The Storm Caller / Tom Lloyd

The Storm Caller

(Twilight Reign 1)

by Tom Lloyd

fantasy, young adult

copyright 2006

read in May 2017

rated 7/10: well worth reading

As I read, I noticed similarities between Storm Caller and Eragon. Both were written by 18 year old men, and show it. Both books take a heap of ideas and throw them at the reader, too many ideas for one book. Both books take an "ordinary" boy and give him sudden access to enormous power.

And there the similarities end.

Storm Caller is a good book. Eragon was rubbish. Enough with the comparisons.

Storm Caller takes far too many ideas and throws them into an overactive story. Dozens of characters, numerous places, magic of all sorts. New people appear with no warning, to play a major part in the plot...

And yes, there is a plot. Okay, it's confusing. Yet the story develops -- at a breakneck pace -- and I'm enjoying it. Enjoying it a lot ! Even if I don't know who all these people are -- I can follow the hero's need to defeat them or befriend them.

The magic is largely unexplained, it just happens as required for the story. Except for the hero: he very quickly gains all the enormous power that he can use, that's deliberate on the part of the author. It leaves the young hero with several more books in which to build on the idea that power cannot solve every problem.

The hero needs cunning plans. And he needs good friends. Judging by the author's introduction, he was writing from his troubled adolescent heart. He gives his hero enormous power, then suggests that good friends, good will and good intentions are equally important. Even with my own adolescence a distant memory, I support and sympathise with the hero's attempts to be... nice.

And on top of all that niceness is non-stop adventure in a deep and wide new world. Did the author build an entire world to support the action? Or did he make it up as he went... I suspect (or hope) that he did understand his own world. Unfortunately, he did not have enough space in this book to explain it to the reader.

This is a first book in a series and first for the then-young author. As the start of a series -- I want to read more. As an author's first book -- it is far from perfect yet good enough to want to read more. In fact... even if subsequent books are just as confusing -- I would be happy to read them.

I read for enjoyment. I enjoy this book. Definitely well worth reading.

It's huge. It's confusing. It turns fantasy cliches on their heads. It has good -- and likeable -- good guys. It has nasty yet understandable bad guys. (And by "guys" I mean, "guys and gals".) It has adolescent wish fulfilment in spades.

It's a good book. There is potential for a great series.

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"The man who has no imagination has no wings." … Muhammad Ali