Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

This is the first of Jiang's works that I have read, and unfortunately I came away from this feeling dissatisfied. While I understand that this is a novella and there's less time to develop characters, I felt like the main character in this just got no development at all. There was a dearth of characterisation and growth, and the naivete of the main character and her family was just excessive in the end. It was clear from the start that certain parties did not have her best interests at heart, and I was disappointed that there was no strength in her.

I found the world-building and the story interesting, with some really beautifully described segments, like the market. I did think that the twist at the end could be seen a mile away, which was disappointing. I thought there could have been so much more put into this novella. I also found that the book jumped so much sometimes that there was no clarity on what we should be focused on, and there were a lot of questions left unanswered.

I can see how there would have been so much more potential for a beautiful, sweeping story, however, this didn't reach the finish line for me. I can see so much potential in this book, but it just fell a bit flat with the structure and vibe.

I read this book in its entirety to write a proper review, but I have to mention that I seriously considered DNFing it at the halfway mark.

Genre : This book’s genre was very confusing. It was marketed as sci-fi/fantasy, but I struggled to find any sci-fi elements. At best, it leaned towards steampunk fantasy, but even that felt inconsistent.

Characters : The characters left a lot to be desired. They felt devoid of personality and didn’t undergo any noticeable development throughout the story—there were no clear character arcs to follow. Additionally, I found it hard to picture them. Even the main character’s description was vague. While I appreciated the attempt to use her own perspective to describe herself, the lack of "human" comparisons made it difficult to visualize her. The only detail I could grasp was that she had bark-like skin, but even by the end, I was still wondering what her hair was supposed to look like.

Plot : This story needed at least three times the number of pages to fully develop - the plot barely moved forward. The world-building was both confusing and insufficient to support the story's events. The overarching message of the book was also quite heavy-handed, and the ending was particularly frustrating. I went in expecting a standalone novella but finished what felt like the first third of a potentially interesting fantasy series.

Pacing : The pacing was poor. I struggled to follow the sequence of events and understand the passage of time between the main character’s actions.

Prose : One of the few redeeming qualities of this book was its prose. The writing style was elegant and easy to read, even when other aspects of the story fell short.

Overall Feeling : While I can appreciate the author’s intentions and the beauty of their writing, this book ultimately left me disappointed. It had potential but failed to deliver on multiple fronts, from character development to plot and pacing.

Great ideas, but terrible execution. Sadly, what could've been a really unusual and interesting book was hampered by confusing worldbuilding and extremely poor characterization and pacing. Considering what the author was going for, this book needed at least double the amount of pages. I'm still not quite sure where half the races came from, what the baddies' motivation was, what the secret baddies' motivation was, why any of the technology is the way it is, who's genetically manipulating who, where most of the nations are in relation to each other, or even what a "Palace" really is.

Not only was a lot of the fairly dense and complicated worldbuilding never explored, but characters' emotions and relationships also felt very underdone. Lufeng spends all her time dramatically mentally whining about how evil and gross the humans are, but then only spends 10 seconds thinking about jaw-dropping revelations about the creation of her entire race. She also has weirdly muted reactions to those around her, but that could be because the other characters are so poorly drawn. For example, her youngest sibling only says one word and as far as I can tell never even has a notable facial expression, despite about a quarter of the book supposedly focusing on them.

A Palace Near the Wind had a fascinating premise, which is what drew me to read it. Unfortunately, it didn't quite deliver. Firstly, the 'message' of the book was too overpowering and it felt like it was being forced upon me on every page. Not that the message itself was bad; it's simply that it was too overt and something more subtle would have worked better. The world building was extensive, but in the space of a small novella it felt unbalanced with character development, which was, in turn, severely lacking. The main cast never felt like more than cardboard cut-outs to me, and even the plot got lost in the long sections of description and message pushing, especially when more and more plot content suddenly came in a big rush towards the end. I struggled to decide on a rating for this, but in the end I am giving it three stars. It had a lot of flaws, but the main story idea was interesting, and with a greater number of pages and further development of the characters and the plot, it could have been good, and I wanted to acknowledge that in my rating.

(As per your preference to hold review until release month, the above review will go live on my blog and Goodreads at the links below on 7 April 2025. I will then also share on social media.)

Lufeng is part of a race of tree people called Wind Walkers whose way of life is threatened by modern life. Alone in her family, manipulated by her grandmother, Lufeng enters into a marriage, a business relationship, with the King to save her people, or so she believes. She comes up with a wild idea to kill the King, but is soon trapped in a world far darker than she ever imagined.

I liked the concept of the worldbuilding but I felt this book was so in love with the dense worldbuilding that the story and the characters took a backseat. I didn't emotionally connect with the characters and the pacing was extremely slow; the first five chapters were Lufeng's journey to the palace and she still felt inscrutable to me. I had a hard time caring about the story after that, didn't understand anyone's motivations and I had trouble visualizing what these beings looked like based on the awkward descriptions. It was meant to be immersive but I found myself frequently confused.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Very engaging book. Pace perfect. Storyline captivating

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me a chance at reading this.

