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A review by louisa_meg
Storm Siren by Mary Weber
4.0
This was a great book. I really loved the characters, the plot, the presentation, and how it was noticeably different from most YA that we're getting right now.
First, the characters. Nym was great and I loved how she had to work to develop her powers, deal with her values, and try to fit in. But she wasn't really thrust at the court; most of her time was spent with her trainer and her fellow trainee or her slave girl. She went to the lavish parties her owner threw quite often, but that wasn't where we spent our time; it wasn't a main issue. Nym's character was interesting because of where her guilt came from and how she handled it. She also acted realistically - she wasn't acting the hero immediately and she didn't want to either. She was strong but in a different way. She really stuck to her values and it took the whole book for her to truly learn how she could save her people without violating them. Nym grew and changed over the course of the book in a great way.
All the other characters were great, too, but my favorite was Eogan. He embodied what you would think of in a trainer while at the same time being much more sensitive than most are. He was a special character that developed a lot over the book, but mostly through revelations, not through overcoming obstacles or something similar. And of course, he is Nym's crush. And, wow, does she fall for him hard. The whole book, I was thinking that they were definitely getting together (which happened - it's not a spoiler because it was obvious from the moment that she met him). He was the perfect book crush - handsome, powerful, mysterious, etc. So yeah, he was easy to love. And he was very sensitive, which felt different (even though it's really not). Other than that, he was essential to the story. He wasn't the sort of character that you can replace with most of the other boyfriends from YA books. They are all pretty similar, but he has things that they don't have. He was essential to Nym's development, and I liked that.
Storm Siren shined in how it differed from many of the popular YAs from today. It wasn't all about Nym and her friends rebelling and saving the world from an evil government. Instead, Weber gave us a world that is in pieces because of the war that's been going on for 100+ years. Nym should have been killed because the people are afraid of her kind, but the book isn't about her acting to fix that (although that's not something that she ignores). Instead, it's about her trying to figure out how to save her country and people without killing and killing and killing, which she hates. She is brought to a fancy government officer's house and trained there, but the feel of it was different enough that I didn't mind. So the essential plot of the book is Nym struggling to learn how to control her powers with many distractions while also struggling to understand how she can protect her people without putting many, many lives on her conscience.
The one part about the book that I did not like was the ending. It wasn't because it was a cliffhanger, it was because of how uncertain we are left about... well, we're just hoping that things aren't as they seem because if they are, that would be bad. Really bad. Tremendously bad. So I didn't like that Weber left us not only wondering if it happened but that she even made it a possibility. It was bad form after everything else that happened - it feels like she is just trying to add in a ton of the suspense and drama that we are used to that doesn't have a place in this book.
But of course, with that cliffhanger ending and the different take on the same ideas, I'm ready to come back for more and read the next book.
First, the characters. Nym was great and I loved how she had to work to develop her powers, deal with her values, and try to fit in. But she wasn't really thrust at the court; most of her time was spent with her trainer and her fellow trainee or her slave girl. She went to the lavish parties her owner threw quite often, but that wasn't where we spent our time; it wasn't a main issue. Nym's character was interesting because of where her guilt came from and how she handled it. She also acted realistically - she wasn't acting the hero immediately and she didn't want to either. She was strong but in a different way. She really stuck to her values and it took the whole book for her to truly learn how she could save her people without violating them. Nym grew and changed over the course of the book in a great way.
All the other characters were great, too, but my favorite was Eogan. He embodied what you would think of in a trainer while at the same time being much more sensitive than most are. He was a special character that developed a lot over the book, but mostly through revelations, not through overcoming obstacles or something similar. And of course, he is Nym's crush. And, wow, does she fall for him hard. The whole book, I was thinking that they were definitely getting together (which happened - it's not a spoiler because it was obvious from the moment that she met him). He was the perfect book crush - handsome, powerful, mysterious, etc. So yeah, he was easy to love. And he was very sensitive, which felt different (even though it's really not). Other than that, he was essential to the story. He wasn't the sort of character that you can replace with most of the other boyfriends from YA books. They are all pretty similar, but he has things that they don't have. He was essential to Nym's development, and I liked that.
Storm Siren shined in how it differed from many of the popular YAs from today. It wasn't all about Nym and her friends rebelling and saving the world from an evil government. Instead, Weber gave us a world that is in pieces because of the war that's been going on for 100+ years. Nym should have been killed because the people are afraid of her kind, but the book isn't about her acting to fix that (although that's not something that she ignores). Instead, it's about her trying to figure out how to save her country and people without killing and killing and killing, which she hates. She is brought to a fancy government officer's house and trained there, but the feel of it was different enough that I didn't mind. So the essential plot of the book is Nym struggling to learn how to control her powers with many distractions while also struggling to understand how she can protect her people without putting many, many lives on her conscience.
The one part about the book that I did not like was the ending. It wasn't because it was a cliffhanger, it was because of how uncertain we are left about... well, we're just hoping that things aren't as they seem because if they are, that would be bad. Really bad. Tremendously bad. So I didn't like that Weber left us not only wondering if it happened but that she even made it a possibility. It was bad form after everything else that happened - it feels like she is just trying to add in a ton of the suspense and drama that we are used to that doesn't have a place in this book.
But of course, with that cliffhanger ending and the different take on the same ideas, I'm ready to come back for more and read the next book.