Stormdancer

The Lotus War, Book One

By: Jay Kristoff

Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda

Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's Summary

The first in an epic new fantasy series, introducing an unforgettable new heroine and a stunningly original dystopian steampunk world with a flavor of feudal Japan.

A Dying Land

The Shima Imperium verges on the brink of environmental collapse; an island nation once rich in tradition and myth, now decimated by clockwork industrialization and the machine-worshipers of the Lotus Guild. The skies are red as blood, the land is choked with toxic pollution, and the great spirit animals that once roamed its wilds have departed forever.

An Impossible Quest

The hunters of Shima's imperial court are charged by their Shogun to capture a thunder tiger - a legendary creature, half-eagle, half-tiger. But any fool knows the beasts have been extinct for more than a century, and the price of failing the Shogun is death.

A Hidden Gift

Yukiko is a child of the Fox clan, possessed of a talent that if discovered, would see her executed by the Lotus Guild. Accompanying her father on the Shogun’s hunt, she finds herself stranded: a young woman alone in Shima’s last wilderness, with only a furious, crippled thunder tiger for company. Even though she can hear his thoughts, even though she saved his life, all she knows for certain is he’d rather see her dead than help her. But together, the pair will form an indomitable friendship, and rise to challenge the might of an empire.

©2012 Jay Kristoff (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Good first book, good listen

I read this book in print before buying the audio version, and enjoyed it immensely. Granted, it's not perfect, as it is the author's first book, but it was entertaining. Yes, the story does start to drag a bit about 3/4 of the way through, but not so much that I lost interest. Yes, the author does borrow elements from Chinese culture, not just Japanese. Yes, the author does perhaps use elements of the language incorrectly. But remember that this is a fantasy story, and as such does not need to be grounded in reality.
Jennifer Ikeda does an excellent job of the narration. At first, I was a bit concerned about her not being able to differentiate between characters well, but manages that well as I was never confused about who was speaking. She conveys their emotions just as well, and I think she is the perfect voice for Yukiko.
Overall, it's not perfect. But it was definitely worth the listen. It kept me absorbed and entertained, and I look forward to Book Two.
I think you should buy it and give it a chance.

I'll Have The Katanas With A Side Of Steampunk!

I've been away for a couple months due to a VERY hectic travel schedule, but I'm back to do a number of reviews, and I'll begin here.

Whenever a good writer, both new or seasoned, takes up the challenging task of creating a genre'-bending scifi and quasi-fantasy novel or series, and does so successfully, it's a beauty to behold. But, it CAN also be a MESS. We're talking dangerous waters. Slippery slopes. Career-ruining mistakes. We've all read and listened to such disasters.

Not worries here. This is a great listen, and it's not only designed well, it's WRITTEN well. Be prepared to be absorbed in this enjoyable listen, and overlook the minor errors to get the most out of the experience.

It's often so easy to look at an audiobook cover, title or brief description, and write off the author and his or her work as a "typical genre'" read/listen. BE CAREFUL. You do that here, and you've missed out. Kristoff offers great prose, solid character creation, excellent fight scenes (I will NOT say much on this to give anything away, except that the sky battles are astounding!), and very successful delivery of steampunk with strong eastern influence. It's a sweet refreshing mix, unlike the tirade of Steampunk writing that is so landlocked within it's own genre'.

As to the narrator, meh. Good, but not a Roy D. Some may not agree with this, but that's fine. I expect GREAT narration to enhance my experience. There are other better female and male choice I would have chosen, but the narrator didn't detract from the story.

If you've followed any of my previous reviews, I offer no spoilers, no elaborate details, no free reads on plots. Am I being intentionally vague? You BET. Doing differently only takes away from the initial listening experience. Let's get over that, and move along,

Keep in mind, dear Audible listener, that book listening is very much like a having a meal on the town: You can go where you usually go, and choose a meal of which you're comfortable. You get what you expect. Ho hum.

OR...

You can reach out a bit, and try that Oriental place around the corner that you didn't know was there. It may not have the glossy front or the valet parking you're used to, but you can discover a great cuisine that you'd never enjoyed if you'd not taken the opportunity to get out of your comfort zone. You expand your culinary tastes, and are better for it. And suddenly, a whole new world opens up to you. Steampunk is a fantastic genre' IF written with an original style and storyline, and that definitely happens here.

This audiobook will surprise you, take you on a new journey, and possibly expand your listening taste for the unusual and surprising.

I look forward to more from this author, and will definitely make the choice to listen to his next in the series!

Oops! I've talked too much, and the waiter is here waiting for my order, so I'd better speak up!

"I'll take the Katana with a side order of Steampunk please!"

Started out good......

What did you like best about Stormdancer? What did you like least?

