Review: The Winds of Change by Sam Paisley
Blurb:
Destiny, personal responsibility, what the future holds – common concerns for anyone graduating high school. But usually not because of a cosmic war between timeless beings where you’re the central player.
As the end of school quickly approaches, and Cooper Bailey watches his perfect world slip away, his only concern is savouring every last minute of his high school career. For his best friend, Reid Patterson, graduation is a doorway to the future, where his discipline and focus will finally allow him to meet his true potential.
When a mysterious mirror-masked man begs for their help to stop a dangerous heretic, Cooper and Reid find themselves thrust into unknown worlds, wrestling with a destiny as old as time itself. As the truths about their roles in the universe unfold, and enemies disguise themselves as allies, their only hope is to trust each other - and learn fast!
Far from home and in mortal peril, Cooper and Reid attempt to hone their newfound abilities and come to grips with their purpose for being.
Inspired by classic and modern science fiction and fantasy, and drawing upon timeless themes of destiny and personal responsibility, The Elements of Time is a series written for anyone who loves an escape into a rich and deep world. With references to Star Wars (the Original Trilogy), Avatar: The Last Bender, Stargate SG-1, Supernatural, and much more, The Elements of Time: The Winds of Change is fun action-adventure, with it’s own unique magic system, and themes that touch what it means to grow up and take on the challenges of life
The Elements of Time - Book 1: The Winds of Change
Review:
One of the most compelling debuts I’ve read this year comes in the form of The Winds of Change, the first book in the epic fantasy series, The Elements of Time by Sam Paisley. It pulls off an impressive array of feats. For example, on a prose level, the book reminded me of Brandon Sanderson’s neat, readable, yet surprisingly emotive writing style. Additionally, The Winds of Change toes the line between sci-fi and fantasy on an expert level, integrating the best of Star Wars, Back to the Future, and Avatar: the Last Airbender.
The first thing I should note about this book is its heft. Weighing in at around 600 pages and 220k words, this is a tome, and yet it reads surprisingly fast. In terms of story pacing, it is reflective of the incredibly intricate worldbuilding that sets up the end of the book to expand far past the boundaries that are imposed upon it. While the world itself is utterly fascinating and feels planned out with the same kind of finesse you might expect from the Cosmere, it does come at the expense of the story taking a little while to really get going. Despite this, the first fifty pages or so are unputdownable–I was completely enamoured in a way I haven’t experienced since first reading The Way of Kings many years ago.
The comparisons to books such as these are interesting too. This book focuses on the theme of friendship and is primarily about two high-school friends as they navigate the chaos of exiting their normal lives and becoming the people they want to be. These characters aren’t exactly the bravado, fantasy hero types you might read elsewhere, but they are arguably more relatable. I found myself rooting for Cooper and Reid’s wants and needs throughout the whole novel, and felt especially close to them when I finished reading.
Despite how the story presents itself, it shares much more in common with a lot epic fantasy’s best than a YA novel. Having said that, it certainly offers itself to a wide audience, and I think this book will find itself at home on a teenager’s shelf as much as it will an adult’s, albeit, offering slightly different levels of storytelling and references to boot.
The highlight of The Winds of Change on a plot level was absolutely the ending. The very Sanderlanche-esque climax had me locked in way past my bedtime (I’m an old codger these days), and included a twist I could not see coming. A lot of the fun was going through the book to find easter eggs after I finished it, and seriously: Sam Paisley is a wizard. The way he drives the story towards this ultimate revelation is incredibly subtle while also being very intentional.
All in all, The Winds of Change will no doubt kick off what promises to be one of the modern greats in indie, in my opinion. I haven’t read anything recently that rivals this book in terms of lore, worldbuilding, and writing style. Despite the relatively slow pacing in the first couple hundred pages or so, the book really finds its feet thereafter, and has an awful lot to offer to readers. I’m excited to see how this world opens up in the sequel, when the time comes.
