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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A ghost-train of sheer delight, June 15, 2009
This review is from: City of the Dead: Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep (Mass Market Paperback)
There are certain things I expected from a Rosemary Jones fantasy novel. A resourceful heroine, an affinity for the working class, some misfit characters, a great sense of humor, and thrilling action more akin to The Princess Bride than Conan the Barbarian. But City of the Dead tromps through George Romero's sandbox. How was she going to balance her playful romp style with the threat of an undead apocalypse?
When, about 4 pages in, I burst out laughing at a brief, non-verbal exchange between a protective statuary and ghostly essence of Waterdeep's famed necropolis, I knew I was in good hands. Somewhere between the topiary dragon, the "dark dearlings," and the mounting horror of what is about to be unleashed, I was completely won over. I ended up reading the book straight through, pausing only briefly for brief family activities, and couldn't go to bed until I finished it. That's the kind of book City of the Dead is: a spookhouse thrill-ride that grabs you by the hand and won't let go until you get to the other side. If you're a fan of fantasy fiction and have, know, are, or have ever been a teen girl, this should be on your shelf. If you like a fun story masterfully told, that goes double.
I eagerly anticipate her next book. And until then, I won't be able to "visit" Waterdeep without thinking fondly of the Carver family and the vital service they provide to the city.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fun...fun...fun, June 11, 2009
This review is from: City of the Dead: Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep (Mass Market Paperback)
City of the Dead by Rosemary Jones has a pretty linear plot line. It is a tale of revenge involving the graveyard that unwittingly puts a family and all of Waterdeep at risk of the walking dead. The main character, Sophraea Carver with the help of an out-of-towner "Better than some, worse than others" wizard Gustin Bone investigates to get to the bottom of the strange occurrences happening in the graveyard. A couple of subplots flavor up the story with the alternate agenda of Gustin's visit to Waterdeep, a merchant man's overreaching hand, an old lord's ambition to keep Waterdeep from changing too much, a family's day to day activities, and of course a love interest.
The pacing of CotD moves along nicely and doesn't get too fast or bogged much down at all. The novel flows quite well, however, there are a couple of bumps in the road that, to me, interrupt it and that was due to the choice of names for some of the characters, names such as Fidelity, Judicious, Vigilant, and the antagonist Rampage Stunk. I found that I had to re-read sections to make sure that those were indeed the character names and not random words put in the sentence.
Ms. Jones was able to take the CotD and bring it to a much greater life than I have seen before. I have read in other realms novels where characters entered the graveyard but the vision that I got was nowhere near as vibrant as it was with reading this one. I also was given enough details to get the author's vision without overbearing details.
I was able to connect well with all the characters. I even wanted to reach into the book and throttle the antagonist and his henchmen. The character development was also done very well, even the old Lord's character developed some at the end. Other readers may find something different from me, but I was just having so much fun reading CotD that I may have missed a few things.
A couple minor criticisms:
1. Like I mentioned before, the names of the characters were a bit silly to me. I will say that at least they were not long jumbles of consonants crammed together, but using everyday words for names made it a bit confusing. I did like Sophraea's father's name and the way that it fit with the family's profession.
2. Though there are some nice battle scenes throughout CotD, I just never really felt that the characters were in any mortal danger. I could easily predict a few times of how they could escape from the predicaments that they were in. I did enjoy some of the escapes though.
Some positives:
1. Aside from the title, this is definitely not a dark fantasy novel. It is very lighthearted and a joy to read. I do like dark fantasy as well, but this was nice as it was a break from the norm. It was just a fun, fun read
2. The characters were fun to read. The humor was not too silly or over the top. Each one seemed to have their own voice and make decisions logically based on the situations and their knowledge.
3. The writing was awesome. I had a hard time putting this one down. I looked forward to every moment I could get to jump back in. Ms. Jones knows how to keep things interesting and always leaves something to look forward to.
4. The vision added to the CotD made the graveyard as welcoming in the daytime as it was foreboding at night. I was very easy to envision the graves and mausoleums as well as a few added bonuses that truly enhance Waterdeep as the City of Splendors.
