March 7, 2010
Storm Thief
Chris Wooding
Storm Thief. Chris Wooding. Broadway, New York: Scholastic Inc., 2006. 307pages.


Ever hear of The Twilight Zone? It is a TV show where anything can happen, where anyone can be anything, where the greatest fear is fear itself. I am only saying this because Storm Thief and The Twilight Zone have a common theme to the story. Anything can happen. Storm Thief, by Chris Wooding, is a story of imagination. The world of Orokos, the island of which Storm Thief takes place, is home to many. However, outside of the island “life does not exist”.

Rail, a young man faces the cruel world of Orokos, lives in the ghettos of Orokos and makes day to day by stealing. Rail, the unlucky character he is, also was hit by a probability storm, he also was not one to forgive and forget. Page 46, paragraph 3, “He wouldn’t accept what had been done to him by the probability storm. Why couldn’t he understand that change just happened, that there was nothing anyone could do to prevent it”. Probability storms are the connection between The Twilight Zone and Storm Thief. Probability storms can alter, annihilate, vanish anything it touches. Due to the storm Rail now has to wear a respirator to breath. Moa, Rails apprentice, is frail, which drags Rail down some times during a get-a-way. Both Rail and Moa work for a thief lord named, Anya-Jacana. This common job of stealing they did every day, gets turned upside down when Moa and Rail are sent to steal from the Mozgas. The Mozgas stole something from Anya-Janaca, as ironic as that sounds, Anya-Janaca wants her goods back. The task on hand was a little bit challenging for the duo.

Aside from the normal loot they usually find, the Mozga were holding some ancient disk, soon to be discovered as Faded Technology. Even after it is determined as Faded Technology the two did not know that the same power of probability storms were in their hands. Thinking that Anya-Janaca did not know that the disk was there, they took it for themselves. But, Anya-Janaca sent them there mainly for that purpose, to retrieve the disk. Vago, a golem mentioned earlier in the book, allies with Moa and Rail and later on becomes great friends with Moa. Rail on the other hand wants to ditch Vago, kind of mean of Rail. But, Rail has his reasons, Vago may be strong, immune to aether but he is also gigantic and ditzy, and when you are a thief, always trying to hide, a huge body is not the best thing to have with you. Other people do not like Vago either, page 32; paragraph 3, “Grandpa says you’re a golem!’ Ephemera had crowed. ‘You didn’t have a mama or a papa. Someone ade you. Aren’t you ugly?” Vago could or is considered ugly, but you don’t just go shouting it in his face. So, the three, Rail, Moa and Vago the golem are being pursued by Anya-Janaca, Finch, Secret Police, the occasional probability storm and roaming revenants.

The setting of the book, Orokos and how if anyone ventures off the island, they will be destroyed by droids, reminds me of The Matrix directed by the Wachowski Brothers. It’s the life of people controlling your life, trying to make a perfect world. Orokos is the only place where “life exists”. No one is allowed off the island. I also think that this Chris Wooding’s theory about life in outer space. You will not know if there is life form out there unless you voyage far enough to the point of sacrifice. Orokos’ citizens want to leave the island, but they cannot, so they tell themselves that life does not exist outside of Orokos. They do not want to take a chance outside of their own little world.

There were a couple of things that made me chuckle here and there. Chris replaced “freaking” with “frecking”. Page 43, paragraph 4 is just one out of the many examples that kept me laughing, “You frecking what? Moa cried.” Moa is usually the only who says “frecking” but when Rail finds out Moa is alive towards the middle, he uses it too! I laughed on page 141, paragraph 5, “She’s alive, Vago. She’s frecking alive.”

This book was definitely a success. I mean the book was unbelievable, it has a story of no other. Story of two thieves in a world of chaos, who may become the most powerful people alive?