There’s a scene in Stranger of Tempest, when the adventuring party is deep underground, in the dwarven ruins and while some flaming demon is roaming around, that one of the heroes says;
Run, you fools!
Remind you of Gandalf, the fellowship and the Balrog?
I was waiting for it. I sensed author Tom Lloyd knew the overlap and was gearing up. I’d say it’s a homage to the famous Lord of the Rings. The truth is Stranger of Tempest is far from a Middle Earth copy.
We pick up with a drunken mercenary getting out of jail. He’s a fatty. The world details we pick up pretty quickly – we’re just a short while after a brutal war in which one nation invaded all the others, had a much better army, a culture of martial prowess and was only foiled by their own actions. Needless to say, warriors from this corner of the map – like our mercenary – are not popular.
The gods are splintered, shattered into pieces and this allows the creation of magic bullets for Mage-Guns. Elementally based bullets; fire shots that bloom with flame, earthers that punch like a rockfall or freezing icers, etc, change the nature of battles and ensure the action in Stranger of Tempest is totally unlike The Hobbit.
Our hero, strangely found of honour and food, ends up in a mercenary company. These mercenaries use a card system to order themselves and the face cards are the ranking officers. Sun, Blood and Tempest are among the suits and Stranger, along with Prince, Jester and Knight are some of the values. Stranger of Tempest is therefore both a playing card and a rank in the mercenary company.
Lloyd uses a few tricks to keep the tension going at the start of the book. He jumps around time. We leap back and forth to the build-up and to the drama. It works well. It means there’s a sense of fate and destiny that contrasts well against some of the characters trying to fight against it.
As it turns out, rather than shaking your head and cursing them for being foolish, you’re thankful and relived when the surviving mercenaries finally make it to the duergar city. You know it’s going to be harsh inside but at least – you think – they’ve a chance.
The characters in the Stranger of Tempest really work for me. As there’s a whole merc company to account for there’s no shortage of people and they all feel real and distinct. Some are great. Some are twats. Some need to be fed to the fire demon.
It’s how these interesting characters fit into the larger picture that really makes the book. There’s clearly a really interesting mythos. There’s the whole ancient duergar civilisation. There’s the fact that countryside is so dangerous. There’s the shattered gods. The elementals. There are plenty of secretive organisations.
RPG setting? You bet.
That’s the geek test of a fantasy, right? When you read a book and decide you really want to play or run a game in that world you know it’s a good book. That’s what Tom Lloyd scores with his mercenaries with magic bullets adventure story.
Overall? Recommended.
My copy of Stranger of Tempest: Book One of The God Fragments was provided for review.
