Brothers of the Wind

By: Tad Williams

Narrated by: James Lailey

Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

Set in the New York Times best-selling world of Osten Ard, this short novel continues the saga that inspired a generation of fantasists.

Pride often goes before a fall, but sometimes that prideful fall is so catastrophic that it changes history itself.

Among the immortal Sithi of Osten Ard, none are more beloved and admired than the two sons of the ruling family, steady Hakatri and his proud and fiery younger brother, Ineluki - Ineluki, who will one day become the undead Storm King. The younger brother makes a bold, terrible oath that he will destroy deadly Hidohebhi, a terrifying monster, but instead drags his brother with him into a disaster that threatens not just their family but all the Sithi - and perhaps all of humankind as well.

Set a thousand years before the events of Williams' The Dragonbone Chair, the tale of Ineluki's tragic boast and what it brings is told by Pamon Kes, Hakatri's faithful servant. Kes is not one of the Sithi but a member of the enslaved Changeling race, and his loyalty has never before been tested. Now he must face the terrible black dragon at his master's side, then see his own life changed forever in a mere instant by Ineluki's rash, selfish promise.

©2021 Tad Williams (P)2021 Penguin Audio

A incredibly emotional prelude to Dragonbone Chair

Brothers of the Wind is a very character driven book that recontextualizes the whole of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. It's not plot driven, so don't go in expecting that. What you should expect is a very rich narrative driven by the tragedy of two brothers and a servant who watches it unfold.

Please bring back Andrew wincott for the final book

As always, tad is able to bring a level of immersion to his books that is hard to find anywhere else. His descriptions are poetic and his storytelling is amazing. But the audio book performances of Andrew wincott breathe such conviction and immersion to tads work that it is hard to listen without it. The complex names, cultures, and backgrounds of the characters is vital to the story and Andrew does the books he narrates for us a service. Not to mention I can identify who is speaking just by the inflection placed on the words by Andrew. In this book, however, I had a hard time knowing who was speaking at times, the words were pronounced very strangely, and it was often so rushed I had to check if my playback speed was set to 1.5x

Good Look into Backstory

I enjoyed this book to better understand several of the characters in the previous books in the series.

I enjoyed the narrator’s voice... However, I wasn’t happy about his pronunciations of some character names, and groups. As always, it’s very frustrating to hear, names, places, etc., pronounced differently from one narrator to another.

Seriously, why do authors neglect to inform narrator’s of proper pronunciations of main characters, places, towns, etc from book to book within a series?

It’s extremely bothersome. Especially, when the name, place or whatever is mispronounced or pronounced differently over and over during narration, than how the listener has become accustomed from previous books.

Other than that issue, I did enjoy the story and narrator’s voice.

Fantastic!

An amazing prequel to Tad Williams' Osten Ard series, wonderfully performed by James Lailey. Highly Recommended!!!

Not for the first timer

I found this book to be a bounty of insights and revelations in relation to the original trilogy of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. It takes you to places, originally seen in ruin and decay, during the their height or just past. There are echos of the future and answers of the past previously unknown. I can see how a person who picks this up without any previous exposure might not enjoy this tale. It was nice to see the seed of the Storm Kings creation as well as better understand his twisted motivations.

i am a big fan!

I have read every book about Asten Ard that I can. I am looking forward to the next book.
I have also enjoyed the shadow march books and enjoyed them just as much.

Fleshes out the history of Hakatri and Ineluki

You could read this as a stand alone book without having read the rest of the series. But if you've read the rest of the Osten Ard books (will be 7 total + novellas) this book finally explains the long spoken of history of the two great immortal Sithi brothers of Asua. There is also insight into the changeling race.

I found it to be interesting and informative. It is also sad, but still worth the listen.

Great read

A great add in to the Osten Ard series. The narrator is different from the rest of the books and they pronounce some locations and names differently than what you’ll be used too as well as the “Sithy accent”. However the performance is very good.
Great read I highly recommend to fans of the series.

The tale itself is the star here, but the immaculate pacing is a close second!

Tad Williams is a master! There’s no two ways about it, and no need to be shy about saying it. This book really stands out in the series lineage of Memory, Sorrow, & Thorn serving as basically a much more comprehensible (and infinitely more readable/listenable) Silmarillion to the main original trilogy. I can’t recommend this title enough!

Same but different

Audible presented this book to me as the last in a series of books however it is the back story to explain many events in the previous books. The only downfall of this book was that they changed narrators and this narrator pronounced names and places differently from the previous books so at times it took awhile for me to realize who or what he was talking about and that I already knew that character. My suggestion would be that if you change narrators have them listen to the previous book in the series so that they pronounce things the same and therefor cause less confusion to the listener.