The Umbral Storm by Alec Hutson

A thousand years ago the Heart of the World was shattered, its fragments scattered across the lands. In the chaos that followed, martial orders arose to gather these shards, for it was found that great powers were granted when these pieces were bonded to the flesh of the chosen. These are the Sharded Few, warriors imbued with the divine energies that once coursed through the Heart, and driven to absorb enough fragments to claim godhood.

Deryn has known nothing in his life except suffering. Orphaned at the edge of the realms, indentured to a cruel slaver, he can see little chance of escaping his circumstances. But elsewhere in the world ancient powers are stirring, new alliances threaten the peace of the old order, and in the cataclysms that are coming a slave will become a hero.

Jared

In The Umbral Storm, three very special young people fend with powers and politics in a world with an enjoyable, gamified magic system. At a time in the past, the Heart of the World went kablooie and everyone now runs around collecting shards. If you collect even a single fragment, you’re boosted with generic superhuman abilities. If you pick up more, you start unlocking truly fantastic powers. These magic feats are carefully categorised and delineated, ranging from the commonplace to the super-unique. With each and every magical lootbox, opportunities for progression abound…

Umbral doesn’t go full ‘blocks of numbers’ LitRPG, but it skirts pretty closely to the edge. It is the sort of book that makes you itch for Appendices and Tables and things. That sort of vibe. Progression Fantasy done well teases at ‘participative culture’, a la Henry Jenkins – it invites self-insertion. When you finish a book and start daydreaming about what your own role in that world would be… Fantasy settings with clear groups (Harry Potter) or systematic magic (Branderson) are particularly participative: they provide clear guide-rails for the reader to begin designing their own character, and their own role in the world. Umbral, like most Progression Fantasies, has both defined groups and a regimented magic system. Moreover, it is pacey as hell, and packed with engaging, cinematic action sequences. It is, in short, participative. Or, as one might say, ‘fun af’.

Broadly speaking, there are three acts. 

The first act is what it is. We meet our soon-to-start-power-leveling main characters: Deryn and Heth and Alia. They’re all in the jungle for reasons. Deryn is an indentured servant, climbing for tree crabs. Heth’s the boss’ son. Alia is a manic pixie jungle girl. When a rogue, one-sharded, fucker bursts onto the scene, we learn exactly how far beyond mere mortals they are – physically and (gasp!) morally. Shenanigans happen. The kids wind up finishing the tutorial level, and learning that they are, indeed, Very Special. WIZZERD SCHOOL awaits.

Caps for enthusiasm, of course. I like WIZZERD EDUCATION, which is again, participative af. It lets the reader suck in infodumps all in the most familiar environment, one wrapped in deep emotional and social resonance. This extended middle act is, by far, the best part of the book. The primary focus is Deryn, because as well as being Special, he turns out to be Super Special: both inherently Better than everyone else and quasi-literally showered by rare loot-rolls. (This is not a book about hard work and equity, y’all. This is a book about the special people who are Just Better.) He’s trained (a combination of infodumping and inherent excellence), while watching random gladiatorial hijinks (for a bonus layer of awesome). It is, again, really good fun. Meanwhile, Heth sets up his own secret non-WIZZERD SCHOOL and Alia girls about.

After WIZZERD SCHOOL there’s a third act where they plot some, and that’s fine. To be honest, unless there’s WIZZERD UNIVERSITY in Book 2, I don’t feel the need to press on. Fate of the world be damned, I want more late night study sessions and gladiatorial exams.

Overall: Umbral is a hoot. Progression Fantasy done right feels like playing a game with your best mates, and Umbral has all that sense of enthusiasm and invitation (mostly, see below), and then some. 

That said… I’m not giving Umbral a free pass. Progression Fantasy isn’t (ironically) a wildly progressive genre, and Umbral doesn’t go out of its way to push for new ground. It may be participative, but there are limits to the invitation. I don’t bandy around things like ‘requires a sensitivity read’ lightly, but the opening chapters are, at the very least, ill-considered, with dark-skinned slaves mumbling in pidgin English before they nobly sacrifice themselves for the special white boy. Alia is, by far, the least realised of the three major characters. She’s sidelined into a more passive plot role: she observes the politics, serves as an object of ‘concern’, and even winds up as an awkward romantic interest (in a budding triangle that would make the most jaded YA reader roll their eyes). She ultimately realises her full manic pixie potential with Special Nature Powers.

I also have a broader issue with the sheer volume of advantages showered on Deryn –  not unlike my concerns with the (also immensely entertaining) On Lavender Tides. I struggle with heroes that have power handed to them on a silver platter. In Deryn’s case, he’s both born to magical privilege and given it. It not only isn’t fun as a game, it makes him a less engaging character. It is fun to watch ‘winning’, but it is even more enjoyable to see someone earn their victory. I get that part of the fun of Progression Fantasy is to watch the characters win, but that triumph is somewhat lessened when they’re handed XP advantages and vorpal blades.

But, listen, I overthink this stuff so you don’t have to. If there’s a trend with all the finalists I’ve read this year, it is that they all seem to do exactly what they set out to do. They’re squarely in the center of their respective subgenres, proficiently demonstrating the tropes and stories therein. None of them are breaking new ground, but they’re indulgently, unabashed, shamelessly themselves. If this is the sort of book you like, you’ll like it. If it isn’t, it won’t change your mind. 7.5.

7.5/10

Calvin

Jared’s summary, review, and concerns basically echo my own. I enjoyed Umbral Storm quite a bit. I am a huge fan of the progression fantasy subgenre, and I think Hutson’s foray into the subgenre gets a ton right. The magic system is interesting and technical, there is plenty of room for character advancement, and it’s just fun to watch these characters grow in power…or at least it seems like it will be. In this first novel we see our main characters only at comparatively low levels of power and strength. I also think Hutson does a good job with the world building. While there are a couple of times where it can feel a little info dumpy, it makes sense within the context of the story for a character to be explaining something to another character. 

I don’t have much to add to what Jared has already outlined as this novel’s strengths. It’s fun. It knows what it wants to be and it hits that target pretty near perfectly. On the other hand, I do have a couple bones to pick with the execution. One of the things I love about progression fantasy is when power and growth in the magic system is tied in some way to how the characters grow as people. There were some glimmers of that here in Umbral Storm but I never felt like it quite connected. On the whole I would say that I didn’t feel super connected to the characters or their emotions. 

That brings me to another element of the novel I didn’t enjoy: it’s long, and at times it felt long. While the pacing was generally good, there were some moments when it felt like I was reading a very long book. Also, given the reality that the novel has a fairly substantial page count, I find it even more inexcusable that more of the words weren’t spent helping me feel and understand the emotions of the characters. 

Which brings me to my final complaint: Alia. Mild spoilers here, so skip this paragraph if you don’t want to read that kind of thing. Jared mentioned already that Alia is the “least realised” of the three main characters. That’s true. But my complaint goes beyond this. She also ends up fulfilling the plot role of being rescued or saved by the two male leads. She is a capable, powerful individual, but it seemed to me like nearly every time we turned a page she needed help from one of the male leads. I can’t remember a moment–none jumped out at me–where she actually saves them. There are clearly moments where she is portrayed as being their equal in strength, but when the action happens she is being rescued rather than doing the rescuing. 

While I’ve been a little blunt in my critiques, I still enjoyed this one and plan to read the sequel when it releases. If you enjoy complex magic systems, progression in power by the characters, and some deep world building I think you are highly likely to enjoy this novel. It’s definitely worth a shot. 

8/10

The Fantasy Inn’s final score for The Umbral Storm is:

8/10