The Storm Lord

This sword-and-sorcery novel from early in Tanith Lee's oeuvre is epic in every sense of the word, occupying a sort of strange space between classical tragedy and fairy tale, but closer to the former than the latter. It has far more in common with Robert E. Howard's Hyborian tales than with The Lord of the Rings or Dunsany's fantasies. The characters are all human (although with powers sometimes surpassing the humans of our disenchanted world), and the trivially exotic nature of the fauna (equestrians ride "zeebas") may be a function of an extraterrestrial setting: "The city lay on the foothills ... her ancestry a charred place where the Storm gods had come out of heaven, riding in the bellies of pale dragons" (21).

There are numerous show more human races, of which the most important to the story are the Vis -- the dominating race of the empire ruled by the Storm Lord who supplies the book with its title -- and the "lowlanders." These latter are serfs, hereditary worshipers of a serpent goddess, telepathic, and pale where the Vis are dark. The Storm Lord holds his office by birthright under a rule of ultimogeniture, which succession gives the book its initial layer of plot, but there are many others besides.

There is, in fact, a particular Howard story that I think merits comparison to The Storm Lord. It is the excellent "A Witch Shall Be Born," with its royal intrigue, biblical resonances, and the way that it elegantly telescopes what could be the plot of a hefty novel into twenty-odd pages. Just so, The Storm Lord has enough plot for four or five novels, but it doesn't feel rushed, just very full. Lee wrote two more books in "The Wars of Vis" to further detail the history of this particular world, and they must be worth reading, if they are half as good as this one. show less

This review and others posted over at my blog.

I don’t even know how to blurb this book because my eyes were so glazed over by the end that I had no clue what was going on. I was interested, at first, in the world building and the plot. However, the bland characters and convoluted political and religious intrigues lost me by the end.

Raldnor, the lead character, is totally unlikable. But not in the anti-hero way; he’s just an entitled prick. All the women in this book are either evil, sexual objects, or a mix of both. This was surprising coming from Tanith! I’ve encountered this often in vintage sci-fi, but usually from men. It was disappointing to find the stereotypes hold true from a female writer. There are three main love show more interests for Raldnor, plus a wicked queen type and they’re all basically just sex toys for the men in their lives. There’s rape early on, which seemed like it was there solely for shock-value. The main love interest for Raldnor, Astaris, is literally just beautiful. She has no personality and I’m not sure how they fell in love. In the end (minor spoiler alert!) she actually turns into a statue and there’s no difference between that and when she was alive.

Something compelled me to keep reading, but I’m not sure what. Raldnor succeeds in everything he does and has no likable traits. There’s a really long sea journey and battle and political coup that did nothing for me and I think could have been cut. There’s a weird star that comes around every so often (Zastis, or something) and it makes some of the people of the world really horny? I didn’t see the point of that either. Oh and also the “repressed” and downtrodden race were a people with light skin and bleach blonde hair (despite living in what seemed like a desert or grasslands, so I’d think they’d be tanned) and those in power were “dark skinned” with black hair. I assume Tanith was trying to switch things on their head but it didn’t feel progressive or empowering – especially because the white race takes control of the land in the end.

I kept thinking things would get better or Raldnor would develop some personality traits other than “strong, sexy man” and “chosen one.” I mean, his mother worshipped a snake goddess (who I thought was going to actually appear as a living being in the story and sadly didn’t) and killed his father with some sort of secret sex trick. I expected something cool or intriguing, but the book didn’t deliver. show less

If the cover didn't tip me off, the first part of the book sealed the deal: this is not a feminist tome. :) A priestess is abducted, raped, and killed soon after she gives birth to the king's son. The queen demands that the son be killed to secure her new baby's ascenscion to the throne, but the priestess manages to convince a maid to steal away with the baby, after cutting off his little finger to give to the queen. There's a lot of racism in the world, with the priestess's blonde pale people subjugated by the royal house of dark haired and skinned people. The son in hiding has light hair and dark skin and can't do the mind to mind speaking of his peers in the enslaved race, and he has to disguise himself to advance, and eventually show more confront the machinations of the royal house. Murder, backstabbing, treason, and women passed around as baby making machines all make this a grim read. But it's well written and epic and only relies on coincidence a few times. show less

I vastly enjoy this fantasy. It is the apogee of Tanith Lee, in my opinion, and is the perfect blend of romance and intrigue with adequate violence thrown in. The world creation is a little weak, but it takes a reread before this reader recognized that was so sketchy. So it's a marvellous entertainment, and I regret the book is apparently little known.

Trust me to pick the one terrible novel she probably wrote to start with.

Utter rubbish

Stormgebieder is de geschiedenis van Raldnor, verwekt door de Stormgebieder bij een bleke heks op de Schaduwloze Vlakte en verborgen onder vreemden, ver van de hoofdstad, gedoemd door het Lot om de verschrikkelijke keus te maken tussen enerzijds zijn verlangen naar liefde, en het besef van zijn onontkoombare bestemming als vorst van de wereld anderzijds. Als zijn liefde een wrede dood sterft, bindt hij de strijd voor zijn geboorterecht aan en rusteloos als een aanwakkerende wind, onverbiddelijk als een orkaan, marcheert hij naar de overwinning op zijn valse halfbroer. * Dit boek is ook uitgebracht onder de titel Heer der Stormen.