All stops have been pulled out to promote the Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves movie, including a prequel graphic novel from IDW, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: The Feast of the Moon. Unfortunately, it makes mistakes I expected the two prequel prose novels to make.
D&D:HAT:TFotM is a mixed bag. It starts with the titular story, The Feast of the Moon, written by Jeremy Lambert. Edgin, Holga, Forge, Simon, and Kira begin in the middle of a job that, of course, goes astray. Afterward, they end up in a troubled town preparing to celebrate the Feast of the Moon and end up helping the residents.
The problem with TFotM is that it's heavy handed and indulges in bad RPG fiction tropes, like characters referring to people they just met by their D&D class. The story is also predictable without any charm to make that less annoying. At the same time, it also has one plot twist that I don't think works and has a few plot holes. I don't even like the art because the characters don't resemble the actors even though the casting was announced early enough for the artists to take it into consideration.
The 3D character art for the main characters is beautiful, but I'm not sure why it's included. The movie stills make a bit more sense since movie novelizations used to include photos from the film. Concept art for the Harper's Pin is cool. Photos of some movie props feel like they should be a teaser for the upcoming book, The Art and Making of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, but it's not mentioned.
A Mixed Bag
The other two novels, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: Road to Neverwinter and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: Druid's Call were smart, touching, and did an excellent job of laying groundwork for the movie while telling two good stories. While not required to enjoy the movie, I do recommend them.D&D:HAT:TFotM is a mixed bag. It starts with the titular story, The Feast of the Moon, written by Jeremy Lambert. Edgin, Holga, Forge, Simon, and Kira begin in the middle of a job that, of course, goes astray. Afterward, they end up in a troubled town preparing to celebrate the Feast of the Moon and end up helping the residents.
The problem with TFotM is that it's heavy handed and indulges in bad RPG fiction tropes, like characters referring to people they just met by their D&D class. The story is also predictable without any charm to make that less annoying. At the same time, it also has one plot twist that I don't think works and has a few plot holes. I don't even like the art because the characters don't resemble the actors even though the casting was announced early enough for the artists to take it into consideration.
Fortunately, the second story in the graphic novel, Xenk and the Helmet of Disjunction, is an improvement. Writer Ellen Boener begins with a simple premise – a paladin ends up with a powerful magic item that needs to be protected – and I wasn't expecting much. Then Xenk encounters some pilfering deep gnomes and while the story after that isn't earth shattering or incredibly inventive, it does have a charm and sense of fun that TFotM is missing. It even made chuckle a couple of times.Add-Ons
I was pleasantly surprised – and a little puzzled – by the add-ons at the end. An example of what a comic book script looks like and how it turns into a graphic novel is kind of cool since IDW is assuming the book might attract people who don't normally read comic books.The 3D character art for the main characters is beautiful, but I'm not sure why it's included. The movie stills make a bit more sense since movie novelizations used to include photos from the film. Concept art for the Harper's Pin is cool. Photos of some movie props feel like they should be a teaser for the upcoming book, The Art and Making of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, but it's not mentioned.
