Stormdancer, Jay Kristoff

Stormdancer (The Lotus War, Book One)
Author: Jay Kristoff
Thomas Dunne, 2012
ISBN: 9781250001405
Steampunk Bushido in a ravaged Japan-analogue where "blood lotus" destroys the land, but makes airships, trains, and mechanized armor and weaponry possible.  Crazed young Emperor demands his Hunters return to him with a mythical Arashitora - a giant griffin.

Really mixed feelings about this one.

Spoilers aplenty - you've been warned.

First real set of grouses - the metal-encased priests.  I'm left not entirely sure what their motivations are, and whether they really believe their rites and taboos, or if that's just to keep the rank and file in line.  It bugs me that they're so much of a player, but they're left nearly entirely a mystery.  (I know there's a series upcoming - I can still be unhappy about what isn't in THIS book.)

Also not happy that the reveal about the "fertilizer" for the red lotus is left until so close to the end and then thrown in casually like that.  A potential knockout like that is should be a bit more than "the character goes back home and continues to feel somewhat sorry for the people riding the Soylent Green conveyor belt until he turns a corner and then forgets about them because he has other things on his mind."  If you're going for cannibalism and human sacrifice, it just feels odd to have it casually thrown in there. 

Red Lotus.   So... it's a fuel.  And a drug.  And clothing.  And food.  And a lubricant.  And a decoration?  And.... I start to lose faith in a miracle plant that does all things for all people.  Just not realistic to me, magical kingdom or not.

Gritty realism vs romantic inter-species partnership.  It could be done where these two genres coexist nicely, I'm sure.  But here it's like the fan-fic equivalent of the  "magic horsies" of Valdemar (yes, I know they're Companions, and aren't actually horses - I'm making a point here) crashed into Warhammer 40K.  I get sucked in by the happy lovely interactive mental/emotional bond and then POW - exploding brains!  Severed limbs!  Emotionally withdrawn heroes soldiering on while comrades are hacked squishily to death behind them!  Yeesh. 

The Dad.  I feel like I'm being a little unfair with this grouse, but really, the "child who doesn't realize the massive sacrifice dad has made for them until he's gone, and their reunion is seconds before he dies" trope is making me a little nuts.  I understand it's difficult to have a teen protagonist really be an active protagonist with parents in the way.  I understand that conflict and drama and pain are a great way to build character, and dead/threatened/dying parents are a great easy path to that conflict and drama and pain.  I know that having the "mentor" die off in the first book (movie) of the trilogy is the accepted way to go.  I got it.  But really for the love of goats, try to make it a little varied?  I know I'm not the target audience - I read way too many books, and remember them all too well.  I also think too hard about all this stuff, and most people don't.  But I have to say, if I'm rolling my eyes during the climax of your book because I JUST KNEW IT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN THAT WAY, GODDAMNIT, it makes it hard for me to connect with the surviving characters and want to continue on with them in the future.

(On the other hand, nice fakeout with the inheritance.  That was classy.)

Final grouse - Really didn't like that the Princess was resolved offscreen.  Not a fan of that choice at all.  Maybe there was a page-number limit, maybe there was a difficulty getting a "face" character over there to see what happened, but unless the author is abusing the "if you don't see them die and see their corpse, they aren't really dead" trope (and I would qualify a between-book resurrection as an abuse) then I feel like she got shafted as a character.

OTHERWISE, I really enjoyed it!  :)