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Cover of The House of Shattered Wings

The House of Shattered Wings

432 pages

A dark, ash-choked descent into a ruined city where fallen angels and desperate magic-users cling to the remnants of power.

What it feels like

This is a deeply atmospheric, ash-choked fantasy that immerses the reader in the haunting aftermath of a devastating magical war. The mood is somber and tense, painting a vivid portrait of a ruined, shadowy Paris where the Seine runs black and once-grand institutions crumble from within. It reads at a steady, deliberate pace, allowing the weight of fading power, addiction, and lingering resentment to settle over the narrative. The prose is evocative and dark, focusing heavily on the emotional toll of survival among haunted ruins. It will deeply satisfy readers who love dark historical fantasy and epic tales of flawed, desperate characters forced into uneasy alliances to stave off an irreversible fall.

Mood
  • ash-choked
  • haunted
  • ruined
  • shadowy
  • melancholic
Tone
  • bleak
  • atmospheric
  • tense
  • somber
Pace
steady
Themes
survival in the ruins · addiction and resentment · fading power · unlikely alliances · the aftermath of war
The writing
Evocative and dark, painting a vivid, ash-stained portrait of a broken city and its desperate inhabitants.
The arc
Moves from a state of desolate survival and lingering resentment toward a tense, desperate struggle for salvation or final ruin.
Who it's for
Readers who crave dark, atmospheric historical fantasy where flawed, broken characters navigate the ruins of a once-grand world.
Content notes
  • war aftermath
  • addiction
  • violence
  • ruin and devastation

About the book

Paris has survived the Great Houses War – just. Its streets are lined with haunted ruins, Notre-Dame is a burnt-out shell, and the Seine runs black with ashes and rubble. Yet life continues among the wreckage. The citizens continue to live, love, fight and survive in their war-torn city, and The Great Houses still vie for dominion over the once grand capital.

House Silverspires, previously the leader of those power games, lies in disarray. Its magic is ailing; its founder, Morningstar, has been missing for decades; and now something from the shadows stalks its people inside their very own walls.

Within the House, three very different people must come together: a naive but powerful Fallen, a alchemist with a self-destructive addiction, and a resentful young man wielding spells from the Far East. They may be Silverspires’ salvation. They may be the architects of its last, irreversible fall...

Description from Open Library.

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