I love Chris Wooding, but this is one of his lessor efforts, unfortunately.

I love that Rail's selfishness and hardness is balanced by Moa's kindness and soft heart, AND that they're not a couple (Rail does mention it, but it's a foregone hope), even though they didn't really go through much development. I really really wish we had more of an experience with the true danger and unpredictability of the chaos storms - the one we did experience didn't really do much, and they left before we could see the effects of the biggest one yet! ( )

Be careful what you wish for seems to to be the moral of this story. A gritty post apocalypse Sci-Fi adventure.
The environment is realistic, the characters believable and their behavior is consistent within the structure of the society they inhabit.
Each strata is deeply codified and locked in, no body moves from one level to another. What makes things unpredictable in this rigid structure is the probability storms that regular lash this island. Without a logical pattern "the probability storms struck the city, rearranging things, moving streets around. The storms might snatch a person away and put them elsewhere, turn children into statues of ice or make a man speak in a different language."
That can change how you see your future.
The ruling "Protectorate, as their name suggested, looked after the people of Orokos. They were led by the Patrician, who was the ruler of the great island city."
They decreed that the Island Orokos was all alone and that there was nothing out there, nothing left, they were on their own. In case you decided to test this theory and sail away the scimmers would hunt your boat and destroy it, no one left.
Much like the proverbial butterfly flapping its wings creating change thousands of kilometers away two young thieves steel an artifact from the time before the 'Fade' and the Storm Thief's probability storms and nothing in Orokos will ever be the same. ( )

The concept of the world seems neat, but the world as built by Wooding makes no sense.  The plot and characters are cliches.  Awkwardly overwritten.  Descriptions of the boy's mask and his discomfort about it are repeated ad nauseum, for example.  

Steampunk crunchy goodness. Would make a good movie. ( )

This story is set in the imaginary city of Orokos. The city is completely isolated. There is no way off the island; anyone who has tried has been killed. Two ghetto kids, Moa & Rail join a thieves group and survive by stealing. Probability storms plague the city. They are unpredictable and dangerous. They can cause simple changes or scary changes. During one storm, Moa went from being right handed to being left handed. During another, Rail lost the ability to breathe properly on his own and he must now wear a respirator. One day Rail discovers a precious artifact and decides to keep it for himself. But when the head of the thieves discovers what he has done, the kids are forced to run for their lives. Will they escape or will they be caught by the Protectorate & the secret police? Is there life outside of Orokos? Read & find out. Great sci-fi/adventure story. ( )