Books like Stormwarden

“The waters of the world are deep. Chart your course with care.”Wizards, demons and coming of age story with a twist. All in a classic epic fantasy setting of the noble good against the hideous evil.Stormwarden! What a great title, no? Yet, be warned that the wizard of wind and wave, one Anskiere, a Stormwarden of Imrill Kand serves only as a background for the whole story that revolves around him, but without his direct involvement most of the time. In my never-ending search for overlooked gems (and because I am tired of the mostly over-hyped new releases) I frequently browse the vintage shelves. Stormwarden was first published in the 1980s and I think that it must have been somewhat storm breaking back then. Today, it is a mixture of some great ideas (stormfalcon! I want one!) and some very bad ones (violet eyes? David Gemmell approves) that, nevertheless, come together quite nicely, mainly thanks to a very distinctive if at times, slightly archaic narrative (for, woe is me!, there is no epic fantasy without grandeur of style and some pathos to complement it).Mostly, it is a coming-of-age story. In fact, the main characters are so young that almost too young to be proper fantasy protagonists and engage in all the usual fantasy shenanigans; I think that even Ms Wurts realised this at some point and orchestrated some fast forwarding necessary to enable the kids to do what was expected of them. Still, it irked me that the main antagonist is kept referred to as a “boy” even when he quite ruthlessly kills and f*cks around (when I read “a boy tugged at the fastening of her gown” the only thing I can think of is “paedophilia”!). In general, things are happening fast in Stormwarden. Somebody does something you do not like and you are enemies for life. One step and you are on the dark side of the force. And there is no going back. It’s simplistic, and I think it might not sit well with some readers. On the other hand, Ms Wurts does her best to explain the behaviour of her protagonists (although she lacks the finesses I know from To Ride Hell's Chasm or, indeed, her opus magnum, Wars of Light and Shadow series). But the fast-track does not concern merely the psychological dimension. You get a sword one day, next you are a fencing pro (it really drives me crazy in vintage fantasy that is a bit too nonsensical fantastical at times), you do a magic training nearly overnight, and learn crafts in one-tenth of the time normally required. But it also made me hopeful, for those of you have not so fond of the coming of age stories, the that whole Cycle of Fire is not about some three random snow-flakes growing up, but about what we love in epic fantasy the best: a valiant fight of the good against an overwhelming forces of evil. And what a fight it is. What Ms Wurts can and does superbly is showing how magic works. She has the inner logic of supernatural forces sorted out to the tiniest detail and so while she is not an expert in the martial scenes and indeed cuts those to minimum, her magic battles are stupendous. I do not know another author so talented and imaginative when it comes to writing magic. But what makes this series particularly interesting, is the fact that her imagination transcends the purely magical tropes. Have you ever wondered who was the first person who put together things that are not obvious team-mates? Like ham and pineapple, tuna and halva, mars bar and deep fry (greetings from Glasgow, folks). These are currently sort of staples in many places, but I bet that when they were introduced for the first time, the first reaction must have been like: does it really go together? Stormwarden also has some unapparent combos (view spoiler)[I expect it is the same with things like magic and high tech. There are plenty of contemporary authors who blend sorcery and technology (Lawerence, Abercrombie, Morgan just to name few), but back in the 80s throwing into one box robots and demons, magic and advanced computers, must have been fresh and original. It is also not that jarring as the technology is ingrained into the magical and through it appropriated. (hide spoiler)]