Best FR Paperback Novel?

[Vraille Darkfang]

OK. I'll try to add soemthing new to this thread (from a gaming perspective). (I've read all the FR books, even Murder in Haluraa, & the Endless Quest (?) Spaen of Dragonspear).

First. I like Ed's books. He has a very unique writing style I find refeshing after reading a bunch of stuff that tends to have the same to identical styles. In fact if you gave me a writing sample & asked me to identify the writer, Ed's the only one I know for sure I'd get right. That said, I've never read more than 2 Ed Greenwood books in a row & I admit his style might wear thin after a while. As you can tell, Ed's style tends to leave a love or hate reaction behind.

I'd recommend picking up The Best of The Realms Anthology. See if there is an author you really like. It also has a very typical Ed Greenwood Story (Elminster at the Magefair I think).

Now if you want to read stuff from a D&D perspective, I'd stick with the newer releases. For the last few years I've noticed a tread in the newer novels (such as those of the Rogues series & the Scions of Arrabar Trilogy) to write "D&D". I mean I've noticed entire breaks in the action to stick in a breif paragraph about how soldier so & so feels this various effect that he either fights off or doesn't or how some mage gets bumped, thus loses her "Concentration" and has her spell feel. Really, the past few FR novels I've read feel more like I'm reading Flavor Text from the FRCS than a novel. Not a complaint, just an observation.

From a history perspective:

1. Anything orginally published before the orginal publication of the Avatar Trilogy is based on the 1st Edition rules of the D&D Game.

2. Around 2000 or so novels are based on the 3rd ed rules.

3. Ed & Salvatore have more than enough pull to ignore the rules so their works often don't remotely work in gameplay (especially D&D attempts to put the story ideas into D&D rule form; See 2nd edition Spellfire)

Later,

PS, I got a list of FR novels someplace,

 

[Mystery Man]

I liked the Bob Salvatore books I've read, but I don't really see them as Realms novels -- they're very much their own thing.

There are some who would be outraged by that statement , but it pretty much sums up in one sentence exactly what I could never put my finger on what bugged me about the Salvatore novels.

Unless I'm forgetting something I read years ago, which is certainly possible... I guess I just don't know my Realms!

Actually, that'd be a true enough statement...

Well if you wanted to know, read The Making of a Mage and you will. You can probably check it out at your local library.

 

[knitnerd]

The Rage

Definately not an Ed Greenwood novel. He may have created the Forgotten Realms, but as a novelist he leaves a lot to be desired. Having said that, he praised The Last Mythal by Richard Baker as being one of the best Realms books he had ever read, and I pretty much have to agree with him.

Elaine Cunningham should be made to write Realms books for the rest of her life, she is that good at them. Elfshadow is her first and still probably the best (not read her Magehound trilogy or Evermeet yet). Others I'd recommend are:

The Parched Sea by Troy Denning
Red Magic by Jean Rabe
Crypt of the Shadowking & Curse of the Shadowmage by Mark Anthony
The Rage (Year of Rogue Dragons book 1) by Richard Lee Byers

I really enjoyed The Rage. Can't wait for the next one.

 

[Duncan Haldane]

Realms novels - the good, the bad, the terrible....

There are many, many books in the FR, as we all know, with dozens of different authors giving it a try.

And the quality varies dramatically too, in my opinion.

Some background - until about three years ago I bought all FR novels. I started buying them in the late 80s, and the first I read was Darkwalker on Moonshaes - the first in the Moonshaes Trilogy by Doug Niles. The second was the Crystal Shard, by RA Salvatore.

I remember that I bought Darkwalker about the same time as I bought the original FR boxed set. I remember it was all very exciting (both novel and boxed set), and I really loved the feel of this new world.

Since that time I've read over one hundred more novels set in the same world, and bought far too many products - I have a nearly-complete set of 2nd ed FR material.

