Love the world. Thought the characterisation of Shale / Jasper suffered a bit in the middle in order to shore up Terelle's viewpoint, but returned strongly.
Looking forward to the last book! ( )

If you enjoyed Book #1, then you should also enjoy Book #2... the action picks up where it left off in Book #1 and carries you on for the ride... breezed through this one as well. Great story. Great characters.

I think the pull of any fantasy is whether the world and characters manage to grab you enough. I try to space out my fantasy reads or at least try to make sure that I don't burn myself out by reading stories of similar sub-genres (if not a similar genre).

The thing I notice with fantasy books is that I tend to get carried away, as it is, by far, one of the easier genre's for me to read. Zip, zip, zip! But that, of course, is a generalisation.

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For a second book in a trilogy, Stormlord Rising is really well balanced. It did not feel like a middle book to me. Instead it felt just as intense and if anything, more action packed then the first.

Because it is a middle book I was really surprised to see so many events coming to a head. I expected more character and world development, which I got, but I also got to witness a brutal war. Glenda Larke did not hold back on the brutality nor was she afraid to kill off alot of important characters. As a result the pacing was pretty fast and the "omg what could possibly happen next" tension held me to the pages.

I am getting alot out of this story. A world where every drop of water is precious intrigues me. There is also a religious overtone to the story where the divergent cultures are completely different in their beliefs. Glenda Larke not only gives religion a large role but explores how completely offbase a system of beliefs can be when clouded by time and misinformation. I am looking forward to seeing how that line of the story plays out.

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It took me forever to get into this story, it really dragged for me until the last about 200 pages when I got caught up in the story. The nomadic Reduners have destroyed the Quarterns cities and taken many of the people hostage. Shale lives, relying on his enemy to survive and to get rain to the remaining few cities. Ryka Feldspar is pregnant and trying to survive, captured as a slave and forced into the bed of their next leader.

It felt to me that there was a little bit too much going on, Very scattered and I honestly didn't care for most of the characters, they just blurred into a complicated mess for me and I kept putting dow this book to read other things. I honestly nearly gave up, but then I got to the last 200 pages and it moved quite quickly. I really don't think I'll be reading the next book in the series though. ( )

According to my blog stats, the prequel to this book - "The Last Stormlord" - is the most viewed review on my blog. Apparently people are quite interested in the series. And I can see why, that first book was really good. This second one though, is even better.

As before it has a striking cover, apparently of a woman this time, which really does it's job of attracting readers. And they should be attracted. But ideally to the Last Storlord first, as that really needs to be read before a lot of this one can be understood.But it's worth doing. In this one we see shale undergoing a lot of character development, and Terenelle as well to a lesser degree. But character development means nothing without a good plot, and this one is almost irresistibly good.

Since the start of the first book the country is an a substantially different state, and the story being about the various powers of the "Quatern" means that we see a lot of dramatic changes. But there is one storyline that is about someone with no political power at all which really interests me. Now in this book her story isn't that exciting. It's basically just travelling for the most part. But there's something about the character of Terenelle that really wants to let me know more. I've recently said that the best books can make you fall in love with their characters. Now maybe it doesn't go quite that far - but I certainly wouldn't mind spending a considerable amount of time with her.

There is another character - the competition for the "love" of the main character - but in the sense of an arranged marriage. She's a fantastic character, wonderfully written, and unlike Terenelle is the kind of person you wouldn't want to spend a lot of time with. She's a spoilt brat, essentially. Rather annoying, but still one of my favourtie characters. The others are all really good characters, but these two are my favourite.

The only reason that I haven't given this full marks (Except on Amazon etc, where 4.5/5 is not available), is because there are a couple of discontinuity points in the same book. For example - Terenelle can't use her powers to save her and her grandfather because she has forgotten her paints. Yet later - when rescued - the rescuers say they picked up her paints. It's not a big problem - but it was kind of confusing. If Stormlord's Exile can avoid this problem, I can see it getting 10/10.

This is a really good trilogy - on par with some of the best fantasy writers such as Trudi Canavan and Maggie Furey. There is a couple of minor problems - but the story is great, the characters are incredible, and it's generally a fantastic experience. I both look forwards to the next book and dread the end of the trilogy. If you read this, I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do. ( )