Vocenoctum
First Post
Just got it, finished it today. By Douglas Niles, first book of the Rise of Solamnia trilogy.
A preface: I didn't like Wizards Conclave (previous Niles DL novel), and both have the same direct problem that the guy doesn't understand the feel of Dragonlance. If either were set in FR, they'd be more appropriate.
The review is a bit rambling.
Spoilers ahead
Not gonna use the spoiler command.
In Rose, the protaganist is an anti-hero. The name isn't spelled out until page 100ish, which is supposed to be some sort of mystery, but wasn't, since his name is on the BACK Cover!
The prologue spells out the state of Solamnia 3ish years after the War of Souls. Everything is totally different. Palanthus is recovered, as are Solanthus and some other cities. Nobles are mentioned that have never been anywhere in print before that I'm aware of, and one is mentioned as being assassinated, blah blah blah.
Basically, instead of starting the story with the state of the country as presented following the War of Souls, he builds up the nation of Solamnia, so that his pet villain can tear it down and give his anti-hero something to reunite. None of the characters resonate with me, nor do they have depth IMO.
He hops around, looking for information on blasting powder, it's never explained why really, just an offhand note that Coryn put him on the trail. He finds some gnomes that are teh children of the gnome that invented the bomb, named Carbon, Sulfir and Salt Peper or whatever. Perhaps it's supposed to be clever, but IMO it's silly.
Meanwhile, it's revealed that the anti-hero is widely believed to be the one that assassinate the lord mentioned above. He didn't of course, it was some unmarked knights. He's disattisfied with the knighthood though, and doesn't stick around, just taking the lords magic sword (Giantsmiter, which flames and cuts stuff) and staying on the run.
Hiddukel is the villainous god of choice, and has arranged for a halfogre/ half hill giant to gather an army of goblins and destroy lots of stuff. They sack a bunch of towns, success comes easy. Others join them.
Meanwhile the three dukes each get their forces trounced through outmaneuvering. Right, anyway.
Coryn, the white mage, head of the order, loves Markham, the assassin. So she keeps saving him, and giving him powers to do stuff. Markham is an evil person, plain and simple. He was robbing a church of Shinare, the priest tried to stop him, so he killed the priest. He kills quite a few knights that stand between him and his current objective.
Coryn tells him that the charter all the dukes signed is missing, as are the green diamonds that were with it. Apparently she never thought to check in the previous two years, only now does she. She mentions that he should find out which Duke did it.
The first Duke is fleeing his city with his richs, and a train of knights. Markham ambushes him, blowing up the mountain pass ahead and behind, trapping his knights. (the ones to the rear are killed by the goblins they can no longer outrun.) He fights the guy, wounding him. The guy denies involvement, Markham believes him.
Markham then robs him, and leaves him to die by the goblins hands.
Next he goes to the second duke's castle, which is nearing combat as well. He sneaks inside, kills one of the knights, forces the others outside, intimidates that Duke into admitting that he also had nothing to do with the assassination. He then leaves that Duke. (Who later kills himself as his city falls.)
So lets try the third duke! The Third Duke's forces are battling, and are flanked and routed, they flee and Markham slips in and helps organize the rear guard action. They retreat across a bridge, which he blows up, the day is saved!
Coryn has managed to get caught by the Third Duke, who is of course the evil one. Markham storms in, finds the Nightmaster of Hiddukel, pursues, gets hit with a mace and gets knocked out. He wakes up, his sword is over there >>, the cleric says "now I'll kill you with this sword!" and Markham shoots him with a hand crossbow (well known for killing power... he's killed lots of folks with them!) Gets his sword back and goes to find the Duke
Gets captured again, his dwarf buddy blows open the door to save him, he kills Third Duke, and they find out Arch Duke Guy is the real evil mastermind.
The knights in attendance figure out Markham didn't kill the first Lord, so they appoint him leader of their armies! Totally ignoring his totally evil nature, and neglecting all the knights he's personally killed.
Anyway, some other stuff not already detailed;
Third Duke kills his wife. He says Markham did it. Only Important Good Guys notice that instead of a flaming sword, it was done with a non-flaming knife. No cleric casts Speak with Dead. The murder was done under a veil that provided magical silence, but why bother? Would "the assassin" have used magical silence?
The gnomes never talk fast. They don't really act like Tinkers or Thinkers, but more like Lantan gnomes. (IMO). The father discovered gunpowder/ blast powder, named his kids after the ingredients, and gave each of them a portion of the "formula". Except, I'm pretty sure gnomes already have gunpowder in DL, they just don't care!
Hiddukel is pretty directly involved in stuff, and he's not the best detailed in DL sources, but this guy felt like Cyric. One line I can't find was funny. "The Prince of Lies shows us the truth!" or somesuch. If you're portraying your god as giving you the truth, perhaps you shouldn't keep calling him the Prince of Lies?
He kept calling hobgoblins and goblins "hobs" and "gobs" on all sides, but never consistantly. Apparently goblins and solamnic's and dwarves share the same slang.
The commander of the Dark Knights that join him is named Blackgaard! I mean, come on!
No good dragons, no good deities. Coryn is the only wizard, and uses her power rarely, never directly to aid them. Clerics are ill used, and quite dumb.
No kender.
The dwarf character and the gnomes were fun. The princess was okay, and a few of the knights were decent. None of them felt like DL though. Even as a novel independent of DL though, I have to say it wasn't good.
Coryn should lose her white robes for aiding the evil murderous Markham in his ill-conceived plots and plans. Because of the two of them, many good knights died. Instead, Markham is placed in charge of the forces of good, and cheered by the folks he'd have murdered days earlier.
