• click here to return to the homepage •
Home > Categories > Books > Fantasy > The Last Stormlord review
The Cloudmaster and his stormlords command wealth and power. But can they save themselves from a rogue rainlord?
Terelle is on the run when an old man with the ability to paint pictures on water employs her as his apprentice -- and paints her portrait. She thinks she is safe, until she discovers his floating artworks can fix an immutable future for those portrayed in them. She has become a prisoner of her own painted future.
The Cloudmaster and his stormlords keep the land alive with their power over water and rain. However, the current Cloudmaster is dying and has no stormlord heir because all the promising young men and women have died in troubling circumstances.
An expedition mounted to scour the countryside for a potential stormlord locates a young village lad called Shale. Kidnapped and imprisoned, Shale finds himself a tool in a struggle between the warring factions of the land -- because whoever commands a stormlord, commands the water of a nation ...
Harry Potter : Golden Snitch Sticker Kit
Nobody's Child
Under Heaven
Klutz - Fabulous Flowers
I Can Make You Happy
Triad of Being : 3 : The Light-Field
Square Eyes
Thea Stilton and the Lost Letters
I Spy Mum!
The Zog Sticker Activity Book
Miniwings #1: Glitterwing's Book Week Blunder
Putangitangi Walks
Ko Nga Whetu Hauhau, Ko Nga Whetu Tarakaka O Matariki: Ko Waipunarangi Raua Ko UrurangiProduct reviews...
Members are welcome to post a review. You will need to log in to post yours.
Review by: anistasya (Beaulah)
Dated: 7th of October, 2009
When I read the pitch for this book, I wasn't entirely sure whether it was something I wanted to read or not, but within the first page, I was hooked. Terelle is living in a 'Snuggery', a polite word for a brothel, and desperately doesn't want to grow up to be one of Madam Opal's girls - but the clock is ticking and her fate is fast approaching.
I immediately wanted to know how she would escape. Through her eyes, I came to know the world of the Quarten, desperately dry and entirely dependant on the Cloud Master for water and therefore life.
From there, I was introduced to Shale, a young boy with a sense for water - far more powerful than most in the Quartern, though he doesn't know it. He's just a worthless peasant without his own water allotment. I had thought, changing view points, that I would miss Terelle too much, but the book is written skillfully. I didn't end up minding the transitions at all.
I was especially pleased when Shale and Terelle finally met up and were forced to rely on each other. It is the promise of this friendship (and hopefully one day relationship) that makes me eager to read the next book in the series. Glenda Larke has successfully merged the politics of an entire civilization with the emotions and lives of a few characters we really care about. This book makes you confront your own accepted morality and wonder what you would do in their place. With so many lives hanging by such a fine thread, it is the difficult decisions that make these characters heroic yet powerfully human.
A great read. I definitely recommend it.
Random listing from 'Books'...
"So little natural light falls into my cell, and I have such a limited view from my window, that at times I feel as though I am entombed within a coffin... Down here, deep within the soil, I must content myself with mental excursions only, tripping beneath the canopies of forests that exist solely in the mind..."
A prisoner is on remand in Durham high security jail for what turns out to have been a series of attacks on young girls ... more...
All trademarks, images and copyrights on this site are owned by their respective companies.
KIWIreviews is an independent entity, part of the Knock Out News Group. This is a free public forum presenting user opinions on selected products, and as such the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the opinion of kiwireviews.nz and are protected under New Zealand law by the "Honest Opinion" clause of the Defamation Act of 1992. KIWIreviews accepts no liability for statements made on this site, on the premise that they have been submitted as the true and honest opinions of the individual posters. In most cases, prices and dates stated are approximate and should be considered as only guidelines.
"Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."
George Orwell (1903 - 1950)
