Review - The Last Stormlord by Glenda Larke (Orbit)

The Last Stormlord by Glenda Larke
Published by Orbit
Paperback - 640 pages
Published March 2010
Personal copy of book

The Last Stormlord is set in the land called the Quatern, a land where rainfall is carefully regulated through the magic of the stormlords. This magic is rare; there is now only a single stormlord left, and he is dying. Tension and desperation runs high throughout the Quatern, and its affects have far reaching consequences for its people. People like Shale, a young boy from the poor and forgotten Gibber plains who is forced to hide his growing magical abilities, and Terelle from the city of Scarcleft who finds herself imprisoned at every turn.

The focus of The Last Stormlord is on the world that Larke has created. All of the elements in the story revolve around the overall dryness of the Quatern, so much so that it pervades the language of the characters. The worldbuilding is where Larke really shines in this novel. The elements of xenophobia and racism that are used in the story are believable because of the deep cultural differences in the areas of the Quatern. However, the focus on the environment has led to the presence of a number of infodumps that more often than not detract from the story. In a world that is carefully and beautifully crafted, the reader is being told more than they are shown.

This also means that the characters of The Last Stormlord aren't living up to their potential, and on the whole it is difficult to connect or sympathise with any of them. Terelle continuously moves from one form of imprisonment to another; from the servant of a brothel mistress to the forced apprentice of an artisan and more. It is presented as though there is no way for her to escape any kind of imprisonment, and with that fatalistic view in mind I found it difficult to care about her choices at all. The entire story more or less bleated out, 'there is no goodness in anyone here, and even the smallest shred of virtue is so overwhelmed by the evil that pervades the world that there is no hope'. With such despair facing the reader, it is hard to sympathise with anyone in this world.

Larke's themes of political intrigue that run through the story are very well executed, although the identity of the shadowy antagonist is quickly identified by the reader. Also, the magic system is a nice adaptation of the standard 'magic user becomes exhausted the more magic they use'. Owing to the arid nature of the world, the rainlords and stormlords use their powers exclusively with water. They are able to sense the flow of water within the world and within people, and they are able to kill be removing the water from a person's body (I suppose the term would be hydrokinetic).

In short, The Last Stormlord has a beautifully crafted world that, unfortunately, is populated by characters who lack complexity and who garner no sympathy. The outcome is a story that fails to fully immerse the reader, and by the end the protagonists are in more or less the same position that they were when they started – trapped at the mercy of others with less than noble intentions.