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Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Great Reader
USA
7106 Posts |
 Posted - 12 Feb 2005 : 02:05:47
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quote:
Originally posted by Kameron M. Franklin
If you thought that one was creepy, I'm intrigued to see what you think about the cover for Maiden of Pain. (You can see it on Amazon.com.)
Oh, that one is creepy, too--even more so than the ones for the other Priest novels.  It honestly makes me wonder why anyone would become a priestess of Loviatar.
quote:
My apologies for sidetracking the thread. I just found the effect it had on you interesting. I personally found it to be one of sorrow in the midst of what should have been a tranquil/peaceful setting. Mark Fishman has done an excellent job on all the Priest covers to date.
No need to apologize. :) Your interpretation makes sense, as well. It's a sad picture (it represents a very, very sad event for Feena), but seeing a human hand on the wolf sent chills up my spine.
And I agree that the Priest covers are excellent--some of the best artwork I've seen on any books as of late. All of them feature little details that surprise and even shock me. Did you notice that on the Lady of Poison cover, Marrec has tears of blood in his eyes? |
"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) |
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Kameron M. Franklin
Forgotten Realms Author
USA
228 Posts |
Posted - 14 Feb 2005 : 19:06:21
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quote:
Originally posted by Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Oh, that one is creepy, too--even more so than the ones for the other Priest novels. It honestly makes me wonder why anyone would become a priestess of Loviatar.
A question I hope I successfully answered in the book. |
"You keep saying that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." --Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride |
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Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Great Reader
USA
7106 Posts |
Posted - 14 Feb 2005 : 22:55:02
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quote:
Originally posted by Kameron M. Franklin
quote:
Originally posted by Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Oh, that one is creepy, too--even more so than the ones for the other Priest novels. It honestly makes me wonder why anyone would become a priestess of Loviatar.
A question I hope I successfully answered in the book.
I hope so too--I can hardly wait to read it.
Which reminds me: another great thing about Mistress of the Night is that the followers of Shar seemed to have plausible reasons for joining her cult. I didn't feel Lady of Poison handled this aspect as successfully (I didn't see why any non-insane person would ever want to help the Rotting Man, for example). |
"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) |
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SiriusBlack
Great Reader
USA
5517 Posts |
Posted - 15 Feb 2005 : 04:39:26
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quote:
Originally posted by Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
I didn't feel Lady of Poison handled this aspect as successfully (I didn't see why any non-insane person would ever want to help the Rotting Man, for example).
It's not alone. I also believe Venom's Taste showed no reason why any sane person would become a follower of Talona. But, then again, that might be the point. |
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Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Great Reader
USA
7106 Posts |
Posted - 15 Feb 2005 : 05:35:26
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quote:
Originally posted by SiriusBlack
quote:
Originally posted by Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
I didn't feel Lady of Poison handled this aspect as successfully (I didn't see why any non-insane person would ever want to help the Rotting Man, for example).
It's not alone. I also believe Venom's Taste showed no reason why any sane person would become a follower of Talona. But, then again, that might be the point.
True. However, I expected a novel of a series called "Priests" that is entitled Lady of Poison to humanize Talona's followers a bit more, even if they are "evil". I liked the novel, don't get me wrong, but I'd have to agree with those who said it was more about Lurue than Talona. The Rotting Man and his minions (not well characterized though they may be) don't even get that much screen time. The book might as well have been called Unicorn Queen instead.
