Storm Glass
Written by Jeff Wheeler
Narrated by Kate Rudd
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
From the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Kingfountain Series comes the first novel in a bold and richly imagined world.
Theirs is a world of opposites. The privileged live in sky manors held aloft by a secretive magic known only as the Mysteries. Below, the earthbound poor are forced into factory work to maintain the engine of commerce. Only the wealthy can afford to learn the Mysteries, and they use their knowledge to further lock their hold on society.
Cettie Pratt is a waif doomed to the world below, until an admiral attempts to adopt her. But in her new home in the clouds, not everyone treats her as one of the family.
Sera Fitzempress is a princess born into power. She yearns to meet the orphan girl she has heard so much about, but her father deems the girl unworthy of his daughter’s curiosity.
Neither girl feels that she belongs. Each seeks to break free of imposed rules. Now, as Cettie dreams of living above and as Sera is drawn to the world below, they will follow the paths of their own choosing.
But both girls will be needed for the coming storm that threatens to overturn both their worlds.
Jeff Wheeler
Jeff Wheeler is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Harbinger and Kingfountain series, as well as the Muirwood, Mirrowen, and Landmoor novels. He took an early retirement from his career at Intel in 2014 to write full-time. He is a husband, father of five, and devout member of his church. He lives in the Rocky Mountains and is the founder of Deep Magic: The E-Zine of Clean Fantasy and Science Fiction. Find out more about Deep Magic at www.deepmagic.co, and visit Jeff’s many worlds at www.jeff-wheeler.com.
More audiobooks from Jeff Wheeler
Landmoor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Silverkin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
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Reviews for Storm Glass
170 ratings13 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great start to a hopefully better series. Loved it. ?⚜‼️
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5this book was the first one in this author's universe that i have read and i loved it. i do hope that he keeps his style of story telling in his other works
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/53.75
What I liked:
I enjoyed the pacing of this story. The narrative is largely character driven and I truly fell in love with the characters. The world building is slow since the pic characters are both learning about the Mysteries of their world and the realities of evil intent. That being said it set a solid foundation for the series. The magic system is intriguing though you only understand it toward the end of the book.
What I didn't like:
Older characters constantly refer to the Mysteries, which is a blanket statement for anything that isn't known, fields of academia, and types of magic that exist in the world. Personally, I found this lazy and annoying. The actual Storm Glass was a subplot and though it created an important plot point for certain characters, I'm not sure why the book was tilted Storm Glass.
Final thoughts:
Storm Glass is an intriguing read and I llook forward to reading the rest of the series. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It’s so interesting! Kept looking forward to listening to it
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pretty good story, fast paced and quite creative world building.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jeff Wheeler wrote this book. That’s all you need to know. Everything he writes is gold!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Captivating story
Two likeable heroines keep the plot moving. The writing/world reminded me of a combination of Richard Pullman’s and Dickens. Very dark but rays of hope for change. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I was sort of expecting "orphan goes to magic school" but in the end, it is "prelude to orphan goes to magic school". Anyway, the world building is interesting, and I will likely read on in the series eventually.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5"We all learn, little woman, that before we can be old and wise, we must at first be very young and foolish."
This is marketed as young adult, and while the writing style and pacing were definitely of that genre, the main characters were both 12 throughout the entire novel, which was surprising to me at first. The plot was well paced, though, and the characters well rounded, so it was not a bad thing by any means.
I was drawn into the story and the world as soon as Cettie's character was introduced. She had a gothic quality to her that reminded me of Jane Eyre, and her storyline gave me strong Mansfield Park vibes, which I really liked and appreciated.
Unfortunately, I did not feel such about our other heroine, Sera, at least not for a long while. I found her initially more along the lines of the princess part of Barbie's The Princess and the Pauper: whiney, ungrateful, and ~so unconventional~ But after some hardships, her character really blossomed into someone I genuinely cared about.
"Some knowledge, important knowledge, requires a price to be paid before it is learned. The secrets must be guarded. But they can be learned."
I was not a huge fan of the unnecessary love interests, as they made the 12 year old protagonists feel much older, especially since their respective love interests were both a few years older than them. The other secondary characters, such as Sera's governess Hugilde, Mr Durrant (an iconic gem of a man), and Anna were all great additions that helped to populate the world and expand the breadth of the characters.
I did not like the random thoughts from a seemingly unimportant character, Lady Corrine of Pavenham Sky, as they were largely unrelated to the themes of the novel, and served only to reiterate worldbuilding, spew pointless philosophy, and distract from the plot. The character in question, when she did appear, did not seem even remotely like her philosophical self.
The malevolent spirits and their influence in Cettie's life, as well as Fitzroy's apparent ability to ward them off, was immediately compelling and I was dying to know more about them. I loved the worldbuilding as a whole and was fascinated by the mixture of myth and science. It reminded me a lot of one of my favorite underrated novels, Dominion by Shane Arbuthnott, with its historical feel and steampunk mixed with otherworldly fantasy aspects.
"That's the thing about stories. They can touch on truths that some people are not ready to hear."
Read this review and more on my blog here! - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A powerful dystopian story that will make you see the world in a new way. Two girls, two different worlds, one goal. But can anyone truly transcend their station in life? Is perseverance enough to change the way your world operates? Powerful female leads in a compelling tale you won't want to put down.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Storm Glass by Jeff Wheeler and narrated by Kate Rudd is a fabulous world that is fleshed out magnificently! Floating mountain cities, the poor people and the life they live on the ground, the magic that keeps things going they call the "Mysteries" , and the ship's that soar through the sky! It is all so cool! The characters are well developed and either terrifying or wonderful. Sure their are others but all are unique! The narration is excellent too! I will certainly follow this series!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Storm Glass centers on a world where the rich and the poor are divided – the rich live their lives on floating manors in the clouds, which are held aloft by the Mysteries; the poor live below, often in squalor, as they are too poor to learn these Mysteries and thus unable to benefit from them. The story centers around two girls: Cettie Pratt, who lived down below until she was rescued by an admiral from the clouds, and Sera Fitzempress, a princess and in line to rule. We follow the stories of both girls – who were around twelve years old throughout most of the novel – waiting for their stories to coalesce.I felt that the most interesting part of this story was waiting to see how Cettie’s and Sera’s stories were going to come together. Other than that, I felt that it was a slow start to the series, and as such, wasn’t a strong start. I get that there was a lot of world-building that needed to happen before getting into the meat of the story, but the story felt bogged down by it. I did like the characters of both Cettie and Sera – they were innocent and pure – but at they same time, they felt too tame. The trials and tribulations they faced felt like they were wrapped up much too quickly and too neatly. The whole story just felt too tame…All-in-all, not a bad start to a series. I will definitely keep reading to see where it goes, but I don’t see it getting added to any of my top reads for the year.Thank you to NetGalley and 47North for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I only picked this up to complete a reading challenge (a weather element in the title), but it ended up loving it. I feel like the world was brought to life and I kept rooting for the main characters. I will be reading the rest of the series.