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The Stormcaller
by Tom Lloyd
(Gollancz, £12.99, 438 pages, trade paperback, published 16
March 2006.)
Review by Martin Owton
 The
Stormcaller is the debut novel of Tom Lloyd, a young British writer
and the first in a series. It is set in 'The Land', the western edge
of a continent, where different tribes of men maintain an uneasy peace
and the elves (nothing like Tolkien's elves) lurk in the wastelands
waiting for a chance to take back their former territories. The central
character is Isak, a white-eye. Born to be taller, stronger and more
resilient than other men; he dreams of a life as a soldier, but the
Gods have other plans for Isak. He is the Chosen, heir-elect to Lord
Bahl, the white-eye leader of the Farlan. Within a short time a messenger
arrives from Nartis, God of the Farlan, bearing gifts that mark Isak
out as the fulfiller of ancient prophecies. Prophecies that speak of
a time of turmoil, conflict and the elves regaining their lands.
A classic epic fantasy set up then? Certainly. Tom Lloyd has stacks
of imagination. He has thrown in preternatural warriors, ancient prophecies,
magic, gods, elves and there is even a dragon. The story follows Isak
learning and growing into his power as war envelopes the Farlan. But
does it all work? Not really. Tom Lloyd gives it a good go, he writes
stirring action scenes and plenty of them, but there are just too many
things in the mix and it all gets confusing. It is never really very
clear how the magic works and there is not enough backstory to explain
many of the plot elements with the result that many of the happenings
seem rather random. This, combined with the author's poor control of
point of view, meant that the dramatic tension never really wound up
for me. I kept expecting the dragon to show up and do something significant
and it didn't, except for a brief appearance as a ground attack weapon.
What should have been one of the big set pieces, the death of Lord Bahl,
takes place offstage. Even the map at the front of the book only shows
about half the places in the tale and not the tribal boundaries.
None of this makes The Stormcaller a bad book, it just could
have been so much better. I suspect that I would get more out of it
reading it a second time, but really it needs to get it right first
time.
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