I felt Shar's followers got enough screen time in Mistress of the Night for the title to make sense, and I recall that one of the authors--I think Bassingthwaite--mentioned that Selune could easily be a "Mistress of the Night", herself. |
"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) |
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VEDSICA
Senior Scribe
USA
466 Posts |
Posted - 07 Mar 2005 : 01:31:13
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| Just finished this book today.Very,very good read.I enjoyed it much.It started off slow for me though,but picked nicely.I got a little confused on how Dhauna was piecing together her info,but I read it a few more times,and I finally got it.I would have liked to have learned a little more about The Leaves of One Night.Just a little bit more info about it would have been nice.Also I liked that there really wasn't much hack and slash in this book.Which is always refreshing.Not that I don't liked a great battle.It's just nice sometimes.I don't have anything bad to say about this book.Congrats to the authors for great work. |
LIFE,BIRTH,BLOOD,DOOM---THE HOLE IN THE GROUND IS COMING ROUND SOON----BLS |
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thekosta
Acolyte
USA
8 Posts |
Posted - 08 Mar 2005 : 17:45:31
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| All together I liked the book read over night. One thing that I'm confused on though is Feena wearing silver. I didn't think were's could touch silver. If there is an answer to why she was able to please tell me it's driving me nuts. |
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dbassingthwaite
Forgotten Realms Author
Canada
64 Posts |
Posted - 13 Mar 2005 : 01:03:48
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quote:
Originally posted by VEDSICA
Congrats to the authors for great work.
Thanks very much! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Don |
Don Bassingthwaite
www.sff.net/people/dbassing |
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dbassingthwaite
Forgotten Realms Author
Canada
64 Posts |
Posted - 13 Mar 2005 : 01:08:42
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quote:
Originally posted by thekosta
All together I liked the book read over night.
Awesome! Cause of sleep deprivation - awright!!
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One thing that I'm confused on though is Feena wearing silver. I didn't think were's could touch silver. If there is an answer to why she was able to please tell me it's driving me nuts.
I don't recall anything in D&D (or in general) that says they can't touch it - just that it can wound them if used as a weapon. Some were interpretations might see it that way, I suppose.
If you need a rationaliztion, though, the silver Feena wore was holy regalia blessed by her goddess. Either that or really cheap stuff that left a green mark on her skin when she took it off. 
Don |
Don Bassingthwaite
www.sff.net/people/dbassing |
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Darkheyr
Learned Scribe
264 Posts |
Posted - 18 Apr 2005 : 09:20:23
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Well, I've read it within a single night. And nearly flunked a math test cause of not enough sleep next day :P
Absolutely LOVED it, especially since the Sisters of Light and Darkness are my two favourite deities of the Realms.
Feena, Keph are both excellent characters... And Variance was simply brilliant. Pretty much how I would imagine a nightcloak - she was one, wasn't she? - to be. Deal a blow to Moonshadow Hall, ruin some lives, and all just to get some stone tablets in the end. And the depth of her plans, having a "Plan B" for each and everything...did I mention the word "brilliant" yet? :)
And as for shards: they are basically ghaele eladrins (see MM or SRD) with blue hair :P |
silm.pw - A Neverwinter Nights Persistent World |
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Paec_djinn
Learned Scribe
173 Posts |
Posted - 08 Jun 2005 : 08:40:11
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Well I've finished this book today. An extremely good read and I must say it's extremely good. At the beginning I was doubting the books potential but the action really picks up towards the middle-middle end part of the story.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD....
Plot
As I said, the story didn't really pick up until the middle where Keph and Feena first meet and towards the rush of climactic scenes following that till the escape of Variance. Then the ending kinda left a lot of things hanging. There were many plot twists which really caught my mind and were unexpected.
The New Moon Pact and Heresy was kinda confusing to understand but nonetheless I liked the way Dhauna didn't do it properly the first time driving her to insanity. It added a little more originality to the whole all-prophecies-must-be-correct cliche.
The cult of Shar was interesting as well and like someone previously mentioned, it did the story well to tell of reasons why the cultist followed Shar.
Characters & Development
It's hard to find a novel where you can love all the characters in the story but this is one of them. The only person which I didn't quite like was Velsinore. I also liked the way Feena handled the situation...
...but really the unsung hero IMO in this story was Julith. I really liked how she was always extremely helpful and was willing to sacrifice. But this helpfulness also brought suspicion as to who the traitor was. Thankfully she wasn't one of them. I think Julith's faith in Feena was quite a big aspect of what made the story work.
