Plague of Spells

I am the first to admit that I was a bit put off by the ratings found here. Regardless, as a fan of the Realms and Bruce Cordell, I decided to give it a shot. I was pleasantly surprised to find the novel excellent. Not only is this one of the better books under his belt, it is a great reprieve from how many D & D authors choose to write their books. I certainly don't feel this book should rate below 3-stars but I fear many people are doing such out of spite of the latest game edition and not the book itself. Kudos to Bruce. Keep up the great work.

... it's also a really good read. Plague of Spells is a lot more than a teenaged boy's sword-and-sorcery fantasy. Ok, confession: I don't know anything about the Forgotten Realms, and I've never read a D & D tie-in book before. And without knowing any of the characters or the setting from anywhere else, I really enjoyed this book. I liked the parallel narratives, although like other reviewers I found myself liking some of the main characters more than others: Raidon is a great character with a compelling story line, although I got a little tired of his incessant harping on his guilt, and I liked him a heck of a lot better before he found that stupid sword. Maybe he'll lose it in the next book. Japheth, for me, is the more complicated and more interesting character, and I suspect that his journey in the next book will be the one worth watching. Alas, I bemoan the lack of truly compelling women characters, but that said, I liked the way the book is at least as concerned with the backgrounds and motives of the characters as it is with combat scenes. This is a much more sophisticated book than many of its kind, and it omits the blow-by-blow descriptions of battle in favor of far more satisfying character development. And the writing is good: most of the time, the prose disappears as you read it, so you get that feeling of watching the story unfold instead of hauling yourself through the plot paragraph by paragraph. The multiple story lines were well balanced, and if occasionally some of the dialogue fell into stock phrasing (I kept expecting Captain Thoster to say "Aarrrggh, me hearties!"), still the characters who said it were essentially so interesting that you can forgive the lapse (but where did he get that sword? and why didn't the poisoned arrow kill him?). I got to the end and found myself impatient for the second book. What happens next? When you really care about the answer to that question, you know you're reading something good.

A great 4th edition novel, and the secret for this novel is simple: the hero is from 3th edition! The most colorful characters are Raidon Kaine, a 3th edition Monk and Angul, the Blade Cerulean, true defenders of good in a realm of survivors. An addicted Warlock gives us one of the best depictions of drugs abuse in the Forgotten Realms so far, with rich metaphors that may become part of the common tongue for FR fans: "dont walk the crimson road!"

Plague of Spells by Bruce Cordell is the first novel in the Abolethic Sovereignty Trilogy. The second book is titled City of Torment and is scheduled for release in September, 2009, the third book in the trilogy is titled Key of Stars and is slated for release in August, 2010. Mr. Cordell currently has two other novels set in the Forgotten Realms; Stardeep: The Dungeons and Darkvision (Forgotten Realms: The Wizards). He has also penned a short story for the Realms of War anthology. Fans of the Forgotten Realms will be especially interested in this novel in relation to the Spell Plague and the new 4th Edition Rules. Most new Forgotten Realms books are picking up 100 years after the Spell Plague. Not so with this one. This novel has some of the initial Spell Plague and then picks up a mere 10 years later. I am pleased to find a book set during this time frame. Based on that aspect alone, I think this is almost a must read for most Forgotten Realms fans. Here are my thoughts on the novel as a whole. The plot of this book is not your typical, linear plot. It is actually several plots, and perspectives, mixed together. This allows the story to take on a larger feel and cover more elements. There are three separate plots that are separate for some of the book before slowly being drawn together by a common theme. The first is that of Raidon Kane and his quest to find lost friends, a lost artifact, but more importantly finding himself. The second plotline focuses on an artifact being found by a Kuo-toa and just what powers it has, and if it is more than what it seems. The last major plot revolves around a small group of people who are drawn into the larger plot listed as number two in this list. Strictly speaking on the plot, I really enjoyed it. I like how the reader is given some background information on the Spell Plague and how it has effected, the people, lands, and other systems in the world. It flowed well and the pacing between each of the plots was well done. None of the different plot lines seemed to dominate the book at any time, conversely none of the various plot elements were lost either. There were a couple parts of the plot that felt slightly contrived and a little forced, such as how all three plot lines come together, but overall I enjoyed the plot quite a bit. The characters in this book are a mix of new and old. Fans of the novel Stardeep will be pleased to know that Raidon Kane makes a return as does another character from Stardeep, but I will let readers find that one. Most of the characters are new, and most are rather interesting. Characters such as Anusha, Japheth, Thoster, Nogah, and Seren. Of all the characters in this book, I found Japheth to be the most interesting. There are multiple layers to who he is and why he does what he does. Unlike in Stardeep, Raidon was much more interesting in this novel. That could be because of the setting, and circumstances but either way I found myself interested in his plight and his calm q