The Aeronaut's Windlass

"Dnf 50% of the way thru.<br/><br/>The synopsis for The Aeronaut's Windlass was phenomenal. Ships in the sky, citizens living 10,000 feet up in the air on spires, talking cats. You couldn't ask for a better foundation. The execution though fell below par for me. Barely anything was explained for nesrly 6 hours of the audiobook. I didn't even know they were 10,000 feet in the air until I ran across the wiki page.<br/><br/>For a while I was extremely interested in this book. Jim Butcher has a very nice writing style but he left so much to be desired. Characters descriptions came in late or not at all. The world was never fully formed so was hard to depict. For instance you aren't given a description of the airships or the spires they live on until chapter 21 almost halfway thru. So needless to say the pace of the story was sluggish.<br/><br/>Euan Morton did a wonderful job narrating. Just in the first chapter there was a richness to the words and atmosphere. This book was also very character driven. Though all of them diverse from one another, they still came off a bit bland. I couldn't get invested in them or the plot that slowly unfolded. To me it just felt like the words had no heart. So an A+ for originality, but this story just needed a soul.<br/><br/>Talking about a lack of information I still don't know why the cats can talk, why the warrior born are born that way, why is the surface dangerous. Literally next to nothing was explained. It's hard to describe how a story so promising came off so dry."

"There is a short story and an awesome sequel - The Olympian Affair … kinda of slow boil compared to the first one but well worth it :) "

"Love Jim butcher and this book was no exception. Great characters an interesting world and compelling action. can't wait for book 2."

"This is a fun steampunk fantasy and it has a talking cat."

"Another home run for Jim Butcher! Starts out slightly confusing because you are thrown into a world with no backstory, but by chapter 3 you’re hooked and can’t stop reading!"

"So stinkin' much fun. Impatiently waiting for the second in this series. "

"I honestly don’t understand the low ratings for this book. I thought the world building was compelling and the characters were interesting. I don’t love it when authors front load explanations of how their system works so I didn’t mind just having the details wash over me in the beginning. Everything makes sense by the end and the explanations came up naturally, rather than in huge paragraphs of exposition. I will grant that if you hate cats you will not like this book. After listening to this I want to get some more steampunk books! Also the flying ships brought back memories of the edge chronicles and now I want to reread them."

"The contrast of whimsical world and hard consequences/intrigue is very fun."

"This book had really developed and interesting characters. I really enjoyed reading it. Would recommend!"

"Having a cat as a narrator is just one reason to try this book."