Customer Reviews

The Last Stormlord

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Shale and Mica are brothers who are close to outcasts in their small desert village till one day raiders, seemingly at random, attack their village and kill most of them except for the brothers whom they kidnap.

The four quarters of the Scarpen are a desert land where a small portion of the population have the ability to sense or manipulate water and create storms that bring life to the land and allow people to live there. However, the last of the people with full ability to actually create a full storm is dying, which means Shale's potential as a rainlord is worth more than gold to those who can hold on to him. However, Shale isn't alone in having skills that will will shape the future of Quarten.

I found this book to be well written and full of interesting characters and the central characters are ones likeable enough to keep the story one you want to follow though. The world of the Scarpen and how it's water dependancies have shaped everything there deepens with every chapter. I have been fortunate enough to read book 2 in this series Stormlord Rising, which is already released in Australia and I am hanging out for book 3 - which at this point I can't see how it will wrap up, which is a good sign in fantasy writing.

This is one author who I think has improved noticeably with each book she has written and this book and the next in the series are both great fantasy reads.

I had never heard of Glenda Larke before this book. When I finished with the book, I honestly feared she might be more-talented version of Christopher Paolini. Much to my surprise, she's an experienced author working on her third trilogy.

But before I get too far in to the book, let me first lambaste the idiot who attempted to summarize the story on the back cover of the paperback edition: This person identified three major characters in an order totally unrelated to the way they are introduced. Worse, the third section of the summary instantly gives away things that take us several chapters to learn about the first.

As for the story itself, the characters are predictably clichéd, the villain more so than the heroes, and the supporting cast worst of all. The villain barely establishes a connection with the third dimension. Then there's the guy who's just truly evil and barely makes it in to the second dimension. The supporting cast are firmly one- dimensional and act totally in the roles the establish themselves in.

By far the greatest flaw of this book is that it is only a book by the technical definition: paper bound together as a cohesive element. None of the major story elements are resolved in this book. There is no resolution to anything. It feels more like one is reading The Fellowship of The Ring, but without even the minimal closure brought about by Boromir's death. J. R. R. Tolkien's book was The Lord of The Rings; his publisher decided there should be three books. I can only hope Ms. Larke has such an excuse.

The book fails to tell a story, settling instead to set one up. Don't get me wrong, despite its flaws, the story is intriguing. However, the book ends without finishing any part of the story. The book covers six years of time and the characters do not seem to age at all.

When the book ends, it feels more like one is going to commercial break at the end of SyFy's eternally frustrating mid-season finales; right up to the moderately annoying character dropping a sinister cliffhanger in response to a death that should have stirred the reader's heartstrings and failed to do so.

Ms. Larke appears to be writing an epic miniseries for SyFy - something they generally do well, Tales of Earthsea notwithstanding. However, she's trying to present it as a trilogy of books when by the end of book one, you feel like you're only a third of the way through the novel.

THE LAST STORMLORD by Glenda Larke reminds me of the epic fantasies of 20-odd years ago because the pacing is similar in its devotion to world-building without a visible purpose. There's the standard young boy being trained. A girl on the verge of womanhood, trapped in a life not of her choosing. I probably wouldn't have minded STORMLORD if I haven't already read it, like, one thousand times before in its various incarnations.

There's enough action that STORMLORD shouldn't have been boring, but the pacing, flow, and expositional dialogue negated the spurts of excitement--the 670 pages could have been pared down by another 100 to make the novel a smoother read. The book covers six years as Slate and Terelle grow up, glossing over big periods of time. Larke also glosses over important interactions between our characters, and lacks realistic insight when describing her characters and their interactions. For example, when Slate and Terelle finally cross paths three-quarters into the novel, they develop a relationship, but we never actually see this happen, we just have to take the narrator's word for it. And when the PoV characters do think about their relationship with the other, it's cheesy, which makes me sad because I'm a girl who likes some mushy romance, but this was just lame.

The most fascinating character is Highlord Taquar, one of the city rainlords, whose motivations are twisted and yet just. You aren't really sure if he's doing what he must for power, or a real desire to save the people of the Quatern from a horrible fate. Too bad the protagonists aren't as interesting, and instead the other rainlords are cliche in their dialogue, actions, and personality.

