Hunted by demons. Lost in time. Welcome to the First Crusade.
Syria, 636: As heretic invaders circle Jerusalem, young Lukas Bessarion vows to defend his people. Instead, disaster strikes.
His family is ripped apart. His allies are slaughtered. And Lukas is hurled across the centuries to a future where his worst nightmares have come true…
Constantinople, 1097: Ayla may be a heretic beggar, but she knows one thing for sure: six months from now, she will die. Before then, she must avenge her father’s murder—or risk losing her soul.
Desperate to find their way home, Lukas and Ayla join the seven armies marching east to liberate Jerusalem. If Lukas succeeds in his quest, he’ll undo the invasion and change the course of history.
But only as long as Ayla never finds out who he really is…
Hiu’s Review:
Having now read A Wind from the Wilderness, I have to say that it has one of the more unique premises I’ve read in quite a while. Crusade-era Constantinople is not a setting that I’ve seen covered all too often in fantasy novels, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen time-travel covered in a way that doesn’t involve the modern world. A Wind from the Wilderness felt original from the start.
I found that the book introduced its world in a very slow and deliberate way in the early stages, which isn’t something that all readers might appreciate, but was something I enjoyed. That beginning, with the inciting incident set right in the middle of a magic-heavy prologue, immediately juxtaposed with a different set of stakes and circumstances after the time-jump… that caught my attention.
But as the book went on, my enthusiasm started to fade. The dialogue and description both felt a little dry to me. I would have liked to see a little more spark or charisma, which is a complaint I also had about our own finalist. As the book went into its second act, an increasing number of developments would occur off-page. This made it difficult for me to hold on to the thread of the story at times. The characters’ relationships would have progressed in certain ways, or they would suddenly be in a different part of the setting. This frustrated me because I’m the kind of reader who wants to see that growth and progression. I want it to feel like an organic journey. Here, it felt like I was only allowed glimpses of certain points on the map.
For other readers, this style of writing might make the world feel more “lived in” and alive. But for me, it made for a disjointed, staccato reading experience. We would have scenes of Ayla crossing battlelines to share intel, or of Lukas scrambling to stay alive in the middle of a war and juggling political allegiances in the war-camps. Scenes that should have excited me. With so much of the context missing, though… I didn’t care as much as I wanted to. Which is a shame, because the anti-tribalist themes in this book are universal.
In the end, A Wind From the Wilderness is a book that relies heavily on its character moments, but it felt to me like those moments weren’t given enough space or context to mean what they should.
My final score is a 5/10.
Kop’s Review:
This was one of the finalists I thought had one of the most intriguing premises. I loved the idea of a historical fantasy set during the Crusades. At the very end the author shows that she’s done a lot of research in this time period and events, which I absolutely loved.
Now unfortunately (I’m sorry!), I didn’t have the best time actually reading the book. While I loved the ideas presented and the prose itself, that’s about where my enjoyment stopped. Perhaps my biggest qualm is I felt there were too many abrupt scene changes where plot-important occurrences happen in between. For example, it felt like we would be watching a conversation going on; then in the next chapter, we’d be in the middle of a battle. To be honest I never had a firm grasp on the physical setting of where we were. A lot of times, it made the world feel disjointed. At other times it felt like I would’ve understood a lot of plot-important things if I already had a firm knowledge of the real-life time period/events.
A more minor complaint I have is that I couldn’t get into Ayla and Lukas’s relationship. I just didn’t find they had any chemistry.
All in all, I think A Wind from the Wilderness has fantastic ideas, a wonderful premise, and great prose. Ultimately, though, I think the book lost its focus. It felt as though there were so many great ideas fighting for the spotlight that none of them really shone through.
My final score is a 5/10.
Taking both scores into account, The Fantasy Inn’s final SPFBO rating is 5/10.
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