality felt too passive and malleable; she occasionally threw a tantrum when the plot required it, but mostly she just did what people asked of her. She has power, but it comes too easily, and she doesn't really seem to want anything, except for her friends not to die. Bertraud had a lot more potential. He loves his king, but he comes to admire and respect the griffins too, and he finds himself caught between them. I think I could have found his story quite engaging, if the novel hadn't been bogged down with unnecessary description, ungrounded descriptive prose, and explanations of a magic which felt at its core to be based on flawed premises. (Everyone knows that the opposite of fire is water, not earth.) I wanted a horse-and-castle fantasy in which plausible griffins were folded into the ecology, and instead I got a fable with fairy-tale physics.
April 10, 2015
Really nice worldbuilding, and griffins are a nicely unusual change from the norm.
BUT, I found myself caring less about the characters on finishing than upon beginning. (Not great for keeping me invested in reading the sequels.)
I also thought the warfare was poorly managed. I'm not at all knowledgeable about or interested in military fiction or strategy but there were quite a few times when I said, "wait...what!?!" to myself. Seriously, these men do not seem to think logically about waging war--particularly in dealing with magical creatures they have no prior knowledge of.
I was also weirded out a little by the secondary main character developing a weird superpower in the middle of the book with no leadup or good reason that completely changed the slant of the book. (Blink, and I'd have missed it.) Still don't understand what when how why where. Hand wave?
Will I continue with book 2? I don't know. Maybe.
Cover Art: I have to say, this is amazing! Perfect!
Note to self: Actually read this in the omnibus edition but haven't read next 2 yet. Consequently cover art in kindle will not match this review.
BUT, I found myself caring less about the characters on finishing than upon beginning. (Not great for keeping me invested in reading the sequels.)
I also thought the warfare was poorly managed. I'm not at all knowledgeable about or interested in military fiction or strategy but there were quite a few times when I said, "wait...what!?!" to myself. Seriously, these men do not seem to think logically about waging war--particularly in dealing with magical creatures they have no prior knowledge of.
I was also weirded out a little by the secondary main character developing a weird superpower in the middle of the book with no leadup or good reason that completely changed the slant of the book. (Blink, and I'd have missed it.) Still don't understand what when how why where. Hand wave?
Will I continue with book 2? I don't know. Maybe.
Cover Art: I have to say, this is amazing! Perfect!
Note to self: Actually read this in the omnibus edition but haven't read next 2 yet. Consequently cover art in kindle will not match this review.
June 21, 2010
I love Griffins.
Sure, Dragons are awesome. Dragons are mighty. Dragons go with heroic fantasy as much as, say, treasure laden dungeons.
But Griffins...
Combine a lion, king of the beasts, with an eagle, king of the air. That's a potent combination. A combination that speaks to me in a way that the coldly reptilian eye of a dragon doesn't always manage. Too, Griffins are not as well developed as dragons. Everyone knows dragons breathe fire (except when they don't). Everyone knows they love riddles (except when they don't). Smaug is the classic, archetypal dragon.
Griffins aren't anywhere near as common, and so their natures are more of a blank slate...and thus room for a writer (or a GM) to invent as they like. I like seeing that potential fulfilled...and this latest read of mine makes it happen.
Lord of the Changing Winds is the first book in a new trilogy called "The Griffin Mage" by author Rachel Neumeier.
Set mainly in the country of Feierabiand, Lord of the Changing Winds is the story of Kes. A young healer in the backwater village of Minas Ford, her life, and the life of her country, are turned upside down by the arrival of large migrating band of Griffins. Why the Griffins have left their desert, what they want with Kes, and the machinations of the Kings of Ferierabiand and neighboring Casmantium are the Matter of this first novel.
This is Neumeier's first adult novel, and there are striking strengths, and, unfortunately, some glaring weaknesses that mar but do not completely spoil the reading experience.
Best of all is Neumeier's imagining of what Griffins are, and what they do. Their terraforming of the land around them into a beloved (to them) desert is a wonderful conceit and concept, and a strong rationale for why Griffins are usually found in places far isolated from man. The characterizations and emotional palettes of the characters, both human and Griffin, on all sides of the conflicts are strong. I felt myself wanting to know more about the Griffins, their culture, and the cultures of the two very different nations caught in the claws of the Griffins life.
The quality of the writing is very good. Neumeier describes the Griffins lovingly, with the words of someone who loves these creatures as much as I. Each of the Griffins we meet is an individual, in appearance as well as personality. Her writing description of environment goes best when she is describing the Griffins desert, and less so when the action takes us elsewhere.
The magic use in the novel was not strong enough for me to judge it. I need more data before I can decide whether it makes sense or not. I can see the lines of how it works, but I'd like to know more before I decide if I like it or not.
The weaknesses in the novel on the other hand have to do with the movement of people, and more especially armies. There is a phrase in military circles: "Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics."
As bad as it seems that armies fly around the map of Neumeier's world (and they do, I couldn't get a decent sense of scale), the worse part is the logistical trains. Neumeier does not seem to really have considered the logistics and supply chains needed to make the movement of these armies, especially at speed, practical and possible. From a 30,000 foot level. what the two armies are trying to do makes sense. But without a decent sense of scale, it seemed as realistic as wargaming in the video game Civilization IV. Happily, this is not as crucial to the enjoyment of the book as one might fear, but this lack of thought was disappointing.
So, would you, gentle reader, like this book? If your preference is for fantasy fiction with strong characterization and the use of a neglected mythological creature, the Lord of the Changing Winds might be your cup of tea.
If you prefer the military aspects of your fantasy reading to be more rigorous. you are going to be frustrated with swaths of this novel. Personally, I think the strengths and inventiveness and quality of the writing outweigh the negatives, and I have already make plans to buy and read the second novel in the series.
Sure, Dragons are awesome. Dragons are mighty. Dragons go with heroic fantasy as much as, say, treasure laden dungeons.
But Griffins...
Combine a lion, king of the beasts, with an eagle, king of the air. That's a potent combination. A combination that speaks to me in a way that the coldly reptilian eye of a dragon doesn't always manage. Too, Griffins are not as well developed as dragons. Everyone knows dragons breathe fire (except when they don't). Everyone knows they love riddles (except when they don't). Smaug is the classic, archetypal dragon.
Griffins aren't anywhere near as common, and so their natures are more of a blank slate...and thus room for a writer (or a GM) to invent as they like. I like seeing that potential fulfilled...and this latest read of mine makes it happen.
Lord of the Changing Winds is the first book in a new trilogy called "The Griffin Mage" by author Rachel Neumeier.
Set mainly in the country of Feierabiand, Lord of the Changing Winds is the story of Kes. A young healer in the backwater village of Minas Ford, her life, and the life of her country, are turned upside down by the arrival of large migrating band of Griffins. Why the Griffins have left their desert, what they want with Kes, and the machinations of the Kings of Ferierabiand and neighboring Casmantium are the Matter of this first novel.
This is Neumeier's first adult novel, and there are striking strengths, and, unfortunately, some glaring weaknesses that mar but do not completely spoil the reading experience.
