[FR] Avatar trilogy...who says it's bad?

[Sir Osis of Liver]

I liked them, and the follow ups, Prince of lies and crucible were even better. Of course i'm something of a sucker for WotC books.

 

[Psychotic Dreamer]

I enjoyed the Time of Troubles books. Were they great literature? Probably not. Were they a fun read? Yes. For me that is what is important. Reading something that I will enjoy.

 

[Squire James]

Well, most of "the bad stuff" was the replacement of major FR gods with guys nobody heard of. For instance, I could understand Mystra being replaced by one of the Big Power Mages like the Simbul (if required to be female) or Elminster (if not). Being replaced by what seemed to be a random 6th level wizard was too hokey! Ditto for Kelemvor and Cyric.

Of course, Bane is more a job title than a particular god. Every Banite aspires to be Bane. Literally. The Bane that has "come back" is obviously his son Iyachtu Xvim, who has apparently decided (correctly) that he'd be more popular if he called himself Bane.

 

[Sejs]

Avatar trilogy sucked the balls.


However, they gave needed backgroud for Prince of Lies, which was good. Therefor, the Avatar trilogy was a necessary evil.


and there were no good drow in it. so there's that too.

 

[Sulimo]

I liked them, and the follow ups, Prince of lies and crucible were even better. Of course i'm something of a sucker for WotC books.

I didnt really mind them eith. I really liked Prince of Lies and Crucible though.

Now, the Shadow of the Avatar series is another story...I couldnt even make it through the first book.

 

[John Crichton]

Okay, I read them about 10 years ago so this is an old opinion....

I recall not hating but not liking the first 2 books. However, I do recall enjoying the 3rd book very much. I believe this was because it was written mostly by Troy Denning who also did the 2 follow-up books to the Trilogy that folks here have already mentioned....

... and just remember, there is no Richard Awlinson.

 

[Enforcer]

After reading the trilogy (several years ago now), my reaction was, "Meh." It had its fun moments, but it's hardly something I'll pick up off my shelf and read again. I read only to familiarize myself with the Time of Troubles, as I really didn't know what was going on in the Forgotten Realms (I started D&D with 2nd edition, and the FR boxed set didn't do the best job of explaining the Avatar Crisis).

 

[Lurks-no-More]

The Avatar books were not terribly good, but they didn't suck too bad, either. Mediocre stuff, I'd say.

The Prince of Lies, OTOH, was sweet. I liked Kezef, and River Slith, and the whole Cyrinshad (sp?) business, which gives a new meaning to a proselytizing book...

 

[AuroraGyps]

Now, the Shadow of the Avatar series is another story...I couldnt even make it through the first book.

I really enjoyed that trilogy. The two Harper guys were such goofs... they cracked me up. Not a Hugo winner, but definately a fun read.

As for not being able to get through the 1st book in a trilogy... I had The Icewind Dale trilogy forever, and tried starting it a bunch of times, but no dice. I finally read them all last year, and now it's one of my favorite trilogys. I really liked the interaction between Drizzt, Bruenor, and Wulfgar during their travels.

 

[Tom Cashel]

My related memory of the Avatar trilogy was our experience of playing through those terrible modules. We had already played Curse of the Azure Bonds, and it worked because it was set up as a parallel story to the one told in the novel.

The Avatar modules were designed so that you ended up traveling with Midnight, Kelemvor, Cyric, etc. and bearing witness to their ascension to godhood. Total railroading. very boring and frustrating to play, although I actually liked the whole concept of the Time of Troubles.

Anyhow, when we got blamed for Elminster's death at the end of module 1 and all our gear was taken and we were thrown in jail, another player started going off about how terrible all of this was. I thought it was so obviously engineered that I leaned over to him and muttered cynically, "Don't worry...the module will protect us."

The DM got pissed, but luckily we didn't go on to Tantras and Waterdeep.

Oh, yeah...on topic, I used to read FR novels. Icewind Dale trilogy was okay, and so was Azure Bonds, when I was in high school. Tastes change. I recently read Death of the Dragon and found it irredeemably sucky for anything but background info about Cormyr.