First off, I’d like to clarify one thing. I don’t really consider myself a Forgotten Realms reader (never mind my various Drizz’t books or the Shadows of the Spider Queen novels) so I don’t have a Master’s degree in the setting. Having said that, Shadowbred was an interesting read and starts out with a prologue that hooked me.
As for the rest of Shadowbred, Paul S. Kemp manages to juggle multiple points of view from both heroes and villains.
June 12th, 2008. Charles Tan (GUEST)´s rating: 3 | Paul S. Kemp | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The City of Splendors by Ed Greenwood & Elaine Cunningham
The City of Splendors is very different from Wizards of the Coast’s usual fare. In fact, it’s even unusual for The Forgotten Realms, and that’s saying something.
The story almost seems to have no main character, no central conflict, and no central motivation. It revolves around many characters who live their lives in Waterdeep, also known as the City of Splendors due to its astonishing beauty and variety. The interconnectedness of the central characters and the way that they interact with each other and the city that surrounds them (both the actual city and its citizens) is so cleverly written that the reader is never sure just what might happen next.
June 12th, 2008. John Ottinger (guest)´s rating: 5 | Ed Greenwood, Elaine Cunningham, Mel Odom | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Orc King by R.A. Salvatore
Picking up where The Two Swords left off, The Orc King continues the adventures of Drizzt Do’Urden and the Companions of the Hall. King Obould Many-arrows seeks to create a kingdom of orcs, at peace with its neighbors, a thing unheard of in Faerun. Tosun Armgo continues to seek to be a new Drizzt, a dark elf of good character while fighting off the advances of Khaizid’hea the evil sentient sword. And Wulfgar, recently widowed, sets out to find his lost daughter Colson.
June 12th, 2008. John Ottinger (guest)´s rating: 3 | R.A. Salvatore | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Promise of the Witch-King by R.A. Salvatore
Promise of the Witch-King is the second book in R.A. Salvatore’s Sellswords series, a spin-off/repackaging of his famous Drizz’t series. While the title may sound like a rip-off from Tolkien (and indeed, Dungeons & Dragons does name Lord of the Rings as one of its influences), Salvatore is actually paying homage to Fritz Leiber.
The novel follows the anti-hero adventures of Artemis Entreri, a mellowed-down assassin, and the dark elf Jarlaxle,
June 12th, 2008. Charles Tan (GUEST)´s rating: 2 | R.A. Salvatore | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Mistress of Dragons by Margaret Weis
Mistress of Dragons is an interesting story with some likable heroes and excellent villains. The heroes are the humans and their dragon allies, but the humans don’t realize that dragons are their friends because the villains are a couple of dragons gone bad. Very bad. The good dragons concoct a plot which uses humans to conquer the bad dragons. Mistress of Dragons ends with an unexpected plot twist.
This story is well-told, though it annoys me how often Margaret Weis omits conjunctions from her sentences.
June 12th, 2008. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Margaret Weis | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Orphaned and married off at the age of 5, Marian Fitzwater is awakened during the night of her 15th birthday, the day of which she was to move to her husband’s castle, to be told that he has just died.
As an unmarried woman with land attached to her name, she is now not only a very desirable catch, but now a pawn in the Queen of England’s strategic chess game to supposedly turn all of England to her son, King Richard’s favor. The catch is,
June 12th, 2008. Guest´s rating: 3 | Elsa Watson | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Shriek: An Afterword by Jeff VanderMeer
Shriek: An Afterword is Jeff VanderMeer’s second novel set in his AMBERGRIS cosmology. There are a lot of elements with regards to the book that I want to talk about, so please bear with me.
The first is that this is a sequel, yet it’s not. I won’t talk about City of Saints and Madmen here, but suffice it to say, Shriek: An Afterword builds on the material presented in that novel.
June 12th, 2008. Charles Tan (GUEST)´s rating: 4 | Jeff VanderMeer | SFF Reviews | no comments |
If the state of the arts puzzles you, and you wonder why so many novels are "retellings" and formulaic rework,…
I picked my copy up last week and I can't wait to finish my current book and get started! I…
Gentlemen, I concur! (Forgive me for jumping into your convo)
The cover is amazing. I love how the graphic novel (and the review!) hewed close to the theme of "good…
I've thought about picking that one up. The artwork looks perfect.