First off, I was right in my prediction about Tremaine in Storm Rising. He indeed became King of Hardorn. Much surprise. He’ll be a good king.
Secondly, I’m really not sure exactly how to review Storm Breaking. A lot happened and a lot didn’t happen. Karal and his group in Urtho’s tower did a lot of rediscovering of Urtho’s work. Melles in The Empire did a lot of scheming. Elspeth and Darkwind did a lot of planning with Tremaine. Altogether, though, not a lot physically happened.
There is a lot of technical world-building here. Readers got a taste of how Urtho was, which is actually just about as much as we got in The Mage Wars trilogy. Urtho remains mostly a mystery. But yeah, a lot of the world-building here is very technical and not the most exciting. The Empire probably had the most world-building work done, but even that was Melles’ inner thoughts about how to run The Empire with what resources he had.
I was semi-excited to see the Teleson get reintroduced… or introduced if you’re reading in publication order. It’s a useful tool I hope will get used more in the future.
I had some vague memories from my first read of Vanyel, Yfandes, and Stefan playing a much bigger role than they did. So that was a bunch of me waiting for them to show up and do stuff and then being a little disappointed when they did. It wasn’t bad, but I did very much enjoy them and will miss them in future.
Overall, Storm Breaking was a satisfying ending to this portion of the Valdemar tale. It really did feel like a finale, if not the super exciting one I might have been hoping for.
Favorite Lines
"Cats. You can't live with them, and the fur's too thin for a rug." - Firesong
:Pay heed to the sunm but watch your feet, or you'll fall ingloriously on your nose.: - Altra
"That's religion as an excuse. Sometimes it seems to me that when religious fervor enters the mind, the wits pack up entirely and sly out the ear," Karal replied a bit sourly. "But worst of all is when powerful, ruthless people use the religious fervor of others to further their own greed." - Karal
:That's the advantage of having a Cat instead of a Horse as a partner; we don't go running off to sacrifice ourselves at the sound of the first trumpet call,: Altra said, feebly winking at Karal on the side opposite Florian. :We're sensible.:
