D&D General Just Read: Azure Bonds. A Faerun novel from '88

[DarkCrisis]

I've read a fair amount of D&D novels. Of course, Ive read most of the Drizzt books. I skipped all the 4th ed run stuff and havent read the latest one.

Anyways, you may recall a previous post I made about one of the original novels that Elminster co-stared in and how awful it was.

Well Azure Bonds was GREAT. All of the characters are fantastic. I really can't recommend it enough. The ending was like storybook perfect.

Alias the female Human fighter who is missing a large part of her memories
Dragonbait the Saurial Paladin with a funny sense of humor
Olive the Halfling Thief,,, er Bard?
Akabar the Human Wizard who is all book learned with no adventuring experience

They fight a god! And a demon! And a Cult!

Oh and Mist the Red Dragon! She was so fun. Who knew Red Dragons could have a sense of Honor for old pacts?

There was an old video game based on it. Gold Box stuff. I've started the "sequel" though it stars a minor character introduced in the first book. And Olive returns as well!

As for the cover art... yes this armor shows up at the end. Yes, it's explained. It even mentions how a sword strike to the chest could kill her. It's worthless armor she's forced to wear.

 

[humble minion]

Yep, that is a GREAT book. So much fun. I reckon it would have been a great story to adapt to film, except for the whole bit about how

Spoiler: spoiler

Dragonbait communicates using smell, which just wouldn't work on-screen at all...

 

[DarkCrisis]

Yep, that is a GREAT book. So much fun. I reckon it would have been a great story to adapt to film, except for the whole bit about how

Spoiler: spoiler

Dragonbait communicates using smell, which just wouldn't work on-screen at all...

Sure it would. His friends didn’t understand him either.

 

[humble minion]

Sure it would. His friends didn’t understand him either.

Yeah, but the viewer wouldn't even know it's happening at all unless you made a point of referring to it in the dialogue, which would be very clunky.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Yeah, but the viewer wouldn't even know it's happening at all unless you made a point of referring to it in the dialogue, which would be very clunky.

Same way as in the book. The Dragon explained it all near the end.

I hear in the third book he had a permanent Tongues spell cast on him so he speaks normally.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I remember buying this book for the dinosaur man and the dinosaur man being the part I disliked.

 

[Mad_Jack]

Honestly, the one thing that always annoyed me the most about Dragonbait is the ridiculous depiction of his sword in the artwork...

 

[Zardnaar]

Honestly, the one thing that always annoyed me the most about Dragonbait is the ridiculous depiction of his sword in the artwork...

It was the 80's.

Haven't read this book for years I enjoyed it in the 90's.

 

[Andvari]

Read it last year and also liked it. I plan to run the Curse of the Azure Bonds module for my group next year, when they should be done with Ruins of Adventure.

Mist was my favourite character.

 

[DMZ2112]

I just read it a month or two ago for the first time and really enjoyed it as well! It really struck me how much like a D&D adventure it was, while still being an enjoyable novel. You often have to pick one or the other, in D&D fiction. It's a winner!