Day 2 of writing one post a day for a week. It’s almost 11 pm when I write these lines, so I gotta be efficient!
I’m writing this review a bit late, as I finished the book more than a month ago, so I hope I can accurately recall how I felt while reading it.
My short review would be: enjoyable read, really interesting writing style, recommend reading it in French, great worldbuilding that creates tons of questions but unfortunately leaves too many unanswered for my taste. I’d still recommend this book, but it was not an absolute banger for me.
Spoilers ahead.
I’ll preface by saying that it’s the second book of Damasio that I’ve read. The first one was “Les Furtifs” (The Furtives), and I adored it. I think this might have influenced my perception of La Horde du Contrevent, as both books share similarities in the writing style and have a shared concept in “le vif”. The second one is set in a modern world that I’d define as very believable, with hints of cyberpunk codes. I connected more with it.
The book follows the 34th “Horde”, a group of people, walking against the wind, on foot, from extreme downstream to extreme upstream. They are over 20 years into their journey, if I recall correctly, and they are the fastest Horde there ever was.
The big plus of the book is how each character has a rich personality. We can really enjoy it when the author switches which character the story is being told from. This takes a bit of time to get used to, but after a few chapters, you immediately understand from which character you’re seeing the story by the writing style and the type of descriptions.
It’s a complex story, I went back multiple times to read something that was previously told to make sure that I was understanding correctly some new information. And there is a big emphasis on the wind and how it works. This touches on some philosophical questions, but I didn’t find myself taking the time to reflect on them because I was so engaged with the rest of the plot.
I kept reading the book because I wanted to learn more about the Horde. How are they selected? What are the goals of the main political factions we are introduced to during the adventure? What the hell is the Pursuit? What happened to the other Horde? What else did all the characters endure in their training when they were kids? How’s life in extreme downstream?
We have some answers in the story, but a lot is left open. Sometimes it’s great to have open hooks where you’re free to decide what you want it to be. In this story, I’d have liked to know more.
I found the pacing of the book to be quite uneven, really slow at the beginning, progressively accelerating, with more and more information given on the universe, the story, the past, the wind, and it finally ends on another really slow part. I did not click with the rhythm of the story and so I didn’t end up glued to the book like it can happen when a story really grabs my attention.
I still had a great experience reading this book, and I think I’d probably enjoy reading it again in the future. I also need to read “Les Furtifs” again to see if the story was just a better match for me or if I was just in a more fitting mindset when reading it.