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Thoth
Acolyte

Canada
31 Posts

Posted - 21 Mar 2017 :  16:32:29  Show Profile Send Thoth a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by VikingLegion

quote:
Originally posted by Thoth

I will say that I have enjoyed this thread.

I have read (and still own) most of the FR novels, from the very beginning. DL as well, although that is another forum elsewhere. Heh.

This has been a fun ride through nostalgia for most of these. Thank you for taking the time to scribe your journey and share it with us!



Hey thanks for the kind words. It's been a lot of fun going through each book. Yeah, sometimes there's no response and I just move on to the next, but other times it sparks a pretty good debate that can be both informative and entertaining.

Like you, I also have read all the Dragonlance books and did a similar thing over on another forum. When I joined they already had a thread going called "What DL book are you currently reading", so I just piggybacked off that and did something similar to what I'm doing here - through all ~160+ books in that line.

http://www.dragonlanceforums.com/showthread.php?3731-DL-Book-Currently-Reading

That's the link, I started in on page 315 with a large post that encompassed several books, before I started doing one post per book.



Wow. I'll have to head over there and check it out!
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VikingLegion
Senior Scribe

USA
483 Posts

Posted - 21 Mar 2017 :  18:28:57  Show Profile Send VikingLegion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I finished Temple Hill last night and found it to be a pretty decent read. My expectations going in were pretty low, but I'm happy to say it was not bad at all. I didn't much care for the gnome cleric of Gond and his "gadgets", but that's more of a personal taste, as I strongly dislike tech mixed with swords-n-sorcery type fantasy. Also the author slightly overused a gimmick wherein he would describe a scene from one character's POV, then the next chapter would be the same scene from another perspective, with the exact same dialogue recycled. Used once or twice it can be interesting, but I think he went to this well just a bit too much.

Other than that, the characters were interesting, the combat was well written, and it had a great D&D session vibe to it. At times it felt like a good old-fashioned dungeon crawl. Normally when I say that it is derisive, but in the case of this story it worked well. I smiled a bit when they were packing up supplies for the trek - never forget your 50' of coiled rope!

It was a decent little story. Nothing earth-shattering or anything that will resonate in the annals of Forgotten Realms history, but it was a good read for what it was. Up next I have the same author taking his crack at the 3rd BG installment; Baldur's Gate II: The Throne of Bhaal. Here's to hoping a change at the helm brings somewhat better results.

Abdel!!
Jaheira?
Abdel!!
Imoen....?
Abdel!!
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
Moderator

USA
36779 Posts

Posted - 21 Mar 2017 :  19:23:58  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by VikingLegion

I finished Temple Hill last night and found it to be a pretty decent read. My expectations going in were pretty low, but I'm happy to say it was not bad at all. I didn't much care for the gnome cleric of Gond and his "gadgets", but that's more of a personal taste, as I strongly dislike tech mixed with swords-n-sorcery type fantasy. Also the author slightly overused a gimmick wherein he would describe a scene from one character's POV, then the next chapter would be the same scene from another perspective, with the exact same dialogue recycled. Used once or twice it can be interesting, but I think he went to this well just a bit too much.



I've not read this book, so I'm not familiar with how the author used it, but I've always really liked seeing the same scene from another perspective.

One of my personal faves is Pug/Milamber destroying the Imperial Games, in Raymond E Feist's books. In Magician, the scene is told from the PoV of the guy doing the destroying. In of the Empire books Feist co-wrote with Janny Wurts, we see the same scene from the PoV of one of the spectators at the Games, who wound up fleeing for her life. We also get to see a lot more of the aftermath of this, which is also cool.

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Thoth
Acolyte

Canada
31 Posts

Posted - 22 Mar 2017 :  10:49:09  Show Profile Send Thoth a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by VikingLegion



It was a decent little story. Nothing earth-shattering or anything that will resonate in the annals of Forgotten Realms history, but it was a good read for what it was. Up next I have the same author taking his crack at the 3rd BG installment; Baldur's Gate II: The Throne of Bhaal. Here's to hoping a change at the helm brings somewhat better results.



Oh, good luck with that.

I read it many years ago, and remember not enjoying it all that much. It wasn't the worst novel I had read, but it was far from the best. Below Average I'd say.

