Review: The Cloud Roads

The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This one caught me right from the first page. It was so nice not to have to work so hard to get into something (I've had a string of those lately). It just carried me right along, and didn't drag at all. Refreshing!

The Cloud Roads is a non-YA high fantasy set in a very alien world. There are no humans - the species that we meet have scales, shells, or wings, and are very colorful. Some live on land, some in the air, and some in the water. There's the feeling of a large and varied world beyond what we are introduced to in this book (mostly land and air dwellers), and I'm really looking forward to learning more about it in the sequel.

The main character, Moon, is an orphan who doesn't know who his people are because he's never met anyone else like him in this vast world. He finds his people shortly after we meet him (so I don't think that's a spoiler), but it is a struggle to find his place with them, and they are threatened by another race of destructive beings, which puts a damper on things. I loved the cultures and the intricacies of how the different peoples interact, and I especially enjoyed the outside perspective of Moon on the many cultural situations he found himself in.

It might sound very alien, and hard to get into, but it wasn't confusing and there wasn't any world-dumping. The focus was on the characters more than the world, so we got information as Moon got it, and the pacing was just right to keep me turning the pages and losing sleep. I loved it!




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