Best of all is Neumeier's imagining of what Griffins are, and what they do. Their terraforming of the land around them into a beloved (to them) desert is a wonderful conceit and concept, and a strong rationale for why Griffins are usually found in places far isolated from man. The characterizations and emotional palettes of the characters, both human and Griffin, on all sides of the conflicts are strong. I felt myself wanting to know more about the Griffins, their culture, and the cultures of the two very different nations caught in the claws of the Griffins life.
The quality of the writing is very good. Neumeier describes the Griffins lovingly, with the words of someone who loves these creatures as much as I. Each of the Griffins we meet is an individual, in appearance as well as personality. Her writing description of environment goes best when she is describing the Griffins desert, and less so when the action takes us elsewhere.
The magic use in the novel was not strong enough for me to judge it. I need more data before I can decide whether it makes sense or not. I can see the lines of how it works, but I'd like to know more before I decide if I like it or not.
The weaknesses in the novel on the other hand have to do with the movement of people, and more especially armies. There is a phrase in military circles: "Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics."
As bad as it seems that armies fly around the map of Neumeier's world (and they do, I couldn't get a decent sense of scale), the worse part is the logistical trains. Neumeier does not seem to really have considered the logistics and supply chains needed to make the movement of these armies, especially at speed, practical and possible. From a 30,000 foot level. what the two armies are trying to do makes sense. But without a decent sense of scale, it seemed as realistic as wargaming in the video game Civilization IV. Happily, this is not as crucial to the enjoyment of the book as one might fear, but this lack of thought was disappointing.
So, would you, gentle reader, like this book? If your preference is for fantasy fiction with strong characterization and the use of a neglected mythological creature, the Lord of the Changing Winds might be your cup of tea.
If you prefer the military aspects of your fantasy reading to be more rigorous. you are going to be frustrated with swaths of this novel. Personally, I think the strengths and inventiveness and quality of the writing outweigh the negatives, and I have already make plans to buy and read the second novel in the series.
July 5, 2021
DNF at the end of the first chapter, around 10%. Which, you know, is a loooong first chapter, and that's part of the problem. (I counted pages for the next one, which turns out is half as long. I'm not a stickler for consistent chapter length, but that's pretty variable already.)
Anyway.
I understand that not all stories start with a bang. Some of them barely even start with a simmer. This wasn't even on the heat, it was so slow. A larger-than-I-wanted portion of that first long chapter was awkward exposition-dump tangents about the history of the town and how it was So Important because of where it was on the river, yet it was also a bit of a backwater, and oh this is the family that runs the inn, except the mother doesn't really run the inn she makes pottery and arranges the flowers for the inn and isn't that special, that the tables at the tavern at the inn always have this specially made pottery with fresh cut flowers that don't wilt as fast as they should because everybody is just a little bit magic and that's her thing, flowers and pottery?
In case you think I'm exaggerating...well, I'm not, that bit about the town and the inn takes two pages and I was bored the whole time. Whenever I thought the story was going somewhere, that the main character might actually do something, there was a tangent about somebody or something else to stop her. At least until she FINALLY abruptly nonsensically goes to the griffins. But I'll get to that issue later.
The other thing I found distracting (and detracting) from what little plot there was, was a chain of editing mistakes, inconsistencies, and word repetition that added up to a feeling of amateurish writing. And I've got receipts: the first one concerns how old our protagonist Kes is. One of their farmhands both "hired on six years ago" and "has been on the farm half [Kes'] life." So, taken literally, she's twelve. Less literally--if we assume the farmhand has been around for half of the life she remembers (because she wouldn't remember being a baby) she's fourteen or fifteen handily, sixteen would be stretching it. But she also has a sister who's starting to go gray (one of the inane character details in the exposition dump about her) and has been "quickly married and quickly widowed" twice. Well, how quickly? Did those unnamed unfortunate husbands die after a month of marriage or a year? How long between the marriages? Why were the siblings born so far apart as to make this possible? Or, alternately, just how young did the sister marry the first time around? And why is this aspect of her life brought up at all if it's a one-sentence history that isn't explored in any depth, despite it raising all these questions for me in order to have it make any sense? (I'm assuming, of course, that these past marriages aren't important, but I don't know. I do know that the book is about griffins and magic and the younger sister, not the older one.)
All of that, because the author wouldn't just say how old the protagonist is, so I have to nitpick these not-necessarily consistent details to figure it out. And I'm still not sure. Her precise age isn't important if we're talking about a month on either side of sixteen, but the difference between twelve or fifteen or twenty sure is significant to how the character thinks and talks and acts, right?
Kes acts like...I don't know, a spacey and exceptionally shy four-year-old? She can't talk, even to people she knows, and especially not strangers. She has her head in the clouds about griffins and nature and not doing anything at all that her sister or society want her to do, but not in an actively rebellious way that implies she has a spine, just that she's terrified of basically everything that might resemble normal life. And the "can't talk" part of her personality gets really grating when she's interacting with the mage and the griffins at the end of the chapter, because every time she's upset or confused, she thinks something and "looks helplessly" at the mage, and he answers her just like he's read her mind. Which apparently is a thing that griffins can do, but wow, does it not justify the protagonist not having the will to actually say what she thinks out loud, and wow, does it make for really awkward "dialogue" in the narrative. No, thank you, I know it's only been one chapter, but if you can't sell me on your protagonist in the first chapter, what are you even doing?
As for the other issue I mentioned under this umbrella, the worst offender for word repetition was "white" showing up five times across two consecutive sentences--four in the first, once again in the second. The passage was describing a griffin, and okay, I get it, the creature is the whitest white ever seen, but for pity's sake, don't say it so often!
The whole tone of this is inconsistent, hand-wavey nonsense that's scattered in ten different directions by all the things it's trying to accomplish at once. It's got no focus, so I don't have patience for it.
Anyway.
I understand that not all stories start with a bang. Some of them barely even start with a simmer. This wasn't even on the heat, it was so slow. A larger-than-I-wanted portion of that first long chapter was awkward exposition-dump tangents about the history of the town and how it was So Important because of where it was on the river, yet it was also a bit of a backwater, and oh this is the family that runs the inn, except the mother doesn't really run the inn she makes pottery and arranges the flowers for the inn and isn't that special, that the tables at the tavern at the inn always have this specially made pottery with fresh cut flowers that don't wilt as fast as they should because everybody is just a little bit magic and that's her thing, flowers and pottery?
In case you think I'm exaggerating...well, I'm not, that bit about the town and the inn takes two pages and I was bored the whole time. Whenever I thought the story was going somewhere, that the main character might actually do something, there was a tangent about somebody or something else to stop her. At least until she FINALLY abruptly nonsensically goes to the griffins. But I'll get to that issue later.
The other thing I found distracting (and detracting) from what little plot there was, was a chain of editing mistakes, inconsistencies, and word repetition that added up to a feeling of amateurish writing. And I've got receipts: the first one concerns how old our protagonist Kes is. One of their farmhands both "hired on six years ago" and "has been on the farm half [Kes'] life." So, taken literally, she's twelve. Less literally--if we assume the farmhand has been around for half of the life she remembers (because she wouldn't remember being a baby) she's fourteen or fifteen handily, sixteen would be stretching it. But she also has a sister who's starting to go gray (one of the inane character details in the exposition dump about her) and has been "quickly married and quickly widowed" twice. Well, how quickly? Did those unnamed unfortunate husbands die after a month of marriage or a year? How long between the marriages? Why were the siblings born so far apart as to make this possible? Or, alternately, just how young did the sister marry the first time around? And why is this aspect of her life brought up at all if it's a one-sentence history that isn't explored in any depth, despite it raising all these questions for me in order to have it make any sense? (I'm assuming, of course, that these past marriages aren't important, but I don't know. I do know that the book is about griffins and magic and the younger sister, not the older one.)