Looking forward to the review!
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VikingLegion
Senior Scribe

USA
483 Posts

Posted - 26 Mar 2017 :  19:41:08  Show Profile Send VikingLegion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I finished Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal the other night, and... well, I might be sacrificing what little credibility I have around these parts, but... I kind of liked it. /hides

Wait!! What??

Yeah, I'm just as surprised as you. Maybe it was just that the previous 2 books in the series (written by another author) set the bar oh so very low, but this book was not only *not* a trainwreck, I actually found it engaging at times. Yes it continued the story of Abdel, Jaheira, Imoen, etc. so there was only so much he could work with. In a way, that makes the effort even more impressive to my mind - a craftsman provided with poor tools and shoddy raw materials that can still make a passable finished product should be commended.

Yes, it was very video gamey at times, but considering the source content, that probably should be forgiven. It's a bit ludicrous that this coalition dedicated to destroying Abdel keeps sending one agent at a time after him. Each time said agent is super close to defeating him, but then he miraculously pulls through and turns the table by the thinnest of margins. You'd think, after scrying from afar and seeing Abdel defeat each threat in turn by a mere hairsbredth, they might consider sending multiple agents after him simultaneously? If one baddie can come so close to killing him, two should trounce him with casual ease, right? It's like those goofy television scenes where the hero is surrounded by 20 ninja, and instead of attacking en masse, they each come in one at a time and are beaten. There has to be a TV Trope for this. I guess it could be justified as Evil Doesn't Understand the Value of Cooperation, or maybe they all are trying to one-up each other, but it really felt artificial, like a game being separated into 5 stages with mini-bosses before the final confrontation.

That aside, the rest of the book was fairly effective. The characters were written much better (considering their dismal starting points), their internal struggles were believable and compelling, the action scenes were above average (the monk Balthazar was particularly well done). There were some very surprising, ballsy, and satisfying kill-offs - those "shock" moments alone were worth the price of admission. Overall this was probably about as good as I could've hoped for in an ending to this trilogy.

Up next is Pool of Radiance: The Ruins of Myth Drannor. Yay for another video game novelization/adaptation...

Edited by - VikingLegion on 26 Mar 2017 19:52:13
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
Moderator

USA
36779 Posts

Posted - 26 Mar 2017 :  23:00:28  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by VikingLegion

It's like those goofy television scenes where the hero is surrounded by 20 ninja, and instead of attacking en masse, they each come in one at a time and are beaten. There has to be a TV Trope for this. I guess it could be justified as Evil Doesn't Understand the Value of Cooperation, or maybe they all are trying to one-up each other, but it really felt artificial, like a game being separated into 5 stages with mini-bosses before the final confrontation.


The TVTropes website calls it Mook Chivalry.

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VikingLegion
Senior Scribe

USA
483 Posts

Posted - 27 Mar 2017 :  02:31:29  Show Profile Send VikingLegion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Man I love that site, but it's so evil. I can go there to look up one thing and end up losing several hours.
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Seravin
Master of Realmslore

Canada
1265 Posts

Posted - 27 Mar 2017 :  19:35:18  Show Profile Send Seravin a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Regarding Temple Hill...I really wanted to like it and for the most part I did. Until near the end. The main villain Ogrilon character has ridiculous plot armor. Somehow his sword protects him from all magic, heals him from death, deals wounds that can't be healed, and make him completely unstoppable. That sort of character just doesn't work for me. He literally because of this sword survives an army of men attacking him. Boring and trite and full of contrivance. I just hated that bit.

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VikingLegion
Senior Scribe

USA
483 Posts

Posted - 30 Mar 2017 :  16:16:21  Show Profile Send VikingLegion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Yeah, that baddie was more than a little overdone. It was actually his armor that absorbed spells, and his lifesteal sword that regenerated more mundane wounds, but point taken. There are better ways to make a challenging villain than to load him up like a Knight of Myth Drannor. With that kind of gear he would be the most hunted creature in all of Faerun. Every warrior would want to take him down and get that armor for himself. Every mage would hire out companies to do the same, if only to get the armor out of circulation and away from the hands of rivals.

