Imagine a world shaken by winds whose force surpasses our understanding. Imagine a group of men born to face those winds until their final breaths. Within the deafening noise of the wind, on the Lower Slopes, an elite group of twenty-three children were raised for the sole purpose of facing the ever blowing gusts, climbing up windwards for the rest of their lives. Their goal: to find the mysterious source of the wind in the Upper Reaches. There have been thirty-three attempts in eight hundred years, thirty-three Hordes that have failed. My name is Sov, scribe. I’m here today to talk to you in the name of the thirty-fourth, and most probably the last...
Awards
Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire
Rated 9th on the list of the best French novels of all times by Le Monde
Sample translation
French original text available
Complete English and German translation available
Alain Damasio is a writer, sociologist, co-founder of the video game studio Dontnod and the sound art studio Tarabust. Born in 1969, ESSEC graduate, he has been giving TEDx talks since 2014. Wth his 3 novels he became a cult author and France most read science fiction writer.
“A striking novel that grips you from the very first page and won’t let you go before it comes to a conclusion and even for a long time afterwards. Damasio has taken on every kind of challenge and won his bet: The Horde of Counterwind is a masterpiece.” Le Monde
“A real gem, born from the literary pillars of classicism. This brilliant, disturbing allegorical text is totally mind-boggling.” Le Figaro
“In this novel one finds a style of writing, an ambition, an unfettered freedom that has been missing from French science-fiction.” Télérama
