Lynx is a mercenary with a sense of honour; a dying breed in the Shattered Kingdom. Failed by the nation he served and weary of the skirmishes that plague the continent’s principalities, he walks the land in search of purpose. He wants for little so bodyguard work keeps his belly full and his mage-gun loaded. It might never bring a man fame or wealth, but he’s not forced to rely on others or kill without cause. Little could compel Lynx to join a mercenary company, but he won’t turn his back on a kidnapped girl. At least the job seems simple enough; the mercenaries less stupid and vicious than most he’s met over the years. So long as there are no surprises or hidden agendas along the way, it should work out fine.

Firstly, a big thank you to Gollancz for sending me a copy of Stranger of Tempest for review. Also apologies for taking so long to get this review out, it has been a crazy few weeks since I finished this.

What can one say about their first impression of a book cover with so much eye candy like Stranger of Tempest. Well upon seeing the cover for Stranger of Tempest two thoughts come to mind. One, “I really want to read this book”. Secondly “Wow that is one seriously badass cover and that beast reminds me of the balrog from Lord of the Rings”. I think the cover artwork done by Jon McCoy is fantastic and just pure eye candy.

Over the number of years I have spent reading I have learnt the hard way that judging a book by its cover is a dangerous game as a great book cover doesn’t always represent the quality of whats inside and vice versa with a bad book cover. However what Stranger of Tempest gives us is not only a great cover but it firmly represents its greatness on the inside.

When I started reading this book it was immediately noticeable due to the chapter breaks that this book was going to take place in the past and present. I have read quite a few books that have attempted this in different manners, with good and bad results. I admit that I initially found it difficult to find my footing in this world and learn about it as well as its inhabitants. However once I got used to Tom Lloyds method of story telling in this book I quickly found myself getting lost in its world, past and present.

There are many books out there that are trying to carve their own version of a magic system, some of which have become more successful than others. Some of those magic systems are very complex in nature and others a very simplistic, this can either make or break a book on both spectrum’s. If you make a magic system to complicated then a reader can become either very bored or confused but if you make a to simplistic then the reader can also become either very bored or uninterested. I think Tom Lloyd has found the perfect balance between having a magic system that is simplistic but still very interesting. This is because he sticks to the main forms of elemental magic but with a twist as it exists within certain bullet type and can these can only be used with specialist guns called mage guns. I have come across a number of books that use guns as the core of their magic system but nothing like this and due to this I thoroughly enjoyed reading about all the different bullet types and their powers.

One aspect of the book that really intrigued me was how each mercenary is put into a particular part of the group through the use of whats called the mercenary deck. This somewhat set each character into a particular set of people but you quickly find that each one is very unique in their own right and have their own personality traits which I found where very well drawn out. I also think Tom Lloyd uses this characterisation method in the best way possible as at the start of the both you can see which card group each character is assigned to.

The story of this book is certainly an interesting one, especially when you are trying to keep track of two different timelines and it also eventually splits into different perspectives. This may sound like a lot to take in but I believe this is what helps to not only give weight and depth to the story but also the world as a whole. However this does also cause some of the weaker parts of the book as I felt that certain aspects were slow going but thankfully there weren’t to many of those. Even with the slight pacing issues I still really enjoyed the story and was consistently intrigued by what was going on.

So…did this book meet my expectations set by the cover?

It certainly did. Stranger of Tempest has some slow points and the writing style does take some getting used to but this certainly does not detract from how good this book is. This book is certainly the full package when it comes to a great book, pretty on the outside and great on the inside. With that in mind whether you were thinking of picking up this book purely because of the cover or because you like the sound of it I would recommend you do so.