One of those: I understand the story you're trying to tell but what on earth are these visuals.

I also can't get a beat / hold / understanding of the visuals. What time period does this take place in? Why does it feel like one moment a fantasy world and then the next minute were on some construction lot in the middle of Vancouver?

I do not doubt there is a story here, but if I'm a visual person - I create movies in my head while reading - and I can't create this in my head? There will be issues.

This is for those wanting abstract ferngully meets princess mononoke.

This was an interesting novella, the blurb immediately caught my attention. The worldbuilding was really cool and unique and I liked the concept of technology mixed with nature, however, I found that since this was quite short, there wasn't always enough explanation for things. I wish the author had dived deeper into the worldbuilding because I didn't really find the plot that captivating. The characters were also all a bit two dimensional, the main character was fine but really passive and the story overall didn't hold my attention. I enjoyed the writing style though and it was just the right length that it didn't feel like a chore to get through.

This novella follows Liu Lufeng, the eldest princess of the Feng royalty and the next one who will have to marry the human King, as tradition requires. All of her sisters, except the youngest Chuiliu, have already been married to the King, and the negotiation of bridewealth is the only way to stop the expansion of the humans and for the Feng to keep their lands intact. But Lufeng has a plan and wants to stop the King for good and protect her younger sister from an imminent marriage.

I really enjoyed reading this novella and the themes it explored. The pace was good and it was nice to discover things with Liu Lufeng, our main protagonist, as she has to navigates a whole new world and is face with different challenges. I liked how the world building was done and it was very impressive considering that this book is a novella. I also loved reading about the family dynamics and how sisters with the same upbringing can have very different takes on things, issues and visions of what the future should look like.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for an e-arc of this book.

I enjoyed reading this. I loved the character building and consequently the world building for this book. It is so rare to find books where the characters aren't human and haven't been made to basically be human but with cat ears or human, but with blue skin The species that the character are have noticable impact on their biology, culture and the way that they view and interact with the world and I loved it.

Thank you to Ai Jiang for sending me this eARC in exchange for an honest review!!

This novella gripped me from the very first pages, the prose is magnificent and the pacing is perfect!

I highly recommend reading this gorgeous book when it is released: 8/4/2025!!

I will be posting a more in depth review closer to the release date!

A familiar story of daughters being married off to bring prosperity to their people, but with a twist. The people of this land are more like trees. The family’s father is long gone, and per their grandmother, best forgotten. Their mother was taken away by the leaders of the nearby kingdom as have several of the daughters. Lufeng is the daughter who is to be sent to the neighboring kingdom now and unlike a couple of her sisters, she definitely does not want to go but per her Grandmother, one of the Elders, she doesn’t have a choice. Will she conform to her new role or rebell?
A very interesting story and I look forward to reading the next book!

This didn't really click for me. I thought the prose was good and I quite liked the ideas it had about clashes of cultures and identities, but there were too many issues with the plot and world-building for it to really work.

Even though I liked the nature vs technology theme, the world-building was really weak and the book's message was a little heavy-handed. The level of technology in particular was confusing, with steampunk-esque travelling contraptions and overall a more industrial aesthetic, but also mentions of online shopping and movies (even though nothing like a phone or computer was ever seen on page). The world-building that was attempted was just confusing, and even though I liked the more original ideas about the different races in different nations, the questions that were created about how these nations coexist and communicate just created more problems and plot holes.

The plot unfortunately felt flat and contrived. The main character had little to no agency and no character arc. The plot was moved forward by her stumbling upon things and making absurd leaps of judgment about them that always turned out to be true. The fact that she could start the book devoted to a very specific goal, and then instantly rethink all her previous beliefs after a few chapters and move forward with completely new goals, made her feel inauthentic, shallow, and unrealistic.

The villain was so one-dimensional and his dialogue was laughably cartoonish and evil. There were also a few completely unnecessary plot points here that were a bit weird. I'm sure they might have more relevancy in the sequel novella but their inclusion still felt like a waste of time and quite odd.

Even though this book didn't work for me, I would still be interested to see what this author does in the future. I think the biggest fault with this book for me is definitely the world-building and as the author improves at this, her writing itself is strong enough to create a great story.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing me with this eARC in return for an honest review.

Very upset to say I didn’t like this. I found myself intrigued by the plot and worldbuilding to begin but bored by the two dimensional characters and flat plot by the end. I think I would’ve liked it more if it was longer and more developed.

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for this ARC!

The Palace Near the Wind is about Lufeng, who is a Wind Walker; a tree-like person who can control the wind and who is also deeply connected to the land. The Wind Walkers, the Feng people, are in conflict with the humans who seek to encroach on Feng lands with new technology and progress. Lufeng, like her mother and sisters before her, is due to marry the human King in order to secure some form of peace between their two peoples.

