Umbral Storm

Blurb

A thousand years ago the Heart of the World was shattered, its fragments scattered across the lands. In the chaos that followed, martial orders arose to gather these shards, for it was found that great powers were granted when these pieces were bonded to the flesh of the chosen. These are the Sharded Few, warriors imbued with the divine energies that once coursed through the Heart, and driven to absorb enough fragments to claim godhood.

Deryn has known nothing in his life except suffering. Orphaned at the edge of the realms, indentured to a cruel slaver, he can see little chance of escaping his circumstances. But elsewhere in the world ancient powers are stirring, new alliances threaten the peace of the old order, and in the cataclysms that are coming a slave will become a hero.

Thoughts

As of writing this review, I have read the first published book on Amazon.

Off the bat, this is a different sort of magic school book to classics like Mark of the Fool, Arcane Ascensions, Forge of Destiny and similar. In those books, much of the plot content revolves around life when studying. Classes, quizzes, exams, tournaments, schoolyard bullies, professors, and often includes fun downtime (cooking in MotF, enchanting in AA, etc). In Umbral Storm there are lessons, sure, but they and the academic side of things are very much in the background. This is both because one of the two main perspectives follows a person not one of the Sharded Few in the Darkhold, and the other perspective (Deryn) follows things in a much more hands-off manner.

In effect, what this means is more time spent in character work, more time spent prior to being accepted, and time spent after leaving. And a greater focus on the world and wider plot than class-based assessment. Which is all good to me, because the characters are interesting, book one sets up a great change of pace and location for book two, and the progression—while slow—is still consistent.

And surprisingly (given some fortuitous circumstances in how Deryn gains his shards), it still feels earned. So how to describe this book? It’s hard. It’s more school focused than Bastion, but less than something like Art of the Adept or The Enchanter. It’s got exploration outside the school, but not (yet") to the scope we see in Mage Errant. It’s got a small cast of three, like Cradle, while still having secondary characters with depth.

Look, at the end of the day, I really enjoyed it, so go read it for yourself and let me know of similar works that I can add to my reading list.