Review: The Storm Beneath the World by Michael R. Fletcher
Blurb:
Cursed by the gods.
The insectile ashkaro live on flying islands travelling the eternal River of Days while a hellish firestorm devours the world below. Collected into queendoms, the higher caste brights live in the luxurious windward rain-forest while the servile dulls scrape out a desperate existence in the leeward desert.
Conflicts escalate between two neighbouring queendoms. Where Nysh embraces modern ideals of equality and independence, Yil honours the Fallen Goddess by enslaving their neighbours and maintaining traditional castes.
In preparation for the imminent war, Nysh sends ashkaro youths with dangerous Talents to secret schools, training them as assassins and spies. Joh, a dull male with a Talent for suggestion, and Ahk, a bright female with a Talent for stealth, are torn from their families and thrown into the academy. The two naively believe that the biggest threat comes from the other students, not realizing the war has already begun.
United in purpose, divided by caste, they can only save the island from the Mad Queen by working together.
Review:
I managed to stumble upon a post on ‘X’ by the author where he called out bloggers/reviewers to have a go at the first installment of his new fantasy series, titled – ‘The Storm Beneath the World.’ To start off, the cover stood out massively, and caught my eye at the very first glance. The description sounded fun, exciting, and pretty unique. And in his own words –
It's your typical "insects living in the upper atmosphere of a gas giant world with an endorphin-based magic system" fantasy. That old trope.
Sounds fun, right? I mean, a new book by “the Mad Titan of dark fantasy” himself immediately warrants a read, no? At least that’s what I’m told! And this man can promote a book alright, tell you what. But as an amateur blogger-reviewer myself, I was definitely hesitant at first to ask him about it. When I eventually did manage to do that, Michael was very kind enough to provide me with a free digital copy of the book in next to no time. And for that, I’m really grateful to him.
Well, go get some popcorn and grab onto your seats, cuz this is gonna be quite a big one! I’ll try my best to introduce you to this amazing and equally dangerous world without giving away too much, but hopefully just enough for you to get excited and intrigued by it all. Maybe also just enough for you to grab yourselves a copy too, as you don’t want to miss out on this.
Alright then, let’s dive into it!
Welcome to the world of the ashkaro!
The ashkaro are a species of insects having 8 limbs, 6 eyes, 4 wings, and 2 antennae. Sounds like your average, typical bug from around the globe, huh? Not quite. Ashkaro were predators, and their blood ran with ten thousand generations of killing. Formerly part of something collectively referred to as “the hive”, the ashkaro have long since evolved following a cultural shift, and developed, rather grown, into a society of their own. But can any society ever be perfect enough?
Divided into two major factions based on the caste system, the ashkaro are categorized not only based on how shiny or colorful their carapace was, but also by how big of a name they had. The “brights” were the elite; the upper class; the privileged. The “dulls” were the labor class; underprivileged in pretty much everything, and scraping through for a living. The sleeker the carapace, the higher your position in the society. Not only that, a particular ashkaro’s name also decided their status – a one-named ashkaro was bound to be a dull, whereas a four/five-named (or beyond) ashkaro was a typical bright, and held the highest of ranks. The bigger your name, the better your lifestyle and the higher your stand on the pedestal. One thing was very much clear – brights and dulls could never be friends, be it a male or a female. This was a fact (or was it really a flaw?).
The ashkaro lived on octagonal shaped flying “islands”, with one such being the Nysh Queendom which stretched from the leeward desert to the lush windward jungles. Its capital, Nysh City, was home to near a quarter of a million ashkaro. Here’s a quick sneak-peek into it –
Exiting the sports arena, the priest led Shan through busy streets. Even hidden behind an eternity of cloud, Alatash lit the world, its light feeling strangely harsh. Cobbled streets shone, the red clay bricks scrubbed every day by roving teams of dulls. Ashkaro hustled about their business, well-dressed brights ornamented in wealth, simply clad dulls bent under the burdens of their tools or hauling rickshaws. Tramea flitted overhead, their riders carrying private messages and express mail from city to city. In the distance, bloated skerry, tentacles gripping landing poles, surrounded the Main Station downtown.
Above the islands, clouds stretched forever in every direction. But below… there was nothing but Kratosh – the hellish, ever-raging fire that was the storm beneath the world… domain of the fallen god. A place of an eternity of torment. Savage heat so brutal it baked souls dry. Drier even than the leeward desert.
Fly too high, and we freeze. Drop too low and we burn.
Terrifying as the thought of freezing to death was, the idea of burning forever was scarier. And while the brights enjoyed the luxury of the windward side of the island, the leeward side was an endless desert where parched winds clawed the land, and unknown monsters lurked beneath the dunes or coasted invisible in the clouds above. The leeward side was nothing but sand and death and… the “Corrupt”.
Religion and faith are writ as deep in our blood as hive.
What is a society without a religion? The ashkaro are no different in that aspect, and theirs is tightly controlled and harshly monitored by “the Redemption” … everyone bent before the will of the Redemption. The Redemption’s holy purpose was saving the ashkaro, ensuring every soul had the chance to earn forgiveness. Up to a point. Refuse to obey the laws and there were worse punishments than the slow desiccating death of the desert.
The redemption not only acted as the sole body to preach, promote, and govern the religious aspects of the ashkaro, but it was also the major force that searched for any and every ashkaro who had discovered their “talents”.
