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Title: Thornhold (Forgotten Realms: Songs and Swords, Book 4) by Elaine Cunningham ISBN: 0-7869-1808-X Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Pub. Date: February, 2001 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.5 (16 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: It's good, but not as good as some of her others...
Comment: Like her other efforts, this one contains interesting characters, tight pacing, and good action. I particularly enjoyed the author's handling of the paladin character, Algorind. His "Duty First" credo gets him into some tight moral/ethical spots, but the author doesn't simply gloss over them. Rather, she writes these difficulties into the Algorind's character, and we see him (begin to) grow accordingly. Very satisfying, that.
Negatively, Thornhold does contain (what seemed to me) a clichee antagonist, Dag Zoreth. Pretty much a stock evil / depraved / violent mage. To me, Dag Zoreth lacked the depth and complexity of other characters in the book, namely Algorind and Bronwyn (the protagonist).
Also, I was initally expecting a little more from the mighty artefact (read the book!), and felt increasingly glum about it as the story went on. But I think that's just me (as jaded reader) being used to hero-saves-the-world stories... In the end I found the artefact refreshing, precisely because it WASN'T powerful enough to crack the world in half!
Much has been said of the protagonist, Bronwyn. I would only like to add the following: If you enjoy a little character-irony in your thematic nomenclature, make sure to look up "Bronwyn" in a baby-name book at your local book store...
Summary: Some of her best characters (Bronwyn, Algorind, Ebenezer, Danilo), but not necessarily her best writing. Thornhold is still a good read, however, and well worth the price of admission!
Rating: 4
Summary: The Harper Series wasn't supposed to end here...
Comment: This book puzzled me, so I took the author up on her offer and emailed with questions. She admitted that the story was not supposed to be the END of the Harper series, but a PIVOT that would end the numbered SERIES but would take the Harper organization in new directions. The Harpers have changed before, and a new upheaval was planned. The characters introduced in this book would continue, and a lot of the plot threads would resolve. She especially wanted to see the Algorind young paladin overcome the betrayal he suffered without losing his faith, and "move from unquestioning acceptance into true wisdom," was I think the words she used.
So what happened? TSR abandoned the plot line and decided to move in completely new directions. The book was changed from a pivot story and put out as the last book. Cunningham admits that if she had known this was going to happen, she would have written a very different story, because this one sure doesn't END the Harpers. It wasn't meant to. The ending as written, and as the situation stands, is not very satisfying. I, for one, would like to know what happens to Algorind, what skeletons Khelben Arunsum has hidden in his closet, and what those rings of Samular can do when they really cut loose. It seems like a trio of altered artifacts is too powerful just to activate a magical siege tower. And it doesn't make sense to organize a whole order of paladins around protecting the descendants of Samular, unless they can do some serious, um, "stuff." I asked about some of these things, and Cunningham told me what she'd had in mind. I'm sorry that the whole story isn't going to be told.
Oh, well.
Rating: 1
Summary: Weak. Very weak.
Comment: This book was full of cliches, sloppy storytelling, and, worst of all, characters who are nothing more than cardboard, and flimsy cardboard at that. The forces of "good" are especially portrayed as total morons, making you wonder why evil didn't overrun the realms a long time ago. Though, to be fair, Cunningham's Paladins in gaming terms would clearly be Lawful Neutral, not Lawful Good. Which just goes to show that she really doesn't understand how to portray such characters in the first place. And I definitely agree with the reviewers who found a strong bias against religion and authority from the author. A cliched story is bad enough. A cliched story with the author's personal biases shoe-horned into the tale makes for an even less enjoyable reading experience. Leave this one on the shelf.
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Title: Elfshadow (Forgotten Realms: Songs and Swords, Book 1) by Elaine Cunningham ISBN: 0786916605 Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Pub. Date: 01 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Magehound (Forgotten Realms: Counselors & Kings, Book 1) by Elaine Cunningham ISBN: 0786915617 Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Pub. Date: 01 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Tangled Webs (Forgotten Realms: Starlight and Shadows, Book 2) by Elaine Cunningham ISBN: 0786929596 Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Pub. Date: 01 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Evermeet: Island of Elves (Forgotten Realms) by Elaine Cunningham ISBN: 0786913541 Publisher: Wizards of Coast Inc. Pub. Date: 01 March, 1999 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Windwalker (Forgotten Realms: Starlight and Shadows, Book 3) by Elaine Cunningham ISBN: 0786929685 Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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