The Wind City by Summer Wigmore - Review by A.J. Ponder

The Wind City by Summer Wigmore

RRP $30 Steam Press

Publication Date: 21st of November 2013

Review by A.J. Ponder

Wind City is not to be missed by lovers of fantasy, especially those drawn to urban fantasy or who have a fascination with Maori myths and legends. Grounded in folklore, and featuring Wellington, Summer Wigmore’s use of mythology in Wind City is stunning.  Danger lurks around every corner, and perilously gorgeous folklore, too often forgotten, is given new and surprising twists. 

And yet… I found myself having a love hate relationship. 

The book sailed over my shoulder three times – and that was just the prologue. Distant, distancing, and with vague hints of sexual tension/romance I couldn’t quite relate to.  But then that’s prologues for you, providing something the rest of the story could not, but at the expense of pushing readers away. Fortunately, when people actually start talking, the narrative begins to find its stride as we begin to follow the two main characters.  Saint, a shiftless scrounger who, hurt by the rejection of the beautiful patu-paiarehe in the prologue suddenly realises his flatmate is not just a slob, but a maero, a hairy human-eating giant that’s been saving him to eat for a rainy day.   This discovery opens his eyes, and egged on by a powerful spirit he travels a dark path of dangerously fanatical self obsession as he tries to remove the scourge of the supernatural from Wellington city. Tony is Saint’s antithesis, steady as a rock, reliable and self reliant, even as her life is destroyed and she is stuck in the middle of a dangerous war that threatens to blow Wellington apart she holds her nerve, proves she is as strong as the taniwha her character embodies, and works to protect those who cannot protect themselves.

Still, for all their angst, and trials and tribulations these main characters feel half made, almost, if not actually cliché; the wannabe hipster/antihero, the down to earth protector, and even the unattainable gorgeous paranormal female thrown in for fun.  When things go bad, I don’t care enough about them to feel their pain.  And then there’s the plot wavering like an overly friendly drunk on a more or less on a homeward journey through some really great ideas and a handful of the minor characters who ended up stealing the show.  Seemingly unnecessary, in the end they worked perfectly, embodying Wellington as something greater than the sum of its parts.

In fact when taken as a whole so many of the things that are irritating about the story start to make a kind of sense in the same way.  And I put this down to the passion.  Summer Wigmore’s view of Wellington as a magical place where the old legends are part of the fabric, where people can be so flawed they are hardly whole people, and yet they have to pick themselves up and keep on going.  As the meandering plot takes us on a whirlwind tour of Wellington that will change the way you see the capital city forever. Because in the end, when they have been read cover to cover, and then re-read again, books are about heart, and Summer Wigmore has captured the heart of Wellington, and the soul too.  

About the reviewer:

A.J. Ponder, author of Wizard’s Guide to Wellington, cut her teeth writing short stories and plays for the School Journal.  She is particularly proud of the Sir Julius Vogel Award winning, “Frankie and the Netball Clone” (Pearsons),  “Dying for the Record” (Arc 1.1), and has a story in the recently released anthology, "Baby Teeth."