Ventus is one of those scifi books that I would typically never pick-up - hard/operatic SF suffering from very cheesy cover art and a front-cover blurb from Vernor Vinge. I had heard some rumblings around the ’sphere about Karl Schroeder’s latest, Lady of Mazes, and had added it to the maybe-when-in-paperback-or-at-the-library list. But then I heard Schroeder interviewed by Bazooka Joe on the excellent smallWORLD podcast — and I was intrigued. Intrigued enough that the next day I dashed out to pick-up Ventus on my lunch hour and have been hooked since.
Ventus is long for a first novel, but is absorbing and immersive. I tend to really fall in love with books that feature a lot of rich world-building. Even if the characters tend to be on the flat side (as Ventus suffers here at times), if I’m interested enough in exploring a unique vision or world I’ll keep flipping pages. And with the (literal) unfolding creation of Ventus, Schroeder really kept my attention.
Check it out - I’m glad I did. I’m looking forward to checking out some of Schroeder’s newer books as well. In the meantime, Karl Schroeder has a blog called Age of Embodiment that’s definitely worth a click, and you can read more detailed reviews below:
