Review of Storm Thief by Chris Wooding

Storm Thief is a sci fi novel whose most notable feature, in my view, is the "probability storm." From time to time, unpredictably of course, the citizens of the islanded city Orokos face violent storms--but instead of thunder and lightning, completely random events occur. In a probability storm, a person may lose his ability to breathe, or the seeds of a terminal illness may be planted, or a cyborg changeling may take the place of a loved granddaughter. It almost goes without saying that alleyways or tunnels under the city may change their direction--no map can be presumed valid after a probability storm.

Orokos is a city built on the remnants of a past civilization that possessed scientific know-how that is inaccessible to its present inhabitants, and artifacts from that earlier civilization are prized. It is a deeply divided city, moreover, with a comfortable middle class civilization ruled by a dictator, the Patrician, who preserves its prosperity and purity and large numbers of ghetto folk, who are tattooed early in life so that they cannot infiltrate the prosperous sections and who must maintain themselves, always hungry, by whatever means they can. In the case of young protagonists Rail and Moa, this means a life of thievery, but like other young thieves, they are under the "protection" and bullying direction of a thief-mistress. When Rail discovers a beautiful artifact from the earlier era in a cache they have been sent to raid, he hides it from both his partner Moa and their mistress--and from then on, their lives are at risk. They are tracked by their most bloodthirsty peers, and then by the secret police as well, once they've taken up with the "golem" Vago, a winged cyborg with phenomenal warrior capabilities.

Vago proves himself most useful against the other element that threatens the middle-class citizens, the Revenants, spirits that possess the bodies of those who can't evade them and then sabotage the technology that provides the city's infrastructure. The Revenants are methodical antagonists, taking over the city one section at a time, and keeping the secret police engaged in constant battles against them. They are interested in Vago--but neither Vago nor his young companions know why, nor do they know anything about his origin or purpose. When the three take up together, it is against Rail's will. He is bent on survival and sometimes wonders why it is that Moa is so important to him that he acts against his own self-preservation at times to protect her. He has no use for the despised winged outcast, but Moa, who remembers a free society beyond the reaches of the Patrician and his police force, recognizes a kindred spirit in the dangerous and unpredictable golem. Together, the three seek to escape death or control by others in a mad dash through the dangerous Revenant-controlled districts, and ultimately they are forced into difficult choices by the secret police.

Major themes in the novel are the importance of kindness, even when people are forced into situations that threaten their survival; the dangers of prosperity and the inescapability of human nature; and possibilities for rebirth--as individuals and as societies. In the era of the "war on terrorism," it is hard to avoid drawing some political comparisons between the have/have-not social division, with its tattooing and persecution of the have-nots and the haves' fear and loathing of the have-nots, and contemporary Western societies' attitude toward the Other. The pace speeds up as the characters converge and plot elements set in motion resolve with the mother of all probability storms, when it becomes difficult to guess what will be taken from them, what restored by the mythical "storm thief."