Children of the Rune: Tales From the Land of the Diamond Throne [Paperback]

Monte Cook (Author), Weinlein Cook (Contributor), Ed Greenwood (Contributor), Jeff Grubb (Contributor)

Product Details

• Paperback: 277 pages
• Publisher: White Wolf Publishing (August 21, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158846864X
• ISBN-13: 978-1588468642
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,086,544 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The game designer
Monte Cook started working professionally in the game industry in 1988. In the employ of Iron Crown Enterprises, he worked with the Rolemaster and Champions games as an editor, developer, and designer. In 1994, Monte came to TSR, Inc., as a game designer and wrote for the Planescape and core D&D lines. When that company was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, he moved to the Seattle area and eventually became a senior game designer. At Wizards, he wrote the 3rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide and served as codesigner of the new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. In 2001, he left Wizards to start his own design studio, Malhavoc Press, with his wife Sue. Although in his career he has worked on over 100 game titles, some of his other credits include Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, The Book of Eldritch Might series, the d20 Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, The Book of Vile Darkness, Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved, Ptolus, Monte Cook's World of Darkness, and Dungeonaday.com. He was a longtime author of the Dungeoncraft column in Dungeon Magazine. In recent years, Monte has been recognized many times by game fans in the ENnies Awards, the Pen & Paper fan awards, the Nigel D. Findley Memorial Award, the Origins Awards, and more.

The author
A graduate of the 1999 Clarion West writer's workshop, Monte has published two novels, The Glass Prison and Of Aged Angels. Also, he has published the short stories "Born in Secrets" (in the magazine Amazing Stories), "The Rose Window" (in the anthology Realms of Mystery), and "A Narrowed Gaze" (in the anthology Realms of the Arcane). His stories have appeared in the Malhavoc Press anthologies Children of the Rune and The Dragons' Return, and his comic book writing can be found in the Ptolus: City by the Spire series from DBPro/Marvel. His fantasy fiction series, "Saga of the Blade," appeared in Game Trade Magazine from 2005-2006.

The geek
In his spare time, Monte runs games, plays with his dog, watches DVDs, builds vast dioramas out of LEGO building bricks, paints miniatures, and reads a lot of comics.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A nice introduction to the land of the Diamond Throne, January 5, 2006

By 

Steven Wilber "DragonReader" (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Children of the Rune: Tales From the Land of the Diamond Throne (Paperback)

As with any anthology some stories in this set were better than others. Some were average some were quite good. Most had interesting characters and lots of action.

The set also provided a nice introduction to the land of the Dimond Throne, the setting for Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed RPG.

My only complaint (and it is a minor one) is that the authors seemed to assume that the readers are familiar with setting and used races and/or monsters that are unique to the world. This is fine, but in some cases I would have liked to have a little more description of these races in order to know how they differed from other fantasy mainstays (such as humans, elves, dwarves, etc). But this did not take away from the stories which were enjoyable.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good introduction to The Diamond Throne and Arcana Unearthed, November 16, 2004

By 

Sigmund Kopperud "Sigmund Kopperud, gamer, fa... (Oslo, Norway) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Children of the Rune: Tales From the Land of the Diamond Throne (Paperback)

As a stand-alone book, this book is certainly not one of the best fantasy books I've read ( Check out some Michael Moorcock books if that's what you're itching for. )

However, it is certainly a good introduction to the Diamond Throne setting for Arcana Unearthed, and it's in fact something I made part of the mandatory reading for my Diamond Throne campaigns. It is good, as it's full of suspense and action, and the fact that it imbues a feeling of verisimilitude, which is very good.

This book is, in my opinion, much better than most of the Forgotten Realms books released nowadays.