“We’re once again in not-quite-the-Realms, where only a single brief reference to ‘the continent of Faerûn’ establishes that we’re actually in the Forgotten Realms and not in some random standalone fantasy trilogy.”
Tag: Troy Denning
“TSR has finally gotten around to employing several new authors to write Realms material. Do these newcomers bring a fresh set of voices to familiar material, or are they just new line cooks churning out the same old dishes?”
“The basic outline of the plot has promise — important person with dark secret, kidnapped daughter, mysterious forces behind it all — but the implementation is sloppy.”
“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.”
“So what are we to make of this Lawrence of Anauroch? It may be derivative, but it’s certainly not boring.”
“After all, the one thing D&D was really lacking was yet another goddamned word for polearms…”
“It’s not perfect — the pacing drags at points, Adon’s survival feels more preposterous than miraculous, and there are a few duds among the supporting cast — but it’s still a marked improvement over the previous couple of books.”