In a world full of conflict, nothing is as it seems. Storm Without End thrusts its characters into peril and challenges the reader to unravel the mysteries and histories of the Rift King. Hidden agendas, secrets, and half-truths are revealed the deeper the story goes. The characters are put through a meat grinder in this gritty, complex fantasy adventure set in a unique and original world. I enjoyed this book and look forward to the next installment. ( )

Intriguing characters and atmosphere, somewhat though not entirely spoiled by so much of the world-building and plot resting on the protagonist's extreme specialness and coincidences in his past, and somewhat too parsimonious handout of reader clues regarding why he would actually matter in the grand scheme of things.

Or maybe that was me not buying clues that should have been sufficient at forming the intended full picture rather earlier than I did.
So this Rift kingdom acts as a buffer among the surrounding other kingdoms, because they have a mandate to "ride" against whoever breaks the peace and they're centrally situated and tough-as-nails horse-people. So everything may fall on its face if the Rift King isn't at his desk answering diplomatic mail and some people get the idea that they can start a war without the Rifters coming for them.
Hmm, oookay. I've probably swallowed worse as far as suspension of disbelief goes but for some reason it didn't go too smoothly here. The Rifters' (or were they just the Rift King's ?) sentient horses were a hoot though, as well as a couple other sentient mounts of another species. ( )