“The journey was a nightmare, yet a nightmare painted on a background that stirred Terelle’s soul. The wide skies, the strange orange light of dawn, the burning white sun of midday and the crimson dusks; the shadowed scarps, the gnarled trees clawing their way into barren soils, the weathered rocks and sculpted cliffs: she remembered it from her childhood’s single journey, but then she had seen it with a child’s eye. Now the artist in her saw the beauty of the land’s raw roughness. It murmured to her, stirring a restless desire to record it, to capture it, to make it her own.”
Stormlord Rising by Glenda Larke
Stormlord Rising is the second book in Glenda Larke’s Watergiver trilogy. I read the first book around two years ago, and it has stuck with me all this time. I was able to step right back into the story as if I had read book one just the day before. This series is remarkable, vivid and full of magic and the evil that comes from people who want too much power for themselves.
Shale is the last stormlord, and while he can sense water and has great power, he can’t move water by himself. Taquar knows this, and as one of the last rainlords, he traps Shale (now known as Jasper) into working with him to bring water where it needs to go. But Jasper doesn’t plan on staying under Taquar’s thumb forever. So he plots behind his back, figuring out a way to be able to stand on his own and push back the Reduners that threaten them.
The Redruners had attacked many parts of the city, and Ryka watched her husband be attacked. She doesn’t know if he is alive, but she didn’t see him die, so she holds onto the fact that he survived. But more importantly, she needs to survive because she carries his child and she will do anything to bring their son safely into the world. Ryka pretends her name is Garnet and attracts the attention of Ravard, a reduner leader, who agrees to protect her and her child in exchange for her companionship. Ryka knows that it’s that or death, so she does what she has to do survive. But just like Jasper, she is always looking for a way to escape.
Terelle is a waterpainter with great power. At the end of book one, she painted a future that got her what she needed, escape, but at great cost to others. She vows to never waterpaint again, but even as she flees the city with her grandfather, it’s not long before Terelle realizes she may have no choice but to keep waterpainting.
These three characters are the central focus of book two of this series. They are all trapped in circumstances far out of their control and what they want, but each of them is determined to carve out a better path for themselves and the people they are sworn to protect.
I love this book, this series so much. It’s a perfectly written sequel and just gripped me from the beginning to the end. I definitely won’t be waiting another two years to finish the series, I want to see how it all ends and keep reading more by Glenda Larke. She is an amazing fantasy author, and I can’t recommend her enough!
Of Worlds Forgotten 
Leave a comment