Lord of the Changing Winds (The Griffin Mage, #1) (Griffin Mage Trilogy , #1)

by Rachel Neumeier

Griffins lounged all around them, inscrutable as cats, brazen as summer. They turned their heads to look at Kes out of fierce, inhuman eyes. Their feathers, ruffled by the wind that came down the mountain, looked like they had been poured out of light; their lion haunches like they had been fashioned out of gold. A white griffin, close at hand, looked like it had been made of alabaster and white marble and then lit from within by white fire. Its eyes were the pitiless blue-white of the desert sky.

Little ever happens in the quiet villages of peaceful Feierabiand. The course of Kes' life seems set: she'll grow up to be an herb-woman and healer for the village of Minas Ford, never quite fitting in but always more or less accepted. And she's content with that path -- or she thinks she is. Until the day the griffins come down from the mountains, bringing with them the fiery wind of their desert and a desperate need for a healer. But what the griffins need is a healer who is not quite human . . . or a healer who can be made into something not quite human.

• ISBN10: 0316072788
• ISBN13: 9780316072786
• Publish Date: 1 May 2010 (first published 1 January 2010)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 28 August 2024
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Little, Brown & Company
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[layawaydragon]

I read and LOVED Neumeier's Black Dog and am going through her earlier work.

I read these back to back and now it's all kind of blurred together. Only less than usual because this is so different than typical YA trilogies--in the best way. It follows different character POVs each book and there's quite a gap of time between them.

Can't lie, griffins have never really appealed to me before. I love these flying magic cats though!

Love the unique world building with the different magic. Not just the griffin's are different, but the mages and how the countries use them.

AND!!!! There's no threats of rape, insulting base groups of people, or a myriad of other unpleasantries we take as a given. These are pretty decent people all around that we get to follow. There's antagonists, and an overarching plot of villainy, but most people are just doing the best they can. Instead of 50 shades of dark grey-black like in Game of Thrones, we get the lighter end of the spectrum. Which is honestly such a fucking pleasure and relief to read.

Book #1: Swept me away. Love Kes, her family, and Bertrand. The griffins are Set in Fierabiand. There seems to be crushing involved, but not much else. It's all about freedom, and friends, and doing the right thing, which is more complicated than people like to think.

Book #2: Threw me for a loop! Set in Casmantium. We find out so much more about their magic, their ice mages, their king, and society. Bertrand is involved like halfway through and we see Kes in the very end. But the main POV's are two nobodies, who are something else. Great love story too! Slow burn, friends to lovers, nothing on the page but the adorable falling.

Book #3: I thought I was prepared after the second book. I was not. Set in Feierabiand and Casmantium, with secret rescue mission to Linularinum. Find out quite a bit about Linularinum and their lawyer-scholar-trickster magic. Again, main POVs are two previous unknowns with different magic than before. Shows the harm critical demeaning family and an MC overcoming anxiety & self-doubt from it. Another slow burn adorable falling in love romance. We get true updates on everybody.

I was NOT expecting the ending each time, and I loved them all.

The German covers are so much better though.