The Stormcaller

I enjoyed the Stormcaller, it had strong prose, its share of original concepts, and a well-constructed world. Its story, however, left a little to be desired. It was entertaining for the most part, but the events it contained seemed to have little cohesion; the only thing that really connected them was the characters, which diminished my compulsion to read it.
Speaking of characters, those in the Stormcaller are well constructed with suitably complex personalities and their own individual flaws. Despite this, I never truly got involved with them; it might be because they didn't feel organic, I.E they feel constructed, or because I just didn't find their personal journeys interesting. Either way, I Read through the Stormcaller with show more multiple breaks.
All that being said, I still enjoyed the Stormcaller, it was well written, and the flaws i found are almost strictly subjective. show less

I was completely surprised by this book. Recommended by the guys over at http://elitistbookreviews.blogspot.com/, it sat on my bed stand for over a month before I finally got into it, and then I couldn't put it down.

Lloyd writes unlike so many other sci-fi or fantasy writers. Instead of massive info dumps filling us in on the background of the world they've created, Lloyd just hitches us to the characters like a reality cam and takes the reader along for the ride. We start to see the world, its mythology, lore, politics, and personalities first hand, in a patchwork fashion. Only occasionally does a character fill in blanks, and when it happens, it is never full or thorough, but smacks of the reality that this is how people talk, giving show more some information, never in encyclopedic manner, but just enough to make conversation work.

Piled into this is a colorful network of loosely connected characters, countries, creatures, and gods. Instead of the stereotypical swords and sorcery, Lloyd turns types on their head, makes his own types, and recreates old ones. All through-out, however, is the classic hero motif and the accompanying companions and wise old mentor.

It's a fun ride, and while I don't know that it will find itself in the upper echelons of fantasy fiction, it isn't due to any failure on the part of the writer. I think Lloyd is definitely showing himself to be a creative and talented pen with a future in front of him. show less

What could have been a four star book compromises its way up to three stars. First, the good. Tom Lloyd presents us with a world filled with gods and men, and all the fantastical tropes that walk in between. Lloyd tugs at all of the familiar strings – prophetically proclaimed saviors, curses, even vampires, and of course, the question of whether our protagonist will turn out to be the hero or the doom foretold. While a simple enough story, it is often the simple ones that speak truest to us. There is an appeal to these modern fairy tale, and Lloyd makes sure to pepper his story with just enough of these elements to intrigue us and keep us flipping pages.

So why the struggle up to three stars? This book failed for me on purely technical show more merits. It had all of the ingredients of the kind of book I normally devour – magic, prophesy, gods, big shiny swords with special names, world in peril, etc. Where did it lose me?

First, the list of characters, in addition to being too long to keep track of in such a short book, was tucked away at the back of the book. Literally. Readers of the paper edition might have seen it, by accident, when going to set the book down. Readers of the electronic edition, though, would suffer the entire length of the book before discovering that hidden away at the back there is a mild attempt at explaining who’s who. Mild, because it isn’t conclusive, and doesn’t give us the information we need to fully appreciate the story that Lloyd is telling.

Tackling a new world, with politics and struggles between sides, with an obvious sense of depth and history, is nothing new to fantasy readers. Its part of what makes second world fantasy stand out, after all. As readers, we’ve come to expect that the author will use one of a few well trod mechanisms. The simplest, and least favored, is of course to just info dump, preferably somewhere near the start of the tale so we can get that nasty mess out of the way and move on. The more timid author will provide us with a glossary, or at least well populated and advertised appendixes, that explain the lay of the land, who the sides are, even a little cultural background. Some prefer this method as it leaves it up to the reader to determine what depth they’re willing to explore and understand the underpinnings of the world they just engaged. Of course, the truly brave writer – and this is why epic fantasy is known for its lengthy tomes, I think – will layer their explanations and insights about their fantasy world through the telling of the novel, so that while you may start not knowing who Bahl is or what a white-eyes is, by the end of the story you’ll catch yourself swearing in Bahl’s name and cursing the blight that is a white-eye born man. These are the story tellers. And this is what is so infuriating about this book, because it is this final cusp that it fails to cross. Our understanding of the world is so incomplete we are left questioning what is happening for part of the book. Every time I felt I had a grasp, we were introduced to a new character that made me question whether we were speaking the same language.

In the end, I think this first book had potential, but never quite rises above these flaws to stand out. Recommended for genre readers looking for a new series, but be forewarned its rough around the edges. show less

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Title: Stormcaller
Series: Twilight Reign #1
Author: Tom Lloyd
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 516
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Isak is a white-eye, a special sort of human that tends to be bigger, faster, stronger, longer lived and more angry. White eyes are something either the gods created or magicians and are now simply part of life. Isak's father blames him for his birthing killing his mother. Isak has been taken under wing by a show more retired “Ghost” soldier who has taken up the gypsy life and trained as much as a young man can be.

