The Aeronaut's Windlass: The Cinder Spires, Book 1 by Jim Butcher

The Aeronaut's Windlass: The Cinder Spires, Book 1 http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/The-Aeronauts-Windlass-Audiobook/B0143O99FK
Written by: Jim Butcher
Narrated by: Euan Morton

Length: 21 hrs. and 46 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

I will make no pretense here; I am a big fan of Jim Butcher’s work! The Dresden Files are what first got me interested in him, and I haven't yet tried Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series, so The Aeronaut's Windlass is the first book of Butcher's besides The Dresden Files that I've read. And I was reminded why Jim Butcher is one of the few authors that I will read, and highly recommend to others, whatever is available.

Instead of my poor attempt to describe what this story is about let’s hear from the Man himself from a recent talk he gave at Google (this is almost an hour long, but the idea is related in about the first 5 minutes): 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPlz_3rbjN4&feature=youtu.be&t=1s

With that out of the way, let’s get into what we have with this introduction to what promises to be a much longer story and larger universe of The Cinder Spires.  For fans of Butcher’s work (and really who isn’t?  No seriously, who?  Because we should talk.) you will be pleasantly drawn into another of his creations.
  

What impresses me is that I was told by someone else who is familiar with the Dresden Files that had I not told them Jim Butcher wrote this they’d never have guessed it was him.  This impresses me because very often authors, while still writing different stories, have a familiarity to the way they write them.  Stephen King is an example of this to me.  I am a fan of King’s as well, but I can almost always recognize his way of storytelling, even in such diverse works as comparing the Dark Tower stories to the twin stories of Desperation and The Regulators the latter written by his ‘alter-ego’ Richard Bachman to Carrie you can find similarities in them.  Don’t get me wrong, again I really like King’s works, especially his rainy day persona Richard Bachman, but it strikes me that much more that Butcher is able to create something so distinct.

We are introduced to a myriad of characters and situations that ultimately culminate into the beginning of a war between these airborne nation states.  Even though this is a beginning I feel we get to see character growth and good development of story.  We get enough to know there must be a deeper, richer history to this world.  We get the occasional reference to the builders and lost arts that helped construct the Spires everyone lives on now.  I have lots of questions, and anticipations for where we’ll be taken in the next story.

This is my first experience with Euan Morton, but I think he did very well with the multitude of characters and situations, and never had trouble distinguishing one character from another.  Speaking of characters I’ve seen several people claim that the cat was their favorite character, personally I liked the cat’s human best, but I relate to the underdog, socially maladjusted characters best for some reason…but I digress.

This was a great story, and well performed.  I highly recommend it as the future for the Spires looks rife with adventures to come!