29. 1989 (Feb.) - Forgotten Realms (D&D) - Douglas Niles - Darkwell (Forgotten Realms #8)

 

Series: The Moonshae Trilogy 3

The conclusion to the ok, but frankly underwhelming Moonshae trilogy, particularly when compared to other Forgotten Realms series coming out at the same time, like the Icewind Dale trilogy which introduced us to Drizzt or even the Azure Bonds and Spellfire first  volumes that had already come out, this is another Forgotten Realms book centred about the threat to the Moonshae Islands posed by the dark god Bhaal. 

It suffers from a lot of the problems of badly planned out conclusions to series, particularly trying to do too much and tying everything up with a convenient bow, without it feeling really earned. Lot's of good and bad guys to kill off in quick successions, intercalated with long battle sequences which are often dull.

The upside of that convenient plot fixing is that at least by the end of the book we have the story done and dusted, the evil guys are banished and the good guys get married and live happily ever after (or do they?). There will be eventual continuations to this story, obviously, but can't say I'm looking forward to them. As a final note, if you read this, I strongly advise you stay away from the Audiobook, worst narrator ever, can't pronounce half the words, not only the fantasy ones but even regular English words like gas (pronounces "gazze" and "gazzes") or brethren (pronounces "breath ren"). This is a professional reader on Audible, just read the book, if you must, dump the audio version. 

TL;DR: 4/10

28. 1989 (Jan.) - Forgotten Realms (D&D) - R. A. Salvatore - Streams of Silver (Forgotten Realms #7)

 

Series: Icewind Dale Trilogy 2

The second by order of publication of both the Icewind Dale trilogy and the Drizzt series of novels (there would eventually be prequels and that's why you might find this as volume 5, when it was really the second one published), this picks up shortly after the end of the first volume. 

Drizzt, Bruenor, Wulfgar and Regis go off in search of Bruenor's ancestral home of Mithral Hall, all the way being chased by a party of villains interested in stopping their progress and if needed kill them. 

The general and fun idea is of having an adventuring party in classic D&D style, but with a counterparty chasing them, as if they were parallel D&D games. The writing is fun and the book is fluid, the story works well enough on its own but gains from the previous volume and sets things up nicely for the next one. Fun, nostalgic read.

TL;DR: 7/10

25. 1988 (Oct.) - Forgotten Realms (D&D) - Kate Novak, Jeff Grubb - Azure Bonds (Forgotten Realms #6)

 

Series: Finder's Stone #1

The first book in the Forgotten Realms "Finder's Stone Trilogy" this is actually an above average entry in the Realms books. With a compelling story and a great cast of secondary characters, plenty of mysteries to unravel and a satisfying ending, it's a light and fun read.

The main character, Alias, is a badass woman warrior with a mysterious past that gets unravelled as the book goes on. I get the feeling that this was possibly not imagined as the first of a trilogy, because the book does add up to a full story and wraps up quite neatly at the end, but that also makes it more satisfying as a read.

It's typical of D&D books that the central characters form a party, and this is no exception, we get a warrior, a thief/bard, a paladin and a mage, but all of them are quirky enough to make them fun. The warrior is an amnesiac, the bard is not a bard really but a halfling thief with dubious morals, the paladin is a lizard who speaks through smell and the mage is actually a merchant who dabbles. You also get dragons, ancient gods and dark rituals. Fun!

TL;DR: 7/10 Read it! 

24. 1988 (Aug.) - Forgotten Realms (D&D) - Ed Greenwood - Spellfire (Forgotten Realms #4)

 

Series: Shandril Saga #1

The introduction of Elminster into the Forgotten Realms novels (he had already appeared in earlier short stories in magazines) and written by Ed Greenwood, the actual creator of The Forgotten Realms setting, based on his own campaign setting, this isn't a great novel, but it's ok.

The story follows Shandril Shessair, a young orphan barmaid who becomes imbued with Spellfire as part of her genetic heritage as she plows through some dracoliches, adventures around, gets married on a whim and is pursued by evil forces who want to get her power.

