Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff: I don't know how to feel!?

Stormdancer 

by 

Jay Kristoff

I have so many mixed feelings about this book I don’t even know! And I picked this book up because I already had mixed feelings! 

Not at first though I technically picked it up because the first time I tried to read it I was bombarded with vulgar words before I even got past the first chapter. (FYI authors this is extremely off putting.) but I saw it at the library, vaguely remembered trying it once, vaguely recognized the author’s name and picked it up. Before I even began reading it I remember that Jay Kristoff wrote Nevernight, a book that I 100% want to read and 100% don’t want to read. When I finally figured it out I figured I could at least get a taste of his writing style before I took the leap and grabbed Nevernight.

              But it didn’t clear up my indecision at all. 

Stormdancer is set in a dystopian/steampunk world where the Japanese islands have discovered a plant called the blood lotus that makes basically everything. Most notably Fuel for airships 

and a toxic yet addictive smoking substance. 

Yukiko, the protagonist is mostly caught up trying to keep her father from killing someone or himself while in the throughs of said drug. At least until the spoiled, psychopathic emperor sends them out to capture an Arashitora or a thunder tiger. Hijinks ensue until Yukiko and the crippled, yet sassy, Thunder Tiger are stranded in the wilderness with no way to get home.

Characters

Yukiko: I don’t even know about Yukiko. I liked her at least half the time. But the other half I wanted to smack some sense into her with a chair. I think it was mostly her interaction with the other characters that got me. She was at her best with Buruu. Around the thunder tiger she was more consistent and interesting. Yet with the other characters she was either brutally rude or strangely kind (hint she was kind to the people she found attractive). I just didn’t understand her. 

I never felt like I knew what she would and wouldn’t do, which isn’t in itself a bad thing but when I still felt the same way about her at the end of the story (when I should have known her best) I was a bit disappointed. But that might just be me. She certainly wasn’t a bad character and she didn’t ruin the story for me like other protagonists have.

Buruu: favorite character in this book from now until forever. Actually, he reminded me a lot of Saphira from Eragon. He was angry and biting and hilariously brutal. Most of the human interaction he had in the first half of the book was him offering to kill every living thing that crossed his and Yukiko’s path. 

Of course after a while he became a bit more human, a side effect of hanging out with Yukiko for so long, and he got an almost noble air to him. A++ character development, he made the story.

Kin: I’m honestly not sure if I should have even bothered putting this kid on here. But Stormdancer is part of a trilogy and I’m pretty sure he’ll be in at least part of it if not the future love interest so what the heck I’ll put him on. There are these people called the Artificer’s, they wear Cybermen-esque suits of metal which protect them, and keep them from being corrupted by the outside world. Now that I think about it a Dalek suit might have been better comparison. 

Anyway the Artificer’s are in charge of taking care of the Lotus plant’s, fertilizing the fields the lotus grows in with an elixir derived from dead prisoners of war (Ew), and occasionally burning people alive.  Kin has magically escaped their brainwashing and is a good Artificer who just likes building things. Yep no explanation needed there.

Likes

Did you even hear the words Japanese-steampunk-dystopian? I don’t think I have ever seen a combination of words that were so pretty. Though I’m not sure if it’s quite dystopian just severely leaning that way, what with the blood lotus destroying fields and polluting the air to the point where goggles and breathing mask are needed. Well the world was fabulous and I would gladly read the next two for the setting alone which is not something I say very often.

Buruu and Yukiko are awesome when they’re together: if the entire book had just been Yukiko and Buruu sassing people and kicking butt together I would have been a happy person. 

Not only were they sweet together they made each other better people in the long run which was awesome. Basically, whenever Buruu was on screen I was happy.

It left it somewhat wrapped up: There’s nothing wrong with cliffhangers honestly. I just don’t like running around like a manic trying to get the next book out of fear for the lives of the characters (I’m looking at you Orphan Queen, rude). I’m still going to get the next one if I can but I like not being forced into it. Still the ending, while it wrapped up some the important bits, left it open enough that a second book makes sense.

Bad guy was sufficiently creepy: You know who he reminded me off? Fire lord Ozai. 

Just not as cool. But you can’t beat a dude who’s voiced by Mark Hamill guys. The Emperor was a raging maniac there’s no two ways about it. He hurt people and he enjoyed and I was very, very happy when he got skewered. At least I think it was skewered. There was a lot of stuff going on okay. Was he terribly original. No. he wasn’t by any definition. But he was a threat and he was easy to hate so I’ll stand for it.  

Dislikes

Why or why was there so much language: come on man at a certain point it just got plain old annoying. I hear quite enough of the f-bomb walking down the street I don’t want to see it on the page four times in as many chapters.

 I don’t care if it’s ‘realistic’ or ‘character defining’ if every fifth word is something vulgar it just comes down to straight up laziness. Try really hard Kristoff and I promise you can come up with a different way of expressing such displeasure. Or gone the Firefly route and had the character break out in another language. At the very least it would have been a bit of variety.

Yukiko you despicable human being: spoilers 

I guess for the romantic sub plot (if you guys really care about that). 

So Yukiko decides to have sex with somebody for no other reason than wanting to feel better about herself. Alright Yukiko you feel like crap about yourself, I’m sure using someone for such selfish reasons is going to make you feel much better. Nope. And the narrative even teeters on the point of acknowledging it! Surprisingly Yukiko discovers that cheap and meaningless sex is (wait for it) meaningless! Shocker. Then she turns around and does it again! 

Lady are you stupid. I don’t understand guys, I really, really don’t.

Unfortunately listing all this stuff out hasn’t cleared up my indecision whatsoever. Lovely.