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T O P I C R E V I E W
Dart Ambermoon
Posted - 15 Apr 2010 : 02:36:15 I thought "Wrath of the Blue Lady" was a very, very good FR novel. I loved the "Threat from the Sea" trilogy and was very interested in seeing Mel return to Faerunīs watery depths and felt he managed to once again bring the world under the waters and the world for those upon a ship to life here.
The main characters felt very well developed and the supporting characters fit their roles to a T. The dialogue and interaction between father and son brought a lot of depths to those characters and worked especially well in contrast to the banter of the protagonistīs odd couple of friends in the dragonborn paladin and the tiefling (who reminded me a litle of Dragonbait and Olive Ruskettle on occasion).
Bayel Droust was a very interesting and unique character, whose study posed a lot of philosophical questions about what people do and how they act when confronted with something / someone, they cannot defeat and whether existence is worth much, if you arenīt really living (again I found this worked especially well in the way Bayel and Shang-Li thought and acted in relatively similar circumstances). Added to that, a quite unique setting with itīs own hazards and wonders, great action sequences (I really liked the whole flight from the golem sequence), interesting monsters and deeper mysteries left unanswered (and thus open to return to them) without taking away from the story at hand, and one of the most interesting villains I have seen in quite some time.
The Blue Lady had an intensity and air of mystery about her, that hooked me to the story on the first few pages already. Now THIS is how you can sell change and interest me in it. Her character was the first to spark the tiniest interest in fey and all that stuff, because it was a great story and she was a strong character.
There was enough things atypical to what I expect of a "FR novel" (Dragonborn/Tiefling, yakuza, Fey, spellscarred ships), but it all FELT like a FR novel to me, because the story led to deeper questions about the changes, rather than the changes being the sole catalyst of the story.
All in all I thought it was a fine novel and Iīm always up for more Realms fiction from Mel Odom.
Interested to hear opinions from other scribes wandering these halls on Mel Odomīs latest FR offering.