Customer Reviews

Storm Born (Dark Swan, Book 1)

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

First with Vampire Academy, then with Succubus Blues, and now with Storm Born, Richelle Mead has stolen my heart through her wonderful prose, lively characters, and intriguing ideas.

In some ways Storm Born reminds me of Jim Butcher's Storm Front (odd coincidence there). Eugenie Markham is a shaman-for-hire (kind of like Harry Dresden being a wizard-for-hire), taking on the odd job of banishing spirits and gentry who disturb the human realm. But aside from some similar traits between the main characters, that's where the similarities end.

Things get sticky when a human named Wil hires her to rescue his teenage sister, who was kidnapped by gentry intent on using her body. Of course, being compassionate, Eugenie takes the job even knowing that crossing into the Otherworld to complete this task makes facing death that much more real.

Unlike her previous novels, Mead isn't shy about jumping headlong into the sex scenes. But like her previous novels they are tasteful, passionate, and written without silly euphemisms. And, like her previous novels, the concept of sex plays a larger role than just pleasure. The creatures of the Otherworld, knowing Eugenie's heritage even before she does, are intent on using her to sire a powerful heir.

Storm Born is full of fun characters, intense action, and passion that sizzles in the form of a love triangle. Eugenie is in love with Kiyo, a kitsune, but also dangerously taken by Dorian, a gentry king. Normally love triangles make this reader iffy, but Mead is one of the few who does it so well. Both Dorian and Kiyo are possessive of Eugenie, but Eugenie doesn't simply capitulate to either man's wants or desires.

In fact, Eugenie herself is my favorite aspect of the story. She's strong, witty, and highly resourceful. She may not have all the answers, and at times he has to do things that mentally scar her, but damned if she'll just give in when she can find a way around a problem. At the same time she's wonderfully flawed and makes mistakes--and the people around her aren't afraid to point it out. She's so brilliantly fleshed out and realistic--even in first person, a format I tend to loathe, Mead has created a character I want to root for and see win.

And I may be one of the only ones, but the twist involving Jasmine did honestly surprise me. It's another wonderful thing about Mead's writing--there are so many layers to her story that you know will be revealed sooner or later (maybe not in this novel, but over the course of the eventual series), that in trying to keep track of them all she manages to sneak in quite a few foreshadowing hints that still end up surprising you as a reader.

In short, this is one of the best dark fantasy novels to come out this year, and to date this may just be Mead's best writing to boot. I will be eagerly anticipating the sequel, as I am wont to do with Mead's writing.

I'd take the easy way out and say that Storm Born is Zen Moses meets the Chronicles of Narnia, but I won't for three reasons. First, the whole "x meets y" thing has become clichéd. Second, some of you are probably unfortunate enough not to know about Zen Moses. Third, it wouldn't be nice to steal the heroine's own reference to the Chronicles of Narnia.

Eugenie Markham, Odile, the Dark Swan. With so many identities, you'd think the protagonist of Richelle Mead's latest novel was confused enough, but things only get worse as she finds family members, dead and alive, that she never knew she had, learns her true identity and, maybe, her destiny.

Odile is a shaman. Not a peyote smoking (well, maybe once or twice) buckskin clad Native, but a real warrior with the power to bind and banish spirits and other denizens of the Otherworld including the gentry, the shining ones, fairies. And she's damn good at it, with a lot of fairy blood on her hands. She's a magical gun for hire, defending this world against invaders from elsewhere...for a price. "Have athame, will travel."

Things get dicy when the djinn possessing a running shoe knows her real name and others follow. Then, her latest gig, rescuing the 15-year old sister of a conspiracy theory blogger who's been kidnapped by a fairy king leads her to the answer of just how they know her real identity. It also leads her to a new question: "Does she know who she really is?"

Eugenie is a real hero, defending this world against the denizens of the Otherworld, but no stranger to spilling blood. In the course of the story she confronts her prejudice against the gentry, her aversion to fairy magic, even her attitude towards two men. Her attitudes evolve and she gains power. She sacrifices greatly for love and honor. The Dark Swan becomes a bit darker in the process.

This book is an engaging read with interesting takes on the fey, the afterlife and magic. There are amusing characters as well as serious ones, but overall the tone is more serious than Mead's Georgina Kincaid series. There may be a moral sentiment or two tucked in there, too, but it doesn't suffer for action. It's a real page turner you won't want to put down.

I have to agree with Patricia Briggs' cover quote: "Storm Born is my kind of book -- great characters, dark worlds, and just the right touch of humor. A great read." Richelle really does create characters that you swear could walk off the page. Eugenie Markham is a standout butt kicker -but better drawn than all the dime a dozen female demon killers out there these days.
While it fits what everyone is calling urban fantasy - I found this book to be much more than that catagory conjures up for me. Dark Fantasy, Romance and Mystery to name a few. This is a very well constructed story - complexities and surprises abound.
I actually passed this book up twice before I decided that I would pick it up. I read it in two days. I would have missed out on one heck of a story.