All of that, because the author wouldn't just say how old the protagonist is, so I have to nitpick these not-necessarily consistent details to figure it out. And I'm still not sure. Her precise age isn't important if we're talking about a month on either side of sixteen, but the difference between twelve or fifteen or twenty sure is significant to how the character thinks and talks and acts, right?
Kes acts like...I don't know, a spacey and exceptionally shy four-year-old? She can't talk, even to people she knows, and especially not strangers. She has her head in the clouds about griffins and nature and not doing anything at all that her sister or society want her to do, but not in an actively rebellious way that implies she has a spine, just that she's terrified of basically everything that might resemble normal life. And the "can't talk" part of her personality gets really grating when she's interacting with the mage and the griffins at the end of the chapter, because every time she's upset or confused, she thinks something and "looks helplessly" at the mage, and he answers her just like he's read her mind. Which apparently is a thing that griffins can do, but wow, does it not justify the protagonist not having the will to actually say what she thinks out loud, and wow, does it make for really awkward "dialogue" in the narrative. No, thank you, I know it's only been one chapter, but if you can't sell me on your protagonist in the first chapter, what are you even doing?
As for the other issue I mentioned under this umbrella, the worst offender for word repetition was "white" showing up five times across two consecutive sentences--four in the first, once again in the second. The passage was describing a griffin, and okay, I get it, the creature is the whitest white ever seen, but for pity's sake, don't say it so often!
The whole tone of this is inconsistent, hand-wavey nonsense that's scattered in ten different directions by all the things it's trying to accomplish at once. It's got no focus, so I don't have patience for it.
November 26, 2024
I'm not quite sure what to say about this.
Was I compelled? Yes. Did I ENJOY it? Mostly no.
This book starts with Kes, a teenager from a small, pastoral town who has never quite fit in with the others around her. She doesn't talk much, has a quiescent personality, and prefers wandering the hills alone to things other girls of her age enjoy. Then, griffins arrive near Kes's small town, and she learns that she is to become a fire mage and a healer.
Kes isn't mad about this. It seems like she would be perfectly happy with this fate, except that the griffins have brought with them a geopolitical conflagration and war is thus on the horizon.
The griffins are interesting. They sort of occupy the same fantasy ecological niche as dragons: alien, powerful, may or may not hunt and eat people, always operating on a totally different wavelength than humanity. The prose, specifically when it centers on the griffins or their desert, waxes lyrical about their inhuman nature, ruthless beauty, etc. I don't feel that we really get to know them very well, and I don't LIKE them, but I feel like both of these things may be deliberate. They are meant to be compelling and off-putting at the same time.
The other half of this story follows Bertaud, a young nobleman in service to the king of Feierabiand, whom he is deeply loyal to and loves like an older brother. He becomes mired in the griffin problem when he leads a military sortie out to drive them from the land. It doesn't go as planned, and soon Feierabiand is on the brink of a three-pronged war with the griffins, and neighboring rival kingdom Casmantium.
It's a powder keg situation, with the griffins and Feierabiand alternately clashing and maneuvering to avoid war. The two peoples struggle to understand each other, even with Kes and Bertaud as go-betweens.
The griffins act aggressive and off-putting, but they perceive themselves as acting with perfect rationality and the humans as showing disrespect and hostility. This is obviously as intended, but it's also unpleasant. Even the two griffins we spend the most time with (I'm not even going to try to spell their names) I never felt like I could invest in as characters.
It was difficult for me to like anyone here. I possibly could have liked Bertaud. It was compelling the way his loyalty to the king was tested and twisted as he tried to stay true to what he thought was right. But I wasn't ever able to really invest in him.
Kes feels very mindless the whole time. At the beginning she is timid and distant. When she's with the griffins, it's as if she resists any thought more complex than "this feels good and right." At the end, she's lost her timidity, but become almost entirely mindless in a different way as the nature of fire magic changes her into someone else. Off-putting, like the griffins.
The most compelling part of the book is the griffin mage and Bertaud's dynamic, which seems like it came to an extremely abrupt climax and denouement.
The griffin mage from the beginning expresses that "my need was too great" to allow me to care about right, wrong, or hurting others. He will do literally anything to accomplish his goals, and won't spend a moment feeling bad about it, and he makes that very clear. When circumstances allow Bertaud to put the griffin mage in an extremely bad position and he justifies it the exact same way, it's very interesting. This is almost the one single moment in the book that a griffin is made to consider another perspective, and therefore we see growth, and I was certainly fascinated by how it turned out.
Overall, this is a story with a lot of originality and a gorgeously described setting and mythos. I was never bored, but also never hit the point of the book I always look forward to where my interest is hooked and investment starts to cascade. I think this just isn't the series for me.
Was I compelled? Yes. Did I ENJOY it? Mostly no.
This book starts with Kes, a teenager from a small, pastoral town who has never quite fit in with the others around her. She doesn't talk much, has a quiescent personality, and prefers wandering the hills alone to things other girls of her age enjoy. Then, griffins arrive near Kes's small town, and she learns that she is to become a fire mage and a healer.
Kes isn't mad about this. It seems like she would be perfectly happy with this fate, except that the griffins have brought with them a geopolitical conflagration and war is thus on the horizon.
The griffins are interesting. They sort of occupy the same fantasy ecological niche as dragons: alien, powerful, may or may not hunt and eat people, always operating on a totally different wavelength than humanity. The prose, specifically when it centers on the griffins or their desert, waxes lyrical about their inhuman nature, ruthless beauty, etc. I don't feel that we really get to know them very well, and I don't LIKE them, but I feel like both of these things may be deliberate. They are meant to be compelling and off-putting at the same time.
The other half of this story follows Bertaud, a young nobleman in service to the king of Feierabiand, whom he is deeply loyal to and loves like an older brother. He becomes mired in the griffin problem when he leads a military sortie out to drive them from the land. It doesn't go as planned, and soon Feierabiand is on the brink of a three-pronged war with the griffins, and neighboring rival kingdom Casmantium.
It's a powder keg situation, with the griffins and Feierabiand alternately clashing and maneuvering to avoid war. The two peoples struggle to understand each other, even with Kes and Bertaud as go-betweens.
The griffins act aggressive and off-putting, but they perceive themselves as acting with perfect rationality and the humans as showing disrespect and hostility. This is obviously as intended, but it's also unpleasant. Even the two griffins we spend the most time with (I'm not even going to try to spell their names) I never felt like I could invest in as characters.
It was difficult for me to like anyone here. I possibly could have liked Bertaud. It was compelling the way his loyalty to the king was tested and twisted as he tried to stay true to what he thought was right. But I wasn't ever able to really invest in him.
