The Fractured Sky: The Empyrean Odyssey, Book II (Forgotten Realms)

The Fractured Sky by Thomas M. Reid- This is the second book in The Empyrean Odyssey trilogy, the first being The Gossamer Plain. The story follows Kaanyr Vhok, Aliisza, Kael (Aliisza's son), and Tauran in their attempt to stop Zasian Menz. This is my second read through in honor of the last book The Crystal Mountain coming out. I'll just simply reword what the description says on the back of the book. Kaanyr Vhok finds himself in the heart of heaven, except under circumstances that he does not want to be and bond by an oath to an angel. Aliisza, in being tricked by Vhok, wants to teach him a lesson that it was not a nice thing to be tricked by her lover. Negatives: 1) Micus and the Angels. The whole "holier than thou" thing just really grated on my nerves. With Micus, it just seemed like he was constantly blind by following the laws to the word. Then you have all the other angels, which have to, let me repeat that, have to follow everything by law. Yes, it's their 'job' to, but use some common sense! However, I do have to give props to Thomas M. Reid. He made you hate the "holy beings" and he really made them into the villains in this part of the trilogy. 2) Secondary Characters. I didn't like how all of the sudden, Zasian, Myshik and Kashada seemed to become not important enough to write about. Around the middle, you suddenly stop hearing about any of them, not counting the little two paragraph snippets you get here and there. Now I didn't like Myshik, and still don't so it didn't bother me to much to not read about him. Zasian I can't help but like and was disappointed that he suddenly disappeared halfway through. Kashada, on the other hand, was a good idea and just didn't get enough limelight. 3) Getting out of trouble. It seemed like no matter the trouble the group gets into, they always escaped it. Now, that isn't a bad thing necessary, but when it is obvious that they shouldn't have been able to make it, they do. The good thing about this is that, what they did to escape was actually logical and simple. Simple enough to be believable, but at the same time, simple enough to not believe it. Positives: 1) Tauran. Now I strongly disliked him in The Gossamer Plain. However, here he seemed to really develop into an interesting character. He had more facets than sad and happy, and just became more complex and broken down. Just a great improvement. 2) Vhok and Aliisza. I still like these characters, even though some people may not agree. Vhok was good just because he was just plain bullheaded most of the story. It worked, amazingly. You could really tell that he despised helping Tauran and Kael in their quest. It didn't help with a divine oath. And yet, you can see Vhok gain a little more depth with Aliisza, and his feelings towards her. Aliisza on the other hand was great because of how she was slowly changing. She appeared to want to be a mother, a friend, and a lover all at the same time and her actions towards each member of the group

I just finished reading the second book, it took me a while to get into it because the first book was alright.. and I was really unclear about why Vhok wanted to rule Sundenbar, still not sure. So they are in the Heavens, and there are problems. That is part of the story I like is that somehow two "good" deities get into a fight. It's plausible, because even two good people disagree. Also it's interesting that 2 Astral Devas of the same Deity can have a disagreement. I still find it odd about the killing though, especially when the devas refused to kill Vhok when they captured him. I agree with the other reviews, it didn't seem like the main characters were in any danger at all. I was a little surprised at the end, but not too surprised because those who have gotten the 4th edition FR guide knows that *spoilers* Shar and Cyric somehow kill Mystra and Azuth. I just hadn't known that the story was going to go down that path. I will definitely get the last book to see how it ends, but I HATE 4th edition, and I hate 4th edition FR as well. There are just so many things wrong with it, and they did these things to bring the Dragonborn in the realms, and to get rid of alot of old deities (particularly the Egyptian Deities and Tyr who is a Celtic god? I think..) and I liked D & D how it was, and I liked FR how it was. I liked Thomas as a writer though, but I didn't like Kael, you don't see any of his father in him, or his mom for that matter. Tauran is good.. I love the story between him and Micus.

While I thoroughly enjoyed the first entry in this series, The Gossamer Plain, I was unsure exactly how the trilogy itself would play out. After also enjoying The Fractured Sky to a great degree, I can say that as a long time Realms fan I'm definitely pleased with how things are rolling out. I won't detail much of the story itself, as it really should be fully experienced by anyone interested in the characters or the developing structure of Faerun's pantheon. The character's feel vibrant and alive in their responses, and much of the novel still focuses around Aliisza and her seeming eventual crossroads concerning the life she's lived and the life she could have. Her moral situations in the first novel were brilliantly done, and while they're not present in the same degree here, the foundation they previously built is put on full display in her decisions. I, for one, am truly interested to see which path she will choose. Some novels have set out to prove that 'good isn't necessarily right', and while that is a bit of a theme throughout this novel, it lacks the inept and clumsy approach that most other authors have tried to take in regard to it. Pride is a very dangerous and real flaw, especially in the righteous if they choose to fall to it; that plays out in an extremely profound (and very sad) occurence, in addition to turning the motivations of many celestials into something that definitely hinders the greater good and the task at hand. It definitely makes for a much more intersting story by casting an extremely believeable shade of grey, as oppossed to making anyone espousing virtue look like a bumbling idiot. Suffice it to say that the Gods of Faerun can argue, and they can make incredibly stupid decisions just as well as anyone in the Realms. The largest of these events was hazy though, which I found unfortunate given who was involved; I am *really* looking forward to finding out what motivated the theoretical 'best of the best' in the Faerunian pantheon to justify what he did. All is definitely not well with the gods...which I guess is a setup for the at-this-time-seemingly-lame-world of the 4th edition. My only slight gripe with the overall story itself is the repetetive and unoriginal nature of (not to mention the execution, which honestly left me scratching my head a bit) the 'terrible event'. This is absolutely no fault of the excellent Thomas M. Reid, who is easily one of the best authors in the brand; the creative heads pushing the seemingly unnecessary shift are definitely to blame. I won't slap down any brutual spoilers...but think the fall of Netheril and the Time of Troubles. Seriously, being the god of this specific portfolio seems like the crappiest job of all time. I will say that I thought it was pretty funny that Azuth basically received a mental shot of viagra, which sets up the event itself. All in all, this was an excellent novel. Conflicted and believeable characters, strong pacing, interesting dialogue