The Winds of Khalakovo is the first novel in the “Lays of
Anuskaya” sequence from Bradley P. Beaulieu. It’s a doorstop of a book, filled
with a deep, involving setting, characters circling each other with intrigues
and agenda’s, and a plot which starts with a mystery, and evolves into an
adventure with extremely high stakes.
The setting of the novel, the titular Khalakovo (which is as
difficult to spell correctly as it looks), is a triumph. An archipelago sits
within an endless swirling sea; the islands, toweringly mountainous, are
connected by airships, carving paths in a continual maelstrom of wind. The
ships are kept on course through the use of elemental magic – each ship having
at least one individual aboard who can summon and control the spirits of the
wind.
If that weren’t enough, the unique geography has been given
human institutions a distinctly Russian patina. There’s a set of loosely
aligned Dukedoms, under a non-hereditary first-among-equals.
There’s a collective
of wanderers and keepers of magic, implied to have been displaced in the past
by the very ‘Landed’ Dukedoms they now serve. And there’s a rebellious offshoot
of that collective, determined to throw aside the ‘Landed’ and change the
world, for better or worse. It sounds complicated – and it is. Beaulieu manages
to introduce a great deal of this through inference; hints or assumed knowledge
are mentioned in dialogue. The history and structure of the world gradually
unfolds before the reader, if they manage to keep up with the barrage of names and
places. The setting, frankly, has an astonishing depth. Whilst I’m usually a
fan of world-building through incidentals, in this case the reader can feel
cast slightly adrift. People with complex names are performing complex actions,
which at least initially, are rather unfamiliar. As the narrative context
grows, these issues slowly disappear – but be aware that this is a world dense
with concepts, and rewards the reader who gives the text their full attention.
From a character perspective, the reader is presented with
several different points of view. It’s not overwhelming – there’s nowhere near
the level of view switching that readers of George R.R. Martin will be familiar
with. It’s also interesting to see that the majority of the view time is split
between women, one way or another – and Beaulieu isn’t afraid to show off his
female characters as smart, competent protagonists. They suffer their share of
pitfalls, of course, but in their relationships, and their actions, they’re far
more than foils for the men of the piece. The relationship between the mistress
of a Duke’s son and his wife-to-be is fraught, conflicted, and quite capable of
putting the reader through an emotional wringer. The Duke’s son, our other
protagonist, has at least a basic level of competence – no helpless orphans here, but a youth raised to power,
grappling with the uses and consequences of the same. Beaulieu manages a
veritable plethora of character interactions – loves, hatreds, reversals,
betrayals – and manages to make each of his characters feel unique, and alive.
As usual, I won’t get too far into the plot, for fear of
spoilers. However, I will say it picks up momentum, and higher stakes, as the
narrative moves on – and the reader gains more context for and investment in the
world, and the consequences of the character’s actions. There’s some periods of
narrative lull, which might perhaps have been
better paced, but typically, given the size of the text, the pacing
works well. It takes a while for the narrative to pick up, but when it does, it
has serious momentum, and proves very difficult to put down.
Overall, this is a well-constructed piece of epic fantasy.
It has complicated characters, in a unique setting, with a decently paced and
compelling plot. We’ll see how the follow-up novels go, but this one is worth
giving a look.
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