Ours Is The Storm

Palmer's indie fantasy debut manages to impress by taking many of the conventional fantasy ideas and tossing them out the window. The book starts with a sharp bang -- or more like the cutting of flesh -- with the hero being tortured. From then on, the author takes on fantasy trope after trope, shredding them. The book does well particularly in two points: an intriguing plot that carries you through and strongly developed characters. Both are bound together by just the right pacing -- the story moves not too fast that you feel you are missing things and not too slow where you grow bored. All in all, Ours is the Storm is a standout indie fantasy, and I posit, better than many of the other books you'll find in the indie marketplace. Palmer's effort to bypass cliches the whole way though subvert your expectations and keep you reading to the end.  I was also impressed with how well edited the book was; when reading indie fantasy, you often endure an assault of awkward grammar, annoying typos, and clunky phrasing. But mercifully, this is not the case here. While it's not the end of the world to endure such editing mistakes (and understandable considering indie authors don't have a team of professional editors re-writing the book), it's still nice to see a book with some professional editing done on it.Now while Ours is the Storm is good effort, it's also a flawed effort too. The characters, the plot, and the overall pacing of the book are well done, but I felt the author skimps on the world-building aspect . There's enough attention given to drawing the greater world around, but it's an inch thick when it should be a yard. So if you are looking for a Brandon Sanderson style of multi-layered world building detail,  a mathematically precise magical system, and a deep mythology,  look elsewhere -- this book is found wanting in those areas.But if you want a more character-driven fantasy full of morally ambiguous characters with a solid plot and solid pacing, this book is for you. Overall, an indie fantasy well worth picking up. One complaint I do have is with the pricing which is nearly $5 (at time of this article writing) for what amounts to just a tad over 300 pages. Keep in mind there may be sales that drop this price from time to time. But as of time of writing, this one of the more expensive indie fantasy books on this list by a good margin. This perhaps shows some real confidence on the author's part, but given what you get here with the story, I feel the book is a overpriced compared to most other indie fantasy fiction; the book should be more around the .99 to $2 mark. But still, we are talking a couple bucks here, so this may not be an issue for you. I simply point this out.Even if it's overly expensive as an indie novel, Ours is the Storm is still a good read and one of the better examples of some good indie fantasy. It may not be perfect, but it's much better than most there in the indie space. So, it's worth picking up for sure.