Kes feels very mindless the whole time. At the beginning she is timid and distant. When she's with the griffins, it's as if she resists any thought more complex than "this feels good and right." At the end, she's lost her timidity, but become almost entirely mindless in a different way as the nature of fire magic changes her into someone else. Off-putting, like the griffins.
The most compelling part of the book is the griffin mage and Bertaud's dynamic, which seems like it came to an extremely abrupt climax and denouement.
The griffin mage from the beginning expresses that "my need was too great" to allow me to care about right, wrong, or hurting others. He will do literally anything to accomplish his goals, and won't spend a moment feeling bad about it, and he makes that very clear. When circumstances allow Bertaud to put the griffin mage in an extremely bad position and he justifies it the exact same way, it's very interesting. This is almost the one single moment in the book that a griffin is made to consider another perspective, and therefore we see growth, and I was certainly fascinated by how it turned out.
Overall, this is a story with a lot of originality and a gorgeously described setting and mythos. I was never bored, but also never hit the point of the book I always look forward to where my interest is hooked and investment starts to cascade. I think this just isn't the series for me.
January 19, 2012
Originally reviewed here: http://bunburyinthestacks.blogspot.co...
Kes is a young woman with a talent for healing, destined to become an herb woman of a small village in Feierabiand, until the day that the griffins arrive to make a dessert north of Minas Ford. A man appears in the village, a man whom Kes knows instantly is no man at all, seeking a healer for his people and asking Kes’s help. She agrees to do what she can, not understanding the consequences of her actions or her own power. Bertaud, Lord of the Delta, and friend/advisor to the King of Feierabiand is dispatched to investigate the griffin’s arrival. Seeking to negotiate a peace agreement or force the griffins to disperse, Bertaud feels an immediate affinity for the desert, discovering his own odd attachment the the beings therein.
I was attracted to this book instantly, primarily because of my love for another series featuring gryphon mages, the Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey. It is only the second time that I have seen griffins featured as main characters, and I was excited to see how the treatment of them compared. While Lackey seemed to emphasize the similarities between her human and gryphon characters, Neumeier’s griffins reflected the opposite with their distinct un-humanness. These griffins are creatures of fire, their shadows flicker, they bleed garnets and cry carnelians. This isn’t a book that is compelling because of the characters themselves, but one where you become invested in the overall story. The characters involved are in no way shallow, but they can be difficult to identify with because of their lack of humanity. In this way, the lack of identification makes the story intriguing as something you desperately want to understand but know you never will.
The world that Neumeier builds for her griffins is so beautiful, and presented in such a well-paced manner that this book will grab you instantly, and hold you, without any of those “here’s the oh-so-dull history of this land” moments that seem to pop up regularly in high fantasy. I adored the magic presented through her earth and fire mages, and more so I loved the concept of having an affinity for a particular creature. My only complaint was one that I often have with high fantasy novels, and that is the naming scheme. The country names were obscenely long and difficult to wrap the tongue around, as were the names of the griffins themselves. The griffin names didn’t bother me so much as there was good reason for them to be as long as they were, but it did make it difficult to keep them strait--thank goodness for physical descriptions or I would never have properly identified any griffins other than those most closely involved with Kes and Bertaud.
I have to say, after finishing A Dance With Dragons, Lord of the Changing Winds seemed like a happy-go-lucky hugfest of high fantasy. It wasn’t, of course, it was in itself a very politically driven novel, but with level-headed characters who aren’t quite so submerged in subterfuge and bloodlust. In fact, it messed with my head a bit. The rulers in Lord of the Changing Winds genuinely care about their people, and make decisions based on what most benefits them, rather than what most benefits the ruler themselves. The good sense was a bit baffling after 1000 pages of Mr. Martin, and I enjoyed it quite thoroughly (though in no way am I disparaging the sheer awesomeness of A Song of Ice and Fire).
Kes is a young woman with a talent for healing, destined to become an herb woman of a small village in Feierabiand, until the day that the griffins arrive to make a dessert north of Minas Ford. A man appears in the village, a man whom Kes knows instantly is no man at all, seeking a healer for his people and asking Kes’s help. She agrees to do what she can, not understanding the consequences of her actions or her own power. Bertaud, Lord of the Delta, and friend/advisor to the King of Feierabiand is dispatched to investigate the griffin’s arrival. Seeking to negotiate a peace agreement or force the griffins to disperse, Bertaud feels an immediate affinity for the desert, discovering his own odd attachment the the beings therein.
I was attracted to this book instantly, primarily because of my love for another series featuring gryphon mages, the Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey. It is only the second time that I have seen griffins featured as main characters, and I was excited to see how the treatment of them compared. While Lackey seemed to emphasize the similarities between her human and gryphon characters, Neumeier’s griffins reflected the opposite with their distinct un-humanness. These griffins are creatures of fire, their shadows flicker, they bleed garnets and cry carnelians. This isn’t a book that is compelling because of the characters themselves, but one where you become invested in the overall story. The characters involved are in no way shallow, but they can be difficult to identify with because of their lack of humanity. In this way, the lack of identification makes the story intriguing as something you desperately want to understand but know you never will.
The world that Neumeier builds for her griffins is so beautiful, and presented in such a well-paced manner that this book will grab you instantly, and hold you, without any of those “here’s the oh-so-dull history of this land” moments that seem to pop up regularly in high fantasy. I adored the magic presented through her earth and fire mages, and more so I loved the concept of having an affinity for a particular creature. My only complaint was one that I often have with high fantasy novels, and that is the naming scheme. The country names were obscenely long and difficult to wrap the tongue around, as were the names of the griffins themselves. The griffin names didn’t bother me so much as there was good reason for them to be as long as they were, but it did make it difficult to keep them strait--thank goodness for physical descriptions or I would never have properly identified any griffins other than those most closely involved with Kes and Bertaud.
I have to say, after finishing A Dance With Dragons, Lord of the Changing Winds seemed like a happy-go-lucky hugfest of high fantasy. It wasn’t, of course, it was in itself a very politically driven novel, but with level-headed characters who aren’t quite so submerged in subterfuge and bloodlust. In fact, it messed with my head a bit. The rulers in Lord of the Changing Winds genuinely care about their people, and make decisions based on what most benefits them, rather than what most benefits the ruler themselves. The good sense was a bit baffling after 1000 pages of Mr. Martin, and I enjoyed it quite thoroughly (though in no way am I disparaging the sheer awesomeness of A Song of Ice and Fire).
May 1, 2010
For me, the story was lost in the amount of information the author gave about characters, places, and history. I got to the point where I was skipping over pages of background information that should have been woven into the storyline or may not really have been integral to the plot as the reader saw it (versus what was in the writer's head). I suspect that the next book will be a much more enjoyable read, since the background will already have been presented.
