The Shattered Mask

This review is for the book `The Shattered Mask', which is Book III of the seven book `Sembia: Gateway to the Realms' series. This review is intended as a critique of the writing and flow of the book, not to reveal "spoolers". Please note: I am assuming that people have read The Halls of Stormweather and Shadow's Witness, Books I and II of the series, prior to reading this review. If you haven't, you may wish to skip down to the last two paragraphs for my overall recommendation of this book, which will not contain any information about previous books in this series. This book focuses on Shamur Uskevren, the matriarch of the Uskevren household, written by Richard Lee Byers. This story takes place a little more than a year after the events of the short story `Song of Chaos'. The Uskevren household, as well as the city of Selgaunt, has had time to recover from the attach by creatures from the Abyss chronicled within the pages of `Shadow's Witness' a year prior. Shamur has begun to regret he treatment of Thamalon when she is used as a tool to bring down the house of Uskevren by an old rival. How will the future vision she had while dealing with the magic opera play out, and how will the revelation of her past effect everyone. Shamur Uskevren had an colorful past prior to taker her nieces place as bride to Thamalon. The reader is brought along with the rest of the family in discovering this past and an amazing revelation. Overall, the book is well written and well paced. The author is able to draw the reader into the action of the story. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed the short story `Song of Chaos', as well as readers of the Forgotten Realms and other shared fantasy settings. I would also recommend this book to readers of general Fantasy, looking for a new view on fantasy story telling. I would recommend reading The Halls of Stormweather prior to reading this book. Although the `Sembia: Gateway to the Realms' series is not linear, they occur in conjunction with one another, I would recommend reading the prior books of the series first. Each book will make references the events of the prior books, so the reader will have a more encompassing experience and a greater understanding of the time line throughout the series. A Note to Readers new to Forgotten Realms: Like many shared settings, especially those stemming from gaming or other media types, the Forgotten Realms books are written with the assumption that the reader has some familiarity with the Forgotten Realms gaming setting. This frees up the author to focus on his or her story, instead of having to explain the world in which the story takes place; the calendar, geography, common races/species, magical properties, etc. This is very important when the book length is normally confined to 300 - 350 pages. As a reader reads more books in the Forgotten Realms setting, they will become more familiar with the world of Faerun and its inhabitants, making the experie

I must confess that when I saw who the author of this novel was, I was a bit skeptic about it. Byers' work, in my opinion, ranged from mediocre to bad (Year of the Rogue Dragons trilogy). Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised by this novel. The novel is simply a set of good elements, without an obvious weak spot. Characters are numerous, good, consistent and interesting. Byers gives the villains more space than he usually does, and that really bolsters the dynamic of the novel. I must mention one of the villains, Bileworm, who was given simply brilliant characterization. The intricate relationship between Shamur and her husband is given much space and consideration by the author, and the end result is very good. Other Uskreven family members play a greater role in this book, than they did in "Shadow's Witness" by Paul S. Kemp, and I think this book should've maybe been published as the first one (not counting the "Halls of Stormweather" anthology). The plot is strong, fast-paced and free of any logical errors. The atmosphere and the setting are maybe a bit off the pace, but they surely aren't bad, simply disregarded, I would say. The book also features a couple of great sword-fights, something where Byers' fencing expertise comes to the fore. As I said earlier, this is really a novel without a weak spot. I really can't find anything in this novel that particularly stung my eyes. Nevertheless, I'm giving it four stars, just because it failed to bring something extra, some little touch that differentiates a good book from a great one. I know this original edition of the novel maybe hard to come by, but there is a reprint that should be published in a couple of months. Make sure you don't miss this great installment in the "Sembia: Gateway to the Realms" series.

I must confess that when I saw who the author of this novel was, I was a bit skeptic about it. Byers' work, in my opinion, ranged from mediocre to bad (Year of the Rogue Dragons trilogy). Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised by this novel. The novel is simply a set of good elements, without an obvious weak spot. Characters are numerous, good, consistent and interesting. Byers gives the villains more space than he usually does, and that really bolsters the dynamic of the novel. I must mention one of the villains, Bileworm, who was given simply brilliant characterization. The intricate relationship between Shamur and her husband is given much space and consideration by the author, and the end result is very good. Other Uskreven family members play a greater role in this book, than they did in "Shadow's Witness" by Paul S. Kemp, and I think this book should've maybe been published as the first one (not counting the "Halls of Stormweather" anthology). The plot is strong, fast-paced and free of any logical errors. The atmosphere and the setting are maybe a bit off the pace, but they surely aren't bad, simply disregarded, I would say. The book also features a couple of great sword-fights, something where Byers' fencing expertise comes to the fore. As I said earlier, this is really a novel without a weak spot. I really can't find anything in this novel that particularly stung my eyes. Nevertheless, I'm giving it four stars, just because it failed to bring something extra, some little touch that differentiates a good book from a great one. I know this original edition of the novel maybe hard to come by, but there is a reprint that should be published in a couple of months. Make sure you don't miss this great installment in the "Sembia: Gateway to the Realms" series.

After reading and really enjoying the last two books in the series, I was somewhat nervously regarding the release of this book as it centres around a rather awkward secret and marital problems ( I personally like to avoid these sorts of problems in books and see the characters simply focus on beating the bad guys, winning the girl etc etc).However the book is well written with the author exploring the past and present of the Uskervan matriach, a character who has been sidelined and treated a bit coldy in most of the previous stories. Richard Lee Byers however does a good job of exploring the character and adds plenty of exciting action to boot. To top it all off the book ends with a happy ending, something which always leaves me with satisfied feelings at the end of a book.All in all this book is pretty good by the standard of most Realms novels and despite some credibility gaps as to what the characters do, is really pleasing (along with the other stories in the series) for the way in which it threads all the characters and stories together in a way that we grow attached to them and feel as if the family is really changing through the tests it has thrown at it (kinda like a soap opera I guess).With the standard of the first 3 books in the Sembia series so high, I can barely wait for the next addition to the series "Black Wolf" to be released in December.

This book has all you need for a really fine time. The heroine is feisty and has a big, interesting secret. There's intrigue, monsters, swords and sorcery galore, masterful use of language and characters you can really take to heart. If you've read other SEMBIA series stories and books, you'll find old friends and if you have not, you'll make some mew ones. Though this book is part of a series, its story is complete.Buy this one. You'll have a rousing good read!