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A review by rachel_menard
Stormrise by Jillian Boehme
3.0
I adore Jillian (aka the Authoress). She is an inspiration to the writing community, and I know how long and hard she's worked to get her books published. I was so excited to see her debut, Stormrise, finally making shelves.
This is a good Mulan retelling. You can tell Jillian has been writing for a long time. Her line by line writing is flawless, it has good flow, and her dialogue is quick and crisp and sincere. I just wanted more from this.
Personally, I like my re-tellings to have some uniqueness to them. Especially the ones that are popular re-tellings, like Mulan or Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast. This had so many events directly copied from Mulan, that I had "I'll Make a Man out of You," running through my head. So, if unlike me, you like your re-tellings to be more like the original, then I think you will enjoy this aspect of it.
The thing that did make this different was the inclusion of the dragons, but here, I also wanted more. In the country of Elonda, they used to worship the dragons, but that lore has since been lost and reduced to mythology. That being the case, what do they worship now? What is their religion? Their rules for morality and tradition? How did dragon lore fade from existence?
Rain is skilled in the art of Neshu, some form of martial arts, and I also wanted some more description here. She frequently takes the first or second stance, but I didn't know what that looked like. Were her arms raised? Her legs spread? I kept thinking it would have been cool if they had dragon-based names, like the Dragontail stance, or the Firebreather.
Rain is a likable character. She's smart and determined, and self-sacrificing, but many of her decisions in this book didn't feel earned. She changes her gender and signs up for the army because her brother, Storm, is incapable fighting. He is brain damaged from a fever as a child.
Before making this life-altering decision, Rain doesn't give it much thought. Considering she could be killed if discovered, I needed more to cheer on her quest. Much of the intro is spent building the relationship between Rain and her sister Willow. I would have preferred to see more with Storm. If he had run into some soldiers who teased him and assaulted him, and Rain stepped in to save him, I could have seen why she would be so driven to take his place.
We also don't see the offending army until much later in the book. They are talked about as being cruel and vicious, but a scene of them attacking a village or even a survivor appearing, bloodied and hysterical talking about their violence, would have helped me urge Rain on her quest to defeat them.
This is one of those books where I can see how it amazing it could be with just a little bit more. I think, as she is such a skilled writer, Jillian's next book will definitely reach that level.
This is a good Mulan retelling. You can tell Jillian has been writing for a long time. Her line by line writing is flawless, it has good flow, and her dialogue is quick and crisp and sincere. I just wanted more from this.
Personally, I like my re-tellings to have some uniqueness to them. Especially the ones that are popular re-tellings, like Mulan or Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast. This had so many events directly copied from Mulan, that I had "I'll Make a Man out of You," running through my head. So, if unlike me, you like your re-tellings to be more like the original, then I think you will enjoy this aspect of it.
The thing that did make this different was the inclusion of the dragons, but here, I also wanted more. In the country of Elonda, they used to worship the dragons, but that lore has since been lost and reduced to mythology. That being the case, what do they worship now? What is their religion? Their rules for morality and tradition? How did dragon lore fade from existence?
Rain is skilled in the art of Neshu, some form of martial arts, and I also wanted some more description here. She frequently takes the first or second stance, but I didn't know what that looked like. Were her arms raised? Her legs spread? I kept thinking it would have been cool if they had dragon-based names, like the Dragontail stance, or the Firebreather.
Rain is a likable character. She's smart and determined, and self-sacrificing, but many of her decisions in this book didn't feel earned. She changes her gender and signs up for the army because her brother, Storm, is incapable fighting. He is brain damaged from a fever as a child.
Before making this life-altering decision, Rain doesn't give it much thought. Considering she could be killed if discovered, I needed more to cheer on her quest. Much of the intro is spent building the relationship between Rain and her sister Willow. I would have preferred to see more with Storm. If he had run into some soldiers who teased him and assaulted him, and Rain stepped in to save him, I could have seen why she would be so driven to take his place.
We also don't see the offending army until much later in the book. They are talked about as being cruel and vicious, but a scene of them attacking a village or even a survivor appearing, bloodied and hysterical talking about their violence, would have helped me urge Rain on her quest to defeat them.
This is one of those books where I can see how it amazing it could be with just a little bit more. I think, as she is such a skilled writer, Jillian's next book will definitely reach that level.