Stranger of Tempest

LoveReading Says

Highly Recommended.

This is an immensely satisfying gritty fantasy adventure that follows a group of mercenaries on a mission that gets them into much deeper waters and hotter fires than they were anticipating. Grimdark (fantasy where all is dark and every outcome is, well, grim…) has become something of a cliché in fantasy recently but Lloyd undercuts this expertly.

Stranger revolves around a group of characters who are wonderfully real and hence often joke and laugh. Central to the story is the tired soldier Lynx (the story behind his name is winningly mundane) but Lynx shares the page with a pleasingly diverse and gender balanced group of tough yet flawed warriors.

In Lloyd’s world it is simply taken as read that women are as capable and dangerous in the field as anyone else and often have the added advantage of extra commonsense. Stranger feels fresh and welcome as a result.

The book gains added colour from the mercenary band taking their names and structure from a deck of cards that in itself is drawn from an original and fascinating mythology – it’s a lovely touch. Add to that magic that works like technology and a plot that jumps deftly between the present and flashbacks and you have a hugely enjoyable, action-filled, novel that will please fans of fantasy from Joe Abercrombie to Jen Williams.

Reviewed by Simon Spanton
Simon Spanton has been a publisher of Science Fiction and Fantasy, as well as mainstream fiction, for 25 years, the last 19 years of which has been as Associate Publisher at the…
More reviews by Simon Spanton

About Stranger of Tempest

Lynx is a mercenary with a sense of honour; a dying breed in the Riven Kingdom. Failed by the nation he served and weary of the skirmishes that plague the continent's principalities, he walks the land in search of purpose. He wants for little so bodyguard work keeps his belly full and his mage-gun loaded.

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