#087 Sword Play by Clayton Emery (Netheril 1)
Read 12/8/20 to 15/8/20
Well, where to begin- the Netherese are indeed a silly empire of earth mote style castles and the like, the foremost practitioners of magic, able to keep their floating empire aloft and to visit death and destruction on the inhabitants of the lands below. This book then was always going to slide towards the epic, which is a difficult thing to do, and almost never works out well.
Epic in its use of high-powered magic, and its epic locations, and enemies therein. I find epic level play (in game) very difficult to get right, this novel, perhaps, demonstrates why.
Oh, and we're back in the early days of Faerun, at least in comparison with the majority of the other novels- the Arcane Age, as the cover states.
So, Sunbright is a barbarian trying to follow in his (shaman) father's footsteps, off from his tribe (after they plotted to kill him- it takes a lot of remembering but right back in the beginning there's a prophecy that Sunbright will have a hand in the destruction of his community). The barbarian wanders into the wilds armed only with his (dead) father's magical sword- Harvester; alas he then becomes the unwitting pawn in the ongoing wager between two Netherese apprentice mages- Candlemas and Sysquemalyn. The pair of apprentices (although both are chock full of magic- apprentices only in comparison to their epic epic epic level mistress- Lady Polaris) decide to make a series of nasty bets regarding the fate of the simple 'mud man' (ah, we're doing racism here) Sunbright, setting the poor barbarian on the road to epic destiny and/or disaster.
Candlemas wants Sunbright to win through (just to win his bet, don't start thinking he's that bothered about the barbarian) while Sysquemalyn throws everything she's got at Sunbright in an effort to kill- the wager is... whoever wins gets to rip the arm off the loser, see- silly already. later the ante gets upped, but- we'll get to that, possibly.
Sunbright meets Greenwillow, a beautiful and deadly elf sent by Cormanthyr to deliver a message to the One King, an uppity surface dwelling tyrant that gets mashed into the story later. The pair fall, inevitably, in love- although there's plenty of kicking against it before we get to the final loving embrace. The final loving embrace being rather more final than either desires- Greenwillow gives her life to save Sunbright (oh, sorry- SPOILER) although this is a trilogy, so who's to say- maybe she'll be back.
Anyway, Sunbright is set a series of escalating challenges- from defeating a pack of Orcs (and men), fighting a Remorhaz (he gets help- but he has a good go at the beast), to venturing to the court of the One King to tell him where to get off. The two betting apprentice mages interfere at every instant, with Sysquemalyn even playing the part of spare wheel (very dangerous = very exciting) love rival for a good while.
The One King turns out to be a lich, therefore with a little help Sunbright co-opts/cons an ancient red dragon (Wrathburn) to expose/destroy the undead tyrant, a city and much of its populous (no doubt) are also destroyed in the process.
Then we switch to Sysquemalyn's private (pirated) hell, and go fighting Pit Fiends and ten varieties of other fiends in an ever changing cruel landscape.
Then... then... well, much more of the same, except at about this point the four names in the book have all decided to play nicely and to work together. The inevitable deus ex machina is, of course, Lady Polaris who steps in at the end to rescue the three (Greenwillow is presumed dead at this point).
Here's the thing, Sunbright is better than any other of the mugging barbarians depicted in the FR novels I have read so far, certainly much more coherent and likable than Wulfgar. At the start, when he's doing his thing- a simple lad learning to survive in a very hostile world, then... he's great. Actually, he's pretty great throughout, as is- very mostly, Greenwillow. The bad-crazy-epic stuff could have possibly been ridden out, and enjoyed more, if it wasn't for the presence of the two dopey apprentices, and the fact that much of it is their doing.
There are obviously plenty of lessons to be learned along the way- the 'mud men'/humans are far more resilient/good/worthy than the Netherese suspected, elves can love humans, Sunbright learns to not want (perhaps) the thing he wants and in the process grows up. Also, we should all learn to work together.
I loved the start of this novel, but then it just turned into an epic bad ass shooting gallery, they all (mostly) got played by Sunbright (with a little help from the raven/Candlemas and Greenwillow). The determination of Sunbright and Greenwillow shines through, their desire to save someone other than themselves is massively apparent, the fact that the reader is expected to believe that the two Netherese apprentices have learned their lesson by the end is... less convincing.
Obviously Sunbright has also put on about 15 levels during the course of the adventure, going to toe-to-toe with waves of ice devils, erinyes etc. by the last.
So, the Netherese empire must fall (hubris, mainly) that I know from the history of the realms, I guess its going to happen here- in this trilogy, but I could be wrong. Well, good- they're all terrible people (eating up all the magic/resources etc.). The weirdest thing are however the Phaerimm, spinning elemental vortices of hate that live underground, they are uber silly- and their whispering meetings that bookend this venture obviously indicate that they will be back for more in the later instalments.
I don't know- what happened to just telling a great story, why not ramp up the threat in other ways- why go Orc, Remorhaz, Lich, Ancient Red Dragon, Pit Fiend with large slice of Hell-full-'o'-terrifying-(CR 10+) minions. It's all a bit much, but y'know- the Netherese, you need an enemy worthy of Lady Polaris in the end.
Well written, mostly- it dashes around like a headless chicken at times, and exciting, but... ultimately disappointing, I just want the Netherese dead now, overlords (whatever their flavour/shade) just suck. I also fear that we're going to have to top this one in the next with the imported enemy terror, oh dear... Greenwillow must be coming back, and before then Sysquemalyn will escape her hell- or some such. But that's just me taking a punt, I could be very wrong.
It's all very AD&D, and not even the good/great scenarios from that edition, the change the world with a dice roll sucky stuff.
Read...