#201 Depths of Madness by Erik Scott de Bie (Dungeons 1)
Read 21/9/23 to 23/9/23
So, I was looking forward to this series, and for a variety of reasons- 1) it's a Dungeon, capital D, who doesn't like a Dungeon- self-contained, tricksy, murderous, challenging... love it; 2) it's a party of adventurers, again- what's not to like, and you know from the get-go that you are not going to get vanilla, they're going to be out there the PCs, and undoubtedly groovy with it- check; 3) I'm a DM first, a Faerun-reader second (or maybe fifth), my point- I'm here for what I can steal/take/nab for my game, and my game- well... I like a dungeon, lots of other stuff as well, but... I like a Dungeon.
So, we start in the middle of something, Twilight- I've heard of her before somewhere (Short story my Mr De Bie- The Greatest Treasure, in... one I've read already- an Anthology, I forget which), is stuck in a cell, in a dungeon, and her keeper is some sort of demonic/devil-kin Troll. Actually the Troll is called Tlork, and for some reason I like that name a lot. Tlork. Good onomatopoeia. Anyway- Twilight, as the name implies, is not so easily confined- she gets out, captures Tlork. Tlork! And then releases the other prisoners, and they're all great, except for Liet who is a dork. To make clear- Liet is the odd one out (to me) from the very start. It's almost a shame that he turns out to be the big bad guy.
Or else one of them.
There's also a silent and deadly Goliath hunter, a mad female (strange) halfling that has a little magic and likes to acquire stuff (natch), then there's a nasty Warlock straight from Central Casting (Mwah-ha-ha & Co), a half-elf female holy avenger accompanied by her badly injured now fairly decrepit human husband wizard, and... did I miss one?
So, they're all a bit out there, or else Mwah-ha-ha, except maybe Liet.
The rest is Alien the movie, or else five little... four little... three little... two little Indians.
And it's great.
I don't get how everyone got here, or else what's going on- except, well... we're early enough into this one so, I'll let that slide for a while and trust the author to catch-me-up with what it's all about in a bit. He does, of course, it's not that convincing but... by this time I want to know how it all ends.
The PCs are great, although at times I ended up going back and forth with Twilight- but that was mainly because she was unnecessarily complicated at times, or else the author just dug a little too deep- perhaps he needed to find more of an arc for his central character. However let me make clear- what Twilight represents is a strong female central character who is in charge of her sexuality and... a balsy anti-hero that would perhaps appeal to a younger, and maybe even female audience, which doesn't happen a lot around here. At least not that I've seen, or read. Don't get me wrong- it's silly, and ditsy, and fractious, and it does a lot of punning, and... it's like a lot of others, certainly no worse. Mr De Bie however seems to keep all of the balls in the air all of the time.
The characters are great, the dungeon- sorry Dungeon- and its denizens are suitably nasty. bad, et al. The plot, such as it is, is okay- get out/survive, and figure out along the way who or what the bad people are. So, for maybe 250 pages I'm hooked, and keep in mind I read this in three sittings, although the final sitting was only the last 50 pages, I raced through it.
The end's a bit of a mess- the Sharrn, an ancient Netherese city, a Mythal, a demonic what-not, a bit I don't even understand in which the Goliath rescues Twilight and I'm still not sure how but the pair end up in a camp of Goliaths for a free heal/power-up, and... about three other tricksy endings in which much-loved villains turn up for their finale, their last curtain call- Gestal/Liet, Tlork! Davoren without the front teeth, and then... then there's a double epilogue type of thing for some other villains to declare their hand and stab each other in the back.
There are just so many ideas here, particularly in the finale, none of them particularly resolved in immensely satisfying ways, but it's a great book because it's they are great characters in a good situation/scenario, and that's enough- that's what I'm here for.
Read.
Stay safe and well you lovely people.
Cheers Paul