The House of Shattered Wings (Dominion of the Fallen #1), by Aliette de Bodard
The Book
Synopsis:
Paris, turn of the century.
The Great War between magical Houses of Fallen angels has devastated the city. The Seine runs black with ashes, the great monuments are blackened ruins, and the Houses still fight. It is a quiet war of alliances and intrigues played in worn drawing-rooms and once-elegant gardens.
Silverspires, once the greatest House, is now nothing more than a minor player in those intrigues.Philippe, a young man from the colonies of the East, is caught harming a helpless Fallen, and held prisoner in House Silverpires. His path intersects with Isabelle, the naive Fallen he has wounded; Selene, the insecure Fallen head of the House; and Madeleine, a washed-out alchemist addicted to angel drugs.
Together, they will either save the House, or cause its final, irrevocable Fall...
My Review
The House of Shattered Wings is the first book in the Dominion of the Fallen Series, a dark fantasy proposal written by Aliette de Bodard, with gorgeous new covers published by JAB Books. A brilliant murder mystery story set against the backdrop of a Paris filled with Houses led by Fallen Angels, all to deliver a dark and gothic tale of epic scope which is not afraid to blend together different mythologies in its worldbuilding.
Paris survived the Great Houses War, lined with haunted ruins but life continues among the wreckage; the Great Houses still vie for dominion of the great capital. House Silverspires, once the biggest among the rest, lies in disarray; its founder, Morningstar has been missing for decades. The arrival of a new fallen, Isabelle, along with Phillippe, a mysterious mortal who is able to wield a different magic, might change the situation of the house, but a series of deaths puts the house in a really fragile situation; either they work together to find what is happening, or the house might definitely disappear.
De Bodard weaves a story where the complexity of the characters has space to shine; from the mysterious origins of Phillippe and how he's trying to survive in a Paris really different from his land, to the alchemist that is a perfect portrait of the nuances behind addiction, even the own difficult position that Selen has to navigate as leader of the House Silverspires, while dealing with her own trauma after Morningstar disappearing. All of them have their memorable moments, and how their stories are interwoven to create the full picture is one of the main strenghts of this novel.
The writing plays with the usual tension that comes attached to a murder mystery to create a really oppressive atmosphere, building over that decadent house where the kills are happening, following the classical ways of the Gothic genre; but it's the addition of oriental mythologies what made the worldbuilding special to me, as it breaks with one of the urban fantasy conventions that are a bit tiresome for me, choosing to blend multiple mythologies instead of sticking to a single one.
The pacing is a bit slow at the start, putting all the pieces on the board to eventually start the dance in the streets of Paris; once you are immersed, it's unputdownable.
The House of Shattered Wings is an excellent dark fantasy novel, a perfect choice if you want to read a murder mystery of epic scope with deliciously complex characters; a starter that shows the potential of the full series. A memorable novel by Aliette de Bodard!
The Author/s
Aliette de Bodard
ENGLISH: Aliette de Bodard lives and works in Paris. She has won three Nebula Awards, an Ignyte Award, a Locus Award, a British Fantasy Award and four British Science Fiction Association Awards, and was a double Hugo finalist for 2019 (Best Series and Best Novella).
SPANISH: Ingeniera informática y escritora, actualmente vive en París. Ha ganado varios premios, entre ellos tres Nébula, un Locus y cinco de la Asociación Británica de Ciencia Ficción. Medio francesa y medio vietnamita, siente un interés especial por las culturas no occidentales, en concreto por las de Asia y la América precolombina.
Entre sus obras más celebradas se encuentran La maestra del té y la detective (Premio Nébula y British Fantasy Award 2019), Three Cups of Grief by Starlight (BSFA 2015) y Fireheart Tiger (BSFA 2021). Es además autora de la trilogía Dominion of the Fallen, ambientada en un París posapocalíptico y de la cual forma parte la premiada The House of Shattered Wings (BSFA 2015). En 2019 sus relatos del Universo de Xuya fueron nominados a la mejor serie de los Premios Hugo y su novela In the Vanishers’ Palace a los Lammy.