The Aeronaut's Windlass
core novel 2015 The Cinder Spires
Record
| First published | 2015 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.18 (50,370 ratings, collected 2026-09-13) |
| Page count | 630 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780451466815 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
The Aeronaut's Windlass opens the Cinder Spires series in a world where humanity lives inside towering habitat-spires above a mist-shrouded, dangerous surface, sustaining an eighteenth-century-flavored culture powered by crystal energy and airships. Captain Francis Grimm, a disgraced privateer of Spire Albion, has his ship damaged in an ambush by forces from the rival Spire Aurora. At the same time, three young recruits, Gwendolyn, Bridget, and Benedict, join the Spirearch's Guard alongside a pair of eccentric etherealists. When evidence surfaces that Auroran agents have infiltrated Spire Albion in disguise to sabotage its vital crystal-growing facilities, Grimm and the recruits are drawn together to investigate the plot, uncovering a scheme that threatens the Spire's defenses and hints at a deeper design behind the growing hostility between the two rival domains.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Cinder Spires
- Series: The Cinder Spires core; position 1 of 2 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Jim Butcher
Awards (verified)
- Hugo Award (Best Novel), 2016: nominated
Notes
- From the series record (The Cinder Spires): Steampunk series, distinct from Butcher's Codex Alera and The Dresden Files. No further volume announced with a firm date.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series The Cinder Spires: position 1 of 2: next The Olympian Affair (2023)
Sources
- Jim Butcher's own site: Cinder Spires
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Aeronaut%27s_Windlass
- The Hugo Awards, 2016
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