The cover of Azure Bonds. In the background, a tower covered in decorative barbs rises out of mist into a night sky with a giant moon. In the middle ground Dragonbait, a lizard-like humanoid, is posing with a bizarre-looking sword. In the foreground is Alias, a red-headed young woman wearing improbably revealing armor and resting a sword on her shoulder. She's staring off into the distance.

Azure Bonds

“Alias, the swordswoman whose magical tattoos are the linchpin of the plot, is the first strong female character in the Forgotten Realms novels to date. She’s jam-packed with both strengths and flaws: fiercely independent, cunning, practical, strong, stubborn, prideful, terrible at dealing with emotions and opening up to people.”

The cover of Spellfire. In a cavern, a young woman with long blonde hair is shooting a magical bolt at an angry skeletal dragon. Elminster and a couple of the Knights of Myth Drannor look alarmed in the foreground.

Spellfire

“It’s the Michael Bay approach to fantasy writing, where you cram the book as full as possible of dragons, magic, fireballs, heroism, messy deaths, PG-13 sex, and little moral ambiguity.”

The cover of Black Wizards. In a large scrying mirror, we see a magical image of a forest where a woman in a very low-cut dress and a black-bearded young man are talking to a faerie dragon. There are six black-robed figures posed awkwardly around the scrying mirror as if surprised by what they see.

Black Wizards

“The worst fault of this plot, though, is that just about every major problem in the book is resolved by some manner of deus ex machina rather than action on the protagonists’ part. Who knew that divine intervention could become so… boring?”

The cover of The Crystal Shard. Three figures pose dramatically on the tundra. One is a young barbarian man wearing furs and wielding a hammer. Another is a dark elf, crouching to inspect a line of blood in the snow. The third is a long-bearded, armoured dwarf with an axe. All of them are looking off into the distance at something behind the viewer.

The Crystal Shard

“Drizzt became an archetype that’s been parodied, deconstructed, and reconstructed so many times that now it’s like an overchewed piece of bubble gum, flavourless and tacky.”