It was a pretty big contrivance in an otherwise decent book. Just the sword alone made him plenty powerful enough. There was a scene where he was surrounded by at least 6 warriors, and knocked prone, but still managed to get out of that scrape. Again, the author tried a little too hard to establish a kickbutt villain.
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Seravin
Master of Realmslore

Canada
1265 Posts

Posted - 30 Mar 2017 :  18:30:54  Show Profile Send Seravin a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Oops..it's been a while since I read it; I knew his sword dealt wounds that could not be regenerated and healed his wounds, I thought it also gave him spell immunity but if it's his armor; he basically wields two artifacts that would make him the target of every person in the Realms. Forget Spellfire, why is everyone not running after this guy's gear. Yawn.
He also knd of reminded me of Obould from the Drizzt orc king novels, but at least Obould was a chosen of Gruumsh and could explain his superpowers with god hood.
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VikingLegion
Senior Scribe

USA
483 Posts

Posted - 31 Mar 2017 :  18:57:36  Show Profile Send VikingLegion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I finished Pool of Radiance: The Ruins of Myth Drannor. I wanted to be able to come here and write that, much like the third Baldur's Gate installment, it was a much better product after switching authors. But I'd be lying if I did that. The first 10 pages or so were setting up nicely, and I thought I would have a passably decent read on my hands, but it steadily deteriorated into a fairly poor book. When I mentioned Temple Hill was very D&Dish in a good way, it was because it invoked a sort of nostalgia for some of the time-honored tropes of old gaming sessions. However, this Pools book is D&Dish in all the worst ways - every tired, hackneyed fantasy cliché is present.

Also, there was a lot that was just plain wrong. At one point she mentioned baatezu from the Abyss. I'll have to go pull my old Myth Drannor boxed set to double check if it were demons or devils that organized the sacking of the city. Actually, I think both are wrong and it was a force of yugoloths, no? I'll have to look that up, unless any learned sages can steer me right in the time it will take me to find my stuff in the basement.

The paladin who continually lets the mage cast invisibility on him so he can skulk around the battlefield and take out the opponent's biggest hitter didn't sit well with me at all. He lets the thief hang out on the front line as a distraction so he can get an uncontested sneak attack? Sounds very backwards to me. Also the drow character who wanted nothing more than revenge on the Cultists for killing her mate.... What? A drow female who is consumed with passion over a dead male? To the point where she actually sacrifices her own life to take out those responsible? I get that not all drow should be cookie cutters from the same mold, but this one was clearly an arrogant priestess type that conformed to all the other well-known drow stereotypes. It's simply not in their character to ever sacrifice even a minor advantage for another, especially not one's own life, and even especially more-so for a lowly male. Complete miss on that one.

Lastly, and this is specifically for Seravin: when the main character overhears that Elminster is in Phlan gathering information on new pool formations, she abruptly gets up and leaves a conversation she's having with a fellow rogue. When he asks her where she is going, she replies with - "I'm off to see the wizard". Ugghh, somewhere, at some point, Jeff Grubb read that line and cackled in delight. :)

The book wasn't all bad, there were a few decent moments. Kestrel's slow change of heart over the course of the story was an ok character arc. It's just that the good stuff was drowned out in a sea of dreck. This book wasn't even close to as bad as some of the true clunkers in the FR line, but it's definitely not one of the good - or even average - reads.

Up next in published order I will cleanse my palette of video game adaptations and read RAS's Sea of S Words.
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
Moderator

USA
36779 Posts

Posted - 31 Mar 2017 :  19:50:59  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by VikingLegion

Sea of S Words.



Now that's an interesting concept!

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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6350 Posts

Posted - 31 Mar 2017 :  19:56:15  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
It was yugoloths that sacked myth drannor.

However most of the yugoloths died in the final sack and those that didnt were hunted down by a crusade organised afterward by cormyr (and which elethim sarshel took part in i believe).

So most of the yugoloths should be gone by modern day (except for some powerful ones that are hiding in the ruins).

Around 1350 DR a gate was opened inside myth drannor to baator (on orders or by the high imperceptor of bane). It was closed by the knights of myth drannor i believe, however there are more than a few devils that remain in the ruins.

Thats all off the top of my head however so i could be wrong about specifics.

