Realms of the Arcane

Realms of the Arcane edited by Brian M. Thomsen was released in 1997. This anthology has 10 short stories written by David Cook, Elaine Cunningham, Tom Dupree, J. Robert King, Mark Anthony, Monte Cook, Ed Greenwood, Philip Athans, Brian Thomsen, and Jeff Grubb. There is also a prologue, two interludes, and a epilogue that are written by Wes Nicholson, I will not comment on these except to give a basic overview of them. As you can guess, the stories within deal with things that are arcane in nature. Prologue by Wes Nicholson- As with all prologue, this sets up the following stories. A probationer, named Wes, is hoping to become a monk at the fabled Candlekeep. He is told by the abbot to clean a reading room in which he finds a secret room filled with text and begins to read. Wishing You Many More by David Cook- The story is told through correspondent letters between Perfect and Absolute Magister Fannol Pavish and a conjurer named Torreb. Pavish and Torreb were both classmates in an academy in which Torreb was the first student and Pavish was the second. However, Torreb was kicked out due to claims of plagiarism and cheating. Pavish sends a letter to Torreb asking for his help with finding a very powerful staff. Why would a former classmate and a rival ask for one's help when the one bettered Pavish in every way. Negatives: 1) Predictable. What happens in the story you could tell from, probably, the first five or so pages. Nothing really came as a shock or anything. 2) "Hatred." I never really felt the hatred between the two characters. It just seemed maybe a little forced and ingenious. Positives: 1) "Gift Exchange." I thought that the exchanging of various different gifts were pretty clever. It really seemed like an "Oh look, the Smiths have a new car. Bob, why don't we have a new car. Oh wait, even better, make it a new boat" scenarios. 2) Correspondence Letters. I like how the story was told this way. It made it a little different and pretty interesting. Overall: 4/5 *I liked the story and how it was told. It really made it interesting.* Secrets of Blood, Spirits of the Sea by Elaine Cunningham- This is a tale of how the sahuagin came to exist. A dark elven wizard named Ka'Narlist created this creatures from his blood and the blood of other creatures. His servant, a wemic named Mbugua, wants to ruin Ka'Narlist so he sabotages the dark elf's experiments and Mbugua creates a sahuagin/ sea elf named Malenti. However, does Malenti take down Ka'Narlist? Negatives: 1) The Ending. While it is okay, the problem I have is that, it didn't really say what happened to Ka'Narlist. Did he obtain godhood or is he dead? 2) The storyteller. During some scenes in which the storyteller is talking to his elven captures, it just didn't seem to fit. I do like the idea, but it just seemed a little weird to me at times. Positives: 1) Telling. I do like how this "creation" story is told. It isn't boring like some of the ones I have read, and it actually is p