Glenda Larke

Watergivers — (2010-2011) Publisher: Shale is the lowest of the low-an outcast from a poor village in the heart of the desert. In the desert water is life, and currency, and Shale has none. But he has a secret. It’s the one thing that keeps him alive and may save all the cities of the Quartern in the days to come. If it doesn’t get him killed first… Terelle is a slave fleeing a life as a courtesan. She finds shelter in the home of an elderly painter but as she learns the strange and powerful secrets of his art she fears she may have traded a life of servitude for something far more perilous… The Stormlord is dying in his tower and there is no one, by accident or design, to take his place. He brings the rain from the distant seas to his people. Without a Stormlord, the cities of the Quartern will wither and die. Their civilization is at the brink of disaster. If Shale and Terelle can find a way to save themselves, they may just save them all. Water is life and the wells are running dry…

The Last Stormlord

Sometimes you find a fantasy novel that's not extremely original, but is so much plain fun to read that you just can't help but love it. The Last Stormlord by Glenda Larke is one of those books: despite using some recognizable fantasy templates, it's a great story and a book I found extremely hard to put down.

Whenever the main character in a fantasy novel is poor and young, you can be almost certain that they're destined for great things later in the book or series. The Last Stormlord uses this "Ugly Duckling" trope for not one but two main characters. Terelle is a poor young maid in a snuggery (an elegant euphemism for a brothel), who is looking desperately for escape because the next step in her career path is to become a prostitute. Shale is a poor young boy growing up in a desert village, trying to hide his unique gift — finding hidden water in the desert — from his abusive father.

Shale's gift is especially meaningful because in the Quartern, water is the most precious and valuable commodity. The land depends on its Stormlord for rain: he creates rain storms, and the water is collected in an elaborate system of pipes and cisterns that distribute it to the population. The population relies on its leaders for their water rations... and now the last Stormlord is dying.

The Last Stormlord's perspective switches back and forth from Terelle to Shale to several rainlords who are trying to cope with the imminent water shortages in various ways, such as looking for a new stormlord, or finding new ways to stretch the limited water supplies (e.g., cutting off the storms for specific parts of the land).

Glenda Larke gradually reveals the novel's fantasy world as the story progresses: first the established cities of the Scarpern quarter, then the more primitive and poor Gibber lands where Shale grows up, later the Red Quarter and its nomadic Reduners, and towards the end the White Quarter and its mysterious "Alabaster" inhabitants, with even some hints about the lands beyond the Quartern. There's only one noticeable infodump about the land's history, and it’s short and more or less integrated into the story. The rest of the world's details are gracefully revealed to the reader throughout the story.

The Last Stormlord is also extremely well-paced, occasionally skipping a few weeks or months between chapters so the story keeps moving along at a pleasant pace. You won't find 100-page descriptions of a single journey here: this novel is basically all story and zero filler, so the pages just keep turning themselves. I hope this pacing will continue in Stormlord Rising, the next book in the Watergivers trilogy.

Plotting is at times a bit transparent and predictable, and a couple of characters have names that are truly cringe-inducing, but despite those minor problems, this novel is easy to love. With its smooth storytelling style that should go over very well with fans of Brandon Sanderson, and an overall theme — water shortage and conservation — that's acutely relevant in today's world (how rare in a fantasy novel!), The Last Stormlord is a tremendously entertaining read that's easy to get sucked into, hard to put down, and never boring. Recommended. —Stefan Raets

Stormlord Rising

Stormlord Rising, the second novel in Glenda Larke’s WATERGIVERS trilogy, starts right where The Last Stormlord left off: Ryka is a captive of the marauding Reduners, Terelle is traveling to Khromatis against her will, and Jasper — the titular last stormlord — finds himself forced to work together with his nemesis (and now de facto ruler) Taquar Sardonyx to create much-needed rainstorms for the parched lands of the Quartern. With almost every main character forced into a situation they don’t want be in right from the start, this novel is a darker and, unfortunately, less enjoyable story than its predecessor.

Ravard is an interesting new character, though most readers will figure out right away who he actually is. Fortunately, that doesn’t spoil what’s possibly the most multi-dimensional character in the series. In comparison, other characters are thin, especially the renegade rainlord Taquar and Davim the Reduner leader. These two villains sometimes lapse into cartoon-like speech that’s so over-the-top evil that, if this were a Bond movie, they’d probably be in wheelchairs, wearing monocles and petting white cats.

The Last Stormlord is a fast-paced read, but there are a few points where Stormlord Rising drags, especially during a number of repetitive arguments between the main characters. Although the chapters focusing on Ryka and Ravard keep the reader’s interest, they unfortunately contain many of the more transparent plot twists. The chapters featuring Terelle’s water painting suffer from the same problem, particularly as Terelle’s abilities become a magical and all-too-convenient fix for seemingly insurmountable problems. At times, this transparency, together with the relative thinness of many characters, gives Stormlord Rising a young adult tone. Re-reading The Last Stormlord for this review, I noticed it actually has the same problem, but that novel is so fast-paced and so much plain fun to read that I barely noticed it at first reading.

Considering its straightforward plot and characterization, Stormlord Rising contains a disproportionately large number of characters that are involved in or are the victim of sexual violence and sexual manipulation. I won’t list examples here, but so many of the characters are at some point either victim or perpetrator (or both) of rape, are threatened with forced prostitution, or use sex to manipulate people, that the plot device unfortunately begins to lose some of its impact. Characters casually say things like “You can avail yourself of her reluctant services if you like. [...] The bitch bit me, though, so be careful.”

Even if I occasionally groaned at some corny dialogue and predictable plot twists, it was exciting to revisit the Quartern in Stormlord Rising. The setting is still fascinating, and the theme of water conservation remains relevant. Despite a few slow spots and some repetition, the novel is otherwise fast-paced. We also learn more about the mysterious Watergivers and the history of the land, which, together with the novel’s action-packed plot, kept me interested enough to finish this second part of the WATERGIVERS trilogy and left me looking forward to finding out how the story ends in Stormlord’s Exile.
—Stefan Raets