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Seravin
Master of Realmslore

Canada
1265 Posts

Posted - 31 Mar 2017 :  22:39:19  Show Profile Send Seravin a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Baatezu from the Abyss? Baatezu are devils and are from the 9 hells (Baalor)! Demons are from the Abyss. Ugh. Does no one edit those things or was the character deliberately written to be ignorant of basic lore?

"I'm off to see the wizard" is more like a line from Once Around the Realms; as it's a direct quote rather than a modified "I don't think we're in Kansas/the Realms anymore." Which I think is a legit something someone might say even if they hadn't watched TWoO :)

That bit about the drow priestess sacrificing herself for a lowly male...ush. Did she worship Lolth too?
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist

USA
11686 Posts

Posted - 01 Apr 2017 :  13:57:52  Show Profile Send sleyvas a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

quote:
Originally posted by VikingLegion

Sea of S Words.



Now that's an interesting concept!



Oh Sh*t, its a sahuagin sea sorcerer slavedriving sea serpents in our direction!!!

Alavairthae, may your skill prevail

Phillip aka Sleyvas
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VikingLegion
Senior Scribe

USA
483 Posts

Posted - 01 Apr 2017 :  16:51:29  Show Profile Send VikingLegion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas

quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

quote:
Originally posted by VikingLegion

Sea of S Words.



Now that's an interesting concept!



Oh Sh*t, its a sahuagin sea sorcerer slavedriving sea serpents in our direction!!!



It's actually from an SNL bit a few years ago. On Celebrity Jeopardy Sean Connery (played brilliantly by Darrell Hammond) liked to purposely mispronounce category titles to fluster Alex Trebek (Will Ferrell). The actual category's name was S-Words, but he said "Alex, I'll take swords for $1,000." What started as a rather benign play on words got progressively more vulgar, with "An Album Cover" being rephrased into "Anal Bum Cover" and "Who Reads?" morphing into "Whore Ads?"

Because of this skit, amongst my group of friends, we rarely say the word sword anymore. Anytime we're playing an RPG - videogame or tabletop, we almost invariably substitute in s-word, it's become somewhat ingrained into our vocabulary.

Sorry for the derail :)
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BountyHunter
Seeker

Canada
61 Posts

Posted - 01 Apr 2017 :  20:09:09  Show Profile Send BountyHunter a Private Message  Reply with Quote
The Penis Mightier.

LOL! Derailed even more.
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VikingLegion
Senior Scribe

USA
483 Posts

Posted - 05 Apr 2017 :  18:14:41  Show Profile Send VikingLegion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
^ That's a good one!

Ok, let's get this thing back on the tracks. Last night I finished Sea of *Swords*. It was a decent, though fairly unremarkable, read. Often with this complete FR project I will keep a scrap piece of paper in the final page of a book and jot down some talking points as I progress through, but this book didn't generate much. That's not to say it was a bad or boring read, it just didn't impact me a great deal, I guess.

One part I did like was when the party is nearly wiped out by a band of mostly run-of-the-mill ogres and half-ogres attacking a sentry outpost. This was a much-needed display that even such mighty heroes as the Companions of the Hall can't take any encounter for granted. RAS's characters are almost always phenoms and super heroes of near Elminster proportions, so seeing them humbled by a foe that probably shouldn't have given them that hard a time was a nice change of pace.

Very early in this thread, after reviewing the first few RAS books, another poster commented on how his books often have very Tolkein-like content. I immediately thought back to that while reading the scene of the companions trudging their way through a blizzard. Bruenor takes the point, using his stout body to plow a path, while Drizzt - light and balanced as only an elf can be - walks alongside the group, able to stay up on the top layer of snow without breaking the crust. I envisioned the first LOTR movie, with Boromir leading the group through the mountain pass (before they abandon it in favor of cutting through the Mines of Moria), while Legolas walks along beside them. Enough so that I looked up the release dates of both products - the Fellowship of the Ring came out in December of 2001, while this particular book was first published in October of the same year, 2 months earlier. I do not recall if that specific scene was mentioned in JRR's books, it's literally been decades since I've read that trilogy.

