D&D General Humble Bundle has an offering of 40 digital books for $40! Great time to start reading the Novels

[Henadic Theologian]

I got the pact, I've read a bunch of the novels, but some I haven't so this is fun.

Humble Book Bundle: Forgotten Realms Vault by Wizards of the Coast

Dive into the thrilling world of the Forgotten Realms with this bundle of 40 ebooks from Wizards of the Coast, and support First Book with your purchase!

www.humblebundle.com

 

[Lord Twig]

Actually it looks like a minimum of $18 for all forty, but you should pay more if you can because it goes to the First Book charity.

Can anyone speak to the quality of the books? Is there some good stuff in there? I'll admit I have only read the Azure Bonds trilogy, but it was pretty good from what I remember.

 

[Necropolitan]

The overwhelming majority of the books are worth reading, and I'm only using that qualifier because I don't know the quality of the ones I haven't read.

Definitely get it, this is as cheap as you're likely to get them outside of a used bookstore.

 

[Lazybones]

I still haven't read all of the books in the Salvatore bundle I picked up in 2020, but I'll probably get this; I'm a sucker for the book bundles. There was a really good one that had a bunch of Adrian Tchaikovsky's works in December, and a Glen Cook one in October that had all of the Black Company novels; somehow I managed to miss most of those.

 

[Zardnaar]

Actually it looks like a minimum of $18 for all forty, but you should pay more if you can because it goes to the First Book charity.

Can anyone speak to the quality of the books? Is there some good stuff in there? I'll admit I have only read the Azure Bonds trilogy, but it was pretty good from what I remember.

Erin Evans, Elaine Cunningham are usually good. War of the Spider Queen is good.

 

[humble minion]

Can anyone speak to the quality of the books? Is there some good stuff in there? I'll admit I have only read the Azure Bonds trilogy, but it was pretty good from what I remember.

Yes, Azure Bonds is excellent fun classic early Realms stuff. Gleefully high magic and eccentric, and I have a great deal of affection for it.

The Brimstone Angels books get extremely good reviews (like 'some of the best FR books ever written' type reviews) but I can't attest to them personally cos they're from the 4th ed era when I wasn't really in the hobby.

War of the Spider Queen are a multi-author project and are a mixed bag accordingly, and being a long series the inconsistent characterisation doesn't do them any favours either. I was pretty burnt out on all things drow by the time I read them, but I didn't really get into them at all. Evil/antihero protagonists just not my bag.

Ed Greenwoods work is of course monolithic in the history of D&D, but Elminster and the Elminster books you either love or hate. Not really even vaguely related to D&D game mechanics or player experience at this stratospheric power level, Ed Greenwood has a very distinctive writing and plotting style that leaves nobody neutral. Makes no attempt to dispel the ''Mary Sue' allegations, wild and loosely plotted, rollicking hail-fellow-well-met and a perhaps implausible number of hot magic women wanting to sleep with the crumbly old beardy guy.

Star of Cursrah and Lost Library of Cormanthor are standalones and relatively low-stakes ones on the Realms scale of such things, but from memory they're both ok.

The Halruaa books are a tad odd. Elaine Cunningham is a good writer and it’s an interesting, rarely-seen part of the world but personally I found the pacing and structure a little jarring and the conclusion not terribly satisfying. There’s a lot worse Realms books out there, but just - hmmm.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Yes, Azure Bonds is excellent fun classic early Realms stuff. Gleefully high magic and eccentric, and I have a great deal of affection for it.

The Brimstone Angels books get extremely good reviews (like 'some of the best FR books ever written' type reviews) but I can't attest to them personally cos they're from the 4th ed era when I wasn't really in the hobby.

War of the Spider Queen are a multi-author project and are a mixed bag accordingly, and being a long series the inconsistent characterisation doesn't do them any favours either. I was pretty burnt out on all things drow by the time I read them, but I didn't really get into them at all. Evil/antihero protagonists just not my bag.

Ed Greenwoods work is of course monolithic in the history of D&D, but Elminster and the Elminster books you either love or hate. Not really even vaguely related to D&D game mechanics or player experience at this stratospheric power level, Ed Greenwood has a very distinctive writing and plotting style that leaves nobody neutral. Makes no attempt to dispel the ''Mary Sue' allegations, wild and loosely plotted, rollicking hail-fellow-well-met and a perhaps implausible number of hot magic women wanting to sleep with the crumbly old beardy guy.

Star of Cursrah and Lost Library of Cormanthor are standalones and relatively low-stakes ones on the Realms scale of such things, but from memory they're both ok.

The Halruaa books are a tad odd. Elaine Cunningham is a good writer and it’s an interesting, rarely-seen part of the world but personally I found the pacing and structure a little jarring and the conclusion not terribly satisfying. There’s a lot worse Realms books out there, but just - hmmm.

I really liked the group of one off stories that Star of Cursrah and LLoC were apart of, it was a great idea that like the Priests series should have gotten more novels.

Never read the Halruaa series so looking forward to that in particular.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Note I found out that I could have gotten the whole Bundle for $18cad +tax, but its for a good cause.