Review of Shadow Storm
Posted: 21 Apr 2025, 18:49
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Shadow Storm" by Jennifer Aitken.]
The book opens with a stranger who is hearing voices that he cannot understand. He is scared. Everything does not make sense. He just wants everything to stop and maybe make sense of everything. Multiple cars stop in front of him, and one man gets out of one and calls this stranger Lucius. Not only that, but he refers to Lucius as his brother. Things start making sense to Lucius. Lucius sees that he shares similar features with this man. Lucius, not knowing how, calls the other man Dax and tells him he doesn’t have whatever he thinks he, Lucius, has.
During their heated exchange, it is revealed that Dax is working with or for a secret organisation called Kai-Tangata. Lucius is afraid that they want to run experiments on him. Long story short, Dax captures him and locks him up in a secretive place. There, Lucius is put under intense torture. Lucius is told about dimensional beings. Terrence works for Dax and is put under pressure to extract information from Lucius A.S.A.P. But it later turns out that there is more to Terrence because he helps Lucius to escape. It isn’t an easy escape because Lucius is quickly apprehended, but something fantastic happens. He feels like he is split into two; the other body of him is inside the prison, and the other body of him is outside, free with Terrence. But how? Who is Maru? Why is the Kai-Tangata after Lucius? What is Atlantis? Is there more to Lucius than what meets the eye? What does it mean to be a dimensional being?
Read this fantasy science fiction novel by Jennifer Aitken called Shadow Storm to find more. It packed many different elements and made them into one product. As I have said above, it is a mixture of fantasy and science fiction, in that there is magic here and there, and there are concepts that are consistent with science fiction, like dimensional travelling. Both of them are added together to give this story that is good to read. These elements did not clash at all. Instead, they complemented each other, adding up where the other might have failed. This made the story different and so worthy to be read. I liked that.
I also liked that the characters were brought to life by their ambitions. I was more fascinated by the characters of Lucius and Dax than others. They were brothers, but they were so different from each other, even fighting on opposite sides. This made the plot uncertain because I was not sure what would happen if they were to meet together in a stand-off. Would one kill the other? Were they both capable of that? The character of Maru reminded me of Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. Maru was well-versed in certain aspects and knew where to go and what to do and guided the group as they went along. But she also had her own secrets that sometimes put their journey at risk. It made me mad that she wanted Lucius to figure things out by himself sometimes instead of outright telling him what to do to save time. But I understood why as I read on.
The writing was convincing and flowing. The experience was a good one. I could say the dialogue and narration were level with each other. I didn’t feel like everything was told to me. I was involved in the action. The fighting sequences were brief but were well portrayed. What I disliked was the world-building. It did not feel complete in that some other things felt out of place or outright confusing. I could not immerse myself in this world the author had crafted because it didn’t feel real to me. There were many moving parts about it. The time period was also not executed well. Sometimes it felt like modern fantasy, but somehow, it all became too fuzzy for my liking. There were errors, especially in regard to repetition of certain words. My reading was slightly spoiled by this because I had to reread a couple of times to understand better.
With all I have said, I rate this book four out of five stars. I would recommend it to people who love fantasy mixed with science fiction. Those who love characters on their road to discovery, who go through treacherous journeys to defeat evil, will surely enjoy this one. The follow-up book is coming soon since this one ended with a couple of questions that can be off-putting to other readers. It would be suitable for readers in their late teens to young adults because of the strong language it contains.
******
Shadow Storm
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
The book opens with a stranger who is hearing voices that he cannot understand. He is scared. Everything does not make sense. He just wants everything to stop and maybe make sense of everything. Multiple cars stop in front of him, and one man gets out of one and calls this stranger Lucius. Not only that, but he refers to Lucius as his brother. Things start making sense to Lucius. Lucius sees that he shares similar features with this man. Lucius, not knowing how, calls the other man Dax and tells him he doesn’t have whatever he thinks he, Lucius, has.
During their heated exchange, it is revealed that Dax is working with or for a secret organisation called Kai-Tangata. Lucius is afraid that they want to run experiments on him. Long story short, Dax captures him and locks him up in a secretive place. There, Lucius is put under intense torture. Lucius is told about dimensional beings. Terrence works for Dax and is put under pressure to extract information from Lucius A.S.A.P. But it later turns out that there is more to Terrence because he helps Lucius to escape. It isn’t an easy escape because Lucius is quickly apprehended, but something fantastic happens. He feels like he is split into two; the other body of him is inside the prison, and the other body of him is outside, free with Terrence. But how? Who is Maru? Why is the Kai-Tangata after Lucius? What is Atlantis? Is there more to Lucius than what meets the eye? What does it mean to be a dimensional being?
Read this fantasy science fiction novel by Jennifer Aitken called Shadow Storm to find more. It packed many different elements and made them into one product. As I have said above, it is a mixture of fantasy and science fiction, in that there is magic here and there, and there are concepts that are consistent with science fiction, like dimensional travelling. Both of them are added together to give this story that is good to read. These elements did not clash at all. Instead, they complemented each other, adding up where the other might have failed. This made the story different and so worthy to be read. I liked that.
I also liked that the characters were brought to life by their ambitions. I was more fascinated by the characters of Lucius and Dax than others. They were brothers, but they were so different from each other, even fighting on opposite sides. This made the plot uncertain because I was not sure what would happen if they were to meet together in a stand-off. Would one kill the other? Were they both capable of that? The character of Maru reminded me of Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. Maru was well-versed in certain aspects and knew where to go and what to do and guided the group as they went along. But she also had her own secrets that sometimes put their journey at risk. It made me mad that she wanted Lucius to figure things out by himself sometimes instead of outright telling him what to do to save time. But I understood why as I read on.
The writing was convincing and flowing. The experience was a good one. I could say the dialogue and narration were level with each other. I didn’t feel like everything was told to me. I was involved in the action. The fighting sequences were brief but were well portrayed. What I disliked was the world-building. It did not feel complete in that some other things felt out of place or outright confusing. I could not immerse myself in this world the author had crafted because it didn’t feel real to me. There were many moving parts about it. The time period was also not executed well. Sometimes it felt like modern fantasy, but somehow, it all became too fuzzy for my liking. There were errors, especially in regard to repetition of certain words. My reading was slightly spoiled by this because I had to reread a couple of times to understand better.
With all I have said, I rate this book four out of five stars. I would recommend it to people who love fantasy mixed with science fiction. Those who love characters on their road to discovery, who go through treacherous journeys to defeat evil, will surely enjoy this one. The follow-up book is coming soon since this one ended with a couple of questions that can be off-putting to other readers. It would be suitable for readers in their late teens to young adults because of the strong language it contains.
******
Shadow Storm
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes