Tuesday, December 7, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Storm of War by Kachi Ugo

 




Storm of War is the first in a series of self published "urban fantasy" novels by author Kachi Ugo.  This is not a book I'd heard of before it showed up on NetGalley, but it was posted months after release there and I decided to give it a shot.  I'm a big fan of urban fantasy in general, so I was hoping this would be the start of a new series for me to follow. 

And well....Storm of War shows some interesting potential, before falling into some more cliché plotlines and ending in a very unsatisfying cliffhanger.   The story is set in the modern day world, but doesn't really feature prominently in the normal world, instead focusing upon a community of "wood" levitating magic users (really plant wielding), who face a potential war from a more dangerous "metal" wielding magic tribe.  The protagonist is a young man who ran away in cowardice from his wood wielding community, and his cowardice at first makes him an unusual hero....but again the book goes away from that in the end as it deals with prophecy and very generic fantasy ideas.  

More specifics after the jump:
------------------------------------------Plot Summary---------------------------------------------
Peter Crawford returns home to Maine, where his family leads the woodfolk community - those with the magical power of levitating wood and plants.  Of the three elemental powers - wood, earth, and metal - wood is known as the weakest of the three, which has led the warlike and aggressive Metal levitating clan to try to take more and more wood territory.  Peter left home in cowardice after his sister was killed, and never wanted to return - but money debts have left him with no choice but to return home just as his wood family and the metal levitators are on the verge of war.  

But Peter is more than just another woodfolk, he's by far the most powerful, a power that is the subject of a prophecy - that Peter and one other will find the One, a wielder of all three elements who might end the conflict between them.  And that other seems to have arrived in the form of Rose, a wielder of both wood and earth magic from a people thought to be a myth, who comes to Peter in hopes of finding the One.

With war on the rise, Peter wants only to run, but seeing his family and friends harmed is just too much.  But with the dangerous Metal levitators also on the hunt for the One, can even he really make a difference?
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So Storm of War has a setup that's more fantasy than "urban fantasy" - while it takes place in the modern world, and there is talk of science applied to magic at times, the story takes place near entirely in the fantasy communities of the magic wielding groups, whether that be Peter's woodfolk, or Rose's hidden away tribe of dual-magic wielders.  Rose's community is barely developed and seems to come out of nowhere, but the book does a decent job developing Peter's woodfolk community, who are tired of being oppressed by the Metal levitators, despite the Woodfolk trying to live in peace and making use of new technologies and techniques to flourish more.  There's even some developed politics of the woodfolk that seems like it could go somewhere interesting....although none of that interesting potential is actually tapped in this book.  

And Peter at first is an interesting main character - particularly in his cowardice.  I'm used to reading books with protagonists leaving their magical home due to tragedy and trauma (like Peter did here with his sister's death), but Peter is actually cowardly and actually turns and runs on multiple occasions, which is a really interesting touch I hadn't seen before.  Of course, after his last act of cowardice goes wrong, he bravely comes back, which makes him a bit more traditional than I liked, since really so much of this book is based on old cliches - not that that's necessarily a bad thing as a basis for a book.  

That said, the book doesn't really pull off those cliches so well.  So well, you have Peter's brother, who has every reason to be angry at Peter for his cowardice, who forgives him instantly in a manner that doesn't feel real.  You have Peter's romantic relationship with his childhood love Delphina, who now is with another woodfolk man, that just feels awkward and totally abrupt and non-real.  There's like no chemistry between them at all, and it's a thing.  And well, the villains are just stereotypically bad guys so far, and the prophecy that comes up is just very generic, both in its wording and its execution - with the prophesied Messiah being very very generic (and being found incredibly easily).  

And well, this book is not only short, but doesn't end on any kind of conclusion, with the book teasing a major confrontation that is then left for the next book.  The result isn't very satisfying, and makes this a book that i can't really recommend to highly.  There's some interesting things here, but there's also a lot of genericness, to go along with writing that reads rough, and the lack of a satisfying ending just is the cherry on the top.

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