When I first started reading this book, I liked the idea of a Steampunk Japan. And it was fun, but as I read on and the further I got, the more it kind of grated on me, the main character and the way the author wrote her. She is a female! But in the book, we get more descriptions of the beautiful women around her (from her perspective) then we do about the man she instantly falls in love with, or any other men in the book. We know more about passing boobs than anything/anyone else. If the author can't write convincingly from the female perspective, maybe he shouldn't. And I am getting a little tired of the stereotypical sourly teenage girl, didn't we get enough of that from Twilight? I do think girls are more than single-faceted.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Stormdancer?

I loved the scenes with thunder-tiger, those were my favourite, and possibly only reason to ever delve deeper into this series.

What does Jennifer Ikeda bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I loved the narrator's voice for the thunder cat. She did an amazing job otherall. I would listen to more books that she narrates. She's wonderful.

Amazing Idea, Poorly executed

Narrator was good.

Story was just slow to get started... and then when it did get started, it flew by.

Too much background at the beginning... not enough reflection once the plot finally kicks in.

Boring Slow Book!

Why does it take roughly 3 hours of an 11 hour book to start doing anything? The author seems to reveal in the Wikipedia-esque dumps of the landscape that really matter in the long run.

OMG, read anything else

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Anyone else could have read this book and this would have been average, but Jennifer Ikeda is the worst. The action is boring, the voices are terrible and she OVERPRONOUCES every japanese word. I can visable see the words bolded when she talks. Not to mention the story is bland predictable and just straight crap. Please read anything else. Im trying to save you.

Unique yet Derivative

Any additional comments?

How could something so different feel so derivative? The setting was very original with many great ideas. But the story was one we have all read 100 times in fantasy, which I don't mind that much, what I didn't like was the characters where stock fantasy characters that seemed to be taken right out of a Final Fantasy video game and had very little personality or anything to really make them interesting. I found that I had trouble keeping track of who was who, simple because I didn't really care who was who.

This is story would be good for a young adult audience. But was not well written enough for my tastes.

Hope the next one is better

Just finished the first two Nevernight Chronicles, excellent, so ordered this one, the story might be ok but with the narration it impossible to figure out what going on. I think they borrowed the narrator from the childrens book "Good Night Moon" not the right narrator for ninja fighting sequences.

Not for me, heavy world building, little character

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

If you enjoy fuedal Japan mixed with monsters this could be for you. His prose is advanced but this came off more like a room of paintings than a story with real engagement on a character and plot level.

Has Stormdancer turned you off from other books in this genre?

If they are similar in style, yes.

Which character – as performed by Jennifer Ikeda – was your favorite?

No favorites because the characters didn't really stand out.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The narrator did a great job speaking with a Japanese accent.

Kind of Boring

Stormdancer had two great things going for it: alternative universe Japan and steampunk. And if you had never been introduced to either of those worlds, then you likely would have been fascinated by the 'wealth' (read: truckload) of info dumping done to describe them. But as a long time Otaku and steampunk aficionado, I'm not impressed by the mythology or worldbuilding any more - I know it already. I want a great story first, not tell and never show. But it was all tell and I was bored to tears by this simplistic plot.

Plot: selfish jerk of a Shogun wants to show he's powerful and orders his chief beastmaster to go capture a griffin. Beastmaster and daughter (main character, Yukiko) set out on what is a hopeless task but they run into one. Griffin escapes, Yukiko uses her 'demon' powers to communicate and placate beast, they return to main City, and set out to kill evil emperor Shogun.

Right off the bat, the pace was slow, with lots of descriptions and info dumps, and the characters were very flat. There was so much loving descriptions going on about the world that it was almost annoying to have characters in that pretty place. I loved the entire concept of Lotus plants powering a steampunk type of world. And there were some great chances to really interject horror elements into the plots - demons and sacrifices and ritual deaths. But the author never stayed with the story and kind of meandered through the plot so he could show off his knowledge. This was a book that felt 600 pages long - I kept stopping and it was nearly impossible to want to return to the drudgery of endless mythology descriptions, Japanese history descriptions, societal ranking descriptions, blah blah. Especially since I was so well aware of it already anyway.

I know many will rail against how the author has portrayed Japan; but hey, it is an alternate universe. I don't mind the way he set it up at all and was fascinated by the things that were NOT authentic Japanese history. But the characters really need to live and breathe in that world and no one in the story did that. Everyone talked the same, acted the same, in very simplistic manners. There really was no subtlety or subterfuge, complexities or nuances. And that's where the story really started to drag with me. If the speaker wasn't named, it could have been ANY character that was speaking, male or female. The Achilles heel of this book was the lack of action and pace.

I listened to the Audible version and the author did a decent job, though there were some irritating tics in there. But she made it easy to differentiate between the different characters, giving them much more personality than the writer did.