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 … 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 if he survives the war.
Only if his enemies from the past don’t catch him.
And only as long as Ayla never finds out who he really is.
A Wind from the Wilderness is Book 1 in the new Watchers of Outremer series. If you love stories full of dark magic, bloody warfare, and star-crossed love, then you’ll be spellbound by this sweeping historical fantasy!
more
One of the best books I’ve read in some time.
For a more in-depth review, you can visit this link for a boring YouTube video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TddN3zE9ang&list=PL7WcV0Y4bgr0LaS66mGFieK_yZQ4IDjOA&index=33
or this one for an equally boring podcast versionhttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-wind-from-the-wilderness-fantasy-book-review/id1505586655?i=1000522380435
A great mix of historical fiction with fantasy elements.
This is one of those rare books that I didn’t want to put down. It is a really good book. Can it be uncomfortable, well-yes but that yes has lots of ifs tied to it. It is a book of war, of conquest, of oppression, of hate, of revenge; and yes, those things can be uncomfortable if we choose to find them uncomfortable. It helps to remember that we are not responsible for the past, we are not responsible for someone else’s actions, and that we can always make a different choice.
The book reminds us how easy it is to fall under propaganda, fall under the sway of revenge, of fear, of wanting salvation to the point that we make poor choices and keep a relentless cycle going; and sadly that cycle is still going on today in many areas of the world. It is book that reminds us war is solely for the purpose of the pricks in power and those who want it, those who think they are better. I reminds us what happens when we feel threatened by others perspectives/beliefs/life choices. It reminds us that revenge will continue until we personally, individually say-NO.
One of the main characters finally says no to her ‘supposed tos and shoulds’ and instead chooses to be true to herself, regardless of the outcome. I loved it.
It is obvious in the retelling of the crusades that war fixes nothing and never will, that peace will never be found through war, never. Some of her characters realize that peace can only be found in the heart and by those who want it, and that some people just don’t want it. And with this realization those characters make different different choices.
When I saw the cover of this book, which is ridiculously gorgeous, I was intrigued. When I read the premise, I knew I needed more.
First off, the historical accuracy is astounding. I learned so much from this book just by osmosis alone. As someone who has written historical fantasy, let me tell you, that is not an easy feat. With western authors, you wonder if there will be biases in the portrayal of the Crusades, but I personally found none. The characters from both sides were sympathetic, and each side had its villains too.
The prose is very well honed, and even made things like the different time system they used (Vespers? Terce? Compline?) blend in without throwing me off.
I wondered how this book would resolve its many plot threads in time, because this is truly a sweeping historical epic and, even with 400+ pages I wondered how it’d cover everything. But it did, while still leaving room for it to pick up in future books. (A Conspiracy of Prophets, oh how I need you.)
The emotions in this book ran high. From Ayla’s internal struggles to Lukas’ hotheaded righteousness to Saint-Gilles’ quest for redemption to my complete and utter hatred for Evrard de Puiset, and so much more. Ugh.
I’m still reeling over how things ended, but when a book can punch me in the heart that hard while still inspiring hope and goodness, it deserves all the stars.
Do yourself (and your shelfies) a favor and pick up this book today.
A Wind from the Wilderness has been on my to-read list since the beginning of SPFBO. Since then, it’s turned into a finalist, which has finally pressured me into making the time for it. It should now be no spoiler to say: this book obviously deserved to be a finalist.
This novel is a time-travel historical fantasy, most of which is set during the medieval crusades. It primarily follows Lukas Bessarion, a Syrian boy of noble birth who is part of the Watchers, a semi-secret society of supposedly godly men whose job it is to prevent the corruption of society (and the wrath of God which would follow such corruption). In the very beginning of the novel, Lukas’ family becomes privy to the knowledge that the Watchers have themselves become corrupted. A prophetic Messenger declares that the Watchers must submit themselves to the keeping of the Bessarion family, whose hearts are purer than the rest. This goes predictably poorly, even before they are all attacked by an evil sorcerer. In the ensuing magical chaos, Lukas loses consciousness, only to wake up several hundred years in the future, in an entirely different city. At this point, he meets Ayla, a plucky Turkish girl who will become his sometimes-friend, sometimes-enemy and his love interest.
A Wind from the Wilderness gushes with historical research. It’s easy to see Rowntree’s painstaking love for the subject matter, and her characters’ behaviour and personalities are informed by first-person resources. Some of the characters’ choices may seem strange to readers who are not familiar with the era’s truly obsessive focus on honour, godliness, and absolution, but there is a real humanity underlying these archaic ideals that still expresses itself plainly. Rowntree adeptly bridges this gap of understanding with compelling characters and difficult situations that stir the reader’s empathy for both sides of the ongoing war. By the end of the novel, the reader will probably find themselves wishing that this war would just stop already–but Rowntree does a fantastic job of explaining just why that’s unlikely to happen, no matter how much unnecessary suffering still lies ahead. I should warn readers now, however, that this is more historical fantasy than it is romance; a number of characters die in the war, and more than one of them is relatively innocent. If you are looking for a warm happily-ever-after, this is certainly not your cup of tea.
Overall, this was a fantastic novel and a beautiful way to learn more about the time period, though I did have two minor quibbles. The first quibble is that I suspect the chapter headings would have benefitted from having the point-of-view character clearly named from the get-go, which probably would have helped the reader more quickly gain a handle on each point-of-view switch. The second is that I am… not sure I like how one of the characters died near the end. I am absolutely sure that it was an intentional authorial choice, but it made me feel at the time that the character existed solely to inform Lukas’ understanding of the other side–because once he fully empathized, the character was no longer needed, and was immediately thrown on the chopping block in order to further develop his characterization. That said, this character was a fully-developed, richly-researched character in their own right, with a sideplot of their own, so this quibble is more minor than it may sound. Overall, this book was a rich read and a riveting way to spend an afternoon. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for something a little outside of the ordinary.