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Richard Lee Byers
Forgotten Realms Author
USA
1814 Posts |
 Posted - 13 Sep 2005 : 00:14:11
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Glad you're enjoying it, Alaundo.
As Kuje observed, there's a lot of shalarin info in Sea of Fallen Stars, and that was my primary reference. |
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Lord Rad
Great Reader
United Kingdom
2080 Posts |
Posted - 14 Sep 2005 : 23:33:24
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Well I wrapped this novel in less than 2 days as I just couldn't put it down  An excellent book and I loved the story and how it was written.
SPOILERS BELOW
As Alaundo said previously, the prologue was a wonderful display of the underwater world. Great intro and I was happy to be reading of the Rage again. Again, that contrast against the first chapter was great.
The intro scenes with Tu'ala'keth and Anton were very well written, and I found it clever how Tu'ala'keth first arrived on Dragon Isle and how it was written from her perspective, when viewing strange farm creatures etc. The whole setting of Dragon Isle was great, very hearty and lively. I loved the whole scene when they get together with the pirates... and I couldn't believe it when Anton killed Shandri  Wow!
In fact, all through the book, I found a lot of the fighting to be quite brutal and descriptive. Fantastic and really brings the novel much more to life rather that trying to brush around violence. Anton often surprised me with his rage and brutality.
Again, when Tu'ala'keth was attacked by Vurghom, it was a tense and mature moment.. and her brutality came out when she was forced to kill the guy who she encountered when leaving Vurghom's chamber.
I was taken back by Anton's betrayal of Tu'ala'keth. A great scene which I certainly wasn't expecting and very well done. I loved how the translucent eyelids came into play 
The island of Tan was great. I loved the setting and was one of the best Cult stronghold feelings i've ever read. Eshcaz was fantastic! It's a shame he came to an end. Wow, what a dragon I certainly had the feeling of a colossal red wyrm in this book, and almost felt the dragonfear myself! 
Once scene featuring Eshcaz actually make me laugh out lad and titter for a while afterwards.... where he eats an ixitachitl and turns around to the priest of Velsharoon and says "tastes like chicken" 
The scene in Exzethlix was great. It's the first time i've actually got to know about ixitachitl in that detail and found it very interesting. Incidentally, what exactly are devitan and vitan? Yzil was great, i loved that character. Nasty what he did to that mermaid though
I liked the battle scene between the locathah's, koalinth's (two of my all-time favorite creatures) and the dragonkin. What a strange, but exciting combination I was very happy to read of the dragonkin, for the first time in an FR novel too I think. I'm a fan of draconians from dragonlance so this was great for me. I'd love to read more about them. By the way, are dragonkin affected by the Rage?
Oh, another bit that made me laugh was when Anton was running down the corridor and bumped into the fire drake and addressed it as "My Lord", and it then turned around and said "i'm a female, fool"
Great scene with Diero being questioned too. Nice tactics!
The book ended very well too. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and highly recommend it. A great story and it really delivered very well as a Realms novel, a priests novel and a novel tied to the Rage.
Fantastic job!! |
Lord Rad
"What? No, I wasn't reading your module. I was just looking at the pictures"
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Richard Lee Byers
Forgotten Realms Author
USA
1814 Posts |
Posted - 15 Sep 2005 : 04:55:56
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Thanks for the kind words, Rad. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Vitan and devitan are simply ranks in the theocratic power structure of the 'chitls. |
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Richard Lee Byers
Forgotten Realms Author
USA
1814 Posts |
Posted - 15 Sep 2005 : 04:57:27
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| Oops, I forgot to say, I figure the Rage makes dragonkin more irritable, but it doesn't drive them bonkers like it does actual dragons. |
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thekosta
Acolyte
USA
8 Posts |
Posted - 15 Sep 2005 : 14:49:22
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Well it's been awhile since i've posted here or anywhere for that matter. I really liked the book. thanks. One question though how old would Jorunhast be? I've been trying to figure it out but obviously I haven't. Not important just wondering.
