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 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. ( )

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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 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 ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2828734.html

It's pretty generic fantasy and I gave up after 100 pages. ( )

The Stormcaller, by Tom Lloyd, tells the story of Isak, a white-eye as he transitions from a roving wagon rider to the Krann, i.e. heir to one of the most powerful men in the country.

In essence, the story is one of the "protagonist is reviled for the gift that makes him special" sub-genre of fiction. His white-eye status makes him an outcast among his own people but also marks him as a powerful man.

For the most part, the story was good. The characters were generally well defined although sometimes one-dimensional in nature.

I also had real trouble with the transitions. Something potentially noteworthy would happen on the last page of the chapter. Then, the scene would go to a different character. While that's not an uncommon technique since it builds tension, when the original noteworthy item is mentioned again, it's just in passing. A sentence or two which gives the overview, but not the details. It made me feel a bit cheated.

However, don't assume there's no details given. Sometimes excessive details are given in a chapter that don't relate to action or characters. In addition, a lot of the characters are introduced with a bad case of "what I've done". In other words, when a new character is introduced, you hear all about their background and what brought them to this point. Much of that was irrelevant. But, you often don't find out how they fit into things until much later.

Finally, there's lots of words introduced without any description. Take the word Krann. Although Isak is called the Krann early in the novel, you don't find out what it means until much later although you can infer that it's a position of honor. Noblemen, generals, servants, etc. All are given titles without any description of what that title means. ( )

It was much better after the second read. Oh, and I love Isak! ( )