Published: June 13, 2010
Words: 111,447 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781466091283

Short description

On the planet Kelanni, life is cheap. An ruthless invader, backed up by Keltar enforcers is compelling the native populace to mine "lodestone", a substance that contains infinite power. The only ones that can stop him are a young girl with a fiery disposition, a former Keltar, a failed revolutionary, a musician and the mysterious creature Boxx, who seems to speak only in riddles.

Extended description

Finalist - 2010 Foreword Book of the Year Award.

A white-hole portal from another universe rains so-called lodestones onto the surface of the planet Kelanni - a substance with unlimited power. With the aid of the fearsome Keltar enforcers in their flying cloaks, the Kelanni are being forced to mine the stones. Shann, an orphan with a fiery disposition, witnesses a battle between a Keltar and a stranger bearing a similar flying cloak. She tracks down the stranger, and learns of the technology behind the Keltars' power, joining him on a mission to free the slaves and cut off their supply of lodestones. Meanwhile Keris, a Keltar, is sent on a mission to track down the rebels. She is attacked by a flying creature and saved by the enigmatic Chandara. At their Great Tree, she learns that a mysterious "Prophet" is out to destroy the Kelanni people. Their only hope is a powerful instrument hidden in the distant past. Pursued by Keltar, the party will encounter bizarre creatures, ancient tec.. (Read more) Finalist - 2010 Foreword Book of the Year Award.

A white-hole portal from another universe rains so-called lodestones onto the surface of the planet Kelanni - a substance with unlimited power. With the aid of the fearsome Keltar enforcers in their flying cloaks, the Kelanni are being forced to mine the stones. Shann, an orphan with a fiery disposition, witnesses a battle between a Keltar and a stranger bearing a similar flying cloak. She tracks down the stranger, and learns of the technology behind the Keltars' power, joining him on a mission to free the slaves and cut off their supply of lodestones. Meanwhile Keris, a Keltar, is sent on a mission to track down the rebels. She is attacked by a flying creature and saved by the enigmatic Chandara. At their Great Tree, she learns that a mysterious "Prophet" is out to destroy the Kelanni people. Their only hope is a powerful instrument hidden in the distant past. Pursued by Keltar, the party will encounter bizarre creatures, ancient technologies and terrifying dangers. Finally, they must seek to cross a massive storm barrier in order to reach the other side of their world, where a world-shaking revelation awaits.
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Tags

scifi, adventure, travel, action, fantasy, battle, young adult, science fiction, danger, sea, aliens, space, time, epic fantasy, conflict, alien, ship, series, storms, world, society, excitement, quest, storm, planet, threat, weapon, trilogy, whiteway, lodestone

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Videos

Lodestone Book One: The Sea of Storms
On the planet Kelanni, life is cheap. The only ones who can stop a ruthless alien invader him are a tiny girl with fiery disposition, a former Keltar enforcer, a failed revolutionary, a musician and the mysterious creature Boxx, who seems to speak only in riddles.

Reviews

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Review by: Sural Xiong on March 22, 2013 :
Lodestone Book One: Sea of Storms by Mark Whiteway

This is a really good book with some outstanding characters and world building. There are some interesting though sometimes confusing elements about the Lodestones, which I'm no way going to try to be expert about. The important thing to this type of fiction is that the author try to maintain the rules he's built into his system-or at least have good reasons for any deviations. I think,without going into real in-depth analysis of the working of the lodestones, the author does a fair job of keeping things real.

There is an prologue to story and it almost confused me. I at first thought the whole Kelanni religious order stuff might be based around Kal and had to read back to realize that it existed before. Then I wasn't sure if they had the lodestones before him or after the Keltar obtained theirs- I'm thinking maybe after and he may have played a role in that but later there is mention of a Kel Stones almost as a separate thing- by a character in the real story so I'm still a bit confused. That might get cleared up for me later in this series of books.

The world of the Kelanni is one of a world with three suns- I don't remember any moons. The actual orbits and movements of the suns and the planet are still muddled in my mind and an orbital diagram might have been helpful. It's possible, since it seems that the large red sun never sets, that the Kelanni world is like the moon orbiting a sun instead of planet with only one side facing the big red sun, Ail-Mazzoth. There are two smaller sons that move around the sky and those are what confuse me the Ali-Gan yellow sun and Ali-Kar white sun. I don't understand how they orbit and what the relationship is to the Kelanni world and Ail-Mazzoth.