Overall, I enjoyed myself very much. I enjoyed Crypt of the Moaning Diamond also, but this was even better. If you only like reading dark fantasy or serious fantasy epics, then you may want to skip this one. Now if you re looking to get started into the Forgotten Realms, I can recommend this as a place to test the waters. There is no previous realms lore needed to understand how things are in Waterdeep. There is a small amount about the spell plague, but it is used differently in a way that enhanced the story. I am not a gamer, I have only read FR novels, but to me there was little to do with the 4E rules and this book did not seem much different from previous realms books. For those who are adamant about reading realms books because of the 4E, I would recommend trying this one out. You may be pleasantly surprised.
-Dimndbangr
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another Very Different Sort of Winner from Rosemary, July 9, 2009
This review is from: City of the Dead: Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep (Mass Market Paperback)
None of the stock descriptions I'd read about Rosemary Jones' book City of the Dead really did it justice or prepared me for the story within. While some, like what's on the back of the book cover, are technically correct, they just don't impart the lighthearted yet multi-layered feel of the book.
It was a pleasant surprise and and a joy to read. As an instant fan of Rosemary Jones' from her other book the Crypt of the Moaning Diamond, it was not a question of if I would buy City of the Dead, but when. So without reading much about the concept (or really even paying attention that Ed Greenwood was endorsing it), I was on the hook for Rosemary's next book.
The book is not a traditional D&D epic-type fantasy with overpowered heroes and endless trudging over picturesque landscapes to some predictable goal that can be found in some fantasy novels and trilogies. No "flaming swords of fire" here! Not that I don't enjoy some of that sort of story now and again -- I do. But this new book really got me thinking about the different ways that one might approach game-world inspired fiction and Fantasy novels in general. Rosemary really took a risk with this out of the box story concept and it paid off, at least for me. If I had to draw a comparison with another writer or style, I'd choose Charles Dickens. It's been over ten years since I've read anything by Dickens, but that's what Rosemary reminded me of with her new book.
But here I am four paragraphs in and I haven't even told you what the book is about yet. Well, the heroine is, for lack of a better description, a very ordinary young woman. She's powerful in her own way, to be sure, but most of her might comes from her strength of character and determination. "Plucky" is what Ed Greenwood calls her. She's very much a product of her upbringing, and Rosemary again introduces the concepts of class and being born into one's station that she touched on in Moaning Diamond. That said, she has an independent streak and a lack of desire to fall into some traditional role planned out for her.
Do you want a nutshell description of the story? I'm sorry but there really isn't one to give. The fun in reading this story is getting to know all of the characters within. The plotline is secondary. But if you've read this far then you're unlikely to be satisfied with that evasive answer so I'll put it another way. This is the story of a girl from a family of Carvers. Gravestone-carvers, that is, who lives in a city of magic and legend and cannot help but be swept up in adventure despite her best attempts to avoid it. Her name is Sophraea.
And when you get Sophorea you get the whole Carver family in the bargain, an interesting an unique bunch to say the least.
(SPOILER ALERT!) A slightly more fantastic character, suitable for the D&D genre who is introduced as her partner later in the story is Gustin, a wizard. He casts spells and works rituals and while far from being overpowered, he adds a sense of the game that might otherwise be missing. I say this because if not for the setting of Waterdeep, the story of Sophraea might have been told just as effectively in a more generic horror setting. (END SPOILER)
Sophorea and her partner find curiousity getting the better of them, as well as a baddie with a very Dickens-like name (to the reviewer who commented on the funny names, check out a Dickens book!) who just begs to be disliked. I must say that I was not surprised at all with one of the "mystery" twists at the end and saw it coming, but again, getting to know the characters was such fun that this did not impact the story negatively for me.
I strongly recommend Rosemary's book and hope that Wizards of the Coast will ask her to write another full novel soon. Rosemary has let on that she will have a short story published that is tied to City of the Dead (another member of the Carver family will take the lead), so I'll be on the lookout for that!
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