That's all I've got for this book. Tonight I'll start on Black Wolf, which I'm fairly excited for. I like the author, I like the character, all of the Sembia stuff has been a very pleasant surprise thus far. Also I recall another poster here recommending it while we were discussing various lycanthrope tales in the D&D novel universe. So here's to hoping it delivers.
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
Moderator

USA
36779 Posts

Posted - 05 Apr 2017 :  18:31:45  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
It was in the books. I've recently read the Lord of the Rings, and I recall Legolas skipping along, unhindered by the snow.

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Seravin
Master of Realmslore

Canada
1265 Posts

Posted - 07 Apr 2017 :  04:09:54  Show Profile Send Seravin a Private Message  Reply with Quote
*cough* I'm the the *another poster* here who recommended Black Wolf. And yes, I liked that book on a recent re-read! Hope you enjoy!
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VikingLegion
Senior Scribe

USA
483 Posts

Posted - 10 Apr 2017 :  18:22:44  Show Profile Send VikingLegion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Oops, sorry Seravin. I had your recommendation of Black Wolf confused with this one:
quote:
Originally posted by Iahn Qoyllor

I don't know if you've read Mistress of the Night yet which is a joint collaboration between Dave Gross and Don Bassingthwaite and forms part of The Priests novels, of which there were four. This is a book with werewolves and a decent read at that.


I'm guessing, because of the author and the title of the series, that book continues the story of Feena the Selunite cleric? That would be pretty cool, I'm digging her and Talbot. Please don't confirm or deny, I'd rather wait and be surprised.

As for Black Wolf - terrific read! I feel like a broken record right now, but pretty much all the Uskevren material has been top notch, and this might have been the best of the bunch. The characters were very well realized, particularly the villains - Rusk, and the Malveens (Stannis and Radu) made for three excellent baddies - most books struggle just to come up with one. Stannis was particularly intriguing - I still don't know exactly what he was, some kind of aquatic vampire/lamprey (vamprey?) bloated monstrosity. He stole the show several times, with his odd mannerisms, one moment a perfect gentleman, the next a tantrum-throwing brute. Early on I sort of envisioned Oogie Boogie from the classic Nightmare Before Christmas and since that moment Stannis delivered all his lines in a similar voice in my mind's theater.

It's hard to come up with anything I didn't like about this book, even the artwork was well-done. I guess some of the dialogue got a little close to modern-day jargon, and there was one scene with Tal and Feena "arguing/flirting" while Chaney taunted them from the peanut gallery that got dangerously close to a cheesy rom-com, but the author managed to reign it in before any real damage was done. Great book, can't wait to see more from Dave Gross. I'm even contemplating picking up some Pathfinder literature since I searched him out and saw he did quite a bit of work in that world.

Up next is part 2 of the Return of the Archwizards: The Siege.

Edited by - VikingLegion on 10 Apr 2017 18:23:41
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Seravin
Master of Realmslore

Canada
1265 Posts

Posted - 12 Apr 2017 :  01:00:53  Show Profile Send Seravin a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Knew you'd like that one, I do think it's the best of the Sembia series but also because I think Werewolf fiction is fun to read. I agree they managed to get 3 great villains in (sort of like Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein which had Frankenstein, the Wolfman and Dracula as villains). The Malveen manor house reminded me of those spooky 30s horror movies in black and white.

Sorry for your next read; I'm just not a fan of the journey to 3rd edition (or god forbid, 4th edition!).
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Thoth
Acolyte

Canada
31 Posts

Posted - 12 Apr 2017 :  12:48:20  Show Profile Send Thoth a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Black Wolf was great. I agree.

I was on the fence about AtS. I thought it was...okay. Meh.
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VikingLegion
Senior Scribe

USA
483 Posts

Posted - 20 Apr 2017 :  18:52:41  Show Profile Send VikingLegion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I finished The Siege a couple nights ago. I liked it, didn't love it. I've always enjoyed all things Netheril, so the whole Shade meta-plot is interesting to me. I imagine at the time of its unveiling it probably was met with much derision, but I think it's going ok (again, not great, but not a disaster).

I like how the plot is developing - particularly how Shade is growing continually more hostile, due in large part to some poor diplomatic exchanges, both in Waterdeep and Cormyr. The thing is, I think in both instances there were some ill-conceived comments from the supposed "good guys" that really escalated things. Alusair came off as extremely unlikeable in this one.