February 15, 2025
Nice. Cool griffin lore and the little man is very gay for his king. What more do you need.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 12, 2011
I have tried to limit myself to character based fantasy lately since the quest driven fantasies are starting to tire me. At first glance Lord of the Changing Winds fits the bill, it starts with a day in the life of our main character, Kes. That is how I like to be drawn into a fantasy world, and I was interested right away. I don't enjoy long drawn out descriptions of what the land looks like, who rules where, and who hates who. Unfortunately, the second chapter brought just that. I felt like I was reading the same story twice. We would hear about events from Kes and the griffins, then from the king and company. Change in viewpoint only works when it gives us new interesting information, and that is not the case here. It doesn't help that the king and the other characters in that section of the world were very flat and uninspiring. Kes was the only promising character in the story, and she isn't very deep either. She handles living with griffins as if it was taking a trip to the beach. She wants to escape and visit home occasionally, but that feeling doesn't last too long. She gets angry at people for deceiving her then gets over it right away. Overall, I feel that this story had the potential to be good, but it fell short. Talking griffins, interesting magical abilities, and a decent conflict made this novel worth finishing. However, a single viewpoint with more character development would have made this novel great. If it took more than a few pages for Kes to learn fire magic and to acclimate to living with griffins then my interest would have increased. If cold mages were explored in more depth and more information was given about the enemy, then I would have enjoyed this book much more. As it stands Lord of the Changing Winds feels like a very simple war story with some griffins thrown in. Nothing is complex enough to make this novel excellent. Griffins are normal, the human characters are normal, and the bad guys want some more land. Decent, but not what I expected.
January 16, 2014
I was given books 2 and 3 in this series for Christmas, so I felt I should read book 1 first to get a sense of things. From doing so, I'm not at all sure I will be reading those later ones.
Things I liked about this book:
Things I did not like about this book:
Pretty much everything. To specify:
- Terribly overwrought. I don't have the easiest time articulating this feeling, but it's something I find in certain types of work that try to be epic fantasy. It's a style common to Arthurian-style tales, or the elven poetry sections of Tolkien, or that which I've read of Guy Gavriel Kay. It's a yearning toward something tragic and grand and lost, with melancholy and ennui draped over top. I am not at all a fan of this style of something being epic, but it seems that there are those who do like this approach.
- Very poorly explained magic. Magic is central to the story line, and the main character is the typical shy teenager discovering magical powers of many other stories, and yet how magic is done and what it can accomplish is left amazingly undetailed.
- Bizarre reinterpretation of fantasy elements. Mages seem to be aspected to classical elements in this series, yet the only ones we've seen are fire and earth, which are apparently inimical to each other. (There is also some lip service to some sort of legalistic magic of contracts which remains incredible even less explained than other forms of magic). Griffons are apparently predators who gain no nourishment from their kills, yet kill anyway. A lot of this is just weird.
- Ridiculous distances. Armies, even on horseback, aren't going to be covering 50 miles in a day, yet they need to for several days in a row for the distances in this book to make sense. Yet the kingdoms are actually pretty small as far as even historical kingdoms go, so travel times are all still extremely short.
Things I liked about this book:
Things I did not like about this book:
Pretty much everything. To specify:
- Terribly overwrought. I don't have the easiest time articulating this feeling, but it's something I find in certain types of work that try to be epic fantasy. It's a style common to Arthurian-style tales, or the elven poetry sections of Tolkien, or that which I've read of Guy Gavriel Kay. It's a yearning toward something tragic and grand and lost, with melancholy and ennui draped over top. I am not at all a fan of this style of something being epic, but it seems that there are those who do like this approach.
- Very poorly explained magic. Magic is central to the story line, and the main character is the typical shy teenager discovering magical powers of many other stories, and yet how magic is done and what it can accomplish is left amazingly undetailed.
- Bizarre reinterpretation of fantasy elements. Mages seem to be aspected to classical elements in this series, yet the only ones we've seen are fire and earth, which are apparently inimical to each other. (There is also some lip service to some sort of legalistic magic of contracts which remains incredible even less explained than other forms of magic). Griffons are apparently predators who gain no nourishment from their kills, yet kill anyway. A lot of this is just weird.
- Ridiculous distances. Armies, even on horseback, aren't going to be covering 50 miles in a day, yet they need to for several days in a row for the distances in this book to make sense. Yet the kingdoms are actually pretty small as far as even historical kingdoms go, so travel times are all still extremely short.
October 8, 2010
I love griffins, so I picked up this book at Powells over the summer. It was a great read, the characters are detailed. I guess i give it a three because I was not feeling complete after the ending. Don't get me wrong it was a great read and I went to the bookstore and picked up book two but I think I was wanting a bit more. A bit more character growth, a bit more hmm, romance, a bit less writing about the world and other people and places and palaces and place history since I really wanted was the griffins to kick arse and the girl to change and want the Lord of the Changing winds. I wish Kes was a stronger girl and not like a flowing river in any direction the story takes so I hope she grows a spine in this next book and some loins also. That would be sweet. I think shorter character names would have rocked the griffins more because there is nothing more mind warping than trying to twist thoughts around kids fighting around the home front and trying to remember handfuls of characters with 30 letter names that are not shortened or even recognizable.
So Rachel it was a great book, it was not all easy peasy, it was not smooth, but I have higher hopes for book two. Griffins are a great choice they are kinda left out of the genre and i appreciate their rebirth in your book, but maybe nicknames on them? I know it might not be might and regal and all that, but the readers are not always linguists.
Great job.
So Rachel it was a great book, it was not all easy peasy, it was not smooth, but I have higher hopes for book two. Griffins are a great choice they are kinda left out of the genre and i appreciate their rebirth in your book, but maybe nicknames on them? I know it might not be might and regal and all that, but the readers are not always linguists.
Great job.
May 23, 2011
I actually felt indifferently enough about this book that I'm not sure if I'll read the second, though the volume I got is actually the 2-book set. The story was fine, but I didn't feel a particular connection to any of the characters (in case you haven't noticed, I'm a character reader--the world can be awesome, but if I don't connect to someone in the story, a book doesn't work for me). In fact, I was never sure who the protagonist was, since we get several point of views and I didn't feel inclined to "root" for any of them. I don't need a character who's all good or all bad, but I guess I want someone who I can feel compelled to hope for a good outcome for--even if they don't get their good outcome. In this particular book, I didn't feel that connection to any character.
One thing that was hard for me at the beginning was the griffin names. They are long and complicated and often seem similar. I found myself flipping back and forth to read a passage, then go back and figure out who is who, so I could get them set in my mind.
All in all, a competent book, but not one that made me feel passionately about it in any way.
One thing that was hard for me at the beginning was the griffin names. They are long and complicated and often seem similar. I found myself flipping back and forth to read a passage, then go back and figure out who is who, so I could get them set in my mind.
All in all, a competent book, but not one that made me feel passionately about it in any way.
June 28, 2019
This was just okay after a promising start.
Special snowflake alert: ordinary farmer girl with no parents, is suddenly a mage, can out of the blue heal griffins, is promptly part of their group even though they are anti-human, is in a key position in a war... all a bit much.
Also I dislike the griffin names (Opailikiita Sehanaka Kiistaike, Anasakuse Sipiike Kairaithin..), they are exhausting and distracting.
Special snowflake alert: ordinary farmer girl with no parents, is suddenly a mage, can out of the blue heal griffins, is promptly part of their group even though they are anti-human, is in a key position in a war... all a bit much.
Also I dislike the griffin names (Opailikiita Sehanaka Kiistaike, Anasakuse Sipiike Kairaithin..), they are exhausting and distracting.
