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 Stowaway ... anyone else read that one?
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Zanan
Senior Scribe

Germany
942 Posts

Posted - 24 Nov 2009 :  15:11:30  Show Profile  Visit Zanan's Homepage Send Zanan a Private Message  Reply with Quote  Delete Topic
Maybe it has gone unnoticed so far (which is somewhat unlikely for a book published for Realmspace in July 2009) but has anyone read The Stone of Tymora I – Stowaway by Geno (& R.A.) Salavatore thus far?

Happened over it when asked to do a revision over at the German DnD-Gate and thought that it might have been a book of the new post-Spellplague series, only to find out that it is a) written by R.A.S.’s son (with a little help from the father), b) utilizes some of said father’s heroes and c) is wholly written from the perspective of the protagonist, i.e. a 12-year old chap burdened by an artefact of great proportions and hunted by a (mighty) demon.

Went on working away with the revision and at the end I was pretty split about what to make of it all. While the story as such is not that bad, it neither is original (rather on the contrary, going by the number of clichés involved) nor that long. The spacing is pretty large and you’ll never read through a WotC book as fast as this one. Or, in other words, had they used the same spacing (letters and lines) as they did in your everyday-Wotc – novel, it would have yielded some 140 pages (at $ 9.99) – compared to the 320+ of said normal novel. Looking at it on hindsight, I still cannot get rid of the feeling that the father’s name (and a Todd Lockwood Drizzt cover) was used to pull more readers to the book than it would normally validate.

The pretty ominous silence on Stowaway on here seems to prove that.

Cave quid dicis, quando et cui!

Gæð a wyrd swa hio scel!

In memory of Alura Durshavin.

Visit my "Homepage" to find A Guide to the Drow NPCs of Faerûn, Drow and non-Drow PrC and much more.

Edited by - Zanan on 24 Nov 2009 15:12:59

Brimstone
Great Reader

USA
3287 Posts

Posted - 24 Nov 2009 :  15:47:42  Show Profile Send Brimstone a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I saw a copy in the Teen section at the Local Barnes and Noble.

Thats all I needed to see on that novel.

"These things also I have observed: that knowledge of our world is
to be nurtured like a precious flower, for it is the most precious
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words unwritten and set them down ere they fade . . . Learn
then, well, the arts of reading, writing, and listening true, and they
will lead you to the greatest art of all: understanding."
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Alisttair
Great Reader

Canada
3054 Posts

Posted - 24 Nov 2009 :  16:04:08  Show Profile  Visit Alisttair's Homepage Send Alisttair a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I read it and liked it and have picked up book 2. It's a good way to introduce young readers into the realms (I used it in a grade 7 class when I was a guest reader there during literacy week).

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Brimstone
Great Reader

USA
3287 Posts

Posted - 24 Nov 2009 :  16:15:36  Show Profile Send Brimstone a Private Message  Reply with Quote
That is a very valid point.

"These things also I have observed: that knowledge of our world is
to be nurtured like a precious flower, for it is the most precious
thing we have. Wherefore guard the word written and heed
words unwritten and set them down ere they fade . . . Learn
then, well, the arts of reading, writing, and listening true, and they
will lead you to the greatest art of all: understanding."
Alaundo of Candlekeep
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Hawkins
Great Reader

USA
2131 Posts

Posted - 24 Nov 2009 :  16:50:37  Show Profile  Visit Hawkins's Homepage Send Hawkins a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Is it pre- or post-Spellplague?

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Alisttair
Great Reader

Canada
3054 Posts

Posted - 24 Nov 2009 :  17:47:53  Show Profile  Visit Alisttair's Homepage Send Alisttair a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by HawkinstheDM

Is it pre- or post-Spellplague?



Pre. It occurs during the time that Drizzt is with Deudermont (between Siege of Darkness and Passage to Dawn).

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BEAST
Master of Realmslore

USA
1714 Posts

Posted - 25 Nov 2009 :  08:02:24  Show Profile  Visit BEAST's Homepage Send BEAST a Private Message  Reply with Quote
It's an OK book, but nothing spectacular. A good first outing, I guess you could say.

What was most interesting for me was to see certain scenes previously described in The Halfling's Gem revisited and revised a bit, in order to make room for the addition of the new protagonist character. It constitutes a bit of retcon action, but still, it was fun to see how Geno and Bob pulled it off.

I tried to nail down the time setting of The Stowaway <over here>, and I'll reiterate:
quote:
If you check the chronology in my sig, you will see that I estimate The Stowaway (TSt) as taking place in the year 1362 DR.

Most of its events take place concurrently with the main events of The Halfling's Gem, which took place in 1356 DR. But the "Part" sequences of TSt are said to take place six years after those events.

1356 DR + 6 yr = 1362 DR

This would place the "current time" of the novel roughly in the middle of Drizzt's and Catti-brie's sailing voyages aboard the Sea Sprite with Captain Deudermont, between Siege of Darkness (1358 DR) and Passage to Dawn (1364 DR).

"'You don't know my history,' he said dryly."
--Drizzt Do'Urden (The Pirate King, Part 1: Chapter 2)

<"Comprehensive Chronology of R.A. Salvatore Forgotten Realms Works">
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swifty
Senior Scribe

United Kingdom
517 Posts

Posted - 25 Nov 2009 :  11:54:47  Show Profile  Visit swifty's Homepage Send swifty a Private Message  Reply with Quote
is this book considered canon in the same way that the drizzt books are.im a completist but ireally dont want to have to buy it.

go back to sleep america.everything is under control.heres american gladiators.watch this.shuttup. BILL HICKS.
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Zanan
Senior Scribe

Germany
942 Posts

Posted - 26 Nov 2009 :  10:00:25  Show Profile  Visit Zanan's Homepage Send Zanan a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Well, it will be considered canon, but there ain't any FR-shaking stuff in there, just a story about some artifact, the chap who keeps it and the demon who wants it.

Still, can't recommend buying it as long as it is not being reduced in size and price.

Cave quid dicis, quando et cui!

Gæð a wyrd swa hio scel!

In memory of Alura Durshavin.

Visit my "Homepage" to find A Guide to the Drow NPCs of Faerûn, Drow and non-Drow PrC and much more.
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BEAST
Master of Realmslore

USA
1714 Posts

Posted - 27 Nov 2009 :  07:12:33  Show Profile  Visit BEAST's Homepage Send BEAST a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by swifty

is this book considered canon in the same way that the drizzt books are.im a completist but ireally dont want to have to buy it.

It certainly seems to bear all the marks of a canon work and story. It has "Forgotten Realms" stamped on the cover, it was advertised in TGHOTR, has <its own page> on the WOTC D&D FR site, and has <associated game content>.

It features a bit of retconning of earlier scenes found in THG, much like RAS himself did with certain other scenes at the end of THG and the beginning of The Legacy. Certainly there are changes to the story here and there, but nothing too major.

"'You don't know my history,' he said dryly."
--Drizzt Do'Urden (The Pirate King, Part 1: Chapter 2)

<"Comprehensive Chronology of R.A. Salvatore Forgotten Realms Works">
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