Storm Thief

Kirkus Starred
Come visit Orokos, an ancient metropolis in serious decay from previous technological heights.
The city, controlled by tempests that create chaos in all its sectors and populations, also endures a
dictator who maintains a shaky hold between probability storms. Once again, Wooding takes fantasy
and science-fiction conventions and gives them a good twist. Descriptions of this closed world as
witnessed by teen thieves, Rail and Moa, by a golem escaped during a probability storm and by the
head of the secret police himself, make very real the nature of Orokos's dystopia. The two teens,
having committed an unforgivable offense against their thief mistress, join with the golem Vago in a
quest for freedom from the fetid prison their world has become. Changing points of view, cliffhanger
section endings, hair-raising escapes and a bitter betrayal lead to a slam-bang climax and a satisfying,
lyrical and surprisingly touching ending. Although strikingly different from The Haunting of Alaizabel
Cray (2004) and Poison (2005), this stunning work of speculative fiction will appeal to Wooding's
fans and earn him new ones. (Fiction. YA)
HB
Wooding, author of the strange and adventure-filled Poison (rev. 9/05), once more opens his fantastical cabinet of invention, this time for a foray to the island-bound city Orokos, where probability storms change the topography or the inhabitants in the blink of an eye. Buildings vanish to reappear elsewhere, and people may turn to glass or grow extra limbs. Rail and Moa, two ghetto brats with only each other to depend on, steal an artifact of ancient science that enables them to pass through walls, but their thief-master wants the artifact for herself. The two flee to Moa's former home, a secret enclave of visionaries determined to escape the island, but they must first pass through a sector overrun by Revenants, wraiths that kill with a touch and then occupy the body. A stray whom M