October 28, 2016
The worldbuilding in terms of the griffins and their desert/fire magic was exemplary. Their names really interrupted the flow of the narrative for me and became very problematic. I thought the plot was pretty thin, and only just sustained what was a rather short novel anyway.
February 26, 2025
A truly original story whose characters make unforeseen choices.
January 29, 2017
It was alright, not great but not bad, either. Has me interested in reading the next one.
Read
December 18, 2017This was a very slow and subtle fantasy. I enjoyed it, though I did get a bit impatient towards the end. The writing is absolutely beautiful though.
December 19, 2010
http://www.rantingdragon.com/lord-of-...
When I entered my local bookstore for the first time after I started reviewing, I decided I should at least pick up one book I would never have considered reading before. The novel of choice was Lord of the Changing Winds, the first book in The Griffin Mage Trilogy by Rachel Neumeier.
A story of Griffins
As the title of the series suggests, this is a book about Griffins, and it is the first book about these mythical creatures I’ve ever read. After some research, I discovered that Neumeier’s Griffins are unique in that they are bound to the desert. These Griffins, half eagle and half lion, are elemental creatures of fire and air, and carry the desert in their hearts. The plot begins when the Griffins are driven from their dry lands by the Casmantium cold mages, fighting them with weapons made of ice.
When rumors of invading Griffins on his soil reach the king of Feierabiand, Bertaud is sent to command an army of a hundred soldiers to drive away them away and the desert they have brought with them. The Griffins, knowing they cannot return, have made provisions of their own. In a small village near the mountains where they reside, they have found a young girl, Kes, who can provide them with the assistance they need to face human armies. The price for Kes, however, might be high.
Creatures and characters
From the very first pages, the story of Lord of the Changing Winds has unfolded in a spectacular way, turning this novel into an absolute page turner, with numerous fascinating feats. One of these feats is, without a doubt, the use of Griffins. These creatures have never interested me much, but seeing them in this world, I can’t believe how wrong I was. Neumeier has managed to create a species that feels so different to humans, that are impossible to comprehend, yet not at all uncomfortable to read about. The choices these creatures make feel completely alien to me, which has been an intriguing aspect of the book.
Not only the Griffins have been well-written, however. The human characters are very deep and comprehensive as well. Their choices and struggles along the way felt very real to me and kept me interested in the story. However, I did feel these characters developed too much, too quickly. The entire story takes only seven days, but leaves almost every main character completely changed. Some of these changes even happen overnight.
Lack of world building
The fact that this novel is a true page turner with amazing pacing comes at a high price, however. While the world of The Griffin Mage has significant potential, it lacked world building. For example, the story contains numerous different magic systems, some of which were used extensively, but none of them were truly explained. The characters just perform their magic, and we never learn how that works, even though it is quite obvious that Neumeier has thought thoroughly about her magic systems. I feel that, if Lord of the Changing Winds had been just a little bigger than its 365 pages, its world could have received the attention it deserved, giving the reader a much more epic novel to read.
Everything fantasy needs
These concerns, however, do not mean I didn’t enjoy this novel, because I truly did. This book has every aspect I look for in a novel, albeit sometimes a bit shallow: believable political intrigue, creatures of fire, multiple extensive magic systems, suspense, plot twists, epic battles and characters to love and be moved by.
Why should you read this book?
If you love fairy tales and fantasy about mythological creatures, you will most likely enjoy reading Lord of the Changing Winds. I look forward to reading the next two volumes of this trilogy, which have all been released in 2010, and if the world building improves, I might even recommend it to any fan of epic fantasy.
When I entered my local bookstore for the first time after I started reviewing, I decided I should at least pick up one book I would never have considered reading before. The novel of choice was Lord of the Changing Winds, the first book in The Griffin Mage Trilogy by Rachel Neumeier.
A story of Griffins
As the title of the series suggests, this is a book about Griffins, and it is the first book about these mythical creatures I’ve ever read. After some research, I discovered that Neumeier’s Griffins are unique in that they are bound to the desert. These Griffins, half eagle and half lion, are elemental creatures of fire and air, and carry the desert in their hearts. The plot begins when the Griffins are driven from their dry lands by the Casmantium cold mages, fighting them with weapons made of ice.
When rumors of invading Griffins on his soil reach the king of Feierabiand, Bertaud is sent to command an army of a hundred soldiers to drive away them away and the desert they have brought with them. The Griffins, knowing they cannot return, have made provisions of their own. In a small village near the mountains where they reside, they have found a young girl, Kes, who can provide them with the assistance they need to face human armies. The price for Kes, however, might be high.
Creatures and characters
From the very first pages, the story of Lord of the Changing Winds has unfolded in a spectacular way, turning this novel into an absolute page turner, with numerous fascinating feats. One of these feats is, without a doubt, the use of Griffins. These creatures have never interested me much, but seeing them in this world, I can’t believe how wrong I was. Neumeier has managed to create a species that feels so different to humans, that are impossible to comprehend, yet not at all uncomfortable to read about. The choices these creatures make feel completely alien to me, which has been an intriguing aspect of the book.
Not only the Griffins have been well-written, however. The human characters are very deep and comprehensive as well. Their choices and struggles along the way felt very real to me and kept me interested in the story. However, I did feel these characters developed too much, too quickly. The entire story takes only seven days, but leaves almost every main character completely changed. Some of these changes even happen overnight.
Lack of world building
The fact that this novel is a true page turner with amazing pacing comes at a high price, however. While the world of The Griffin Mage has significant potential, it lacked world building. For example, the story contains numerous different magic systems, some of which were used extensively, but none of them were truly explained. The characters just perform their magic, and we never learn how that works, even though it is quite obvious that Neumeier has thought thoroughly about her magic systems. I feel that, if Lord of the Changing Winds had been just a little bigger than its 365 pages, its world could have received the attention it deserved, giving the reader a much more epic novel to read.
Everything fantasy needs
These concerns, however, do not mean I didn’t enjoy this novel, because I truly did. This book has every aspect I look for in a novel, albeit sometimes a bit shallow: believable political intrigue, creatures of fire, multiple extensive magic systems, suspense, plot twists, epic battles and characters to love and be moved by.
Why should you read this book?
If you love fairy tales and fantasy about mythological creatures, you will most likely enjoy reading Lord of the Changing Winds. I look forward to reading the next two volumes of this trilogy, which have all been released in 2010, and if the world building improves, I might even recommend it to any fan of epic fantasy.
November 3, 2019
I've been thinking about this book a lot lately. I planned to review the series when I finished it, but the sequels are a little more like standalone stories with new characters set in different sections of the Griffin Mage world, so it makes more sense to take each book as they come.
The reason I've been thinking about this book a lot is because of the protagonist. She was surprisingly subversive in ways I didn't expect. She plays upon the fantasy tropes of little girls who find magic and must look to family, siblings, and love interests in order to find the value in humanity in a way I haven't seen done before.
I'm a gryphon fan first and foremost, so I can't go through a whole review without talking about how much I enjoyed Neumeier's gryphons. They're essentially fire elementals who warp the environment around them, and she doesn't shy away from the implications that come from that. They're sapient, but they aren't "humans in chicken suits" as I've heard people critique some gryphon protagonists in other novels. They feel like the 'other', though through the protagonist, they have their own level of sympathy, especially for the eponymous griffin mage himself.
