The House of Shattered Wings, Aliette de Bodard
The House of Shattered Wings, Aliette de Bodard
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The House of Shattered Wings

Author: Aliette de Bodard

Narrator: Peter Kenny

Unabridged: 14 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/18/2015

Synopsis

Multi-award-winning author Aliette de Bodard brings her story of the War in Heaven to Paris, igniting the City of Light in a fantasy of divine power and deep conspiracy.In the late twentieth century, the streets of Paris are lined with haunted ruins. The Great Magicians’ War left a trail of devastation in its wake. The grands magasins have been reduced to piles of debris, Notre-Dame is a burnt-out shell, and the Seine has turned black with ashes and rubble and the remnants of the spells that tore the city apart. But those that survived still retain their irrepressible appetite for novelty and distraction, and the great houses still vie for dominion over France’s once-grand capital.Once the most powerful and formidable, House Silverspires now lies in disarray. Its magic is ailing; its founder, Morningstar, has been missing for decades; and now something from the shadows stalks its people inside their very own walls.Within the house, three very different people must come together: a naïve but powerful fallen angel, an alchemist with a self-destructive addiction, and a resentful young man wielding spells of unknown origin. They may be Silverspires’ salvation—or the architects of its last, irreversible fall. And if Silverspires falls, so may the city itself.

About Aliette de Bodard

Aliette de Bodard is an award-winning author. Her novellette Children of Thorns, Children of Water was a finalist for the 2018 Hugo Award. She is a half-French, half-Vietnamese computer and history geek who lives in Paris and has a special interest in ancient non-Western civilizations, particularly those of Vietnam, China, and Mesoamerica.

About Peter Kenny

Peter Kenny, an AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator, is a talented and experienced actor, voice-over artist, singer, musician, and designer, with over twenty-five years of experience working in theater, film, television, and audio. He has achieved great critical acclaim for multicharacter recordings of audiobooks by authors such as Iain Banks, Christopher Priest, and Edmund St Aubyn.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bradley on February 10, 2017

After a strong start, I was delighted to feel a little sympathy for the devil, revelling in a prodigal use of magic, the temptations and the promise of learning a new magical craft, but soon after, I wondered why we were stuck in the house... And then the book turned into a murder mystery! Oh! Fallen......more

Goodreads review by Althea on September 01, 2015

Beautiful setting - an alternate-history Paris, devastated by wars both terrestrial and magical, decaying but still filled with terrible beauty. Gangs run the streets, and others cluster to Houses for protection - Houses run with ruthless amorality by fallen angels. Biblical, Vietnamese, and Greek my......more

Goodreads review by Yzabel on July 22, 2015

[I received an ARC through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.] I liked the premise, I really did—not to mention that theme of the broken, rotting throne at night against the backdrop of a ruined Paris. There's something both sick and magical to such a city. The Seine river blackened and pol......more

Goodreads review by Stephanie on August 26, 2015

OK, so I read an early draft of this book a year or two ago and thought that it was awesome...but the final version is even So Much Better, which is saying a LOT! I read this book from beginning to end on an overnight flight between the US and UK last night, with many, many distractions going on aro......more

Goodreads review by Justine on April 01, 2016

3.5 stars rounded down. Richly imagined and decadently written story of Fallen angel politics set in post-apocalyptic War era Paris. You don't get much more background than that as the characters work their way through the chaos that befalls them, but you don't really need it as it all unfolds very......more

Quotes

“Pathos and beauty intertwine in a novel filled with longing.” Mary Robinette Kowal, multiple Hugo Award–winning author

“The devastated Paris of Aliette de Bodard’s novel is especially haunting…[a] compelling murder mystery, which plays out according to the supernatural terms de Bodard has laid out so evocatively.” Chicago Tribune

“By finding so much ugliness even in supernatural beauty, de Bodard makes both seem more compelling and more concrete.” NPR.org

“A fantastical spy thriller that reads like a hybrid of le Carré and Milton, all tinged with the melancholy of golden ages lost.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“De Bodard has spun a fascinating Paris of decay and cruelty. Phillippe is a marvel of a character.” Library Journal (starred review)

“Intelligent fantasy reading for those interested in magic, secrets, and critical examinations of faith.” Booklist

“Narrator Peter Kenny’s voices are reflective of the strong personalities who are pitted against evil in this fantasy…In addition to the principals, Kenny has a large cast of secondary characters to work with…[and] Kenny creates an atmosphere of restrained excitement toward the impending confrontation.” AudioFile

“Fantastic! De Bodard’s tale of a post-everything Paris, struggling toward an uncertain future beneath the burden of its imperial sins, burns with vengeful magic and subtle, shining prose.” Max Gladstone, author of the Craft Sequence series

“Lyrical, sophisticated, lush, suspenseful…brings to life an exciting world of deep magic and complex, layered characters.” Ken Liu, author of The Grace of Kings

“An intense, beautiful, brutal journey written with an eye for the stunning, vivid detail and the cruel demands of duty, loyalty, and leadership. Its portrait of a ruined Paris ruled by fallen angels is one I won’t soon forget.” Kate Elliott, author of Court of Fives

Awards

  • Amazon Best Book of the Month
  • British Science Fiction Association Award
  • Locus Award
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