The Stormcaller, book one of the twilight reignby Tom Lloyd
Pub: Gollancz
Cover: Larry Rostant
497 pages
The fourth book in this series came out in August but I was advised to start at book one for reviewing so I went back to the begining.
Isak is white eye, born to a violent nature and a hard life growing up on a wagon train with a father who hates him. His only friends is the old Ghost, a one time royal guard. But Isak is marked out for greater things and destiny is determined to be played out.
The set up for The Stormcaller is typical of epic fantasy, the wagon brat with a destiny at the palace, impending wars, multiple players trying to manipulate the future, swordplay, magic and all the usual trappings. Beyond the basic shape of the novel though there is little here that is predictable. The brilliance of Stormcaller is that within the comfortable and familiar confines of epic fantasy Lloyd delivers a constant series of surprises and twists, many of them subtely changing the shape of the novel from the course the reader anticipates.
The characters are fascinating and in some cases charming and draw you through the novel easily. Typical of the sort of novel there is a fair sized cast, but they are strong, individual personalities, easy to differentiate and get involved with, following the different plot threads. The story is often dark, but there is a sense of humour at play here too which delighted me, offering brief moments of relief from an intense journey. Pleasingly the jumping around in time and place is limited so it's easy to settle in and follow the various strands of plot, although there are plenty of hints woven in that there is more to events than we are witness to. The Stormcaller stands well as a novel, although clearly the first in the series and i'm advised that it is easier to read this particular series in order. For once I don't see that as a weakness.
Tightly plotted, brilliantly executed and with fascinating characters I can't wait to get back to. The first of the Twilight Reign books stands out among the ranks of 'farm boy destined for greatness' crowd and is a genuinely compelling book.
I am delighted to say Un:Bound will be interviewing Tom Lloyd soon and we are really looking forward to having him on the site.
4 comments:
Looking forward to that interview. And how are you doing these days Adele darling?
Thanks for the heads up on the Twilight Reign series. I'll look forward to reading it.
I'll also look forward to reading whatever you may have to say about whatever you want to talk.
Hope to hear from you very soon. :-)
Sounds like a great series! Will look for it in the iBookstore.
Sorry I don't comment often anymore. Ever since you redid the design of Unbound, it's difficult to load and scroll through. I've tried on three different computers, all with high speed, too.
I was in two minds about reading this, but your review has convinced me! Good work Adele :-)
Jack - i'm good love, and come back later this evening to natter on Vinces post. :)
Alex no worries, could you drop me a line about the problems and I will talk to Geek Monkey see if we can fix it. :)
Murf61 cool, I hope you enjoy it. :)
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