When I chat about this book with other gryphon fans, I sometimes hear them say they stopped at the 20% mark. This is a '90s fantasy, and there was an assumption back then that pacing wasn't as important at the start of a fantasy book, and editors favored encouraging authors to let the reader 'ease' themselves into the novel. If you can get to the 25% mark, I promise you'll be hooked from there until the end.
It's been months since I finished this book, and I find myself wishing there were more protagonists like this one, more gryphons as fire elementals.
The reason I've been thinking about this book a lot is because of the protagonist. She was surprisingly subversive in ways I didn't expect. She plays upon the fantasy tropes of little girls who find magic and must look to family, siblings, and love interests in order to find the value in humanity in a way I haven't seen done before.
I'm a gryphon fan first and foremost, so I can't go through a whole review without talking about how much I enjoyed Neumeier's gryphons. They're essentially fire elementals who warp the environment around them, and she doesn't shy away from the implications that come from that. They're sapient, but they aren't "humans in chicken suits" as I've heard people critique some gryphon protagonists in other novels. They feel like the 'other', though through the protagonist, they have their own level of sympathy, especially for the eponymous griffin mage himself.
When I chat about this book with other gryphon fans, I sometimes hear them say they stopped at the 20% mark. This is a '90s fantasy, and there was an assumption back then that pacing wasn't as important at the start of a fantasy book, and editors favored encouraging authors to let the reader 'ease' themselves into the novel. If you can get to the 25% mark, I promise you'll be hooked from there until the end.
It's been months since I finished this book, and I find myself wishing there were more protagonists like this one, more gryphons as fire elementals.
June 8, 2010
This was one of those books that I was looking forward to reading in 2010.
I don't know if this is a first or second book but the author is fairly new to writing. While I enjoyed the book and plot, there were huge areas of information dumping. Either when described the land, or characters or background. I noticed that I'd skip huge paragraphs, this did get toned down a lot after midway but it'll be hard for people to get past it. Especially since some of the information isn't really an essential part to the plot.
The characters were wonderful especially the 2 griffins, the mage, and Kes. All of the characters were emotional, passionate and drawn out very well.
The plot line was really interesting, and the magic portrayed was really intricate and just what Earth/fire magic should be.
I did have a hard time understanding the countries and mountains and picturing it. The descriptions didn't describe it as small but troops marched many many miles and the desert area was hard to pictures such a vast area with such a small world that was developed. That and the info dumping were my major complaints.
The book does pick up and I did enjoy the whole book. I'll be seeing how Neumeier grows with the second book because there was a lot of potential there.
I don't know if this is a first or second book but the author is fairly new to writing. While I enjoyed the book and plot, there were huge areas of information dumping. Either when described the land, or characters or background. I noticed that I'd skip huge paragraphs, this did get toned down a lot after midway but it'll be hard for people to get past it. Especially since some of the information isn't really an essential part to the plot.
The characters were wonderful especially the 2 griffins, the mage, and Kes. All of the characters were emotional, passionate and drawn out very well.
The plot line was really interesting, and the magic portrayed was really intricate and just what Earth/fire magic should be.
I did have a hard time understanding the countries and mountains and picturing it. The descriptions didn't describe it as small but troops marched many many miles and the desert area was hard to pictures such a vast area with such a small world that was developed. That and the info dumping were my major complaints.
The book does pick up and I did enjoy the whole book. I'll be seeing how Neumeier grows with the second book because there was a lot of potential there.
July 21, 2020
I had almost no memory of this from the first time I read it...
Anyway: Kes is an even odder protagonist than usual; she reads as neuroatypical in some ways but I can't tell how far it's an intentional depiction. But it mostly works, I think, as a portrait of someone "finding their place" in a way about folding them into "normal" society but on the contrary is about following one's own sense of self and one's own choices even when they alienate you even further. Which is interesting!
Neumeier also does a pretty good job with the griffins: alien and strange and terrifying to humans, but also compelling. But as usual, the strongest relationship is the bromantic bond between Bertaud and Iaour and the most compelling character arcs are theirs and -- in the last quarter -- Bertaud's relationship with the series-titular Griffin Mage. Neumeier is really good at putting problems of power and domination and trust and necessity front and center.
Some things that were weak: Jos, especially at the end. The decision to use German words and faux-German words for the language of the "baddies" (although they are, in typical Neumeier fashion, not really "bad") but not in any relationship to their meaning in German. It was incredibly distracting!
Anyway: Kes is an even odder protagonist than usual; she reads as neuroatypical in some ways but I can't tell how far it's an intentional depiction. But it mostly works, I think, as a portrait of someone "finding their place" in a way about folding them into "normal" society but on the contrary is about following one's own sense of self and one's own choices even when they alienate you even further. Which is interesting!
Neumeier also does a pretty good job with the griffins: alien and strange and terrifying to humans, but also compelling. But as usual, the strongest relationship is the bromantic bond between Bertaud and Iaour and the most compelling character arcs are theirs and -- in the last quarter -- Bertaud's relationship with the series-titular Griffin Mage. Neumeier is really good at putting problems of power and domination and trust and necessity front and center.
Some things that were weak: Jos, especially at the end. The decision to use German words and faux-German words for the language of the "baddies" (although they are, in typical Neumeier fashion, not really "bad") but not in any relationship to their meaning in German. It was incredibly distracting!
June 26, 2012
I think you have to be in the mood for this one.
"Mood" is what it has. It's very moody, and also very sleepy, with an almost literary style: The author balances far too many sentences around a colon, like this.
The protagonist appears to be somewhere on the autism spectrum, except when she's with the griffins. The point that the griffins think and feel very differently from humans about everything is hammered into the ground. Possibly these two facts are connected? I wasn't engaged enough by the characters, the story or the sparsely-filled-out setting to stay around and find out.
The names of the griffins, and for that matter the kingdoms, have far too many syllables in them and I found them impossible to remember, nor did I bother to pronounce them mentally.
I got about halfway through before deciding that I have so many good books waiting to be read that there was no reason to persevere with one that I wasn't particularly enjoying. Not hating - it's not a bad book - but it wasn't doing much for me.
It'd been on my to-read list for a while, and I forget why. I think it was a Goodreads recommendation.
"Mood" is what it has. It's very moody, and also very sleepy, with an almost literary style: The author balances far too many sentences around a colon, like this.
The protagonist appears to be somewhere on the autism spectrum, except when she's with the griffins. The point that the griffins think and feel very differently from humans about everything is hammered into the ground. Possibly these two facts are connected? I wasn't engaged enough by the characters, the story or the sparsely-filled-out setting to stay around and find out.
The names of the griffins, and for that matter the kingdoms, have far too many syllables in them and I found them impossible to remember, nor did I bother to pronounce them mentally.
I got about halfway through before deciding that I have so many good books waiting to be read that there was no reason to persevere with one that I wasn't particularly enjoying. Not hating - it's not a bad book - but it wasn't doing much for me.
It'd been on my to-read list for a while, and I forget why. I think it was a Goodreads recommendation.
December 29, 2011
This book series is one that as a reader, you come across at random at a small bookstore. In larger bookstores or ebook libraries, most people probably wouldn't give this series a second glance.