Anyway, that's enough rambling for now, it was a busy day.
A preface: I didn't like Wizards Conclave (previous Niles DL novel), and both have the same direct problem that the guy doesn't understand the feel of Dragonlance. If either were set in FR, they'd be more appropriate.
The review is a bit rambling.
Spoilers ahead
Not gonna use the spoiler command.
In Rose, the protaganist is an anti-hero. The name isn't spelled out until page 100ish, which is supposed to be some sort of mystery, but wasn't, since his name is on the BACK Cover!
The prologue spells out the state of Solamnia 3ish years after the War of Souls. Everything is totally different. Palanthus is recovered, as are Solanthus and some other cities. Nobles are mentioned that have never been anywhere in print before that I'm aware of, and one is mentioned as being assassinated, blah blah blah.
Basically, instead of starting the story with the state of the country as presented following the War of Souls, he builds up the nation of Solamnia, so that his pet villain can tear it down and give his anti-hero something to reunite. None of the characters resonate with me, nor do they have depth IMO.
He hops around, looking for information on blasting powder, it's never explained why really, just an offhand note that Coryn put him on the trail. He finds some gnomes that are teh children of the gnome that invented the bomb, named Carbon, Sulfir and Salt Peper or whatever. Perhaps it's supposed to be clever, but IMO it's silly.
Meanwhile, it's revealed that the anti-hero is widely believed to be the one that assassinate the lord mentioned above. He didn't of course, it was some unmarked knights. He's disattisfied with the knighthood though, and doesn't stick around, just taking the lords magic sword (Giantsmiter, which flames and cuts stuff) and staying on the run.
Hiddukel is the villainous god of choice, and has arranged for a halfogre/ half hill giant to gather an army of goblins and destroy lots of stuff. They sack a bunch of towns, success comes easy. Others join them.
Meanwhile the three dukes each get their forces trounced through outmaneuvering. Right, anyway.
Coryn, the white mage, head of the order, loves Markham, the assassin. So she keeps saving him, and giving him powers to do stuff. Markham is an evil person, plain and simple. He was robbing a church of Shinare, the priest tried to stop him, so he killed the priest. He kills quite a few knights that stand between him and his current objective.
Coryn tells him that the charter all the dukes signed is missing, as are the green diamonds that were with it. Apparently she never thought to check in the previous two years, only now does she. She mentions that he should find out which Duke did it.
The first Duke is fleeing his city with his richs, and a train of knights. Markham ambushes him, blowing up the mountain pass ahead and behind, trapping his knights. (the ones to the rear are killed by the goblins they can no longer outrun.) He fights the guy, wounding him. The guy denies involvement, Markham believes him.
Markham then robs him, and leaves him to die by the goblins hands.
Next he goes to the second duke's castle, which is nearing combat as well. He sneaks inside, kills one of the knights, forces the others outside, intimidates that Duke into admitting that he also had nothing to do with the assassination. He then leaves that Duke. (Who later kills himself as his city falls.)
So lets try the third duke! The Third Duke's forces are battling, and are flanked and routed, they flee and Markham slips in and helps organize the rear guard action. They retreat across a bridge, which he blows up, the day is saved!
Coryn has managed to get caught by the Third Duke, who is of course the evil one. Markham storms in, finds the Nightmaster of Hiddukel, pursues, gets hit with a mace and gets knocked out. He wakes up, his sword is over there >>, the cleric says "now I'll kill you with this sword!" and Markham shoots him with a hand crossbow (well known for killing power... he's killed lots of folks with them!) Gets his sword back and goes to find the Duke
Gets captured again, his dwarf buddy blows open the door to save him, he kills Third Duke, and they find out Arch Duke Guy is the real evil mastermind.
The knights in attendance figure out Markham didn't kill the first Lord, so they appoint him leader of their armies! Totally ignoring his totally evil nature, and neglecting all the knights he's personally killed.
Anyway, some other stuff not already detailed;
Third Duke kills his wife. He says Markham did it. Only Important Good Guys notice that instead of a flaming sword, it was done with a non-flaming knife. No cleric casts Speak with Dead. The murder was done under a veil that provided magical silence, but why bother? Would "the assassin" have used magical silence?
The gnomes never talk fast. They don't really act like Tinkers or Thinkers, but more like Lantan gnomes. (IMO). The father discovered gunpowder/ blast powder, named his kids after the ingredients, and gave each of them a portion of the "formula". Except, I'm pretty sure gnomes already have gunpowder in DL, they just don't care!
Hiddukel is pretty directly involved in stuff, and he's not the best detailed in DL sources, but this guy felt like Cyric. One line I can't find was funny. "The Prince of Lies shows us the truth!" or somesuch. If you're portraying your god as giving you the truth, perhaps you shouldn't keep calling him the Prince of Lies?
He kept calling hobgoblins and goblins "hobs" and "gobs" on all sides, but never consistantly. Apparently goblins and solamnic's and dwarves share the same slang.
The commander of the Dark Knights that join him is named Blackgaard! I mean, come on!
No good dragons, no good deities. Coryn is the only wizard, and uses her power rarely, never directly to aid them. Clerics are ill used, and quite dumb.
No kender.
The dwarf character and the gnomes were fun. The princess was okay, and a few of the knights were decent. None of them felt like DL though. Even as a novel independent of DL though, I have to say it wasn't good.
Coryn should lose her white robes for aiding the evil murderous Markham in his ill-conceived plots and plans. Because of the two of them, many good knights died. Instead, Markham is placed in charge of the forces of good, and cheered by the folks he'd have murdered days earlier.
Anyway, that's enough rambling for now, it was a busy day.