Finally, I liked how Keph developed and matured through the story from a person keen on vengeance to a person who has realized his mistakes and is willing to do everything to change them. I would like to know though, what the marking on Keph's thumb is.
Originality
I didn't find many cliches within this book and I didn't put the book down once I started. Even the sort of slow start was original with Keph being manipulated by Variance and such. The plot twists were very unexpected and weren't cliched adding to it's originality. And finally the church of Selune was something interesting to see into.
Writing Style
Some scenes/parts of this story were hard to understand and image. For example, Dhauna's explanation of the New Moon Pact and Heresy, the fight scene on the bridge and some parts of Feena's first dream. Nonetheless I liked the dark style of both Dave Gross and Don Bassingthwaite, which is why I really liked their books The Yellow Silk and Black Wolf respectively.
Aside from minor imaging flaws, both authors did well to go through the minds of both POV characters Feena and Keph.
Setting and Flavor
There's plenty of flavor in this story especially since there's a church war between Selune and Shar at the end. Setting wise, the authors' description of Yhaunn was extremely good and the research of Strasus and Dhauna's explanation of the NMP and NMH was a good history lesson.
X-Factor
There's not many things in this novel which can stand out as an X-factor except for the church war at the end and the cameo of Rivalen Tanthul. Not even a Radu Malveen which was one of my favorite character in the Sembia series. But the authors did well to tell a good story even with this little things which draw people's attention
Overall
Overall the book was a very good read and it's one of the really good FR novels I've read. The story is dark and very well done and the characters even better.
Some thoughts after reading though:
1. What is the mark on Keph?
2. How is the New Moon Heresy connected to the New Moon Pact? I know the members of the pact were framed for heresy but were there any people who really commited the heresy? What became of them? |
Edited by - Paec_djinn on 08 Jun 2005 08:44:36 |
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Jindael
Senior Scribe
USA
357 Posts |
Posted - 29 Jun 2005 : 13:08:36
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This was a fantastic novel. I really enjoyed just about every moment of it. I especially liked how the worshipers of Shar were shown as real people, and not just disposable nobodies who happened to be there.
Feena was a fascinating character. Lots of fun to read about. So was Variance. Keph was interesting, but I felt no real connection with him. I did very much like how, at the end, he redeemed himself a little, but was still a bit weak. He didn’t do a Vader and come totally over to the light. (The scene with him and his father at the very end is where I started to feel for him. Heh)
I’d beat a crippled kobold with a rusty spoon +1 to find out more about those tiles Variance had, and Shar’s moment of weakness.
No offence to any authors, but I found that Mistress of the Night was leaps and bounds above Lady of Poison (A good read, but the deities in the story could have been swapped out with any other deities from any other setting). I hope that this is a continuing trend, and Maiden of Pain blows my socks off.
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"You don't have a Soul. You are a Soul. You have a body."
-- C.S. Lewis |
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Gladi
Acolyte
Czech Republic
24 Posts |
Posted - 25 Sep 2005 : 22:11:40
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Be well.
I feel bit sorry for this often reanimated thread, but I recently got bunch of FR books, an this one elicited greatest response from me.
So good work.
(though I was not entirely happy with romantic interest for the female lead) |
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Paec_djinn
Learned Scribe
173 Posts |
Posted - 26 Sep 2005 : 09:34:22
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quote:
I feel bit sorry for this often reanimated thread,
It's okay by me because I frequently get books later than usual and I HAVE to reanimate dead threads. Besides, I don't think that many people will mind either. |
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dbassingthwaite
Forgotten Realms Author
Canada
64 Posts |
Posted - 07 Oct 2005 : 21:58:03
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Thanks to people for the recent comments - I'm glad you've all enjoyed the book!
Don |
Don Bassingthwaite
www.sff.net/people/dbassing |
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Topic |
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Mistress of the Night (Spoilers)