My confusion asside:

This seems to be a story about Shann who is a young girl living in a small village where the Kelanni religious orders Keltar are extracting tribute in the form of slave labor. Her parents were taken some time in the past and she lives with relatives and has dim view of the religious leader and the Keltars. I would guess that explains why she tries to help someone who seems to be attempting to save the tribute slaves from being taken by the prophet's Keltar's. Her attempts lead to her having to go on the run from the Keltar.

We learn somewhere along the line that Kelanni have tails. It's sort of almost in passing and not much time is dwelt upon the subject. Later it becomes a major plot point so it might have been useful to have the tails mentioned- as in having some purpose to remind us of their existence before the plot point arrives.

There are more major characters in the book with Keris a Keltar who initially assists in the pursuit of Shann. Alondo and Lyall are the rebels-Lyall is the one Shann helped. Then there is a large beetle like bug named Boxx; he's a Chandara and they live very long lives. At some point it's difficult to tell who's story this is but since it starts with Shann and ends with Shann I will call it her story.

They all eventually get together and begin a convoluted escape from the prophet and his Keltar. As things unfold the escape route makes perfect sense as they work together in a mission to save all of the Kalanni from the Unan-Chinneroth, the one "without a tail". Pretty important that tail everyone takes for granted. On the other hand it could have been the one without a nose; so, even without many mentions about the tail this does work.

The quest takes them to the other side of the planet- which may be freezing cold- or not- depending on those orbits of the other suns.

This is a good fantasy and fair Science Fiction -I think it could use a bit more explanation in some of the science- a bit of romance with a strong female character.

I recommend this to anyone except the few nitpickers who 'have' to know all the facts about how lodestones work (or shouldn't) and orbits of planets and suns. It's good for a couple nights entertainment and a good prelude to:

THE REST OF THE STORY- there is a volume containing books 1-3 available.

Sural
(review of free book)

Review by: Kristine Victori on Aug. 04, 2012 :
Once again I am attracted to another author who has brought Science Fiction writing to a higher level. We see many great authors, but Mark Whiteway's writing has shown great accomplishments and you can see this in the many awards he has received.

In reading this book, we can easily bring our mind to see these characters as humans. The situations that take place could take place in everyday life, but in reality they are aliens.

The human side of these characters are shown by the feelings of Shann were it says, "she watches her retreating form and felt a pang of guilt ," the type of clothing they wore "He was wearing a rustic brown tunic and trousers", or the types of food they would like to eat, "raleketh steak and a cup of narrian wine". It wasn't until the serpent, that I was drawn back into fantasy part of the story.

One of the fascinating parts of the book that brought me great understanding was when they were talking about the lodestones, they are naturally occurring deposits in the ground from meteorites which have been falling for millennia. The lodestones perform differently depending on the physics.

Lodestone is the first book in its series and I was extremely happy that the book left me wanting to read more and find out were each of these characters go.
(review of free book)

Review by: Kristine Victori on Aug. 04, 2012 :
Once again I am attracted to another author who has brought Science Fiction writing to a higher level. We see many great authors, but Mark Whiteway's writing has shown great accomplishments and you can see this in the many awards he has received.

In reading this book, we can easily bring our mind to see these characters as humans. The situations that take place could take place in everyday life, but in reality they are aliens.

The human side of these characters are shown by the feelings of Shann were it says, "she watches her retreating form and felt a pang of guilt ," the type of clothing they wore "He was wearing a rustic brown tunic and trousers", or the types of food they would like to eat, "raleketh steak and a cup of narrian wine". It wasn't until the serpent, that I was drawn back into fantasy part of the story.

One of the fascinating parts of the book that brought me great understanding was when they were talking about the lodestones, they are naturally occurring deposits in the ground from meteorites which have been falling for millennia. The lodestones perform differently depending on the physics.

Lodestone is the first book in its series and I was extremely happy that the book left me wanting to read more and find out were each of these characters go.
(review of free book)

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