Jefferz’s review of Storm Caller (Storm Breaker Book 2) > Likes and Comments
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Brilliant review
This review raises interesting concerns. Perhaps, putting Poet in The Wastes with Rook so takes her out of her known world that she is off balance?
As an audiobook reviewer who really enjoyed the first audiobook, Storm Breaker, I was disappointed to visit Audible today and discover that the release of the Storm Caller audiobook has apparently been postponed. What surprised me even more was the indicated running time: just under 10 hours, compared with more than 16 hours for Storm Breaker.
That seems particularly curious because the published page count for Storm Caller is actually slightly greater than that of Storm Breaker. Of course, page count and word count aren't the same thing, and a shorter audiobook doesn't necessarily mean a lesser book. Still, a sequel that appears to be roughly 40% shorter in audio than its predecessor makes me wonder about the actual word count and the production.
I look forward to listening to Storm Caller and hope the audiobook delay is simply a scheduling issue. I enjoyed Soneela Nankani's narration of Storm Breaker, so I'm especially eager to hear her return to the series. For now, though, the combination of the postponed release and surprisingly short running time has certainly made me curious.
It also makes me think of something Canadian science-fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer has said about the difficulties of writing trilogies. Sawyer ought to know: he has written several of them, including the WWW trilogy about the emergence of an artificial intelligence called Webmind and The Neanderthal Parallax, involving parallel worlds in which Neanderthals and Homo sapiens respectively became the dominant species. He has noted that he generally prefers standalones and that trilogies can be challenging because a story that might naturally be conceived as one large novel has to be divided into three books, each of which still needs to feel satisfying in its own right.
That seems especially relevant to a middle volume. The second book has the unenviable job of carrying the story forward while also bridging the opening and conclusion, and it can be difficult to make it feel like a complete novel rather than simply the middle section of a much larger story. Sawyer's own experiences with trilogies illustrate just how complicated that balancing act can be.
That's partly why the apparent difference in length between Storm Breaker and Storm Caller caught my attention. I certainly don't think a sequel has to be the same length as its predecessor, but a difference this substantial makes me curious about how the trilogy was structured and paced or so I understand the situation at present. I further suspect the third book brings Poet and Rook and people from The Wastes into New Manhattan and we’ll learn Sol’s secrets. A unique world this trilogy builds.
David wrote: "This review raises interesting concerns. Perhaps, putting Poet in The Wastes with Rook so takes her out of her known world that she is off balance?
As an audiobook reviewer who really enjoyed the ..."
I can't speak for the audiobook as I'm primarily only read books and my ARC was of the ebook, but that is indeed an interesting observation in regards to the audio runtime vs the book's page count. Oddly enough, although there isn't a big difference in terms of pages, I did find the second book to feel much shorter and have less narrative content vs the first, though that could be attributed to misc. critiques of select elements in Storm Caller. I agree though that this book's first half was to show Poet Rook's world which will put her outside of her element that nicely mirror's what he experienced in the first book.
I still believe that some of the oddity in this book's presentation, length, content and structure may have been due to the series being extended from a planned duology into a trilogy. I think the 3rd book will follow a similar direction that you suggested too, we shall see!
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Booksblabbering || Cait❣️
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Aug 20, 2026 11:16AM
Brilliant review
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This review raises interesting concerns. Perhaps, putting Poet in The Wastes with Rook so takes her out of her known world that she is off balance?As an audiobook reviewer who really enjoyed the first audiobook, Storm Breaker, I was disappointed to visit Audible today and discover that the release of the Storm Caller audiobook has apparently been postponed. What surprised me even more was the indicated running time: just under 10 hours, compared with more than 16 hours for Storm Breaker.
That seems particularly curious because the published page count for Storm Caller is actually slightly greater than that of Storm Breaker. Of course, page count and word count aren't the same thing, and a shorter audiobook doesn't necessarily mean a lesser book. Still, a sequel that appears to be roughly 40% shorter in audio than its predecessor makes me wonder about the actual word count and the production.
I look forward to listening to Storm Caller and hope the audiobook delay is simply a scheduling issue. I enjoyed Soneela Nankani's narration of Storm Breaker, so I'm especially eager to hear her return to the series. For now, though, the combination of the postponed release and surprisingly short running time has certainly made me curious.
It also makes me think of something Canadian science-fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer has said about the difficulties of writing trilogies. Sawyer ought to know: he has written several of them, including the WWW trilogy about the emergence of an artificial intelligence called Webmind and The Neanderthal Parallax, involving parallel worlds in which Neanderthals and Homo sapiens respectively became the dominant species. He has noted that he generally prefers standalones and that trilogies can be challenging because a story that might naturally be conceived as one large novel has to be divided into three books, each of which still needs to feel satisfying in its own right.
That seems especially relevant to a middle volume. The second book has the unenviable job of carrying the story forward while also bridging the opening and conclusion, and it can be difficult to make it feel like a complete novel rather than simply the middle section of a much larger story. Sawyer's own experiences with trilogies illustrate just how complicated that balancing act can be.
That's partly why the apparent difference in length between Storm Breaker and Storm Caller caught my attention. I certainly don't think a sequel has to be the same length as its predecessor, but a difference this substantial makes me curious about how the trilogy was structured and paced or so I understand the situation at present. I further suspect the third book brings Poet and Rook and people from The Wastes into New Manhattan and we’ll learn Sol’s secrets. A unique world this trilogy builds.
David wrote: "This review raises interesting concerns. Perhaps, putting Poet in The Wastes with Rook so takes her out of her known world that she is off balance?As an audiobook reviewer who really enjoyed the ..."
I can't speak for the audiobook as I'm primarily only read books and my ARC was of the ebook, but that is indeed an interesting observation in regards to the audio runtime vs the book's page count. Oddly enough, although there isn't a big difference in terms of pages, I did find the second book to feel much shorter and have less narrative content vs the first, though that could be attributed to misc. critiques of select elements in Storm Caller. I agree though that this book's first half was to show Poet Rook's world which will put her outside of her element that nicely mirror's what he experienced in the first book.
I still believe that some of the oddity in this book's presentation, length, content and structure may have been due to the series being extended from a planned duology into a trilogy. I think the 3rd book will follow a similar direction that you suggested too, we shall see!