Something I didn't like is how absurd some of the numbers get. Hundreds of beholders lined up in military formation? When I hear "beholder" I think of an awful creature, so powerful as to be the "boss mob" of any story, not one of a cluster of mooks that is going to get gunned down en masse like a red-shirt. And just how is Cormyr mounting a campaign against anyone on the heels of the ghazneth/Nauthgarntlaueruiyio (whatever that dragon's name is, I'm not looking it up) conflict? It was implied that Cormyr was all but depleted by the end of that fighting, and would need a decade or so before more knights and war wizards could fill out the armed forces again. I think Denning is falling into the Greenwood trap here, just throwing numbers around willy-nilly to ratchet up the drama during the fight scenes. For me, it really hurts the verisimilitude of the story and entire gaming world when there are no lasting consequences of a major war.

I really like how the shadevar are terraforming the Anauroch Desert. I don't have enough knowledge of weather patterns to know if it would cause such drastic climate changes in the rest of Faerun, I'll just have to trust Denning on that one. It makes for an interesting moral dilemma. Obviously it's wrong of them to ruin other country's food supplies and environments, but at the same time, an argument can be made that they are just trying to improve their own situation and have the right to restore their former lands to the conditions they once had. I'm not saying what they are doing is right or justifiable, but it goes a long way in making them believable characters and not just cardboard dastardly villains.

I've recently started playing the game Neverwinter on my PS4, so I've accidentally picked up some lore spoilers about Shade before reading this series. Then again, the transition of these guys with filed fangs, mastery over darkness, and hailing from a plane that is almost invariably associated with evil into the villain role, wasn't exactly a mind-blowing surprise.

Up next, I have a bit of a dilemma. I sort of want to take a brief break from FR books and re-read Neil Gaiman's excellent American Gods in preparation of the Starz series due out in 10 days. It's been at least a decade since I read that book, and I might want a refresher before the TV show. On the other hand, maybe it's best to keep my memory of it hazy, so that the show can surprise me more and/or I won't nitpick every discrepancy, like the Game of Thrones superfans do when HBO doesn't get every tiny detail perfect. What do you guys think? Is it better to re-familiarize with a story, or leave it alone and enjoy a new presentation?

Being unable to decide right now, I'll probably just start in on the 2002 novels, beginning with The Jewel of Turmish. The other 2002 books are:

The Wizardwar
Realms of Shadow
Heirs of Prophecy
Dissolution
Hand of Fire
The Thousand Orcs
Sands of the Soul
The Sorcerer
Insurrection

Edited by - VikingLegion on 20 Apr 2017 18:55:08
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
Moderator

USA
36779 Posts

Posted - 20 Apr 2017 :  20:06:33  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by VikingLegion

I like how the plot is developing - particularly how Shade is growing continually more hostile, due in large part to some poor diplomatic exchanges, both in Waterdeep and Cormyr. The thing is, I think in both instances there were some ill-conceived comments from the supposed "good guys" that really escalated things. Alusair came off as extremely unlikeable in this one.



That's a lot of why I don't like that trilogy: the established, non-Denning white hats come off as antagonistic jerks, idiots, or both, despite how they've been handled in all other Realmslore. Meanwhile, his white hats always know exactly the right thing to do, even if other people are trying to stop them.

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Seravin
Master of Realmslore

Canada
1265 Posts

Posted - 21 Apr 2017 :  05:21:49  Show Profile Send Seravin a Private Message  Reply with Quote
The Jewel of Turmish is an interesting one. I actually think the villain is one of the creepiest in the Realms and the author pulls NO punches with him; it's disgusting and gruesome and awesome at the same time when he goes on a killing rampage. BUT(!)

Turmish to me was established as a land that a man would have many wives and is all about Trade; I expected more Akabar Bel Akash characters, but instead the whole "city" of Alaghôn is just a generic seaport. It could literally be anywhere. The villain and the druids are clearly from the area, but the rest of the Turmish culture is ignored completely. So on that part it was a let down, because I wanted to read about a new culture that I heard about from Akabar in the Finder's Stone trilogy.

