“The body count quickly goes from ‘a couple of mysterious murders’ to ‘heaps of corpses piled in every hallway,’ but Greenwood doesn’t seem to realize that while one death is a tragedy, dozens are just set dressing.”
“The author’s obvious enthusiasm for the subject hasn’t saved him from coming up with a convoluted plot where events don’t seem to flow naturally, packed with contrivances and improbable insights.”
“I found myself subconsciously seeking any excuse to avoid picking up The Mage in the Iron Mask and getting started on this review.”
“I never thought I would see this day. It’s finally happened: I have run out of R.A. Salvatore books.”
“A favourite game of mine, whenever I read a novel by multiple authors, is to try to pick out which bits were written by which authors. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book where the game was so unsatisfyingly easy.”
“I know what you’re thinking: the Harpers accomplishing something without screwing it up or having it turn into a giant mess? It feels so out of character, and yet so refreshing!”
“If your Western characters all speak fluently and your Eastern characters all sound like ‘Thog discover fire! Cave warm now,’ then you’re implicitly infusing your book with a shitty racist message.”
“It’s not often that we see an author take us far afield from the usual Realms fare, and now we’re getting a whole trilogy that has an opportunity to break the mold.”
Bad news! Life is remarkably hectic for me right now, so the next review is probably not going to be out for another few weeks. But I love my regular readers, so I figure you deserve an update of sorts to tide you over…
“Buckle up; we can’t talk about this one without first dredging up some ugly TSR history.”
