Kitemaster by Jim C. Hines

(I received a free copy in exchange for honest feedback to the publisher)

Kitemaster is, pardon the pun, a breath of fresh air in plot, worldbuilding, and style. It starts out with our protagonist-narrator, Niall, trying to finish the spirit kite for her deceased husband after the traditional year of mourning. That alone creates a very unique start to a story. While I’m not a huge fan of first person novels, I think it worked well for this one because so much of the narrative drives happens inside Niall’s mind and feelings.

To start off, I want to look at the worldbuilding first, because that (and the cover) were what sold me on giving the book a try. The back cover blurb describes the world as one in which the wind never stops blowing and people can travel on kite-ships which, as you can see on the cover of the book, are very similar to sailing ships in the air. They use kites (or giant sails, I suppose?) to gain lift and maneuver. The idea is fascinating and I really appreciated the in-depth look at how the ships worked. Additionally, in terms of magic, there are Wisps, which are more common and help direct the wind, and Kitemasters, who are much more rare, and can connect to the wind and to kites on a deep enough level that they can actually feel what the kites are feeling. And in this case, a kite covers anything that flies— living or non-living. I thought this was a fascinating concept that really tied together the plot, setting, and characters, which is something I’ve struggled to find in the past.

Additionally, a big part of the story-line is something the people in the book call the river of stars. At first, I thought this was just an artistic description of the night sky, perhaps like the Milky Way. Turns out I was wrong and there is something truly river-like about the stars in this world. I found all of the imagery touching on this to be remarkably elegant and haunting, in just the right way to make the concept very poignant.

In terms of the plot, this is definitely more character driven. There are external events happening that characters are responding to, but I’d say the heart of the story is in Nial’s inner journey. Part of the journey is her progress as a Kitemaster, which she discovers unexpectedly, but I think the big journey is in how this discovery affects her relationship and reaction to the grief of losing her husband at age twenty one. That is the anchor that keeps the story grounded (not because of the airships, but you know what I mean). A lot of books have tried to capture the experience of grieving. I’ve found very few novels, genre novels anyway, that do a good job. This one does. Jim Hines does a powerful job of working with grief, in a multitude of characters, and loss, and it feels real for everyone, as well as their responses.

That brings us to the characters as well. There’s a lot of them, make no mistake, but even while writing this close to a week after I finished the book, I can still remember and picture them. There’s no blending together here. Each of them have their own arcs, even if we only see portions of it, and very distinctive presences on the page. There’s a good amount of diversity too, regarding orientations, which I appreciated, as well as more extended familial relationships than we often see. Perhaps one of my favorite is how Nial’s family is present and involved with the story through the entire course of the book rather than being left behind.

In many ways, the novel is structured along the lines of the traditional hero’s journey— the protagonist discovers a call, rejects the call, reluctantly accepts the call, must learn a new powerful magic, and so on. However, I really appreciate how Jim deviated from the traditional portrayal by having community involved in the entire story line. The “official” Campbellian hero’s journey is about how a man must embrace isolation from community in order to conquer the foe. That isn’t the case here. Part of it is the nature of magic— kitemasters are at their most powerful when they can work together. What differentiates Kitemasters from Wisps (their less powerful cousins) is that Kitemasters can better feel the wind, the people around them, spirits, and anything that flies. That creates a sense of connectedness that we don’t normally see compared to more solitary wizards like Ged or Gandalf. Additionally, the cultures that we see presented have a much stronger communal element as well.

Overall, five stars out of five. I highly recommend this to anyone who likes fantasy, especially smaller-scale (and maybe cozy?) fantasy stories.

Kitemaster releases on May 27, 2025 and can be pre-ordered or purchased here. (My Bookshop.org affiliate link for this book)