There is little to no character development here, except for Elminster who feels fully fleshed, everyone else is kind of a cardboard stereotype of who they are supposed to be. Just the suddenness of how Shandril and Narm's relationship goes from perfect strangers to married is an indication of that. Pretty much a paint by numbers Forgotten Realms novel, it entertains but doesn't enthuse.

TL;DR: 6/10 Ok, but not great. 

21. 1988. (Apr.) - Forgotten Realms - Douglas Niles - Black Wizards (Forgotten Realms #3)

Series: Moonshae Trilogy #2

As usual, for me at least, with a lot of these D&D novels, I really enjoy the first half of the novels much more than the second. This is probably because I get bored with the inevitable long battle scenes towards the end of the books, and because to do those well you have to be a really good writer, which Niles isn't... he´s ok, but no great.

So I enjoy mostly the plotty and character based stuff, and this, being a middle book in a trilogy has slightly less of that than the first one, there's no need to set up the world or the main characters, as that was done in the first part, to you jump straight into the action after giving up an update on what is going on with our characters.

It starts pretty well, with a kind of murder mystery and mysterious assassins and a quest to find those responsible, but soon it devolves into battle after battle, set in different locations and with constantly shifting casts. I enjoyed the book when it was taking a breather, but soon got bored with the extended fight scenes. Oh well. Still, it's ok.

TL;DR: 6/10 Like the characters, bored of the battles. 

17. 1987 (Dec.) - Forgotten Realms (D&D) - R. A. Salvatore - The Crystal Shard (Forgotten Realms #2)

Series: Icewind Dale Trilogy 1

This is the first book on the Forgotten Realms Drizzt saga, yes the first book and not the fourth book and they are now trying to tell us it is... this was the first to be published, it introduces us to the characters and so on. Just because Salvatore decided to make some prequels years later that doesn't retroactively make this the fourth book. This isn't even like Star Wars as there was no previous plan to have three previous novels, that was just cashing in to the success of the series (well, so was Star Wars, but the idea was there very close to the beginning).

It's an OK fantasy novel, not much here is great, not the writing or even most of the characters or the plot-line but it helps flesh out the world and sets up an interesting basis for further adventures, and the book ends clearly pointing us towards the next volume in the series, this isn't really a stand-alone. Many see Drizzt as a paragon of the fantasy genre growing up by having a black character... as having an anti-racist message, well that might indeed be partially the case but it is undermined by the fact that Drizzt is very much an exception among exceptions, he's the one good black elf, all other black elves are horrible criminals, this guy is special... so you know, not a great message. Still, it's a fun read. 

TL;DR: 6/10

11. 1987 (May.) - Forgotten Realms (D&D) - Douglas Niles - Darkwalker on Moonshae (Forgotten Realms #1)

Series: Moonshae Trilogy #1

First of all I must apologize to my 0 readers the long hiatus I had here. But I'm back! We've already had books from several other D&D universes, namely Dragonlance and Greyhawk. However, the longest running, and still ongoing novel universe in D&D is Forgotten Realms, this is due in large part to the popularity of the Drizzt novels, which will start coming up soon here and are still coming out today!

We start the universe with the first of the Moonshae Trilogy, originally intended as a stand-alone work, it left enough of an open door... actually a wide-open door to sequels at the end of it, so it is only natural that with the success of the Dragonlance trilogies they would eventually turn this into one. Moonshae is not the most interesting of territories, basically it's a version of some Druidic British Isles, with pretty traditional monarchy and some dwarfs, elves, unicorns and firbolgs for good measure... also a fairy dragon. It feels quite a bit like a mix of Arthurian Legend and Tolkien and for this reason quite standard fantasy. This is true even in the D&D context, with the interesting anti-heroes of both the Dragonlance setting and Gord in the Greyhawk setting. All that being said it is a fun and light read, there is a sense of threat pervading the book, the titular Darkwalker, and it is always good to see the female member of the party save the day. So not the most auspicious start to the Forgotten Realms, but mindlessly enjoyable read anyway.

TL;DR: 5/10 Easy read but very unoriginal.