The Olympian Affair

I felt a bit dumb for not reading Jim Butcher's The Aeronaut's Windlass sooner. But since it took the author eight years to come up with the second volume, this may have been a blessing in disguise. Indeed, I had already received an advance reading copy of The Olympian Affair before I even began to read the first installment, so I was able to dive into the sequel immediately.

For those of you who may not be into scifi, know that The Cinder Spires series is more a swashbuckling fantasy adventure than steampunk science fiction. The Aeronaut's Windlass was definitely a fun romp. With its thrilling endgame and rousing finale, I believed that it set the stage for what could be another exciting series. In my review, I claimed that time would tell whether or not Butcher could up his game and deliver more ambitious sequels and not just rely on the same recipe for what came next.

I grew a bit concerned at times, for The Olympian Affair features a few rough spots in the middle during which Butcher seems to lose himself in overindulgent storytelling focusing on the cats. This made me wonder if The Aeronaut's Windlass might be a bit of a fluke. Thankfully, ye of little faith that I am should have known that the author would rally in the last third and bring this one to another satisfying conclusion. Having said that, your mileage may vary depending on how much you like the talking cats. 

Here's the blurb:

The fate of the Cinder Spires may be decided by crossed swords in the next exhilarating fantasy adventure from the author of the Dresden Files, in this New York Times bestselling series of noble families, swordplay, and airships.

For centuries the Cinder Spires have safeguarded humanity, rising far above the deadly surface world. Within their halls, aristocratic houses rule, developing scientific marvels and building fleets of airships for defense and trade.

Now, the Spires hover on the brink of open war.

Everyone knows it’s coming. The guns of the great airship fleets that control the skies between the last bastions of humanity will soon speak in anger, and Spire Albion stands alone against the overwhelming might of Spire Aurora’s Armada and its new secret weapon–one capable of destroying the populations of entire Spires.

A trading summit at Spire Olympia provides an opportunity for the Spirearch, Lord Albion, to secure alliances that will shape the outcomes of the war, and to that end he dispatches privateer Captain Francis Madison Grimm and the crew of the AMS Predator to bolster the Spirearch’s diplomatic agents.

It will take daring, skill, and no small amount of showmanship to convince the world to stand with Spire Albion–assuming that it is not already too late.

I continue to feel that Jim Butcher keeps his cards too close to his chest as far as the worldbuilding is concerned. In The Aeronaut's Windlass, the author provided a ton of information regarding the ships that fly through the etherical currents and the technology that powers them. Yet very little was disclosed about the Spires and their history. All we were told was that ten thousand years before, the Merciful Builders created them to shelter mankind from the dangers of the surface and then disappeared. There were mentions of a God in Heaven, Archangels, and an ancient enemy, but not much in the way of actual details. Two books into this series and it's still unclear whether or not this is an alien world or a post-apocalyptic Earth. And though Butcher opens up a bit more about the various Spires and their respective history/economy, once again The Olympian Affair remains more of a self-contained adventure that delivers very little details about the greater scheme of things. What we do discover, we learn at the very end in a "Since you're about to kill us anyway, you may as well tell us what this is all about" scene that felt somewhat clunky to say the least. The epilogue shows that there is more depth than meets the eye to this series, with bigger and better things to come. Yet Butcher seems inclined to keep a decidedly more narrow focus on characters and events in this first trilogy. We'll have to wait till we can get our hands on the final installment to see if that's the case.

The three lead protagonists from The Aeronaut's Windlass--Gwendolyn Lancaster, Bridget Tagwynn, and Captain Francis Madison Grimm-- return as POV characters. We also get the perspectives of Colonel Renaldo Espira of Spire Aurora and Duchess Abigail Hinton, both of which add new dimensions to this tale. The former by letting us see what goes on behind the scenes on the Auroran side and the latter by giving us glimpses of the political intrigue behind Spire Albion's attempt to find allies in the coming war. Once more, the supporting cast is made up of a bunch of colorful men and women such as Journeyman, Kettle, and the rest of Grimm's crew, as well as the etherealists Master Ferus and his apprentice Folly. Add to that Alex Bayard, Ravenna, Captain Ransom, and Abigail's retainers on Spire Olympia, and Butcher came up with another great cast. As much as I enjoyed the talking cats in the first volume, I feel that they were given too much importance in The Olympian Affair, what with the somewhat frivolous trip to the surface. Sometimes, less is more.

Like its predecessor, the best and worse aspects of this sequel just might be the fact that it's too self-contained for its own good. Although we do discover a bit more, especially toward the end of the book, I would have loved to learn more about the world's ancient history, the Spires themselves, the etherealists and their powers, and that bygone Enemy. Still, anyone who enjoyed The Aeronaut's Windlass will likely enjoy The Olympian Affair. The cats notwithstanding, Butcher elevates his game in the last third of the novel and closes the show with a bang.

There are pacing issues plaguing this novel, especially early on and up until about the middle portion. These have everything to do with the cats and the subsequent trip to the surface. I mean, there's a weapon of mass destruction that can wipe out an entire Spire and its population, a looming war that could have major repercussions on all Spires, so it felt a bit pointless to follow that plot thread just so the cats could reveal what they saw. Once this storyline is done with, Butcher gets back on track and doesn't look back. From that point on, The Olympian Affair becomes a veritable page-turner. I loved how the author played with our expectations and pulled the rug from under our feet with the duels, and there's no denying that the endgame made for another gripping finale. And of course, the cliffhanger ending means that I'll have to read the third volume ASAP.

Regardless of its shortcomings, The Olympian Affair is another swashbuckling steampunk fantasy adventure featuring a cast of unforgettable characters.

The final verdict: 8/10

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