When the gypsy train is confronted by a high ranking White Eye, who claims to have come from the lord of the land, Lord Bahl, Isak refuses the summons but the gypsy train as a whole begins making their way to the Capital. Once they reach the city the men of the train work themselves into a drunken stupor and try to kill Isak for bringing them all to Lord Bahl's attention. Isak makes it to the palace and is given refuge. Turns out he is supposed to be Lord Bahl's heir. He is trained by a swordsmaster, given a magical suit of armor and a magic sword (from the elf warrior who started the revolt against the gods thousands of years ago and killed a bunch of them) and finds out that he might be the focus of a prophecy predicting the rise of the Elves, the fall of humanity and yet another round of god-slayings.

While Lord Bahl and Isak get along, they are both powerful white eyes and Lord Bahl sends Isak to a neighboring kingdom to learn as much diplomacy as is possible. Isak is beginning to surround himself with his own group of people so when the time comes for Lord Bahl to die, he can step in and rule the Land, with all the blessings of their god.

Mischief is afoot though and the neighboring kingdom is at the focus of several plots by powerful factions, all of whom want to control the Prophesied One. A coup is planned and while the king knows of the coup, he is counting on Isak and his soldiers' help in overcoming it. Isak sees Lord Bahl cut down by a mysterious figure in black armor in a vision during the battle. He then gets the blessing of the storm god and uses that power to smash those attempting the coup.

He meets up with some rebel Knight Templars who believe the prophesied one is to be their ultimate leader. They present Isak with two Crystal Skulls, which are artifacts of great power that can kill even the gods. It turns out to be a trap and Isak must face down the mysterious knight in black, who is the original elf warrior. Isak defeats him and now that prophecy has been turned aside, decide where to go next.

My Thoughts:

First, I did enjoy this. This review probably won't reflect that and neither does the rating, but there is reason for that. I am very glad that I started reading Lloyd's work with his God Fragments before this. Those were well written adventure stories with fleshed out characters and well crafted writing.

This book, and I'm guessing the series, is a very much a first attempt. Too many instances of things being described that don't advance the story and just bloat up the word count. I could tell the author was trying to flesh out characters or situations but it wasn't done right and just made things feel long. Transitions between scenes was horrible. A double line break was all we got, within chapters. I don't know how many times I had mental whiplash trying to get my head around that we were now on a boat where as in the last paragraph the whole group was riding horses and would be days into some vast plain.

There were a lot of names thrown about. Honestly, outside of the group of 4-5 people that Isak began surrounding himself with, I found it overwhelming. Especially so as I never knew until much later if this character was going to stick around or be central to the story or was just a one-off. The author tells a LOT of history and sadly, it is handled roughly and confusingly.

I don't know if it was just the edition I had (I'm reading the omnibus edition ebook offered through Amazon) but near the beginning of the story there were at least 5 instances of a word missing and “[MISSING]”, all in caps just like that, inserted in its place. It felt like I was reading a scanned copy of a paperback version that had been OCR''d and then not hand checked.

With all of that being said, I did enjoy the book. The author can write great fight scenes and that makes up for a lot. I also like the core idea of the story and want to see where it all leads. Having read his God Fragments series, I know he doesn't stay at this level of ability. I'd like to see if I can watch progress through the series.

If you want to check out Tom Lloyd, start with his God Fragments books. If you like those, then come back to check out these earlier works. Don't start with these as they're not representative of what he is capable of as a writer.

★★☆☆½ show less

A strange disappointment.

The world is vast. The story is deep. The warring factions and the politics & magic & Gods is complex. And for the first part of the First book, I was engrossed in the growing path of Isak the White eye warrior as he wends his way and 'grows-up' while being an instrument of War & Destiny.

The Problem I found was that the entire Fantasy was lacking in 'something'

And by the second book, I figured out what I was missing: Mystery, Adventure, the lure of Lost Knowledge or Forgotten cities.

In a way, the entire 'Twilight Reign' series has a kind of feel of being in an MMORPG. There are no 'Unknowns' in this universe, in the sense of 'What lies over the mountain'. When you run into a new Character or God, EVERYTHING you show more need to know is thereby dumped on you: Strengths, Weaknesses, Vicissitudes, everything. Just another player character on the gaming Map. There's no discovery. No gradual uncovering of a puzzle with the promise of something 'Amazing' at it's source.

It's like the Fantasy version of Military Hard Sci-fi where it's all about the strategy and tactics and who has the bigger army. There is not even very much exploration of the REASON the world is shaped the way it is under all those Gods and the misery they cause.

So after the second book, I stopped caring where Isak was going or what he was about to do.