And this is where the magic system comes in!
“Every ashkaro has a talent. We only become Corrupt when we discover it, when we feel that first rush of pleasure that comes with using it.”
“… The thing with talents that most folks don’t understand is that sometimes we use them without meaning to.”
A talent is something, rather anything, that one is naturally good at, or maybe has acquired/perfected over time. It can be anything from making wooden figurines that look too good to be real, or something far more deadly and dangerous like controlling fire with your will. Once you feel that mad rush of euphoria, feel that incredible pleasure of discovering and using your talent for the very first-time… you have now become a “Corrupt” in the eyes of the Redemption. And the Redemption is there to keep track of such individuals; to hunt them down at all costs, as a corrupt is not only a threat to the society, but also someone who is against the rules and laws of the Redemption itself.
For all the church preached the new equality of brights and dulls, males and females, the Corruption was the true equalizer.
The Redemption said falling to the lure was an axiom: once addicted, the Corrupt grew in power until they died, either through starvation and self-neglect, or slain by the Redemption’s Keepers.
The dulls are known to be the most common class of corrupts among the ashkaro, and those that are judged and found guilty of being one are thrown in the leeward desert by the Redemption… or worse.
Two such dulls – Joh (a one-named dull male) and Wex (a two-named dull female), are dragged into the harsh reality of their caste based world when they are “recruited” by a dull male priest who is a “defiled” (corrupts who have turned their curse to the service of queen and Redemption). After “sensing” their talents, he takes them to a secret school in the desert meant for talented dull corrupts where the duo meets similar young ashkaro recruits who will be taught to use and control their respective talents to serve the queen… or die trying.
“We train Corrupt at this school, teaching them not only how to resist the lure, but also how to use their talents. Some are extremely dangerous. I’ve had students capable of calling storms, and summoning lightning. Others can control feral creatures, binding tramea or nests of rafak to their will. Try as we might, we are not always successful. Talent and willpower are two very different things.”
But what happens when a bright finds out that they have a talent? Do brights even become corrupt at all? Two such brights – Ahk (a three-named bright female with a respected family name) and Shan (a four-named upper caste bright male associated with the royal family), are about to find out just that…in the most brutal and horrifying ways possible…
The talented corrupts, both brights and dulls alike, are being trained and prepared in secret schools for a war that seems more imminent than ever before. The Mad Queen of the enemy Queendom of Yil is hatching an evil plan that promises to put an end to the neighboring Queendom of Nysh. Where the latter abides by the strict rules and laws of the Redemption who are against corruption, the Yil, on the other hand, embraces it.
Who is right and who is wrong? Who is good and who is evil? What is really the truth of it all? Does having a talent and being a corrupt a curse from the gods, or are the Redemption hiding something from the ashkaro? Is corruption truly a curse, or is it a blessing in disguise?
Truth is a myth.
You need to question everything.
As the plot progresses, we get to see the point of view of all four of the main cast while diving deeper into their respective characters, the lore, and the world of the ashkaro. In a crazy, almost seemingly fated turn of events, the paths of all four young ashkaro are about to converge… Can the brights really work with the dulls, or will the deep writ caste system stamp its authority among them? Whatever the case, time is running out for everyone, and our band of misfit ashkaro are the only hope of stopping the inevitable. Can they set aside their personal differences and work together as a team for once? If not, their world is about to plummet into the hellish fire storm that is Kratosh… the storm beneath the world…
We think we’ve turned our backs on the hive but it’s a lie. We will always be hive, always need others to survive, to give us meaning.
The good:
Right off the bat, the lore/world building was just INCREDIBLE! It’s so, so well-written and the author makes sure to introduce everything to the reader slowly and steadily, and nothing feels like an info-dump at any point. I am really impressed with how it was all put forth.
Quite a lot of things associated with the world of the ashkaro is also really well fleshed out – be it the caste system, the ashkaro anatomy, the numerous factions within the Queendoms, the various settings, the “talents” aka the magic system, etc. Even both the flora and the fauna of the world is really well depicted (and some of the names that the author has come up for them… oh well!).
The characters are superbly written, and their respective talents and the flaws that are associated with them are also well depicted. There are some memorable ones for sure.
The overall plot was very exciting, and equally intriguing for the majority of the book. I also really enjoyed the school settings and their connected plotlines.
There are also a total of eight (8!) black and white illustrations present throughout, and each and every one of them is pretty amazing!
Every chapter opens up with an epigraph containing information about either the history, politics, and lore of the ashkaro, or with a quote/text detailing the Redemption. It really adds to the whole lore/world building aspect big time.
The ending is a mad cliffhanger too! Loved it!
The “not so” good:
The only “slight negative” for me was the pacing, which felt a little bit slow at times, especially in the first half. Apart from that, I have no complaints whatsoever.
Final thoughts
‘The Strom Beneath the World’ is an AMAZING opening chapter to an equally promising new fantasy series. With INCREDIBLE world building that sets up a strong base, well-written, flawed characters that are memorable, and a solid plot that leaves you wanting for more (especially after that cliffhanger!). To say it quite plainly – you definitely don’t want to miss out on this whatsoever. What are you waiting for, then? A “HIGHLY RECOMMENDED” from my side without a doubt. Go grab your copy now!