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Richard Lee Byers
Forgotten Realms Author
USA
1814 Posts |
Posted - 15 Sep 2005 : 21:59:34
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Glad you liked it, thekosta.
I'm honestly not sure exactly how old Jorunhast is (he's a preexisting character from the Sea of Fallen Stars sourcebook.) It's pretty obvious he's a person of mature years, but I'm not sure if he's normal-guy mature or magically preserved centuries-old mature. Maybe Steve Schend will enlighten us all. |
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ericlboyd
Forgotten Realms Designer
USA
2067 Posts |
Posted - 16 Sep 2005 : 14:59:07
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quote:
Originally posted by Richard Lee Byers
Glad you liked it, thekosta.
I'm honestly not sure exactly how old Jorunhast is (he's a preexisting character from the Sea of Fallen Stars sourcebook.) It's pretty obvious he's a person of mature years, but I'm not sure if he's normal-guy mature or magically preserved centuries-old mature. Maybe Steve Schend will enlighten us all.
Jorunhast is very old. He preceded Vangerdahast as the chief wizard of Cormyr. The reasons for his exile are given in one of the short story chapters in Cormyr: A Novel. I leave it at that so as not to give spoilers. |
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http://www.ericlboyd.com/dnd/ |
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ericlboyd
Forgotten Realms Designer
USA
2067 Posts |
Posted - 16 Sep 2005 : 15:01:36
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Richard,
My congratulations as well. This was a great read. I really enjoyed the characters, the story, and the Realmslore. I know I'm hooked when every time a secondary character dies I think to myself "Oh, not him/her!!!"
I didn't get to check ... was Eschaz mentioned in Pirates of the Fallen Stars and/or Sea of Fallen Stars? I seem to recall a nasty red dragon sleeping on one of the islands in old Realmslore.
--Eric
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http://www.ericlboyd.com/dnd/ |
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Lord Rad
Great Reader
United Kingdom
2080 Posts |
Posted - 16 Sep 2005 : 18:49:26
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quote:
Originally posted by ericlboyd
I didn't get to check ... was Eschaz mentioned in Pirates of the Fallen Stars and/or Sea of Fallen Stars? I seem to recall a nasty red dragon sleeping on one of the islands in old Realmslore.
--Eric
OOh really? I'm taking a look at both of the products over the weekend (hopefully tonight) after my interest has been rekindled since readng the novel. I hope that Eschaz is in there, he is by far the most fearsome dragon I have read in an FR novel! I'm also interested to see if Tam is covered and take a deeper look into the Pirate Isles. |
Lord Rad
"What? No, I wasn't reading your module. I was just looking at the pictures"
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Richard Lee Byers
Forgotten Realms Author
USA
1814 Posts |
Posted - 16 Sep 2005 : 21:31:32
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Eric: Very glad you liked it.
My red dragon is indeed the same one the source material mentions. No reason to make up a new one when the preexisting Realmslore already provides one. |
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Dart Ambermoon
Learned Scribe
Germany
253 Posts |
Posted - 17 Sep 2005 : 01:49:20
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Ah, that was one thing I had forgotten in my original comments. Fantastic fighting scenes vs the dragon.
Finally, mortality sets in and well-thought out tactics are used in order to win and especially survive the encounter.
Really liked that scene, it was very grippingly written IMO not clear in its outcome UNTIL its outcome. You couldnīt tell what was going to happen. Nice spellwork, too. And the tactics...sheesh, my players mustnīt read this *grins*. |
~ In Finder I trust, for danger I lust ~ |
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Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Great Reader
USA
7106 Posts |
Posted - 20 Sep 2005 : 23:10:34
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Finished this book a few days back, and I was not at all disappointed. The ending where the shalarin actually embraces Anton surprised me, and made me feel all warm inside. And the description of the underwater locales was superb, especially the note about the water being "aglitter" with colorful fish.
Makes me want to go for a swim in the Inner Sea. |
"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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Richard Lee Byers
Forgotten Realms Author
USA
1814 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2005 : 03:04:50
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| Very glad you liked it, RF. |
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Queen of the Depths (Spoilers)
