The Lightning Seed

Durant’s novel ‘The Lightning Seed’ (Book 1 of the Messenger series) takes place in a mechanized universe with three distinct societies: the one below street level, the one in the sky, and the one full of metals and oily machines in which Book 1 is set. A young man and his mother are given a typical job to move seeds from one place to another in this metallic landscape, only this particular run is anything but typical. Their cargo has legendary mystical powers. Others want the special seed and are ruthless in their ambition to obtain it. This story follows the journey of the two seed carriers as they navigate landscape barriers; encounter violent, self-serving characters; and, ultimately confront the legendary power of the show more Lightning Seed.

This original world and the history of its peoples is told by the author in such a way that the reader can visualize much of this fantastical world. Remarkable landscapes and even the clothing or inherent physical characteristics of different characters are described in such a way that the reader can also “see” them.

There are multiple action scenes with different sets of characters – how they all come together is part of the jigsaw the novel creates. Relationships are constantly at front and center in this novel. I would expect that the base for character development created in this installment of the series will continue throughout the remaining stories yet to be told.

I enjoyed reading this story because of its originality and some of the surprises in plot direction. I might’ve wished for a little more of the backstory of this world closer to the beginning, but at the same time, sometimes it truly is best to jump in and discover along the way! I would also caution the author about having too much introspection by his characters in the moments before an action scene, if for no other reason than the disruption this causes to the tempo of the story if trying to build excitement prior to an eruption of violent action. But these are small quibbles, I never contemplated not finishing this book, and overall I can recommend this book as a good example of an original fantasy novel.

Disclaimer: An electronic copy of this book was provided by the publishers House of Fables in exchange for a review, via LibraryThing. show less

Going into 'The Lightning Seed' I wasn't sure what to expect, however a story that's set on (probably) a planet colonised by humans that’d (probably) is in the far future and (probably) came after quite the apocalypse wasn't it! I found the environment and the likely larger universe-building to be very interesting, and I presume that in future books there will be more focus on this.

Unfortunately for this reader, the way the story was set out in this book didn’t land well for me. While Evl is the titular protagonist, there are a significant number of other characters in this book, and we get internal perspectives from them all, often switching between characters in just a few paragraphs. This made it difficult for me to focus on who show more was doing/feeling/experiencing what – the perspective wasn’t quite omniscient, and wasn’t quite third-person, and wasn’t quite first-person either.

Additionally, the titular lightning seed itself was very much a Macguffin throughout the book, right up until the final few chapters. While I suspect there will be much more to say and learn about this seed in future books, for the majority of this one it felt like an excuse to move characters around and (eventually) bring them all together.

I can see that there’s a lot to appreciate about this world, and the way seeds work (or don’t) within the ways various people have set up their communities. But for this reader, how it all came to be will have to remain a mystery, as I won’t be reading further in the series. show less