And yes, Troy Denning books are SO hit and miss. The Parched Sea to me is his best work because it's set not in the parts of the Realms where any other established characters show up. When he wrote in Ed's character (Varena Hawklyn) in the sequel Vieiled Dragon she was a hot-headed imbecile who was always wrong (like Wooly says of other author's characters); along with most of the Harpers that Ruha comes into contact with...
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sno4wy
Senior Scribe

USA
466 Posts

Posted - 21 Apr 2017 :  18:56:24  Show Profile Send sno4wy a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Seravin
Turmish to me was established as a land that a man would have many wives and is all about Trade; I expected more Akabar Bel Akash characters, but instead the whole "city" of Alaghôn is just a generic seaport. It could literally be anywhere. The villain and the druids are clearly from the area, but the rest of the Turmish culture is ignored completely. So on that part it was a let down, because I wanted to read about a new culture that I heard about from Akabar in the Finder's Stone trilogy.



I too was very disappointed with this aspect. Despite Turmish being in the title, we find out very little about it, and while the entirety of the title refers to Alaghôn, there isn't much more about the city than the region as a whole. : The book could've been named something related to druids, the Emerald Circle, or Borran Klosk, and would've been much less misleading.
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VikingLegion
Senior Scribe

USA
483 Posts

Posted - 23 Apr 2017 :  11:23:24  Show Profile Send VikingLegion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Well I'm not finished with the book yet, I just wanted to jump in and share a little interlude here:

As I get closer to finishing my FR collection (from a purchase perspective, not a reading one - that will take another 2-3 years I'm guessing) the books get more and more difficult to find at a reasonable price. I use a combination of Abebooks and Amazon to track them down, and I've managed to acquire the vast majority of the entire series for about $3-$4 apiece. Every now and then I'll reach and spend in the $5-$10 range for a particularly stubborn book that won't come down in price. I'm left with just a handful of books in the late 2000s and early 20-teens that won't budge from a ridiculous price point.

For example: the first of the Brimstone Angels series by Erin M. Evans. When I first started searching, this book was around $225 for the cheapest copy! I check once a month, and saw a few copies spring up in the $100ish range. Recently I found one for $80, and just a couple days ago I found a handful in the mid $50s. But then, yesterday while rummaging around through the basement of a used bookstore with my wife about 40 minutes from our home, there it was - a near pristine copy of Brimstone Angels just sitting there amidst a pile of other fantasy/sci-fi novels - for a mere $3.50. I snatched it up, along with a few others, and counted my blessings. Thank Ao for elderly shopkeepers who are not internet savvy! He saw the pile of books in my hand and told me he's doing a 50% off sale of *every* book in the store next week, and I should come back then. I said "Yeah, I think I'll just pay full price for these now, thanks."

I also picked up an Elaine Cunningham book called The Radiant Dragon. It's part of a 6-book series titled "The Cloakmaster Series", which begins on Krynn (the world of Dragonlance) but ends up in Wildspace, as it is a Spelljammer series. It looks pretty cheesy, but I'll give anything from Elaine a chance, so now I have to track down the rest of that sextet. I snagged two of them for about $2.75 each.

The point of this post? I guess it's that I love old, used bookstores. Snaring that Evans book yesterday was the kind of score I dream about every time I enter one of these havens. I'm always saddened to hear about one closing up shop for good, which happens all-too often now, sadly. I live in an area of New England that is extremely literature-friendly, so I still have an abundance of these treasure troves to delve through.
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Taleras
Seeker

75 Posts

Posted - 23 Apr 2017 :  13:52:05  Show Profile Send Taleras a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Why are books going for that much?? Was it not printed much at all? No kindle version? Limited edition? I haven't reached that series yet, but I'm glad I downloaded the start off Audible for $5 in case I can't find a decently priced hard copy when I get there.
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Veylandemar
Acolyte

19 Posts

Posted - 24 Apr 2017 :  04:03:57  Show Profile Send Veylandemar a Private Message  Reply with Quote
As a potential suggestiong if you're happy to purchase from Australia, there's a Sydney based specialty bookstore called Galaxy Books ( http://www.galaxybooks.com.au ) which still carries most Realms novels from the last few years at far more reasonable prices.

Comparatively, the Australian dollar is particularly weak against the American at the moment, and they ship internationally ( http://www.galaxybooks.com.au/galaxy-bookshop/shipping-information.do )

The staff are pretty friendly and may be able to help you track down some of the novels you're missing if you send them through an email request.
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