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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Major Improvement,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Tantras (Forgotten Realms: Avatar Trilogy, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)
This is a classic Forgotten Realms trilogy, and reading it is pretty necessary if you want to make sense of a lot of the goings-on in the Realms. This is especially the case if you care a whit about the FR pantheon, since a lot of the material comes from these books. I have to admit, this was really the only reason I picked them up, and I went ahead and got all three at once.After reading Shadowdale, I seriously regretted it. Frankly, I couldn't (and still can't) believe that book is the start of a classic anything- let alone a FR trilogy. Compared to any of Salvatore, Denning, or Cunningham's novels, it is utterly pathetic. The characters are flat, and the book reads like a transcript from some Dungeon Master's game (and not a very good DM, at that). Despite the fact that I already had the other two, I was somewhat reluctant to continue. Fans of the Realms, take heart. This book is good enough that I've forgotten most of the unpleasantries of Shadowdale. I'm pleased to say that Tantras is a huge improvement over its predecessor. It is supposedly written by the same author, Scott Ciencin (a.k.a. Richard Awlinson) and if this really is the same author's work, then he has seriously improved. It's true that the characters are still a bit undeveloped, but at least they don't act like cranky, somewhat deranged children anymore. I'm still not quite sure why Adon is even present, but he does at least do something useful in this book. Additionally, some of the perplexing, seemingly random events that took place in Shadowdale are given at least a partial explanation. For example, the haunted woods that appeared out of nowhere to waylay our heroes was just nature gone bad. Oh. The villains here are largely what they were before, plus one that you can probably figure out if you've read the FR Campaign Setting. More or less, Midnight, Kelemvor, Adon, and a few extras in red shirts (who die just as quickly as you would expect) are done mucking around and fighting the good fight for people that would rather just hang them. Now they're getting down to business- namely, securing the Tablets of Fate and stopping all the madness. The heroes journey to exotic new places, meet exciting new people, and of course kill them. It's not a very deep or thought-provoking plot, but it is engrossing and fun. In the meantime, ham-fisted but heavily-armed Bane and his ugly sidekick Myrkul are up to their usual no-good, and you can expect to see great deals of violence and slaughter that would seem to indicate that the God of the Dead is the only one winning this whole show... but that's to be decided. For those that suffered through Shadowdale and thought it to be drivel, it would be a shame to not read Tantras. This is your reward for putting up with the heroes in the first book, and it does satisfy. While still not up to par with some of the other 'non-classic' Forgotten Realms novels, this one is at least enjoyable enough to recommend.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good bridge between "Shadowdale" and "Waterdeep.",
This review is from: Tantras (Forgotten Realms: Avatar Trilogy, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)
The Gods of the Forgotten Realms still wander among the mortals, since the Tablets of Fate have not been returned to the Gods' overlord, Lord Ao. The assault by Bane's Zhentish forces on Shadowdale has been repulsed, but Elminster has gone missing during the battle and is presumed destroyed. The Dalesman put Midnight and Adon on trial for Elminster's murder. But Cyric kills several guards and succeeds in freeing Midnight and Adon, and together the three flee down the River Ashaba and away from Shadowdale. Kelemvor and a force of Dalesmen are sent in pursuit. The chase leads to the occupied city of Scardale, then across the water to the city of Tantras, which will witness a titanic struggle between Bane and Torm, God of Duty and Honor. Along the way, loyalties shift and alliances fracture. By the end of "Tantras," the characters of Midnight, Adon, Kelemvor, and Cyric will be remarkably different than they were at the end of "Shadowdale." Another reviewer said that this book doesn't work well as a bridge between the lst ("Shadowdale") and 3rd ("Waterdeep") books of the series. I disagree. This book does not stand on equal footing with the other two books. That being said, "Tantras" is just as good as the others. "Well, wait a minute," you're saying. "Didn't you just say it wasn't as good?" No, that's not what I said. I said it doesn't stand on equal footing. That's because it's a different kind of book. The only reason this book was written, in my opinion, was to set the stage for "Waterdeep" by exploring the different characters and their different motivations in depth. The best part of the book is the journey down the river, because it allows the reader to get insider Cyric's, Midnight's, and Kelemvor's heads and understand what makes them tick. Since Adon is still catatonic for that part of the journey, his motivations don't get the same in-depth treatment. If you've read "Shadowdale," buy this book. If you haven't, read "Shadowdale" first, because the changes that take place in the main characters will be more profound with the background of "Shadowdale."
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
OK. Better...,
By Eduardo Luis Costas (Fairfax, VA United States) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Tantras (Forgotten Realms: Avatar Trilogy, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)
OK. So here we have the second installment in a series in which I didn't have much faith after finishing the first book SHADOWDALE (Refer to my review for it.) The first thing I found annoying was the whole trial ordeal. With very little development, and alot of circumstancial evidence, the authors (remember, Richard Awlinson is a pseudonym for various authors) want us to believe that the heroes of the story, after putting their lives on the line to save Shadowdale with the whole town as witness, are accused of killing the sage Elminster because A: Elminster was nowhere to be found, only his hat and bits of his robe were found, and B: the ranger Silver... something, was very angry. Honest. That's how it was presented. It's believable that the townspeople might see things that way if the reader was told they were fearful of outsiders (we weren't), but to have the reader believe that the Lord of the town would also accuse them without giving them the benefit of the doubt after they SAVED HIS TOWN, makes for poor characterization, and a Lord or Reagent that is laughable.
Well, in this book, the characters start to show signs of a more developed personality (whether by design of the authors or just the fact that I know the characters from the first book is hard to tell.) The authors make some headway in telling us more about what drives the characters, and start being more descriptive about the surroundings and events the heroes are faced with (Something that was sorely absent in the 1st book). I recognize that this was probably the first attempt to write a novel by both authors (Or whomever else collaborated). I noticed in reading the 1st and 2nd books of this trilogy that the authors were struggling with motivations and personality traits for their main characters. What a character is feeling, thinking, and what drives him/her, are essential (in my humble opinion) to making people care enough about a story to read/buy it. When they showed it, it seemed forced, maybe because they were told it was missing. It felt they were more worried about the action in the story (Which is a mistake, the action doesn't make the story, it helps shape and define it). In the end, it had small improvements among many gaping flaws. The end battle between Torm and Bane was boring and written like a description of a Ray Harryhausen Claymation movie, just not as entertaining. I hope the third fares better. Overall 2.5 rating Read the Elven Nations Trilogy, its very good stuff.
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