STORMLORD has a clever setting and a culture that revolves around a lack of water: it affects what is planted, how people live, what kind of animals exist among them. The magic is a large part of the culture, affecting who rules the Quatern, which could be anyone as long as their water sensitivity is strong enough. There's a lot of potential for the magic with the way it's set up, and I sincerely hope there are big plans for future installments. Unfortunately, Larke tries so very hard to create a gritty and dark setting, but her writing lacks the subtly necessary to pull it off without sounding corny. In the last hundred pages we're treated with revelations using melodramatic dialogue so cliche I laughed out loud.

Larke doesn't really have a story to tell here--not one with an end, anyway. Nothing resolves, and instead we're left with cliffhangers and are forced to continue the next book if we want to see any satisfaction. It remains to be seen whether an entire book dedicated to world building and plot set-up is worth the time it has taken to read it.

What an excellent read. There admittedly were some cliches, such as the hero's character development. While it wasn't unreasonable given the plot circumstances, it still felt sudden. Also, you will find the overall plot of the book and the villain's identity to be extremely easy to deduce. That aside, it was still an extremely entertaining book. It was very interesting to read about the world that Larke invented for us, in which water is treasured so highly and society is centered around those individuals able to magically manipulate it. This was a book that kept me up until very late at night, and I am looking forward to the next book set in the Quartern, Stormlord Rising.

This book is set in a world where rain doesn't come regularly and water is a very precious item. Rains are scheduled by the Cloudmaster, or Stormlords. Water has to be separated from the sea, as a pure water vapor, then the cloud is moved up toward the moutain ranges so the water runs down toward all the cities again or to the regions to get the water. The water is released as rain and stored in cisterns to be rationed out. However, you learn there are many people who don't have water rights and have to buy the water, one way or another. We start with Terelle in a snuggery with her sister, where their fathers sold them to. Terelle is twelve and has no desire to be paid to sleep with different men every night. Then we meet Shale a Gibber who's father named him Shale because he felt he was as useless as a heap of shale. We take a journey through the lives of these two characters, along with others, as they grow up and learn who they are.

In the first 100 pages I felt I meet all the important characters through the writing of different view points; Terelle, Shale, and from some of the rainlords too. I enjoyed reading these different views because I got to see the world and learn about the world from different happenings and sides. I also got to see what the characters where thinking when they meet, then when they separated again.

The world ended up being a great attraction for me in this book. There are different cultures and beliefs of religion. Along with these different cultures you see there is a "magic" here, that centers around water - water sensitives. These are people who can sense and even manipulate water. There are different levels of ability and there are different types of manipulation. One is to make the storms or sense water, another is to manipulate paint through water - which can also affect the future. I think my favorite at the moment is the waterpainters. Although, how Shale learns to use his water sense is amazing too.

In those first 100 pages not only did I get to see the world at different views and the separation created between all the people, but also the problems that exist in the world now. The shortness in Stormlords and available pure water. I did have one question which kept nagging at me as I read with the characters mentioning there use to be random rains and now they had to have a Stormlord to keep water coming for the people, and the land being rather dry. What was so wrong with random rains, if it had supplied plenty of water and to have lots more vegetation growing? You do find out later in the book some history about the random rains and why the stormlords are needed.

Glenda Larke has created a great world here with different cultures and characters, from Reduners, Albasters, Gibbers, and Scarpens - and we can't forget the Watergivers. Glenda has supplied us with a map and she makes great use of her whole world.

I felt as if I watched these characters grow up over the span of about six or seven years in this world and even adjust to the world for who they are. I got to know them and the world together.

After reading this book, I started to think on how careful the charcters where with their water and how sparingly they used it. Made me think about how we take advantage of always having it.

I am really looking forward to book 2, Stormlord Rising. I am attached to these characters and this world and just have to know how it all works out for them.

A nice surprise. I was ready to be disappointed, but found myself engaged in the story and gratified by her clear, concise use of language and strong development of character and plot. A nice tight story line with no inconsistencies that I could find. She leaves us with a cliffhanger, and I am eager to read the next installment. Just a good, entertaining read.

My one major major gripe with this book is all the filler. I'm sure there are commercial reasons to stretch this story into a trilogy but a good half of this book could have been cut and it it would have been more compelling for it. The were some seriously heavy handed cliches and character development was minimal even for the main protagonists. This novel feels like it is merely setting the stage for the next two, not a story in itself. Well thats not entirely true within the first 3 chapters the author pounds out foreshadowing with all the subtlety of a sledge hammer. From then on out you know what will happen, the only surprising part is we take about 30 more chapters to get there.

I did finish this book but I don't care enough about the story world to pick up the next two.

