An Outsider No Matter Where He Goes: The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells

This book came to me unexpectedly thanks to a friend's recommendation and the fact that I love things that are free. Whenever I hear about a book recommendation from someone that is free for my Kindle, I will get it just because I love having books--the six overflowing bookcases in my apartment will attest to this as well--but I was pleasantly surprised at what a good fantasy novel The Cloud Roads turned out to be.

Moon, the story's main character, is alone in the world. He was orphaned as a child, and though the many cities and towns he has traveled to throughout his life are populated by intelligent species of humanoids that look somewhat like him, he has never found a place where he belongs, and he has no idea where or even what race of people he comes from. The reason why he doesn't fit in is because he can shift from looking like a 'groundling' into a large, dangerous-looking flying creature, and the problem with that is that the world is plagued by a race of violent, warlike creatures called the Fell and, though he is not one of them, his flying form looks remarkably similar to that of the Fell. When the story starts, Moon has been living with a settlement of peaceful groundlings for several years and finally starting to feel like he belongs there, but one night, someone sees him shift into his flying form, believes he is a Fell, and the entire village turns against him. They drug him and stake him out to be eaten by wild creatures, but he is rescued by a flying monster that he soon discovers is another one of his people--a Raksura.

This Raksura is named Stone, and he is the consort to the queen of a colony of Raksura who are in desperate trouble. A complete explanation of their physical and social heirarchy is best left to a reading of the book, but, to put it simply, they have both fertile and infertile males and females and their biology determines their place within the colony. Stone's colony is in trouble because it has been unable to produce consorts, the only type of Raksuran who can mate with Raksuran queens, and Moon just happens to be one of those, so Stone convinces Moon to come back to his colony, where he will finally be among his own people again.

Of course, Moon's problems don't end there. The colony's population problems stem from trouble with the Fell, he is not easily accepted into their home, and he has to find a way to save the colony even though many of its people, including its queen, hate him for being an outsider who is ignorant of their ways. All of this conflict creates an excellent story that made the book hard to put down. I am not well-versed in all of the different styles of fantasy, so this was a new and intriguing read for me in more ways than one, and I plan on looking for more books by this author and in this fantasy style in the future.

This book also got me thinking about a trope in fantasy and science fiction that was recently brought to my attention--that of telling the story from the point of view of the naive outsider. It is such a common and necessary trope when introducing readers to a world outside of their sphere of knowledge that it can easily go unnoticed. In this story, the trope was more obvious than most, but only because Moon's outsider status was a stigma both in the world where he didn't belong and in the world where he did. The style has its strengths and weaknesses--it makes a strange world populated by non-humans much more accessible and easier to visualize and accept without being pulled out of the story by long descriptions, but it also means that some of the character's personal story can be sacrificed for the sake of his new experiences-- but recognizing this storytelling style and being able to analyze its strengths and weaknesses within one book whose plot was tailor-made for it has already opened my eyes to its possibilities in my own writing, which is what I am striving for first and foremost in reading books with a critical eye.

Though The Cloud Roads is no longer being offered for free as an Amazon Kindle download, I still recommend that you get your hands on it and read it, especially if you love fantasy and good stories about outsiders finding a place to call home. Enjoy!

The Cloud Roads, by Martha Wells