Stormland: review & feature

Author: John Shirley

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

Date: April 13th, 2021

Pages: 368

Genre: Post-apocalyptic, climate change

Publisher Synopsis

They call it Stormland: a sprawling, largely abandoned region of the southeastern coast of the USA, where climate change’s extreme weather conditions have brought about a ”perfect storm” of perpetual tempests; where hurricane-strength storms return day after day, 365 days a year.

The heart of Stormland is Charleston, South Carolina, a flooded ruin where hundreds of people remain for their own peculiar reasons; where thugs prey on the weak, and a strangely benevolent cult tries to keep everyone insanely sane. Here, plutocratic evil takes advantage of Stormland’s lawlessness to cultivate a weirdly puppeted theater of cruelty.

Swept into the turbulent vortex of Stormland is an unlikely duo — a former serial killer and a former US Marshal — who must work together to bring light to America’s late twenty-first century heart of darkness.

A cyberpunk detective thriller set in a maelstrom of climatic upheaval, classism, and corrupt power, Stormland paradoxically dramatizes the resilience of the human spirit.

Review

This book is a page-turner! I couldn’t put it down. I’ve really been liking books that tackle global warming and climate issues and this book took it all on in such a creative way.

The characters were complex and drove this story. I enjoy that in a book but be aware that there are a lot of characters introduced that made things difficult to keep track of, especially in the beginning. This was my one issue with the book.

Post-apocalyptic books haven’t been my thing recently – hello, global pandemic – but this story arc was so unique that the time period didn’t bother me.

There’s something for everyone here and I could really recommend Stormland to anyone – it has such a broad appeal. A sequel would be perfect and I hope that is on the horizon.