© James Pyles

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Yesterday, I finished reading Jim Butcher’s 2023 novel The Olympian Affair. It’s the second in his Cinder Spires series and the sequel to The Aeronaut’s Windlass which I read and reviewed.

Butcher doesn’t disappoint. This is another terrific adventure novel set (supposedly) in the far-future where our own civilization has long-since fallen. People live in floating cities called “Spires” ruled by various presidents, kings, and such. Trade is conducted by skyships powered by fantastic crystals. Those, and many other things, including meat, are grown in vats ruled over by powerful (and not-so-powerful) family houses.

The central character in these tales is Captain Francis Grimm, commander of the light-trader “Predator.” He was once in the Albion Navy but sacrificed his career and his honor for a close friend.

Now, he’s caught up in a web of magic, political intrigue, and mystery. War is brewing between the Spires but not just for the usual reasons of ambition, resources, and power. An ancient enemy of the “Makers” has returned and is playing both sides against each other.

The surface of the Earth is a deadly wasteland as are certain areas of the sky, inhabited by deadly beasts. One such has been taken control of by the malevolent sorceress Cavendish and is being used as a weapon to cripple the Spires before an invasion by a warrior armada.

In a bid to win allies for spire Albion, Grimm is manipulated into a duel with a warriorborn, a superhuman being with strength and reflexes many times that of a normal man. This warriorborn is a murderer serving the cause of evil, however many others do not.

Butcher weaves a tale with many moving parts, all which manage to mesh together to form a grand saga. I suppose I should mention that cats are sapient and see themselves superior to humans. Fortunately, they are also able allies and may hold the key to the secret of the destructive power plaguing the Spires and the heavens.

This was another thoroughly enjoyable novel by the author, packed full of good old fashioned action, battles, heroism, and manly (and womanly) fun without the tiresome trappings some in the 21st century feel obligated to inflict upon their consumers.

I understand Butcher has also written a number of other terrific series which I’ll have to sample by the by. I definitely give two thumbs up and five out of five stars to “The Olympian Affair: The Cinder Spires Book 2.”