La Horde du Contrevent
#164.42 adjusted 4.38 for sample size in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 1 book Status Complete 2004 Reading commitment Low Alain Damasio Last reviewed 2026-08-29
Overview
La Horde du Contrevent is a standalone French-language novel by Alain Damasio, following a band of wind-hunters, or "horde," walking against a relentless wind toward its source, told through shifting first-person narrators, each marked by a distinct typographic symbol rather than a chapter heading. Published in 2004, the novel is a single, self-contained work rather than part of a series, built around an invented world shaped entirely by the wind's geography and the linguistic experimentation this forces on its many narrating voices. It won the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire in 2006, one of French-language speculative fiction's top honors, and is widely regarded as a modern classic of French fantasy, frequently cited as a formally ambitious touchstone for the genre in France and credited with expanding what French-language fantasy could formally attempt, though it remains comparatively little translated outside the francophone world.
Epic fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (1 work) counts toward ranking
La Horde du Contrevent (2004) core · 4.42 (9,512 ratings); A single standalone French-language novel; no sequel or connected work in this setting.
Quick answers
- How many books are in La Horde du Contrevent? La Horde du Contrevent's Core Canon is 1 book.
- Is La Horde du Contrevent finished? Complete (2004).
- How much reading does La Horde du Contrevent take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 1 Core Canon book · ~736 pages).
- How is La Horde du Contrevent ranked? #16 in this site's official ranking, based on 9,512 reader ratings across 1 Core Canon book. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #16?
Ranked #16 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.42 across 1 core book.
- A smaller readership (9,512 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Less than 0.01 behind #15, Crescent City (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
- A single standalone novel: ranked on that one book alone.
Why explore this universe?
Top-tier rated · 1 book · Complete · 10k ratings · Ranks #16 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment epic fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
A single Core Canon work: no sequencing question to resolve.
Awards (verified)
- Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire, Best Novel (2006)
- Prix Imaginales des lycéens (2006)
You might also like
Suggestions computed from what La Horde du Contrevent and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- The Sword of Kaigen Epic fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 4.42
- Glass Immortals Epic fantasy · Ongoing · Low commitment · 4.39
- The Raven Scholar Epic fantasy · Ongoing · Low commitment · 4.38
- The Hierarchy Epic fantasy · Ongoing · Low commitment · 4.49
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.42 across 9,512 ratings on 1 Core Canon book. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Admit La Horde du Contrevent (Alain Damasio) accepted 2026-08-29
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Wikipedia: Alain Damasio Tier 2
Last reviewed: 2026-08-30
Rule: Single-work admission; no sequel or connected work exists in this setting.