Will I love The Cloud Roads?

Shapeshifting lizard people. Oh. You want me to say something else?

How about... a world like no other, peopled by all manner of beings (but no humans, which is honestly a delight). The setting is so fantastic, but also so meticulously designed—every settlement and civilization feels organic, fully realized, and unlike anything else. But what about the story—?

Moon doesn't know where he's from, but he knows he's the only shapeshifter he's ever met, and the only person with wings...and worse, he thinks he's part of the terrible Fell, a species that seems to be invasive and hostile and looks… show more.

This book, which is the start of a series, was recommended to me at a romance reader lunch I go to regularly. I’d been talking about the Murder Bot series by Martha Wells and this book was pointed out to me. I started listening to it on Audible and was blown away. I have read the series now and onto the related short stories. This fantasy is a non-human-based fantasy. The main character, Moon, is sort of a man-sized shape-shifting dragon. The setup of the culture of the Raksura is intriguing and the magic in the world stunning in its… show more.

The Cloud Roads is the first tale of the Books of the Raksura series but can be read as a standalone. It follows Moon, an orphaned young man with the ability to turn into a be-scaled and be-winged flying creature. Not knowing what he is, he has spent his life hiding his other self from his groundling community—until he meets another just like him: Stone. 

The imagination that has gone into this world, cultures, and characters second to none. Wells is a master of writing non-human points of views. Her storytelling draws readers into the alienness of her characters yet… show more.

This series—just start with The Cloud Roads—brings you to The Three Worlds, a world brimming with intelligent life in all possible forms and sizes. Our heroes, the Raksura, are shapeshifters that seem a fantastic cross between bees and proud vultures, living happily in their unusual, close-knit families, in colonies ruled by warrior-queens. Read the series, and you will look at your non-human fellow beings with new eyes: aren’t they, too, sensitive and intelligent people? And you may wonder if there aren’t, in our world too, unusual family arrangements like those of the Raksura—don’t we stick too much to… show more.