What does it take for a book to win 5 stars from me? Quite a bit. The Last Stormlord excels in some of my favorite areas. First, it grabs your attention from the start. I love it when a book jumps right in with the daily life of a character. This one starts out in a snuggery where our main character is working to pay off her water debt. What is a snuggery and what is a water debt you say? Well a snuggery is the nicest word I've ever seen for a brothel and a water debt is what you have to pay back for a childhood of someone feeding you, clothing you, and giving you water. The Last Stormlord takes place in a desert environment where everything is based on water. It makes sense that the magic system is based on water. It also makes sense that water is in short supply and has to be rationed out. I think the world was portrayed very well and was fully developed. Also, I felt that Terelle was likable from the start. I understood where she was coming from and why she behaved the way she did. She felt mature for her age, but that makes sense because of her upbringing. The author gives us the lay of the land, the history, and the terminology from the mouths of the main characters, and that is another thing I greatly appreciate. I don't like long introductions where the narrator describes what each area is, who lives there, what they believe, and how everything works. Please let us figure that out for ourselves as we need it. We aren't studying for a test here. I did get a bit upset when the viewpoint changed to Shale because I was enjoying Terelle's story so much, but thankfully all of the viewpoints in this story are equally compelling. Shale is also the victim of bad circumstances, and his childhood is not the greatest. He is also a bit mature for his age, but I didn't mind it. I like that the characters have strength. The third main character introduced is our villain. It may be a bit of a spoiler to say who that is, so I will just say that he's pretty evil. He is motivated by the same thing that motivates all stereotypical villains, and that is power. In that aspect he is a bit one dimensional, but I did understand his motivation. The current stormlord is dying and is too weak to make the decisions that need to be made, so I see why he could want to take over. Even though the villains are evil, I still found them likable, just like all of the other characters. I also loved that most of the characters can be irritating. Everything does not work out nicely for everyone, and everyone is not a stereotypical hero. It's realistic, and that's another thing I love in my fantasy. In summary, The Last Stormlord has likable characters that are not perfect and a great setting with an interesting magic and belief system. It's character based instead of quest based and there is so much left to explore. I can't wait to find out how everything progresses in book two.

In Scarcleft City in the Scarpen Quarter, her father sells his twelve year old daughter Terelle to Opal's snuggery where she picks up dirty plates and mugs to be reused in the kitchen. Terelle knows that if she fails to escape shortly she will become a courtesan handmaiden just like her older half-sister Vivie who counseled her to accept the inevitable. However, the water painter gives her hope.

At the same time that Terelle considers how to escape, the Stormlord is dying and no one seems capable of taking over his critical duties. Shale the low life has the gift, but lacks the training and being an outcast means he will never receive the training to control being a Stormord bringing the needed rain to the desert. As he wanders around while the current Stormlord nears death, the son of Granlon the Cloudmaster Nealrith Almondine and Kaneth Carnelian check levels at water cisterns to find each one at dangerous low drought levels. They discuss moral options while Taquar leads the tribes to return to the Time of Random Rain; to achieve his goal he must kill anyone who displays the watergiver talent.

This is a terrific fantasy that uses a dangerous drop in water levels to set up the excellent opening act of what looks like will be a superb relevant thriller. The ensemble cast is incredibly deep so that even secondary characters like Kaneth and the water talented female Ryka that he should marry come across as fully developed enhancing the plausibility of the story line of doom. In fact Kaneth explains the two extreme choices between allowing everyone to die slowly and mass murder to enable a chosen few high up in the water hierarch to live. Fans will enjoy Glenda Larke's terrific relevant tale as the water wars seem imminent in the Quartern.

Harriet Klausner

The Last Stormlord is a long book about a desert like civilization on the precipice of civil war. It is filled with politics, action, and build up... Lots and lots of build up. This is the first book in the series and as such has to set the stage for the remaining books. That said quite a bit happens in The Last Stormlord, and yet the story is far from complete.

Larke has no problem killing off important characters and as such readers should not get to comfortable or connected to any of the characters. The story is broken up into different characters perspectives giving the story in full through multiple eyes. It is exciting, gripping, and captivating, making it almost impossible for a reader to put this book down. In fact because of its compelling nature, The Last Stormlord will have even the most experienced readers wanting to skim ahead to see what happens to the characters and situations.


All in all The Last Stormlord is an engaging book that many fantasy readers will love. Larke has a great voice and the story is both well written and intriguing. The politics does run a little deep, and the story is long, but for those willing to put in the time and effort this is a fantastic book just waiting to be read.
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