Seriously? There are maybe 5 accurate reviews. I'm not saying anyone is wrong for appreciating this style of book, to each their own, but really from reading all the reviews I expected something completely different. Okay, to those who haven't read it, this book is about 2 pages of sex to every 4 pages of plot. I got about 2/3 through and I can't finish it. I've never just left a book, ever. I even like steamy books, but this has the depth of a porn movie. The heroine must not remember her past because she was DROPPED ON HER HEAD as a child. She makes one ridiculous decision after another and is in no way likeable, let alone relatable. Everyone wants in your pants...yup...we get it....what else do you have to offer? Her roommate was funny though.

This is the worst review I have ever given. I've read TONS of paranormal romance, urban fantasy, ect ect. I really can't recommend this book. I find it hard to believe this author also writes for teenagers. Well no, what little plot there is could be teenager relatable, but the sex is so over the top, nonsensical, and never ending... I shudder to think what teenagers are getting into these days. Ugh. If you are looking for B movie porn in text format, hit up this book.

This was a pretty average first book in a series. It wasn't bad and it wasn't really good, it was just...there. The world building wasn't particularly developed, which was rather disappointing. Because I found Eugenie irritating and her love triangle boring, I was hoping for an intricate world to capture my attention. No such luck.

The beginning of this book seemed to crawl by. Maybe it just felt tedious as the author set up the story and world? I don't know, all I know is that it dragged until about page 200. Once we got more page time with Dorian and got to see Eugenie work on her powers it became more interesting.

Eugenie's relationship with Kiyo baffled me. Why exactly does he mean so much to you after you've spent a few hours together? You don't know him at all, but you refuse to think anything bad about him. You can't even bring yourself to suspect someone who has good cause to see you dead, because you trust Kiyo and he seems to trust them. Seriously, sometimes I wanted Eugenie to get kidnapped just so she'd learn the same lesson most every 7 year old has. You don't trust strangers.

Dorian was the most interesting character we encountered. His attitude was rather fascinating. He was always bored and ready to play, but you could feel that there was a much different character under the surface. We got a glimpse of him during times of crisis and I'm interested in seeing more. Dorian's fascination with ropes led to some interesting scenes. I would have enjoyed Eugenie's attitude toward submission more if I thought it was less of a cop out.

Eugenie's prejudice and stubbornness got old after a while. In don't mind watching character growth, but I hate seeing people make dumb decisions (again and again) just because they're blinded by prejudice. She also had a really bad habit of admitting the likelihood of a truth to herself and then turning around 2 seconds later and denying it to anyone who tries to make her face the truth.

I liked watching Eugenie's spirits bicker back and forth. It was amusing bouncing between one wanting to be her best friend, one steeped in misery and depression, and one dreaming about slowly killing her. Her friend Tim was also a lot of fun. He seemed to take everything in stride.

***SPOILERS***

What was up with the ending? Eugenie decided to risk her own life saving Kiyo from death. While there she lets herself be used for sex. What? What was the whole point of throwing that in there? The whole interlude seemed out of place and over the top. Then to come back and dump Dorian to work it out with her precious Kiyo? Her bouncing back and forth is really irritating, especially when she has sex with both of them as she rotates turns. Sleeping with a guy a day after you slept with another guy just skeezes me out a bit.

At the end of the book Kiyo seems to be campaigning really hard for her to never develop her magic anymore. I still think there's something hinky about him. I don't think he's going to be pleased with Eugenie's determination to get her power rush in the next book.

***END SPOILERS***

I still plan on reading the next book, Thorn Queen. The second book was recommended for a pick-it-for-me challenge, so I just needed to read this one so I wouldn't be lost. Hopefully the second book smooths out the kinks and is more engaging.

I really like Mead's Vampire Academy books and so was excited to read this one. It had intriguing characters, lots of action, and an interesting world/plot, but I find the heroine off-putting. She does some things that just don't make sense, even given her impulsive personality. (Like going to the otherworld to rescue a girl she doesn't know for no very compelling reason. Even that I could handle, but then she went into the Otherworld with NO PLAN. If she's a professional and this is her job, how could this be?) This is a problem that occurs frequently in urban fantasy (heroine is too impulsive, even stupid) but other authors create enough back story and build the character enough that you forgive the stupid decisions. Not so with Eugenie Markham. That said, the plot and world were so interesting, it kept me going. And I loved Dorian. Unlike Eugenie, he was well developed, with a certain depth - and very appealing! I hope Eugenie gets her head screwed on a little better so I can enjoy the series fully.

You know how you stay up all night because you think you're about to read a great book, but when you get to the end it's so disappointing that you will never read another in that series? This is that book. The herione is dumb. Proof of that - She MUST NOT have a baby, but has sex with two different guys and one without a condom. She is wishy washy, her emotions are lusting after one guy, then in a split second, lusting after another. She makes stupid decisions and then goes back to the original guy after having sex with another one, who obviously didn't perform up to expectations. AND WHAT IS WITH THE CRAZY MAGIC?? All of a sudden the heroine has every power possible.....it makes it UNBELIEVABLE. She can do all this stuff, is a powerful demon killer and yet can't decide who she wants to sleep with, who her friends are and the story is really quite painful to read. Her sister that pops up is like a story killer, or plot device in the plain view of everyone. I found myself skipping pages and pages of dribble to get to the meat of the story and found the meat lacking. I will not buy the rest of the series.

