Quag Keep/Greyhawk?

[Prince of Happiness]

Thanks for the review!
I guess that's another one that can sit on the shelf with the other "I own it, but will never read it" books.

I really wish I had a better review but I had to "strike while the iron was still hot." After a while I noticed there wasn't really any build up, nor any real climax. It just...kind of ended. And the way to the ending wasn't that much fun either.

Now for female fantasy fiction trailblazers, I'll tip my hat to Tanith Lee.

 

[Stormrunner]

I grew up reading, and very much enjoying, Andre Norton's books. I still have a lot of them on my shelf. Looking back on them with the benefit of age and experience, they aren't as mesmerizing, but still fun enough to kill a few hours with.

That said, Quag Keep was horrible.

I saw it, said "Oooh, a new AN book!", bought it, and was horribly disappointed. It quickly became obvious that AN had seen a few D&D sessions, but had never played and didn't really understand the game. The book was obviously a "potboiler" - cranked out quickly and sloppily to put food in the pot, with no attention to character or plot.

So don't buy it - but don't tar all of Ms. Norton's books with the same brush.

 

[grodog]

I was never a huge fan of Quag Keep either, but Erik Mona did a very good job of digging through the novel for interesting Greyhawk tidbits. In case anyone's interested in his research, you can find it at http://www.tc.umn.edu/~monax002/Council/resources/novels/loreqk.html

 

[Tav_Behemoth]

I saw it, said "Oooh, a new AN book!", bought it, and was horribly disappointed. It quickly became obvious that AN had seen a few D&D sessions, but had never played and didn't really understand the game. The book was obviously a "potboiler" - cranked out quickly and sloppily to put food in the pot, with no attention to character or plot.

I've got this on interlibrary loan and will probably wind up reading it despite the bad reviews out of a sense of duty -- it's interesting to pinpoint the moment when writing a D&D-derivative fantasy became a viable route for a potboiler! Thanks for the Greyhawk annotation link, grodog -- that'll make it educational in another sense too.

 

[talinthas]

For what it's worth, Jean Rabe is writing a new book with Andre Norton called "Return to Quag Keep".
I just read about it in Rabe's new author profile that was posted on the wotc books page.

I can't tell you how excited i am by the prospect. /rolls eyes

 

[David Howery]

I read the book waaaay back in my college days, and remember little of it, other than I wasn't too impressed with it. It seemed to me the author got Greyhawk mixed up with Basic D&D, as the focus was Law vs. Chaos, not Good vs. Evil. Plus, several nations were listed were listed as being tied to Chaos (i.e., evil) which definitely weren't, in the traditional GH campaign. And then there was the 'swordsman' character presented as a PC class, who, by some rule, was automatically dedicated to Law (so, bad guys can't use swords?).

 

[diaglo]

I read the book waaaay back in my college days, and remember little of it, other than I wasn't too impressed with it. It seemed to me the author got Greyhawk mixed up with Basic D&D, as the focus was Law vs. Chaos, not Good vs. Evil. Plus, several nations were listed were listed as being tied to Chaos (i.e., evil) which definitely weren't, in the traditional GH campaign. And then there was the 'swordsman' character presented as a PC class, who, by some rule, was automatically dedicated to Law (so, bad guys can't use swords?).

it was written before the DMG was released. heck it was probably being worked on while the MM and PHB were also not in print.

thus it ain't Basic... it is OD&D.