Why did I stop buying the FR novels? Good question... I spent three months travelling through Europe in 2002, and read a lot in that time. As most of it was in non-english countries I had to take what books I could get. I read quite a lot of books, most fantasy but not all, that I had not had time to read when all I could read with my spare time was FR novels. And I found that I was enjoying these varied titles and styles much more than I had been enjoying FR for a while. And so I decided to read more books than just FR, and I think it was a good decision.

The Good - Depends on your preference of story...
- Major Campaign storylines - Evermeet, Cormyr, Death of the Dragon are all good, important stories. Prince of Lies and Crucible are also realms-important

- Character pieces - Daughter of the Drow, The Homeland/Exile/Sojourn trilogy (quite introspective, looking at the whole creation of Drizzt, and how he came to leave the Underdark and meet his companions of later novels).

- Good Stories - The Twilight Giants trilogy by Troy Denning (one comment I have about Denning's works - he seems to have trouble leaving characters behind - we often see his characters from other novels making guest appearances, which I found annoying). There are also many good stories within the open-ended many-authored groups, such as The Harpers and Nobles.

- Good Fun - Icewind Dale trilogy by Salvatore. Finder's Stone series by Novak and Grubb. The Moonshaes trilogy by Niles.

The Bad
Ed Greenwoods novels I find unenjoyable most of the time. This is sad for me to say, as Ed is a really nice guy, but I find I often feel like I am missing something from his scenes, and this is especially true when Elminster is using Magic, as I often find the description of his spells just doesn't let me know what spell has actually been cast, which I find annoying). I would like to point out that Spellfire was editted to reduce it to the standard 300 (and a bit) pages, and that Ed was extremely unhappy about the hatchet job done with that editting.

The Maztica Trilogy - The biggest problem I have with this is the ripping-off of the story of the spanish invading south america. Of course, it seems that anything that occured in Maztica is no longer of concern to the Realms, it seems to have fallen off the planet.

Empires Trilogy - An attempt to like Kara-tur with mainstream FR, and throwing in The Horselords for good measure. As with Maztica, this suffers, IMO, from the stolen real-world stories problem. I read fantasy to get something new, not a rehash, sanitised take on history. And like Maztica, it seems that this part of Faerun has also fallen off the planet.

The Cleric Quintet - This was a strange series for me. I LOVED the first novel - lots of fun adventure, very low-powered characters, interesting battles. I enjoyed the second book. The characters had gained some new abilities, met with new allies and faced new opponents. The third book was ok - the characters were now getting towards mid-levels of power. The fourth book I didn't enjoy - the characters were now quite powerful. And the fifth book was awful, IMO. The characters seemed god-like in their abilities, and I hated every page.

For myself I wouldn't bother with Anthologies. In each that I bought I read a couple of stories from Authors I knew with characters I liked, but most of the stories were unread. But then, I just don't seem to enjoy books of short stories.

The Terrible
The Avatar Trilogy, while a major campaign story for the FR (changing from 1st to 2nd Ed AD&D), was very badly executed, IMO. The characters felt like that had been created by commitee, with little depth to them, and were quite the stereotypes. The importance of events occuring during the setting of these books just didn't seem to fit with the significance of the novels themselves. The novels were listed as being written by Richard Awlinson, which was a pseudonym for three authors (All-In-One), each writing one title. I think any of them could have written much better if any one of the three authors had written each title.

Shadow of the Avatar trilogy - this is a series of events that occur alongside the events in the Avatar trilogy. I can't really explain how/why, but I just never got these novels. Throughout all of them I felt like I was missing something that everyone else understood.

The Unbelievably bad, the worst books I've read...
Anything by Brian Thomsen. He stole Ed Greenwood's character Volo (Ed had written a number of travel guides by Volo that were excellent material), and put him into other well-known stories. Journey Around The Realms was just Around The World in Eighty Days, and The Mage in the Iron Mask was just The Man in the Iron Mask. Both these novels were excrutiating to read. They were full of very bad puns (worse than Piers Anthony at his worst), and stories that were so unoriginal the author should have been sued. Brian Thomsen was the editor of FR novels at the time that these were published, and I can only assume he acted as his own editor - I'm sure that no-one else would have allowed these vanity pieces to be published.

