masterghandalf

Yeah, it's just like Tolkien, if Tolkien had decided his whole story was going to be post-modern grimdark about the pointless deaths of tomb-robbers in Annuminas.


LOL! Based on the Foreword (which I'll do when I'm done with the book proper) Greenwood was apparently trying to be *subversive* in killing of the Bright Spear, but, well, there's not a whole lot subversive in killing off a bunch of barely-developed redshirts, IMO.

since I believe you're getting Awesome Sue Powers shortly.

Chapter Seven, to be sepcific.

I assume this was included to namedrop Bane and the Zhentarim, so that they don't come out of nowhere later.


Pretty much; the Zhentarim and the Church of Bane are two of the major antagonistic factions in this book, though it'll be several chapters yet before they're properly introduced (and the Zhents' current leader, Manshoon is, as I've mentioned in replies to previous comments, probably the closest thing the trilogy has to an overall big bad).

Mind you, none of this is anywhere near as bad as just about any single paragraph of The Fifth Sorceress, but something about the Realms has always rubbed me the wrong way. It's probably the fact that they're not my Sues.


Well, to be fair, there's not a lot that's as bad as Fifth Sorceress, aka book one of the series that got such a bad reception its own publisher pulled the plug partway through. Re the Realms, I don't think all Realms fiction has that vibe, but Greenwood's definitely does, because a lot of the big-name Realms characters are his personal pets and/or self-inserts. Compared to other D&D (or D&D-esque) settings, I think both Eberron and Pathfinder are much better at avoiding that, and Dragonlance is in a somewhat different boat being much more focused on a central myth arc than any of the others to begin with.

Your co-sporkers are so much more memorable and distinct than any character yet to appear in the actual book. I think they might have had more lines than any one of those, too. Also ... neither of them is named Narm, so there's that. Gotta feel sorry for Greenwood on that one.


Thank you! Though to be fair, Shandril has very little personality beyond "generic fantasy protagonist," Narm is just "guy in over his head" (and he'll eventually get demoted to just "the love interest") and so far everyone else has pretty much just be walk-ons.