Condemnation (Forgotten Realms Novel: War of the Spider Queen) [Hardcover]

Richard Baker (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 344 pages
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast (January 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786928255
• ISBN-13: 978-0786928255
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Richard Baker is an award-winning game designer and a best-selling author. He's worked on the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game lines since 1991. Rich traces his D&D experience back to 1979, when he began playing the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game as a 7th-grader. He spent a significant amount of his high school and college years playing D&D at every opportunity, and after serving as a surface warfare officer in the United States Navy, Rich decided to take a shot at working on the game he grew up playing - and so he joined the staff of TSR, Inc., and became a game designer. Rich's list of D&D design credits numbers over 50 game products, including the Origins Award-winning BIRTHRIGHT Campaign Setting, the ALTERNITY Science Fiction Roleplaying Game (which he co-designed with Bill Slavicsek), and the newest edition of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game. He has also served as creative director for the ALTERNITY and FORGOTTEN REALMS game lines. As an author, Rich has published eight fantasy and science fiction novels, including City of Ravens, Forsaken House, and the New York Times bestseller Condemnation. Rich is currently employed as a senior game designer at Wizards of the Coast, Inc., and works every day on new products for the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good story, and I can't complain, August 16, 2003

By 

Derrick Schommer (Hudson, NH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Condemnation (Forgotten Realms: R.A. Salvatore's War of the Spider Queen, Book 3) (Hardcover)

First off, for those that are reading this review to know if they should 'go on' in the series should stop right now and buy it. No matter how good this book is, it is a *must have* to continue the saga.

Secondly, I enjoyed the book. I was not bothered by anything in the style of writing such as the combat scenes, or character development. I believe this author gave more life and humor to some of the characters. Pharaun and Valas seemed to pickup a sense of humor in this book as compared to some of the prior books. Although some characters did not develop to a high degree, they assisted in pushing the storyline and the author spent more time on group interaction between the main Drow party. Overall a different author helps give you more experience with other writing styles.

It seems to me that each author does his best to make Quenthel more and more bitchy and "drow priestess" like. :) Each book she gets on my nerves more and more. Like a little spoiled girl with way to much power. Pharaun seems to act more like a teasing brother during this story.

Two things I did not enjoy which keep me from adding that last star:

1. The paper book cover over the hardcover novel is way to small and it makes the book hard to open, and slides off easily. Not a problem with Salvatores hardcover "Demon War Series". I just took it off while I read it (defeating the purpose of course).

2. Unless I am reading it wrong on page 315 the author writes: " 'Save your magic', Quenthel decided. 'That strand will do. Jeggred, Ryld, carry Valas and Danifae'" -- what? Jeggred is not even in the group in this scene, but back on the material plane while they are in the outer planes.... type-o? Pretty big inconsistency if I read that right...

Other then that, Its worth the money. Buy it, read it, and enjoy every minute.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great story, mediocre writing, unforgivable editing, September 19, 2003

By 

S. Vasquez "sloth" (Radcliff, Ky United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Condemnation (Forgotten Realms: R.A. Salvatore's War of the Spider Queen, Book 3) (Hardcover)

After the first two books I was sure I was reading one of the great fantasy series ever concocted. Storywise I still believe I am. Beyond that, everything's starting to decline.

While I have heard many good things about Richard Baker, I don't think I will go out of my way to read anything else of his now that I've seen a sample of his writing. It seemed as though they were trying to include to much in this one book and he subsequently didn't give any of it enough attention. It reads like he was either rushed or too lazy to give it the time and attention a story this great, or any story really, deserves.

What ever the reason behind the books lack of content, there is NO excuse for the pathetic editing. For a first edition book, a comma here or a puncuation mark there is forgivable (and there have been a couple I've caught in this series). INCLUDING PARTS OF THE ROUGH DRAFT IN THE FINAL COPY IS INEXCUSABLE! Mistakes like talking to characters who aren't even in the scene, causes the readers attention to be distracted by the writing itself rather than engulfed by what is written.

READ THIS BOOK THOUGH, THE STORY'S GREAT and skipping books in in this series will only leave you lost and greatly diminish you're enjoyment of the series as a whole.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Drow fun, November 14, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Condemnation (Forgotten Realms: R.A. Salvatore's War of the Spider Queen, Book 3) (Hardcover)

This was very good too, apart from a few minor errors, where Danifae suddenly can levitate, and another where Quenthel orders Jeggred to pick her up and he's not even there.

But it's a real page turner too, with a lot of surface adventures and continuing the story of Quenthel, Jeggred, Pharaun, Ryld, Hallistrae, Danifae and Alliszia. Pharaun is less the main character though still has his usual wit, and it takes on Hallistrae's perspective more which works nicely. Danifae's character is also more fleshed out and various blossoming romances (as far as that word can really apply to drow) are begun, as well as an interesting examination on Hallistrae's part of her faith in Lolth.

Looking forward to the fourth book. It might have been nice if the series had been written by one author but it's working.