Tag: Douglas Niles

The cover of Realms of Magic. On the left is Khelben Arunsun, a black-haired, black-bearded man holding a black staff. In the middle is Elminster, a white-bearded old man in red robes and a big red hat. On the right is some young man carrying a bunch of scrolls and a book.

Realms of Magic

June 27, 2021 By Candlekeep Janitor

“Another year, another anthology! This year’s theme is ‘wizards and magic,’ and it must be quite the well of inspiration indeed, because there are no fewer than seventeen stories this time around plus a prologue and epilogue.”

The cover of The Druid Queen. In the background is the floating head of Robyn, a black-haired middle-aged woman wearing a crown. In the foreground is Keane, a young blond wizard doing some sort of magic with one hand and holding a book with the other. He's standing on a rock next to the ocean. Off to the right are a couple of spooky ghosts with their arms outstretched.

The Druid Queen

August 10, 2019 By Candlekeep Janitor

“Five out of Niles’ nine books have featured wicked, venal, self-righteous priests of Helm as major villains. What’s the deal here? Did the author have a bad run-in with a mall security guard in his youth and now seeks revenge on the anthropomorphized concept of guards and watchmen?”

The cover of Realms of Valor. In the background is Elminster, a white-bearded old man smoking a large pipe. In the middle ground is Arilyn, a half-elf with black curly hair, standing dramatically on a rock gazing into the distance. In the foreground is Drizzt, a hooded dark elf holding two scimitars crossed in front of his chest.

Realms of Valor

July 7, 2019 By Candlekeep Janitor

“The nice thing about a mixed bag like this is that even when you suffer through a badly-written story, you know it’s going to be short and you’ll probably get to a better one soon. Beats slogging through a bad 300-page novel, that’s for sure.”

The cover of The Coral Kingdom. The background is the king and queen of the Moonshaes, a pair of middle-aged crowned adults looking off into the distance sternly. In the foreground is a heavily armoured elf posing dramatically with a sword on a rock. Also, there's a random shark floating around.

The Coral Kingdom

June 8, 2019 By Candlekeep Janitor

“Does he just not realize that other plots exist? That you can have a story that doesn’t start and end with an evil god doing bad things just for evil’s sake? Maybe even a plot where people are in conflict with other people, possibly for reasons other than ‘Group A is good and Group B is evil’?”

The cover of Prophet of Moonshae. In the background is a young blond woman with a crown, presumably Alicia. In the foreground are a Viking longboat and a stereotypical Viking man with a horned helmet, axe, and shield.

Prophet of Moonshae

February 28, 2019 By Candlekeep Janitor

“Well, all good things have to come to an end eventually. There was a long stretch of no books written by Douglas Niles for a while, but now he’s back with another trilogy focusing on more shenanigans in the Moonshae Isles.”

The cover of Feathered Dragon. In the foreground is a colourful pyramid standing in a flat desert. In the blue sky above it are various disconnected images: a man wearing a jaguar hood and face paint and carrying a spear, a metal-armored orc, a dragon, and some random Maztican warriors.

Feathered Dragon

October 30, 2018 By Candlekeep Janitor

“Just once I’d like to see Niles write a book with no divine intervention or mystical prophecies in it, where someone in the plot has some real agency… but I’m not getting my hopes up.”

The cover of Viperhand. In the foreground, an erupting volcano rises out of a lake. In the background are a series of disconnected images: a cloaked man with an indescribably silly helmet, a woman in particoloured clothing carrying a wand, an armoured crossbowman, some Maztican warriors, and a hand with an eye in the palm.

Viperhand

August 11, 2018 By Candlekeep Janitor

“So let me get this straight, old man — you did a Ph.D in Astrology just so you could tell us “the moon’s going to keep shining, and things will be different”? Jesus, I could have told you that!”

The cover of Ironhelm. In the foreground is a stepped Aztec-style pyramid in a forest. Above it float a series of disconnected images: a black-haired young woman wearing a glowing amulet, a dashing young conquistador with poofy pantaloons and a spear, an armored dwarf, and a mounted horseman.

Ironhelm

July 5, 2018 By Candlekeep Janitor

“You know the plot already; you learned it in high school. They’re even wearing full conquistador outfits in the cover art, just to ensure you don’t miss the historical parallels and confuse this for a fantasy story.”

The cover of Darkwell. A horned, bestial-looking giant is rising out of a glowing hole in the ground. In the dark foreground, various humans are fighting each other.

Darkwell

March 24, 2018 By Candlekeep Janitor

“It’s as if Niles needed some sort of generically evil Dark Lord for his plot, so he scanned through the long list of Realms deities, saw a god of murder, and thought “Yeah, that sounds evil. He’ll do!” without actually thinking it through.”

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

February 18, 2018 By Candlekeep Janitor

“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?”