The Storm Lord (Daw science fiction) [Paperback]

Tanith Lee (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 1 pages
• Publisher: DAW (May 18, 1976)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0886772737
• ISBN-13: 978-0886772734
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,421,102 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superior sword-and-sorcery novel, November 26, 2000

By 

Elaina Nader "(Oxley)" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Storm Lord (Daw science fiction) (Paperback)

This is one of Lee's earlier works, less experimental than many of her later books but a great read. This is good old-fashioned storytelling at its finest, in which the goal of the writer is to keep readers glued to the page, and Storm Lord does. The hero Raldnor is born the rightful heir to the Storm Lord's throne. (In this novel the youngest, not the oldest, son is legal heir because of a belief that a son still in the womb at the time of the Storm Lord's death will be born with the reincarnated soul of the old Storm Lord.) But because his mother is a woman of a despised and subjugated race, she is put out of the way by the old Storm Lord's wife who wants her own infant son to ascend the throne. Raldnor is believed dead and grows up knowing only that he is a half-breed, with the dark skin and eyes of his father and his mother's tell-tale blonde hair. He dyes his hair black and takes service as one of the Storm Lord's soldiers. When he rises to become his half-brother's trusted right-hand man (and his only real friend), his identity is discovered and the rest of the book unfolds in a complex pattern of fate, treachery, passion, and revenge. Tanith Lee's sense of irony elevates Storm Lord well above the usual run of sword-and-sorcery; most of them don't contain anything like the emotional intensity found here. I wish this book hadn't gone out of print! But trust me, it's worth tracking down.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars First book in the Novels of Vis-- three-and-a-half stars, July 10, 2005

By 

frumiousb "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Storm Lord (Daw science fiction) (Paperback)

Tanith Lee is a very diverse writer, who has worked with a variety of styles and genres over the years. Pretty much the only thing that you can count on in her works is that the descriptions will be lush and that there will be a thread of darkness that runs throughout.

The Storm King is an early Lee novel (1976) that opens up a three book series called the Novels of Vis. It tells the story of a war between two human races that is fought through the agency of two half-brothers and their respective Gods.

If you are familiar with Lee as a writer, you might think of this book as a combination between the Flat Earth books and the stand alone novel A Heroine of the World. Lee combines much of the mythology and magic of Flat Earth with a strong focus on politics and characters.

This combination is not always hugely successful. While the first half of the novel is compelling, and moves swiftly, the second half is bogged down by a multitude of place names and characters. Unfortunately, a number of the characters have similar sounding names so that when they reappear, the reader is really forced back into the pages to check who it was again.

Fans of Lee should enjoy the book. It seems a promising start to the series and a nice variation on a theme. I would direct readers new to Lee toward the Flat Earth books as I still find them to be her strongest novels.

2.0 out of 5 stars MK Is Right: A Storm Lord Story Of No Substance!, November 29, 2010

By 

Anathaniel Wallace "Nosidino" (Wash, DC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Storm Lord (Paperback)

The only reason I was able to finish this book was because it had great descriptions of the world the characters resided in. This was what enthralled me with the book. But otherwise the story was flat.

MK you are absolutely right! This story was flat and unengaging. I cared nothing for the principals and it didn't help that Lee kept shifting her viewpoint characters. As an unpublished writer even I know that it is bad form to constantly shift viewpoints. Yannul was a good minor character, but when Lee shifted to Orvan and Xaros she went too far in my opinion. Then there was the problem with Raldnor. When he wasn't sexually assaulting women he was alone brooding by himself or seducing women until the very end of the novel where he practically disappears for the last 20% of the book only then to be described via third person! What is going on? Thus the tenuous bond I'd gained with the protagonist from the beginning of the novel is fractured.

MK you are right about the dearth of personality exhibited by the characters. The rape scenes seemed to have no real purpose in the novel and did not drive the plot. Frankly, I was quite surprised to be reading this from a female writer. Even John Norman in his Gor series was not as explicit concerning language and description of sexual violence. Yes, the women are all damsels in distress and seem to be helpless and subservient to men. That in itself is no real big deal, and is a staple of the genre (See/Read GRR Martin's Award Winning A Song Of Ice & Fire). Nevertheless, unlike Martin and others, Lee does not succesfully convey the emotions of the characters. As a result, we as readers don't care about them.

MK you are right again about the lack of entertainment this book provides. In fact, I had been prepared to give it a three star review until the last 25 pages of the novel. The third person descriptions of battles, character motivations and all around actions dropped the quality of the novel another notch for me.

I give the book two stars (Instead Of One) because of the world Tanith Lee created. Things were so interesting! Lowlanders vs Highlanders of Koramvis- Highlanders vs Thanddorians, etc. The Zakorian Pirates were also of great interest to me as was their city Hanassor, a highly original abode I've only seen in one or two other fantasy settings. It's a pity she did not build more on these ideas.

I will say this, however: I like Sword & Sorcery novels and the Sword & Planet genres too. The idea of a muscle-bound hero carrying off the damsel in distress interests me much. I just don't like to see the hero commit violence against the lady. Call me macho, but I feel the man/men should protect the women, not oppress them. Unfortunately this book is not interesting even for what it is. This is a shame, because there is so much more that Tanith Lee could have done with the book and I feel it languished as a result of either her inexperience at the time or her inattention to details. Maybe the later books in the series improve. I'll get back to you when and if I read them.

A. Nathaniel Wallace, Jr