The Binding Stone

...by far. If you must read one Eberron book or series, read this one. If you intend to read them all, read these last, or you won't enjoy the other series as much, as they pale in comparison. I want more!

I just finished reading The Binding Stone, the first of Don Bassingthwaithe's books I have read. Wow, it was really good. This story had you hooked from the very beginning and by the end you just couldn't walk away from it ... everything stopped until I finished the book ! You can't say better than that ! The only thing I was disappointed with was the character Adolan who was so likeable was killed off so early - I was gutted ! However, the other character's were so well defined and different from each other and the plot so exciting one was forced to move on ! Author Bassingthwaite does a great job not letting out too much information, just drip feeding it through so even by the end the characters still have their mysteries. Plus the villians are so convincing. I am looking forward to reading the next in the series ...

I am very reluctant to buy books based on RPG worlds, movies and the like since the books themselves have a sort of mass produced cookie cutter feel, with bland characters who are nothing more than representations of their character class and/or if you know the rules of the game, you spend the whole book trying to figure out what spell is being used, what class skill let's them do that? Not so with this book. I picked up on a lark as I'd been out of D & D for years, right when Forgetten Realms started, due to lack of interest. Eberron's setting was interesting to me so I gave this book a shot. First, the author's writing style is praiseworthy. The descriptives are good, his vocabulary excellent and sentence style varied. I mention this to show the writer isn't some mass production hack. Second, the book involves three characters whose backgrounds are all Eberron specific, so you get a flavor for how these races and classes work in this universe. Third, the book does an excellent job giving a sense of tension as the heroes are chased relentlessly and are forced to escape rather than win every battle. Fourth, the heroes screw up and don't perform every task with perfection. Fifth, the villain(s) are well written, complex and you actually dislike them rather than being ambivalent about the outcome. My only quibble is that two of the characters in the party hate each other from an event that happened years before during a war that shaped the current Eberron setting. I think they become allies a tad too easily, in spite of the circumstances, to really seem proper. If you've had a 7 year desire to exact revenge, I think it would be hard to put it aside so easily. I'd have liked a little more conflict between the characters from that standpoint. Other than that, I think this book is well worth the read.

Just finished The Binding Stone and let me tell you, this is one great book. I like adventure stories like this one and it didn't let me down. The action is great and the characters are ones you want to root for. Great Job!! If you like this book, might I suggest another I've recently come arcoss. The Unsuspecting Mage by Brian S. Pratt. It's another fantasy adventure sure to please. I highly reccomend it.

Well I would not listen to the first review here, as this has been the best Eberron novel to be released so far. When I say that, I am not knocking the previous novels, as I loved Matt Forbeck's 'Marked for Death', and I thought that Keith Bakers novel 'City of Towers' was an okay novel (especially for a first time novelist). But here we have been given something different, something a little edgier, something a little darker. It may not be noir (on which the Eberron setting was sold to us by Wizards of the Coast upon its launch) but it is definitely good solid fantasy, and that is what Don Bassingthwaite excels at. Don has crafted a book that is very character driven. When I say that I mean that he doesn't just give you a bunch of adventurers and run with a story. He builds each one up carefully, so that you learn to care about each ones fate. Don does not reveal the full details of each character, but also trickles the information out over the course of the story, and even by the end we are left wanting to know more. Don also knows how to pack a punch with his action scenes, and he will make you keep turning those pages. He is also a master at pacing out his novels, and by the time you get to the end of the novel you will find you are flipping those pages like crazy. Unlike the other reviewer, I will tell you to avoid The Crimson Talisman, as that is the worst novel in the series. Do read the others however have they have been fun to read, but for a fine tale in the Eberron setting, you will not find anything better (yet) than this! I would also recommend that you check out some of the other Don Bassingthwaite novels, in particular the ones set in Forgotten Realms (The Yellow Silk (Fantastic), Mistress of the Night(Excellent)). Can't wait for the next one in the series.