Author: Alec Hutson
Genre: Fantasy
Medium: ARC Apple iBook (physical copies are available),
TW: teen endangerment, mentions and depictions of violence towards teens, child death, mentions of animal abuse, enslavement
Overview:
At first blush, this book feels familiar. There’s a ‘generic fantasy world’ with a caste system where most of the population is not magically inclined aside from the nobles. Each part of the world is either hostile or indifferent towards one another, seeking power. The main character discovers he can use this magic, and gets whisked away. The dark powered ones are spooky, and their boarding school/familiar stronghold is hell. We’ve seen this before. But not really.
The devil’s in the details and boy does he deliver.
But with any good book, there are some flaws, although for a debut novel, not as much as I expected. It’s a wonderful first outing, with some slight missteps.
The Good:
Pacing: Let’s start with this book’s greatest strength; the pacing. From the first few pages, I was enraptured, and the book never let me go. The prose definitely helps with this, as action scenes are blisteringly fast, while scenes at rest still carry an undercurrent of action. I could not find any dead scenes, which is a marvel for a fantasy tome. (It was such a marvel that it kept me up past 3 am reading.)
The Setting: The prose communicated a vivid sense of place, and of history. I could see the places where the characters were going, from the shadow house in the mouth of an active volcano, to a forest with skyscraper-tall trees.
Magic System: The magic system is as mysterious and vivid as the setting, which is a positive here. I find myself wanting to dive deeper in to it, and I hope that there is more experimentation with it in the next volume.
Side Characters: I absolutely adore the side characters in this book. I was ensnared by them, because they felt real. Sometimes, characters feel as if they exist only for the story they are in. This is fine for some stories, but in larger works, it makes the world feel thin. I am happy to say that The Umbral Storm and the world it introduces does not have these paper doll characters, for the most part. Each side character with any prominence has a life outside of the story. They feel as if they each have their own adventures to go on. As this is a book with an ensemble cast (with Deryn being the main point of view character), this bodes well for the rest of the series.
This
extends to the main characters of the ensemble cast like Heth and
Alia. Their stories could fill up a book from before they met Deryn,
and I would read it.
The Representation: Although ambiguous, there is queer representation here, between two main characters, which is appreciated. (Happy Pride everyone!)
The Ehhh:
The Main Character: Now, the main character Deryn has his own depth, but he seemed a bit too naiive at times, when he shouldn’t be? For example, (minor spoilers) again and again, he is told that the Shards (this world’s magic enablers) were enough to kill for. He then allows himself to be alone with someone who is immediately shifty. However, this is not immersion breaking.
Abrupt
Ending: (Spoilers
for the rest of this section.) The ending felt abrupt. There is peril
and it is resolved, and the characters get a power up,
a tincture is used and not questioned. There are some large plot
points that have not been resolved as well, and I hope they will not
be discarded.
The Bad:
I legitimately do not believe that there were any ‘bad’ parts of this book. Again, it’s quite a marvel.
Sequel Worthy?
Yes. I desperately want a sequel, and hopefully won’t have to wait too long (the sequel is supposed to be out this summer). I can’t wait to be caught up in the rest of the world, even if sometimes there are small stumbles.
Final Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Drink Paring: Iced dark black tea (for Shadow Magic) and a rich shortbread cookie
Buy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Umbral-Storm-Sharded-Few-Book-ebook/dp/B09ZBGFFYP
