Storm Thief

Anything can happen..At any time.

Storm Thief is a 2006 Science-Fiction novel by Chris Wooding, author of Poison, The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray, Crashing, Kerosene, and The Broken Sky series. It tells the story of Rail (Pictured) and Moa, a pair of thieves who come from one of the many ghetto districts in the city of Orokos. The city is plagued by Probability Storms, which are tempests of a substance called "aether" that change whatever they touch. The two are given a job by the Thief-Mistress, Anya-Jacana, and find a strange artefact that allows Moa to phase through walls.

Elsewhere, a Golem named Vago escapes his master's home after getting fed up of his beatings. He meets Rail and Moa, and from there, they go on to fight the Protectorate, an army of soldiers hell-bent on keeping order in the chaotic city. Along with a ghetto boy named Finch, the leader of the Protectorate army intends to get the artefact and destroy the Chaos Engine, source of the Probability Storms.

This book contains examples of..

 * Adipose Rex: Anya-Jacana.
 * After the End: The Chaos Engine caused an event called The Fade, which utterly devastated the already-failing Orokos and turned it into a pseudo-post-apocalyptic place.
 * Asskicking Equals Authority: Bane seems to show this. He's a crack shot with an Aether Cannon, and is somewhat feared.
 * Bald of Evil: Some of the Protectorate soldiers are described as having shaved heads.
 * BFG: The Aether Cannons, along with the Thumper Guns.
 * Bishounen: Rail is a very good-looking guy, even if he grew up in a ghetto. However, his mask obscures his face most of the time.
 * Bloodless Carnage: A Revenant attack causes this, followed by Our Zombies Are Different.
 * Chekhov's Gun: The Fade-Science artefact.
 * Cool Mask: Rail's respirator.
 * Crapsack World
 * Crystal Spires and Togas: The Faded.
 * The Grotesque: Vago.
 * Hoist By His Own Petard:
 * Evil Tower of Ominousness: Two. The Null Spire and the Fulcrum. The former is the Protectorate's base of operations: The latter is the home of the Chaos Engine.
 * Future Slang: "That is so frakking annoying!"
 * General Ripper: Bane.
 * The Load: Moa sees herself as this, but she got better.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Bane, of course.
 * Our Zombies Are Different: Revenants that posess corpses reanimate them, turning them into raging, unstoppable aether-spewing monstrosities.
 * Eerie Pale Skinned Brunette: Moa.
 * Reality Warper: Not a single person, but the Chaos Engine does this by changing whatever the Probability Storms touch.
 * Super Soldier: What  was built to be.
 * Tattooed Crook: Played with; slum residents are tattooed by the Protectorate so they can be easily identified as crooks.
 * Title Drop: The Storm Thief himself is a character in a myth that attempts to explain the Probability Storms.
 * Super Soldier: What  was built to be.
 * Tattooed Crook: Played with; slum residents are tattooed by the Protectorate so they can be easily identified as crooks.
 * Title Drop: The Storm Thief himself is a character in a myth that attempts to explain the Probability Storms.