Novel: "City of Ravens" by Rich Baker, "Swords of Eveningstar" by Ed or "Azure Bonds" by Grubb/Novak. Not quite sure about that last one. That was 15 (?) years ago.
Game supplement: 3e FRCS. Forgotten Realms Adventures or the Grey Box comes close. If picking the campaigns setting is cheating, I'd go for the 3e Lords of Darkness.
Edit: Hmmm forgot about Lands of Intrigue. It's the best FR supplement of all time. I really need to get my game back to Amn. The first product I bought was the Grey Box, but the Baldur's Gate games got me into the setting.
Hmmm... look, it might seem like a simple question but it really isn't.
Today - in my head - it's 'Cormyr: A Novel' - a masterly bit of nation-building - fantasy history at its very best (and the main plot's pretty good too).
I'm deliberately only putting up one name here (riot asked for the 'best', after all), but I reserve the right to change my mind tomorrow. (Or in the next thirty minutes for that matter...)
"How content that young woman looks, don't you think? How content, and yet how flammable." - Lemony Snicket, The Unauthorized Autobiography
I'm kind of partial to Spellfire, but I also liked seeing Elminster in Hell.
Anyone who likes to read something that's really dark and gritty and completely awesome ought to read The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks. You can check out a little taste at www.BrentWeeks.com I should probably warn you, though, that it is definitely not PG-13 :-D
He also started a new Trilogy with Black Prism, which may even surpass the Night Angel Trilogy in its awesomeness.
Well it doesn't have to be just one, it can be many if you choose to have more than one favorite thats fine. Sorry if I forced anyone into a corner( which isn't bad, just really makes you think of all you've read rigth?)I think this will turn out to be a forum.
It's simply too difficult for me to select one FR novel that I would consider "the best."
As it is, Swords of Eveningstar, The City of Splendors, Silverfall, Elminster's Daughter, Cormyr: A Novel, Blackstaff, Evermeet, and Elfshadow [or even Elfsong]... could all, very easily, be a contender for that particular position.
I like most of them. I would have to go with authors, not favorite novel. However, in the spirit of the thread, I choose Spellfire. That novel encompasses what the realms are to me.
I like most of them. I would have to go with authors, not favorite novel. However, in the spirit of the thread, I choose Spellfire. That novel encompasses what the realms are to me.
Indeed, I loved that novel and found it to be a real page-turner. Of course, like most of the others I have a hard time picking just one.
"Instead of asking why we sleep, it might make sense to ask why we wake. Perchance we live to dream. From that perspective, the sea of troubles we navigate in the workaday world might be the price we pay for admission to another night in the world of dreams." --Richard Greene (letter to Time)
My all-time favorite was also the first one I read, Darkwalker on Moonshae by Douglas Niles. I thought the book captured a great adventure/setting tone and showed relatively "lesser" characters getting involved/coming of age.
Nightparade, Spellfire, Moonshae trilogy, Crown of fire, Soldiers of Ice, Elminsters Daughter, Ogre pact, Azure bonds, Elfsong, Elfshadow.
In more or less that order.
As for game supplement, 1 st and 2ed. Campaign settings, Elminsters Ecology's, Dwarves Deep, Volos guide to all things magical and the Forgotten Realms Adventures book are some of my favorites.
1. Midnight's Mask 2. Swords of Eveningstar 3. Daughter of the Drow 4. The Crystal Shard 5. Azure Bonds 6. Crypt of the Shadowking 7. Crucible: The Trial of Cyric the Mad 8. Depths of Madness 9. The Yellow Silk 10. Blackstaff
War to slay, not to fight long and glorious. Aermhar of the Tangletrees Year of the Hooded Falcon
I've stated before that I hold Elaine to be a cut above any of the other writers who has graced us with a visit to the Realms (and I mean that as a compliment to Elaine, not as "All the other writers are bad at their job"), and while her first novel, Elfshadow, may not be her most accomplshed work, it's still my favourite due to the sheer joy I get from reading it.
There is a rumour going around that I have found god. I think is unlikely because I have enough difficulty finding my keys, and there is empirical evidence that they exist. Terry Pratchett
Can't say much for my favorite book (there are so many and I have not read all of them recently), but my favorite authors (in no particular order) are Salvatore, Kemp, Denning, Greenwood, Cunningham, and Niles.
One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back. --Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass
"Mmm, not the darkness," Myrin murmured. "Don't cast it there." --Erik Scott de Bie, Shadowbane
5 - Elfshadow 4 - Venom's Taste 3 - Depths of Madness 2&1 - Azure Bonds and The Wyvern's Spur
These, in the day when heaven was falling, The hour when earth's foundations fled, Followed their mercenary calling And took their wages and are dead.
Their shoulders held the sky suspended; They stood, and earth's foundations stay; What God abandoned, these defended, And saved the sum of things for pay.
I find it remarkable that my work has been mentioned a couple times, in the same lineups as Elaine's or Jeff's or Ed's or (the list goes on). What an honor!
