In her debut novella, A Palace Near the Wind, Ai Jiang weaves an intricate tapestry of eco-fantasy that lingers in the mind long after the final page. This slender yet powerful work introduces readers to a world where the boundaries between nature and technology are both blurred and brutally enforced, where family bonds are tested against duty, and where the whispers of rebellion ride on every breeze.
A World of Bark and Bone
From the opening pages, Jiang establishes a setting both magical and menacing. The people of Feng—beings with bark skin, branch-like limbs, and needle-thread hair—live in harmony with the natural world, borrowing the wind for travel and sustenance. In stark contrast, the neighboring Palace is a monument to industrial progress—all bone tiles, mechanical Travelers, and unnatural light. This juxtaposition forms the perfect backdrop for a story that interrogates humanity’s relationship with the natural world.
What makes Jiang’s worldbuilding exceptional is not just its creativity but its tactile quality. Readers can almost feel:
- The rough bark of the Wind Walkers’ skin
- The cold, polished bone tiles of the Palace
- The gentle caress of borrowed wind
- The sickening weight of the Palace’s meat-based cuisine
The author creates a sensory experience where each setting becomes a character in its own right. The hollow homes of Feng that “blink” with the movement of woven branches feel alive, while the Palace, despite its grandeur, exudes a sterile deadness that becomes increasingly oppressive as the story progresses.
The Price of Duty
At the heart of this novella is Liu Lufeng, the eldest daughter of Feng royalty who becomes the next bride to the human King. Her journey from reluctant sacrifice to determined rebel drives the narrative with unwavering momentum. Initially planning to assassinate the King to end the cycle of sacrificial marriages, Lufeng instead discovers layers of familial secrets, political machinations, and the horrifying truth about experiments being conducted on her people.
Jiang skillfully portrays Lufeng’s internal struggles:
“I’d thought the King simply wanted to erect palaces across all the lands and pave over the natural world until there was nothing left and no one to go against his desires.”
As Lufeng discovers truths about her father, her sisters, and her grandmother, her perspective shifts repeatedly. What begins as a black-and-white conflict between nature and technology becomes a nuanced exploration of compromise, sacrifice, and the painful choices made by those in positions of power.
The Bonds of Family
The family dynamics in A Palace Near the Wind provide its emotional core. Lufeng’s relationships—with her wise but secretive grandmother, her missing mother and sisters, the vulnerable younger sister Chuiliu, and eventually her revealed brothers—shape her decisions and illuminate the cost of duty.
Particularly poignant is Lufeng’s discovery that the King is her long-absent father, forcing her to reconcile her murderous plans with new familial bonds. This revelation is handled with remarkable restraint; Jiang avoids melodrama in favor of quiet devastation:
“My memory of him was near nonexistent, my imagination unable to conjure the potential family I could’ve had.”
The fractured family serves as a microcosm for the larger conflict between traditional ways and progress, showing how ideological divides can tear apart even the closest bonds.
Where the Narrative Falters
Despite its many strengths, A Palace Near the Wind occasionally stumbles under the weight of its ambition. At just under 200 pages, the novella introduces numerous complex elements—multiple settings, political machinations, family secrets, and technological horrors—that sometimes feel rushed in development.
The revelations about experiments on Wind Walkers and Water Shifters, particularly concerning Lufeng’s brothers, would benefit from more exploration. Similarly, the rapid shifts in loyalty and motivation for some secondary characters like Copper feel abrupt rather than earned.
The pacing also presents challenges, with the middle section devoted to Lufeng’s education in Script feeling somewhat static compared to the high-stakes opening and conclusion. While this section develops important themes about language as power and control, it temporarily halts the narrative momentum.
The Prose: Between Lyricism and Clarity
Jiang’s prose style merits special attention. At its best, it achieves a lyrical quality that perfectly suits the fantasy elements of the story:
“The wind left me, sucked from both within my body and the surrounding air. No. No, no, no. My resolve shook at Chuiliu’s presence. They’d brought her here to ensure I signed the agreement.”
This poetic approach enhances the sensory aspects of the worldbuilding and the emotional intensity of Lufeng’s journey. However, in the novella’s more complex expositional passages, particularly around the technological elements of Engine and Gear, the prose occasionally becomes dense, requiring careful reading to follow the worldbuilding details.
Thematic Resonance
Where A Palace Near the Wind truly excels is in its thematic complexity. The novella explores:
- Environmental exploitation – The Palace’s literal consumption of Feng’s natural resources mirrors real-world environmental degradation
- Cultural assimilation – The gradual adoption of Palace customs by Lufeng herself shows how oppressive systems can seduce even their victims
- The cost of progress – Both sides pay horrible prices in the name of advancement
- The complexity of rebellion – Simple resistance proves inadequate against systemic problems
These themes intertwine throughout the narrative, avoiding simplistic moral judgments in favor of nuanced exploration. Particularly effective is how Jiang shows Lufeng’s unconscious adaptation to Palace customs—her growing comfort with shoes, furniture, and even the taste of meat—mirroring how cultural oppression can function through small, daily compromises.
Final Assessment
A Palace Near the Wind succeeds as both a compelling narrative and a thoughtful meditation on humanity’s relationship with the natural world. Jiang has created a work that feels both timely in its ecological concerns and timeless in its exploration of family, duty, and identity.
What ultimately makes the novella work is its emotional honesty. Despite the fantasy setting, the characters’ struggles feel authentic and relatable. Lufeng’s journey from dutiful daughter to determined rebel resonates because her motivations—protecting family, preserving home, seeking truth—are deeply human.
For readers of Nghi Vo’s The Empress of Salt and Fortune or Neon Yang’s The Black Tides of Heaven, Jiang’s novella will feel like a natural, though distinctive, addition to the growing body of Asian-influenced fantasy that examines power structures through intimate, character-driven narratives.
Strengths:
- Innovative worldbuilding that merges natural and mechanical elements
- Complex family dynamics that drive the emotional narrative
- Thoughtful exploration of environmental themes
- Lyrical prose that enhances the sensory experience
Weaknesses:
- Some plot developments feel rushed within the novella’s limited page count
- Character motivations occasionally shift too abruptly
- Middle section temporarily slows narrative momentum
- Some worldbuilding elements would benefit from further development
The Promise of a New Voice
With A Palace Near the Wind, Ai Jiang announces herself as a significant new voice in fantasy. Her ability to blend ecological concerns, family drama, and meditations on progress into a cohesive narrative demonstrates remarkable skill for a debut work. The novella’s conclusion, which balances hope with uncertainty, leaves readers eager for more stories set in this richly imagined world.
Readers who appreciate fantasy that uses secondary worlds to comment on contemporary issues, wrapped in beautiful prose and centered on compelling characters, will find much to admire in Jiang’s work. As her upcoming title A River from the Sky suggests, this is an author whose imagination flows from the same wellspring of natural imagery and human connection that makes A Palace Near the Wind such a memorable reading experience.