Mel (Epic Reading)'s Reviews > Storm Glass

Whew! This book really surprised me. The main two girls POV we get are so well done. The economic and social lessons are brilliant. The plot is fast and interesting. I would love to see this picked up by a major publisher so it isn’t restricted to Kindle. Because of the kindle only format, I had to read this book on my phone instead of my e-reader. However it’s a testament to how well done it is that I didn’t mind reading on my phone one bit.

World Building
Normally what Jeff Wheeler has done to simplify any complex world building that might be needed would bug me. For some reason in this structure and with our younger lead gals I didn't mind that the answer to everything supernatural, unknown or unexplained (ie: floating islands, floating buildings, etc.) being:
"Of course, it was all explained by the Mysteries, which meant it wasn’t to be explained at all.”
I mean could you leave yourself any more room to be vague and have things just magically happen? I dunno if it's because of our younger lead characters, or just because Wheeler convinced me, but I didn't hate this explanation. Also perhaps I tolerate this answer because there is promise that the Mysteries are explained to those who pass certain educational milestones and that our lead gals might each get there. Which just makes me want to keep reading the books in this series! So maybe Wheeler is just clever and knew how to hook me in.

Lead Girls
The two point of views (first person) that we get in Storm Glass are from two younger girls (I think they were 10-12). One whom is very privileged and one who has come from the dirt of nothing up to privilege in the blink of an eye. At first I wanted more of the poorer girl's story from before she was 'saved'. But as time went by I realized that Wheeler was telling those stories in small snippets as our poorer gal experiences the grandeur of the privileged society she is thinking the stories of her past; which we then experience. Both girls are relatable and likeable in their own ways.
Each chapter with their POV tended to go on fairly long and everytime I didn't want to leave that girl's POV; until I got a couple pages in to the next POV and felt the same again. Wheeler has very compelling writing.

Genre Novel
For sure Wheeler has given us the beginning of the series (called Harbinger) that is fairly genre typical. We have some characters who differ, a fantasy world, socio-economics, and the ever endearing politics of said world. Then we have the fantastical Mysteries, some shady folks, and some really fun locations to visit. Storm Glass felt like a book I'd read a thousand times and would love to read a thousand times more. It was comfortable and felt like it fit in my brain nicely not unlike: LOTR, Shannara, WoT, and other (slightly older) fantasy does. For this reason some may find it 'dated' in its style. But for this girl, who was born in 1983 and read GoT at 16, it felt perfect.

Overall
The biggest downfall to this book is that I can't get it on my Kobo as it's Kindle only. Seriously TOR or Orbit need to jump on this series like now!
I am however going to order myself the series in paperback so I can enjoy it in all it's printed glory. I'm very happy to have found a unique but comfortable series to fall into.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.