I finished the book, and mostly enjoyed it. (Yay!) I did, however, have two major qualms with the story and will not be reading more.

Mild spoilers included:

There really isn't much meat to the world that would allow for the growth and development of a vibrant series. The narration was concerned specifically with our heroine, Eugiene, and pretty much neglected all other world-building that makes a substantial start of a long-running series. Most of what is missing is detail about the world she inhabits. There is a rough sketch of her life (she does puzzles! she has tattoos!), but nothing that seems like a character trait and not a quirk-for-the-audience.

She has no connection with people or places that would happen as a young woman living on her own and working in people's homes, despite being both older and seemingly independent, even with the fact she's a recluse. Being a recluse doesn't mean the rest of the world doesn't interact with her at all. She's out and about a hell of a lot and there is no contact or mention of any world outside except for what specifically impacts her sex interests and her work. Also, I don't remember where she lives because there's very little sense of setting beyond 'omg, she lives in a desert!11'.

Her shamanistic powers are already at their peak (She's best out of the two we know of!) and her short-sighted impatience to learn all other power she can get her hands on is annoying at best. Her learning attempts make me wonder how she managed to learn to be a shaman at all, especially with her surprising frustration. Additionally, growing as a shaman doesn't appear to be of importance, despite her youth.

After all of the series-stability issues I have, my second major qualm is that the character uses kinky sex to - literally - avoid making a decision. Kinky sex in books is awesome (need more, kthnx), but using it as a plot device that allows our heroine to simply decide by not deciding really bothers me. The choice to use kinky sex in this fashion does not come across as a character decision (which would be awesome and complicated) but an author decision foisted upon the character (which, for me, is very squicky).

This novel is on the paranormal romance side of urban fantasy. Explicit scenes, not for kids.

I really enjoyed the short story about a haunted sneaker that introduced this world, but the heroine's professional shaman act we meet in chapter one is not her real personality. My problem with Eugenie (the heroine) is she never thinks. The plot is based around her going to the Otherworld to save a girl she doesn't know or care about, who may not even have been kidnapped. This is extremely dangerous, and the person sending her there is a mentally unbalanced conspiracy nutjob. Everyone, including her better judgment, tries talking her out of it. She goes. I thought the author did a terrible job of making this believable.

One detail I disliked was Eugenie won't eat Otherworld food, and three chapters later she is guzzling elf wine without a second thought. She's impulsive and has a hard time making up her mind, and this makes her dumb while making the plot worse. Her impulse control also helps her jump into bed faster.

The quality and unflinching steamy detail of the sex scenes make the romantic parts well written and integrated. If you like paranormal romance, add a star (add another if you like bondage). While Kiyo was nice, I thought Eugenie had chemistry going on with Dorian. Anyway, romance success.

Overall a weakly plotted paranormal romance with great world-builidng and a dumb heroine. Secondary characters were strong, especially homicidal Volusian, who Eugenie doesn't think is dangerous (another reason she is dumb). Not bad, but not great either.

Eugenie Markham is a Tuscon native shaman who makes her money banishing unwanted ghosts and fey to the world of the dead, or at least back to the Otherworld they came from. When she's asked to meet with a man, Wil, who says his sister, Jasmine, was taken by one of the gentry (fae) she's hesitant to take the job. Not only is this not the sort of job she does, but it's darned dangerous. To rescue Jasmine she will have to cross over into Otherworld not in her own spirit form--that of the dark swan known as Odile--but as her flesh and blood self. Before heading off to save the day she has a night out and hooks up with a handsome veterinarian named Kiyo and the two are attacked by one of the gentry elementals and the fight that ensues reveals she is more than what she said she was and so is Kiyo.

Persuaded by thoughts of the teenaged Jasmine being forced to be a gentry's plaything she accepts the job and with the back-up of her spirit servants, Volusian, Nandi and Finn, she sets off to get the girl back from Aeson, the Alder King. While in Otherworld she meets Dorian, the Oak King, who she becomes friends with but when the fight with Aeson fails she has to return home. With continued attacks from gentry she eventually finds out that not only have her parents been keeping MAJOR secrets from her but that there is a gentry prophecy about the child she might one day have. No wonder every gentry around is trying to rape her or at least win her favor!

Dodging would-be rapists, learning how to control new-found powers and sorting out the possible relationships with both Kiyo and Dorian, Eugenie never has a dull moment. Neither did this book! A fan of Mead's YA series (Vampire Academy) and the urban fantasy genre in general I was thrilled to see this book hit the shelves and it wasn't at all disappointing. Filled with action, interesting characters, sexual tension and plenty of well-timed humor it had everything I look for in an urban fantasy novel.

Fans of Rachel Morgan or the Sisters of the Moon series will not want to miss this one. With the elements of magic and a heroine in the vein of Rachel and a world building filled with kitsune, fae and elementals this series looks to be a crowd pleaser. Be on the lookout for Thorn Queen, the next book in the series due out in the summer of 2009!