PunkHazard's Reviews > The Umbral Storm

** spoiler alert ** I want to start by saying This book was so so so so so so amazing! I don’t believe in non-spoiler reviews so if you don’t want to be spoiled just know I loved this book and if you like Cradle and Bastion you will love it too. Just like those books, I feel like this story was specifically written for me in almost every way. It is definitely tied for my favorite book of the year between it, Bastion and Cradle 11.

Worldbuilding:

I love this world, it does something different than the traditional kings and queen medieval world structure. The different holds and realms were so fascinating, cause they all felt very different from each other and unique in their place in the world. The Shadow ruling from a mountain mostly secluded from their realm, to the point the most would never even see a sharded. Or how the Wind is split into various different tribes who protect the frayed lands or the Sand and its splinter kingdoms, the wave and its coral isles. They aren’t just normal kings sitting in big castle ruling over one piece of land, Its more nuanced than that.

The history of this world feels very lived in too, it does a good job of making everything feel lived in, like the story didn’t just start when the main characters got involved, things have been moving for a while, relationships have been changing, events have been developing, and machinations have been moving behind the scenes. For example, the attack by the unbounded king at the end didn’t feel like it came out of nowhere, it feels like the events that led up to the attack have been moving in the background for a long time and this is how it manifested. I find that very impressive since I don’t know how the author manages to show that so well.

The lore is super interesting, from the moment they mentioned the God king who was killed and his heart was shattered to the countless shards, I was entranced. An all-powerful King being toppled and his enemies taking his power is always super interesting (Storm light and Mistborn did it very well but I haven't seen it since then). The Hollow being connected to this old king makes a ton of sense and it’s weird I didn’t think of it sooner. I underestimated the book at first because I should have assumed that the hollow had more to them than we first thought. It feels like something Sanderson would do.

PLOT:

The Plot itself is more complicated for me to review. On one hand it had epic battles and heart pounding moments. On the other hand it had a slow start and the plot felt a little tiny bit meandering at times, like I never knew what the overall point on trajectory of the plot was until the very end. I didn’t even get invested into the story until Killian came and killed Gavin and the shards really started getting introduced. I think this book was a lot of set up for the overall story, it had a lot to establish. The thrust of the story was one of its biggest strengths though. Other epic fantasy books are usually so busy trying to introduce the world and the characters that it doesn’t have much time to actually start the global plot. This book felt different that we immediately went into the wider world and all its components. Spoiler for stormlight >!Even stormlight didn’t start the whole fight against the parshendi and their roles as void bringers until book 2 or 3),!< but I feel like we got the equivalent of that with the unbound king stuff and the introduction to the Eloywn.

I wasn’t sure where the main characters were going until the very end, it felt like they were just sitting around for a lot of the time while the plot moved around them. They spent a lot of time in the Duskhold just living their day to day, I was never bored or anything and like I said it was cut with big moments of action and worldbuilding, like Deryn falling in that chasm and seeing the big fights with Cael Shen and the storm sharded or when Azil saved them from that Rift beast. The last 100 pages were amazing though, the attack from the unbounded, Heith and Alia gaining shards, all the clues for the overall plot and the set up for the next book.

Characters:

Deryn: I liked him a lot, even though he does have the standard protagonist personality, I’m not tired of that yet so I like it. I thought the series was overpowering him a little too much at first and leaving his companions behind (finding 12 shards, finding a sharded weapon, bonding an elemental and then getting a 2nd tier talent so soon) but even that I didn’t mind so much, but by the end I think it evened out with Heith and Alia gaining shards.
Heith: Despite what you might think I liked him right from the start, from the moment we knew he was a protagonist I was invested in seeing how a slave owner like him could become a hero. I also Liked his personality more than Deryn. Though at some point he went from a sniveling spoiled brat to a great swordsman, I thought that shift was a little abrupt. I was sad when I thought he was going to get left behind by Deryn as far as power goes, I was hoping he would at least get a sharded weapon he could use but the reveal of the light shard was even better. His role in the story kind of reminds me of Alin from Travelers Gate.

Alia: I liked her a lot at first in the forest and when her dad died. But I started to think she was being the meek damsel in distress a little too much. But I still see the strength and fierceness and free spirited girl she’s supposed to be. So, I can’t wait till that comes out more in later books. I loved her relationship with Reheinna(can’t remember how to spell her name) it was so sweet and you can tell the daughter of shadow really needed it.

I loved all the side characters too, everyone had such diverse personalities that even if they were only there for a few pages you still got a good sense of who they were. Killian, Kaliss, Azil, Cael Shen, Nishi and a few others were very noteworthy. I actually wished we got to see more of Killian throughout the book, he’s one of my favorite characters. Nishi is definitely evil and I love the evil behind the smile trope.

Action:

As always, my favorite part of any story is the action and magic system. Unpopular opinion, but a book cannot be considered a top tier 5/5 book for me unless the action and magic system is amazing. I don’t care how good the plot and characters are. If I don’t look forward to the action scenes and the magic system doesn’t impress and entice me then the highest it can get is a 4/5.

I love the magic system in this book. At first, I was nervous reading this book because I normally hate elemental magic, I think it's overused and the action is normally super generic and nonspecific. Every fire user throws fire balls and flame throwers, every water user uses ice spikes and blades. That was not the case here. The emphasis on individual “talents” that utilize one specific attack or ability from the given element is super fun to me. It gives the fights that individuality between users that I like and it also naturally makes for some more unique abilities and situations. Crown of blades, Breath of the mother, mirror wraiths, are all some of my favorite abilities so far.

The shards themselves were a cool gimmick, making the progression system based on the number of shards you have was a cool idea. Although normally I don’t like numerical power lvls cause it can make the actual fights loose tension (it got dumb in DBZ for example) but it’s all about the execution. The number of shards don’t make you instantly stronger then lower number sharded, you just have access to more resources, a Subtle but major distinction, An 8 sharded can lose to a 6 sharded if the circumstances are right, or if you have more experience or just simply trained harder with your specific abilities. Not to say it doesn’t matter at all but the difference in power lvls isn’t as absolute as you might think. The fact that you don’t get a new ability every time you merge with a new shard helped a lot too.

Another thing I really liked about the magic system was its power scale. Even the strongest people in this world aren’t able to destroy moons and solar systems, and that’s very refreshing. Cael Shen was appropriately badass and intimidating but he was also grounded in a way I really liked. When he fought the Baleworym it didn’t feel like he could kill it with a flick of his wrist, he put some effort into it. He’s probably one of the strongest people on this earth but he didn’t feel like some God that couldn’t lose. Again, I find that very refreshing, it reminds me of the Phantom Trope from HunterxHunter. To be fair its possible we’ll meet people who are basically Gods later on and maybe Cael Shen just isn’t among the strongest in the world like I think, that was already kind of hinted with the Eloywn.

All in all I loved this book. One of my favorite reads of the year. I really hope something in hear convinces as many people as possible to read it. Its amazing. When is the 2nd book coming out??!