The best thing about this book is, as you would expect and hope, the griffins. Their manner and descriptions were vivid and entertaining, certainly enough to catch your attention if you have an affection for griffins to start with. The premise of the griffin, their desert and their way of life is easily the best strength of the book.
The rest of the book pretty much leaves the reader with an indifferent sort of feeling. None of the characters strike me as particularly real or well-rounded, with much of their history or personality left out. The lands themselves in the book are also not very well-defined, focusing on the desert descriptions rather than the village or castle in which the rest of the story takes place. As a result, this makes it much harder to feel empathy for the characters or places.
Overall, I rate this book a 2. I feel there is potential for the series and room for the author to grow, so I will probably read the next book in hopes for a slightly better outcome.
The best thing about this book is, as you would expect and hope, the griffins. Their manner and descriptions were vivid and entertaining, certainly enough to catch your attention if you have an affection for griffins to start with. The premise of the griffin, their desert and their way of life is easily the best strength of the book.
The rest of the book pretty much leaves the reader with an indifferent sort of feeling. None of the characters strike me as particularly real or well-rounded, with much of their history or personality left out. The lands themselves in the book are also not very well-defined, focusing on the desert descriptions rather than the village or castle in which the rest of the story takes place. As a result, this makes it much harder to feel empathy for the characters or places.
Overall, I rate this book a 2. I feel there is potential for the series and room for the author to grow, so I will probably read the next book in hopes for a slightly better outcome.
May 24, 2013
Lord of the Changing Winds is a very well done, straightforward fantasy novel. While there isn’t anything earth-shatteringly new here, neither is there a sense of “same old story.”
Rachel Neumeier takes an interesting direction with Kes, one of her main characters. Kes is a 15-year-old orphan girl, raised by her sister in a small, quiet village. She has healing abilities and doesn’t quite fit in. So far, all the clichéd standards. Kes, however, is not a cliché. Once Kes meets the griffins and is taken by the griffin mage who awakens the magic within her, she changes. She becomes more and more distant from her human emotions. Kes isn’t your typical teen heroine and I for one was happy that this wasn’t just another “youth bonding with a magical creature” book. The other main characters are Bertaud, advisor to King Iaor of Feier... Read More:
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
Rachel Neumeier takes an interesting direction with Kes, one of her main characters. Kes is a 15-year-old orphan girl, raised by her sister in a small, quiet village. She has healing abilities and doesn’t quite fit in. So far, all the clichéd standards. Kes, however, is not a cliché. Once Kes meets the griffins and is taken by the griffin mage who awakens the magic within her, she changes. She becomes more and more distant from her human emotions. Kes isn’t your typical teen heroine and I for one was happy that this wasn’t just another “youth bonding with a magical creature” book. The other main characters are Bertaud, advisor to King Iaor of Feier... Read More:
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
December 14, 2015
"It was okay."
I managed to get through this entire book without having much an opinion about it... at all, really.
Stuff happens in it. This stuff is neither compelling nor boring. The initial infodump is ham-handedly and epicly awkward, but Neumeier's otherwise beautiful prose makes up for it. The stakes are midling. Kes makes an interesting narrator, but the titular Lord of the Changing Winds is as fascinating as paint. I liked Bertraud, but I was bored to tears by his warfare plot.
It was... fine. I'm glad it wasn't longer than it was because I was getting tired of it by the end, but it didn't manage to outlast it's welcome.
Honestly, I have basically no feelings toward it at all, except that the author should be writing other things because really, her prose is gorgeous.
Not sure if I'll read the next one, I'll see how I feel in a few months.
I managed to get through this entire book without having much an opinion about it... at all, really.
Stuff happens in it. This stuff is neither compelling nor boring. The initial infodump is ham-handedly and epicly awkward, but Neumeier's otherwise beautiful prose makes up for it. The stakes are midling. Kes makes an interesting narrator, but the titular Lord of the Changing Winds is as fascinating as paint. I liked Bertraud, but I was bored to tears by his warfare plot.
It was... fine. I'm glad it wasn't longer than it was because I was getting tired of it by the end, but it didn't manage to outlast it's welcome.
Honestly, I have basically no feelings toward it at all, except that the author should be writing other things because really, her prose is gorgeous.
Not sure if I'll read the next one, I'll see how I feel in a few months.
June 16, 2011
Not sure how I feel about this book. I loved the beginnind and Kes but then it switched to Bedault and kept switching back and forth. Once it switched the first time I felt the strong Kes beginnning point of view left behind and Bedault's point of view became the strong story. However I wanted Kes's story/point of view more and it became very standoffish or disconnected with Kes. And that is were the story started to lose it's greatness to me. If it had stayed on one point of view it would have been more stable to me. I loved the beginning descriptions and portrayal of the Griffins but it changed when we saw it from Bedault's story. There were moments of greatness but overall I don't think I will read more.
August 3, 2016
The author seemed to be going for a heroic, high fantasy feel...I think she was trying too hard. I realize you have to be in a certain frame of mind to appreciate some books, but this one was not for me. If you can enjoy lofty, but repetitive, descriptions of the hot desert, the 'unhuman-ness' of griffins, and the nature of silence, then this book is for you. If you prefer dialog to be aloof from the emotions of the moment, but at times somewhat angsty, then you might want to give this a go. At the time that I read this, I was annoyed that the plot was so weak and sorely neglected in favor of being prose-y (yeah prose-y).
November 2, 2012
I loved the idea of a story about griffins but this book failed to impress me. Some aspects of it, like how there are different mages and the whole fire and desert thing with the griffins intrigued me, but I felt it was a little hard to connect with the characters and the story.
There wasn't any...spark in what I read? If that makes any sense.
I skimmed a lot of it about half way because there were a lot of details, which sometimes I like, but it sort of bogged down the experience for me.
I hear the author's other more recent books are better so maybe I'll look into some of them, but unfortunately for this series, it will be discontinued.
There wasn't any...spark in what I read? If that makes any sense.
I skimmed a lot of it about half way because there were a lot of details, which sometimes I like, but it sort of bogged down the experience for me.
I hear the author's other more recent books are better so maybe I'll look into some of them, but unfortunately for this series, it will be discontinued.
October 24, 2013
Hmmm. For a more character based fantasy series I can't say the characters in the first volume resonated with me or caught my interest. The shaping of the Griffins as a magical species has potential, which we'll have to see if it unfold more over time.
The larger more epic conflicts of the novel took a while to develop and seemed to resolve a bit too neatly toward the end for my taste and the smaller more personal ones seem to be just unfolding.
Well, I did buy it as a trilogy and there's enough potential that I'll continue of to the second volume to see what I think...
The larger more epic conflicts of the novel took a while to develop and seemed to resolve a bit too neatly toward the end for my taste and the smaller more personal ones seem to be just unfolding.
Well, I did buy it as a trilogy and there's enough potential that I'll continue of to the second volume to see what I think...
February 27, 2015
I didn't care for this nearly as much as The Floating Islands. It just didn't quite work for me. The griffins didn't seem properly griffin-ish, and being a book about griffins, it meant that I never quite connected to the book. I don't see griffins as being intimately connected with fire the way that these griffins are. I also didn't care for one of the plot twists, that griffins I may try more of the author, though.
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