Unbroken Chain

Unbroken Chain by Jaleigh Johnson- This is a stand-alone novel set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of Dungeons and Dragons. This is Jaleigh Johnson's third full-length novel, her other two are also set in the Forgotten Realms. Her first novel is The Howling Delve (part of The Dungeons series) and her second novel is Mistshore (part of the Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep series). Both of those novels are also stand-alone. She has also written a number of short stories. Unbroken Chain was released in July 2010 and published by Wizards of the Coast. Ashok, a shadar-kai, is being chased down by shadow hounds in the Shadowfell. Knowing he has no chance of surviving, Ashok turns to face his death. But due to a vision by a priest of Tempus that shows Ashok being surrounded by fire along with his location, a rescue party is sent out. The party is surprised to see that Ashok is still alive and brings him back to Ikemmu, a shadar-kai enclave. Upon waking up, Ashok thinks he is a prisoner and tries to escape. However, after being able to walk around the enclave freely, he still tries an ill-fated attempt at escaping, only to be stopped by two shadar-kai brothers, Cree and Skagi, and a nightmare (a kind of fiery horse). However, upon spending time with the brothers, a sellsword named Vedoran, and a young doe-eyed warrior named Canoch, Ashok slowly starts to enjoy his time in the enclave. But what of this vision Natan had of Ashok and fire? Will Ashok tear the enclave apart or will he be the one to stop it? Criticisms: 1) Conflict. There never seemed to be a real conflict happening within the story, but it's there. The conflict is mostly internal with Ashok's feelings and what he happening to his view of the world. While that would be an interesting premise, it never felt important. It seemed like it was almost secondary and forgotten at times. But it does pay off at the end, but the build-up never seemed to be there. Also, later in the story, the group is sent on a rescue mission. While this would have made an interesting full-length plot point, it was sorely underused and tacked on. In fact, it only takes up about four chapters. The conflict that would normally drive the story wasn't really prominent and was very underused. 2) Rushed. What could explain the lack of conflict is the rushed pace of the story. When I first picked up this book, I was lost for the first few chapters because there were so many questions I was asking my self and there was so much going on. It did start to slow down and develop some of the characters, but at the halfway point, where we get the rescue mission, things got by at a blurring speed. It was all actions and no huge developments. It doesn't help that most of the dialogue is choppy with an unnatural flow. This really does back my point of that the whole rescue mission was tacked on. Praises: 1) Characters. At first, every character seemed interchangeable and bland. But as the story progressed, the characters beca

This was a very good book. I thought Johnson did a great job introducing a place and race that had not been introduced before in the Realms. I would advice all Forgotten Realm fans to read this book. The only problem i had with the book was that I saw no indication of this being a trilogy. I really hope it is, but there was nothing in the book to suggest this was anything but a stand-alone novel.