In conclusion...
There are many other FR novels that I haven't mentioned here, and that is no comment on their quality. PaulKemp, I read the first Evris Cale novel, and he was the most interesting character I had seen introduced in the realms in a long time. When I have finally depleted my backlog of novels I will probably pick up the next titles.

Duncan Haldane

 

[Tinker Gnome]

I am currently reading the first book in the War of the Spider Queen series "Dissolution", so far it is alright. I sort of dislike how the two main protagonists are just so damn perfect at everything they do, but I guess I will get used to it. It is just that I have just recently read all of the core books for Dragonlance and the Raistlin chronicles, so going back to FR is a little weird.

 

[PaulKemp]

PaulKemp, I read the first Evris Cale novel, and he was the most interesting character I had seen introduced in the realms in a long time. When I have finally depleted my backlog of novels I will probably pick up the next titles.

Thanks, Duncan. I hope you do pick them up at some point.

Paul

 

[Wolf72]

Greenwood's books were okay, ... I didn't feel they were good, but for a DnD book I read them easily enough.

 

[RenoOfTheTurks]

The good, IMO, include Cormyr, Elminster: The Making of a Mage, the first six Drizzt books, the Cleric Quintet, all of Elaine Cunningham's early work (haven't read the recent stuff), and Prince of Lies and The Crucible: Trial of Cyric the Mad. Unlike some others I enjoyed the Avatar trilogy, mostly because Cyric was an unrepentant badass. Red Magic and The Simbul's Gift are some other favorites. I've heard The Glass Prison is great, but haven't read it.

 

[BadMojo]

In conclusion...
There are many other FR novels that I haven't mentioned here, and that is no comment on their quality. PaulKemp, I read the first Evris Cale novel, and he was the most interesting character I had seen introduced in the realms in a long time. When I have finally depleted my backlog of novels I will probably pick up the next titles.

Although I read quite a few FR books many years ago, I hadn't really read any recently. Having read a few too many *REALLY* bad Realms novels scared me off for a while.

I'm just now getting my feet wet again, finding authors I really like writing in the FR setting.

I've enjoyed Elaine Cunningham's work, Elfshadow more than Elfsong, and I'll read more of her books.

I've just started Twilight Falling by Paul Kemp and absolutely love it. I'm only about 100 pages in, and I've already put all of your other stuff on my Amazon wish list...anyone want to buy me anything?

I've got a soft spot for R A Salvatore's early stuff, but maybe that's just nostalgia. I'm going to get a new copy of Homeland and see how it holds up. I tried to read the Demon Wars stuff he wrote, and found it absolutely awful. I hope it's not indicative of his work on the later Realms books.

 

[PaulKemp]

Although I read quite a few FR books many years ago, I hadn't really read any recently. Having read a few too many *REALLY* bad Realms novels scared me off for a while.

I'm just now getting my feet wet again, finding authors I really like writing in the FR setting.

I've enjoyed Elaine Cunningham's work, Elfshadow more than Elfsong, and I'll read more of her books.

I've just started Twilight Falling by Paul Kemp and absolutely love it. I'm only about 100 pages in, and I've already put all of your other stuff on my Amazon

BadMojo,

I'm delighted by your post. Not merely because you're enjoying the book, but because you were willing to give FR fiction another try after having been away for a while. I wish more folks who turned away from it back in the day would consider giving it another try. There is a lot of new blood in the line (and all the excellent authors of old remain), and the new books have a distinct voice. Anyway, thanks.

Meanwhile, it sounds as if you started in on "Twilight Falling" before reading the Cale story in "Halls of Stormweather," and the Cale novel, "Shadow's Witness." That's fine -- TF stands alone pretty well. But if you enjoy the Cale trilogy, you may also enjoy going back to those earlier books (they are part of the Sembia series) and getting a feel for how Cale ended up where he did in TF.

Paul