Must be a group member before inviting friends
REVIEW: Whispers of the Storm by Z. B. Steele
Forget about Kvothe, forget about Vaelin Al Sorna, forget about Gabriel de Léon, Z.B. Steele is here to bring you your new favourite moody, morally grey, and slightly melodramatic bastard telling his legendary life story in Whispers of the Storm. Filled with equal parts bloody action, bittersweet introspection, and soul-stirring emotion, this gritty and gut-wrenching coming of age grimdark military fantasy is a tale for the ages that will blow you off your feet and crush your heart without remorse. 
“Ah, Redlin of the Wolves. Vanguard, the Thunderblade, The Justicar’s Revenge, The Reaper in the Winds, The Assassin in Grey. The Storm Itself. It’s a lot of titles for a prisoner.”
Now, after falling head over heels in love with Z.B. Steele’s exquisite storytelling in the companion novella An Inkling of Flame, I was beyond eager to dive into this first full length novel in the Song of the Damned series. Yet despite that excitement, I also felt slightly nervous, as Whispers of the Storm follows none other than the enigmatic and hateable villain that I had just become equally terrified and morbidly fascinated by in the novella; talk about bold storytelling, we love to see it.
And I’ll be damned, if I didn’t find myself reluctantly sympathising with and rooting for the notorious monster known as Redlin of the Wolves within just a few pages. After a lifetime of death and destruction, he has finally been captured by the inquisitors and is now being led to the noose, but first the Archon demands his legendary tale to be fully unveiled at last. Will he tell the truth? Who knows, but I sure couldn’t look away from the devastatingly glorious trainwreck that he calls his life story.
“I am a man of many sins, the cause of wars, death, and turmoil. A master of magic and the deadliest man in Usmal with a blade. A Reaper of such scale that the country has never seen.”
So, I can’t sit here and pretend that Whispers of the Storm truly reinvents the wheel in any way, and yet it felt so inexplicably fresh and exciting to me. Sure, the tropes are troping, but they just trope real good. We’ve got a framed narrative, mystical elemental magic that is tied to religion and comes at a high cost, all the best found family and motley crew vibes, and not one, but two military/magical academy settings; what is not to love?!
I had an absolute blast travelling all the way back to Redlin’s childhood to witness the events that shaped him from an innocent little bookworm into the jaded reaper we know in the present. Even though the first half of Whispers of the Storm is quite a slow-burn set-up with relatively low stakes, I found myself utterly hooked by the irresistible air of intrigue, and I quickly became way more invested in all the heartfelt friendships, frustrating rivalries, and little bits of cute puppy love than was probably safe for my emotional well-being (ouch).
“Fighting a war against yourself to try to bury feelings is always a losing battle, but it is one I fought valiantly.”
Still, while I was truly gripped from page one, I think there is no denying that Steele just steps up his game and takes everything to the next level in Part 2. As Redlin enters a new stage of his training, the intriguing world of Usmal organically opens up, and soon the stakes, action and magic just increase exponentially. I really loved the smooth change in setting, and I think it’s a true testament to Steele’s exceptional skill at human storytelling that I latched onto an almost entirely new cast of characters midway through the story with zero problem.
And every time I thought my interest might start to wane, Steele (or Redlin?) managed to pull me back in with a new shocking revelation or a tantalising bit of dramatic foreshadowing that filled me with anticipatory dread. Sure, there might have been some parts that felt a bit meandering or repetitive, but as Redlin says: “You tell your entire life story and see if you don’t repeat yourself. Life is full of repetition. Same paths, same jokes, same fucking mistakes.”
If that didn’t give it away, Redlin is quite a bit of a snarky bastard, and I loved how he infused his raw and intimately vulnerable first person narration with so much surprising heart, emotion and humour. Yes, this is a brutally dark tale of a man at war with himself, and it absolutely doesn’t shy away from exploring some very sensitive topics such as war, faith, loss, regret, mental health, and even sexual trauma from a male’s perspective. But similarly to Jay Kristoff’s Empire of the Vampire or Abercrombie’s First Law series, this book is amusingly self-aware and laced with a sharp, dry gallow’s humour that just had me smiling in grim delight the entire way through.
Be it the sharp banter between young Redlin and his friends, the battle of wits between older Redlin and inquisitor Maya in the expertly executed interludes (possibly my favourite sequences of the story?), or all the little meta-level easter eggs with tuckerizations of some author friends and legendary grimdark characters/authors; it simply shows that Steele had just as much fun writing this story as I had reading it, and his eloquent, evocative and knife-sharp prose just sang to my soul and tugged on my heartstrings in all the most unexpected ways.
“It’s easier to cling to rage than it is to grief. Grief is like a wet cloak that wraps around your body and weighs you down. Rage is like a fire. You may have to burn part of your good nature to keep it burning, but at that time I would have rather burned all my kindness away than continue to mope.”
If An Inkling of Flame hadn’t already given me an inkling (sorry, I am unfortunately not as witty as Redlin) that Steele is a new rising star in grimdark, then Whispers of the Storm completely proved it. This is one of those stories that managed to transport me so fully that I completely lost track of time, and the beautifully bittersweet ending left me hungering for more in the best way possible. If you like your character-driven fantasy gritty, your (anti-)heroes a little broken, and your soul to be shattered, then the Song of the Damned series is simply an absolute must-read.
Thank you to the author for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. Whispers of the Storm is scheduled for release on 25 March, 2025.
The post REVIEW: Whispers of the Storm by Z. B. Steele appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.
