The Cloud Roads is a fantasy adventure of the improbable yet awesome geography variety. There are floating islands, multiple sentient species and ships that fly. This book reminded me a great deal of Laurie J. Marks Delan, the Mislaid and its sequels, mostly for the multiple sentient species, but also because our protagonist is an outsider alien to both his own kind but also to the people with whom he keeps trying to make connections.
Our protagonist is a hunter named Moon. He has spent his entire life trying to find a place to belong. This is especially difficult for him because he’s a shapeshifter, and every time he’s found out, he gets driven out of town. (It does not help that he strongly resembles a Fell, a nomadic predatory species with an unfortunate habit of predating on other sentient beings.)
After getting kicked out of yet another community, Moon meets another shapeshifter who seems to know what Moon is. The other shapeshifter, a male named Stone, tells him that he’ll be welcome in the shapeshifter’s community. Moon is extremely suspicious, but decides to accept the invitation. (For values of accept that include, “Stone rescue/kidnapped him.”)
Of course, it turns out that the shapeshifter was in fact hiding something; Indigo Cloud, the community Stone comes from is currently being threatened by the Fell. Moon must find a way to become accepted by this community and simultaneously help rescue it from being destroyed by the Fell. (It does not help that this particular group of Fell is one that Moon has encountered in his past, but does explain why Moon is so completely paranoid. The Fell are not very nice people, and appropriately named.)
I really enjoyed this book and the worldbuilding. This is a fast-paced adventure with intriguing world building and an interesting plot. Moon is an entertaining, sympathetic character and I liked his interactions with the other members of the cast.
This is an older review posted on both Goodreads and a previous blog.
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