I was so interested in this story as the premise sounds so interesting, but the execution just fell flat for me. The different peoples and machines that we’re introduced to in this world are the best part, as they’re so different and unique from what I’ve read before, but I just didn’t connect to anything else unfortunately. Lufeng is quite passive and just reacts to things around her for the most part, which made me quite irritated with her character.. The writing was not for me; if you like a more flowery style then you’ll enjoy it more than I did. I also wanted more explanation as to why things were being done and why things were the way they were, which may have been better explored in a longer story.

I did enjoy the exploration of nature vs industry, and some of the internal conflicts that Lufeng goes through was really interesting. The way that the Feng people, and the other peoples of this world, were so connected to the land was really fun and I wish we’d explored that more than we did in the story.

Overall this was an okay read but not as gripping as I thought I would find it unfortunately.

I was excited to receive an ARC of A Palace Near The Wind because I loved the premise: a princess made of living wood navigating a political marriage.

There were a lot of genuinely interesting ideas but unfortunately the book felt rushed. I was fascinated by the setting (which started in a very natural forest kingdom and moved to somewhere that felt almost steampunk.) I would have liked to see more descriptions of what everything looked like, especially as it makes sense for a fish out of water protagonist to pay attention to things that were unfamiliar to her. There was also quite a lot of plot and supporting characters to get through, which meant that I didn't feel any of them got developed as much as I would have liked.

Lufeng was quite a reactive protagonist and her plans were never especially well thought through. For example, she plans to stab her betrothed at their wedding (in front of crowds of people and all his guards but okay) but is thwarted when the servants keeping clearing away the knives she's using to eat. From that description, you might imagine a desperate princess who is constantly watched and therefore unable to prepare but in fact she'd been given a surprising degree of freedom to explore the palace and come and go as she pleased. To be fair, this is possibly an intentional character flaw: Lufeng's younger sister (a missing revolutionary who escaped her own political marriage) describes her as being guided, instead of being a guide to her younger sisters. This felt like a very apt description of Lufeng but as a reader it made me wish the book was about her sister instead.

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan books for the ARC in return for an honest review.

A Palace Near the Wind is an inventive sci-fi/fantasy novella that follows Lufeng as she tries to find out what happened to her mother and sisters. I found it to be an imaginative read that may have benefitted more from being extended into a longer story. There were some great ideas that were not fully explained or explored, but I still had an enjoyable time reading.

It took me a few pages to get into this novella but I soon found myself compelled to continue. Rich prose brought the story to life, with both the nature-based and industrial elements of the world brought into conflict. The overarching mystery unfolded at an interesting pace, and the ending set up the story well for the second novella in the duology. I can't wait to see what else Ai Jiang will write in the future.

Thank you Netgalley and Titan Books for the advanced copy of this book. (public review might be published closer to the publication date)

A Palace Near the Wind by Ai Jiang is a novella about a Wind Walker, Liu Lufeng, bound to marry the king to save her kingdom from destruction while plotting for a way to get revenge on the harm done to her family and country.

First, let’s talk about the Wind Walkers and the mysterious world building which is the best part of this novella. The Wind Walkers are a different race, vegetal based, master of the winds. Their skins are made of bark and they cry sap. Following Liu Lufeng, we gained understanding of this race by comparison of the humans she encounters, how they/we differ from her.
I really appreciated this point of view as it gave a feeling of uncertainty and discovery through the story. We are never sure what she will accept or be repulsed by. New values - mostly ecological - are put in the center, reminding me of some characters found in Princess Mononoke.
Unfortunately, the comparison falls short after some time in this novella. This is due to a lack of character development. Little is said of the numerous characters in this novella and their relationship with Liu Lufeng. The relationships are not developed enough for the reader to care, contrasting greatly with the world building. For example, great details are given about the repulsion from meat but little will be said about the relationship to Liu’s mother or absent father.
The reading experience became a strange one: I was really eager to read about the word and discover how it is built but I had little care about what happens to the character, every plot point feeling flat.
Overall, I am leaving the world with a bittersweet feeling and wondering if I missed something. I will revisit this world when the sequel is released. Maybe I will find my missing pieces there or have grown enough to understand characters who are not humans.

This is a novella about Lufeng eldest princess of Feng royalty who are like natural wood people. She must be married off to the king and move to the human land, slowly she discovers not all is at it seems. It really discusses nature versus industry and Jiang creates a strong world in under 200 pages. Its a powerful story that really draws you in, I loved the characters and the ability to work with wind or water. The ending leaves you wanting more and I really hope there will be a sequel as I need to know what happens to our MC. I devoured this book in a day and feel its a strong Sci-Fi/Fantasy novella that everyone who loves the genre should read.

A wonderfully written novella, that explores a lot of interesting themes in a fast paced plot. I loved reading from the perspective of Liu Lufeng as she navigates the changes and challenges being sent from her home to the King’s palace bring and her desire to protect her family.
The world building was quickly and intricately done, and I would really love to read more in this world and with these characters.
I did think this story would work even better if a little longer, but overall I’d highly recommend and will definitely be reading all I can from this author.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-arc of this book.