Author of a number of Realms novels (GHOSTWALKER, DEPTHS OF MADNESS, and the SHADOWBANE series), contributor to the NEVERWINTER CAMPAIGN GUIDE and SHADOWFELL: GLOOMWROUGHT AND BEYOND, Twitch DM of the Dungeon Scrawlers, currently playing "The Westgate Irregulars"
quote: I find it remarkable that my work has been mentioned a couple times, in the same lineups as Elaine's or Jeff's or Ed's or (the list goes on). What an honor!
you seem a little down on yourself, sir. you are a great talent and we are all lucky to have you among us.
as for my favorites: magehound trilogy, starlight and shadows trilogy, bloodwalk, depths of madness, return of the archwizards trilogy, and the demonfey trilogy.
"The measure of an undisciplined mind, is that the intellect allows emotion to challenge the observed truth" Richard Baker
The Black Bouquet The Last Mythal trilogy The Watercourse trilogy War of the Spider Queen series Anything with Erevis Cale in it! Blackstaff Star of Cursrah The Year of Rogue Dragons trilogy
Read my blog at: http://tauntonian.blogspot.com Here I post ramblings, book reviews, song lyrics and assorted weirdness.
... Which makes me want to add to my previous answer. I was already interested in the Realms, and had purchased a bunch of the stuff. But it was Volo's Guide to Waterdeep that made the setting come alive for me, and thus truly got me into the Realms. Even though it's not my fave supplement, it is definitely in the top 10 (and the only reason it's a top 10 instead of a top 5 is because of the three 2E deity books).
Author of a number of Realms novels (GHOSTWALKER, DEPTHS OF MADNESS, and the SHADOWBANE series), contributor to the NEVERWINTER CAMPAIGN GUIDE and SHADOWFELL: GLOOMWROUGHT AND BEYOND, Twitch DM of the Dungeon Scrawlers, currently playing "The Westgate Irregulars"
1. Azure Bonds 2. The Crystal Shard 3. Pools of Radiance 4. Finders Bane
Diverging slightly, whilst I enjoy most FR books, my favourites have all been non-RSE and non-series (Fighters, Mages, etc.) Just ones where a good story was told, that wasn't constrained by what series it was in and the reader didn't need to know anything really about the Realms or was told of it beyond what the story required (yeah, that's a backhanded complaint that the reset is totally unnecessary for telling good stories that appeal to new readers )
1. Swords of Eveningstar 2. Spellfire 3. Swords of Dragonfire 4. The Annotated Elminster (cheating, I know. Just Making of A Mage if I can't use collections) 5. Cormyr: A Novel 6. Death Of The Dragon 7. Homeland 8. Elfshadow 9. Elminster's Daughter 10. City of Splendors
Hmm. Looks like Ed wins, though I really wasn't paying attention to authors when I did that.
If I had to expand it:
11. Blackstaff 12. Dawn of Night 13. Unclean 14. Elfsong 15. Azure Bonds 16. Silverfall 17. Depths of Madness 18. Twilight Calling 19. Stormlight 20. Elminster In Hell 21. Crown of Fire 22. Daughter of the Drow 23. Venom's Taste 24. The Silent Blade 25. The Simbuls' Gift
Hmm. Ed wins again. That surprises me too, though I suppose it shouldn't. Anyway, that's just my rankings. The tastes of others will differ. I have, I think, read every published Realms novel. If we're including anthologies and collections, too, The Best of the Realms II (Ed), Realms of Valor, Realms of Mystery, and The Best of the Realms III (Elaine) would make that top 25 for me, in that order but scattered throughout the over-15 rankings, bumping the last four titles above off the list. The most recent books by Rosemary Jones, Bruce Cordell, and Erik's Ghostwalker were going to be in the next 5. Of my top ten, it's Elfshadow and Eds 1-2-3 ranked books that I re-read most. Great stuff. Just my coppers...
I'm not as experienced as others when it comes to FR novels but most recently I read The City of Splendors and loved it. I don't know about you guys but the Ed and Elaine team is a winning one for me. And combined with Evermeet it makes me really surprised that EC doesn't write more for the Realms. Those two definitely have a spot in the "best FR book" category for me. I also really enjoyed Elfshadow.
Oh yeah and Blackstaff ranks high on my list as well.
So far as sourcebooks go it'd be, Cloak and Dagger, Lost Empires of Faerun, The Silver Marches, and Empires of The Shining Sea (who doesn't love the Shoon Dynasty?).
And if the PCs DO win their ways through all the liches to Larloch, “he” will almost certainly be just another lich (loaded with explosive spells) set up as a decoy, with dozens of hidden liches waiting to pounce on any surviving PCs who ‘celebrate’ after they take Larloch down. As the REAL Larloch watches (magical scrying) from afar. Myself, as DM, I’d be wondering: “Such a glorious game, so many opportunities laid out before your PCs to devote your time to, and THIS fixation is the best you can come up with? Are you SURE you’re adventurers?” -Ed Greenwood
What in your opinion is the best FR book
Posted - 08 Oct 2007 : 19:24:30
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