Mind you-- I notice a lot of fantasy on the shelves that is basically Gamer-Fiction, it takes the game universe and picks out a story within the narrow confines. And for the casual reader, they are entertaining...but only that. Again-- nothing wrong with it.

But I was expecting more. show less

I have to say I did things a little bit backwards when it came to this series. It all started with The God Tattoo, Tom Lloyd's anthology of stories from the Twilight Reign that I read last year. Needless to say, I enjoyed it very much. Furthermore, it made me want to explore everything else this world had to offer, so when Pyr gave me the opportunity to read and review The Stormcaller, the first book of the series that began it all, I very enthusiastically accepted.

That collection of tales had given me a taste of the Twilight Reign universe, and piqued my interest with its promise of a dark and epic fantasy. Here was the world I had been introduced to, one of white-eyes, ancient deities and terrible magic. Now I was finally able to see show more the wider context, getting the full depth of the story filled with gods and demons, clandestine politics and violent clashes between warring peoples. I feel like what I'd gotten from the anthology was just a nibble. And here, this was the whole cake.

Born into a life of poverty, our main protagonist Isak is a white-eye, a genetic rarity known to make those with the condition bigger, stronger, and more aggressive. Feared and mistrusted by those around him, Isak had resigned to the fact that he would never be accepted, until fate intervenes and raises him to a position of power as the heir to the Lord of the Fahlan. In some ways, I feel the book comprises of several distinct parts, and this section of the story would be the first of them, focusing on Isak's transition from a simple peasant to someone with status.

Now, while it's true that a lot of fantasy stories begin this way, I thought Isak's background was a big part of what set his tale apart. For one thing, I find the lore and history behind white-eyes fascinating. Purported to be stronger, faster and more charming than normal men because they are god-touched and divinely chosen to be leaders, white-eyes are still no less shunned and despised by many. Because of this, Isak has to prove himself twice over to satisfy his detractors.

Regrettably, I also think this part of the book was the most difficult to get through. As Isak learns the ropes, this section of the story is mostly filled with descriptions of the things he learns and the people he meets, and it's the most slow-moving part of the story. Add to that, the writing style took some time for me to get used to. I thought the prose came across rather stark and ponderous, and while I wouldn't say I disliked the writing, it still felt like it was missing something -- lightness or emotion, perhaps, though to be fair, the story is meant to be quite dark and heavy. To get through this first part of the book, I did feel I had to work at it.

The action didn't come until later, but I have to say the plot picks up considerably once we follow Isak and his people into war against the elves. This section of the story is driven by several pitched battles, and here the author also starts fleshing out his world in earnest, giving it history and depth. As the layers were filled in one by one (culture, religions, politics, etc) I finally began to feel the full weight of the Twilight Reign universe.

I ended up loving the second half of this novel. It encompassed the final section of the story, in which Isak travels to Narkang with his retinue, and they meet the celebrated King Emin. I won't deny this probably had to do with having read The God Tattoo first; Emin was a character that featured prominently in a couple of the stories in the anthology, and so in a way, I felt like I already knew him and had a good grasp of the setting of Narkang. And lastly, this part of the book also featured the climax of the final battle, which was a great way to bring everything to a close.

All told, it took me a while to read The Stormcaller, partly because it's such a long book but also because I had to settle in to the writing style. Still, I enjoyed this one. I may have come to this series in a roundabout way, but further exploring a world that fascinated and intrigued me was so worth it. show less

This was a reread, I read this book two years ago loved it, got the other books in the series as well and never got round to read them.
I still think that this is a fabulous fantasy story which is very difficult to put down, once you got caught up in the storyline. Lloyd is an eloquent story teller who managed to create a dark, vivid and enthralling world with fascinating characters and creatures - known and unknown :) - in it, which made the story a very engaging read. When I read it the first time the story exceeded my expectations by far and I was not dissapointed, this still holds now. I very much enjoyed the idea of the "white eyes" which are stronger, bigger, more violent and definately meaner than "ordinary humans". These "white show more eyes" were created by the gods to rule the lands and the people. The characters in the story are depicted in great detail and well developed which resulted in a bunch of characters with strong personalities. The main character the "white eye" Isak is a fascinating personality with a lot of flaws and fears and that's excactly what I like so much about the story. He is made into a hero against his will - and at a very young age - who actually fears all kind of things, suffers from uncertanties and on top of that has a violent temper which he finds difficult to control at times. Compared to a lot of the "shining - we know it all" heros, Isak is just refreshing and entertaining. His complex nature made him a very intriguing and charismatic character.
The action in the book was well paced, politics were complex at times but by no means overpowering the story. The magic was interesting, nothing to fancy and it was easy to follow the story line.
Tom Lloyed managed to create a vivid world, with great characters, a rich history, with a sense for descriptive details and originality. Again, I very much enjoyed this book and can recommend this to anyone who loves fantasy.

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