Customer Reviews

Dark Lord: Book One of the Falconfar Saga

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Maybe I'm just spoiled by the character development in some other series like George Martin & co, but this story seemed kind of rushed. The basic plot was somewhat attractive to me, fantasy writer sucked into a world of his making that is corrupted and needs fixing, however the writers knowledge alluded to places without taking the time to go into much depth.

The fight scenes are pretty well done though, and the personality of the main evil wizard was well developed and was a believable villain. The dialogue wasn't all that inspiring however and I found myself not caring about many of the characters tossed my way. I think if the author had spent more time developing these characters and moved the plot a bit more slowly things would have turned out a bit better.

That said, if you're into the D&D/Forgotten Realms type books, this fits right into that segment (fast moving, not very complicated plots with heroes crashing from one conflict to the next) then you should have a decent read of it. If you're into the more mature and detailed books like Martin, Jordan, etc this one may leave you a bit wanting.

When Rod Everlar began having dreams about a magical land called Falconfar, a land of knights and wizards and beautiful winged women called Aumrarr, he wrote the dreams down and turned them into a series of best-selling books. But, when he awakes from one of those dreams to find himself confronted by a grievously wounded Aumrarr, he soon finds that his late night dreams have become his waking nightmare. Taeauna the Aumrarr spirits him off to Falconfar where he must heal the land and put right all that has now become so grievously wrong.

Overall, I must say that I really liked this book. I think that Mr. Greenwood did a great job of creating a very interesting world, which he populated with interesting characters. I liked the intensity of the action, and found myself totally drawn along by the flow of the story.

Sadly, the story does have its problems. First of all, Mr. Greenwood did go too far with the sexuality in the story - it makes it feel like the target audience was randy teenage boys, and it cheapens the whole thing. Secondly, after the first instance, the drinking of Rod Everlar's blood for its healing properties quickly took on a creepy and disturbing feel. And my final complaint is that the book ends with a cliffhanger, demanding that you read the next installment of the series, and keeping this book from being a free-standing work in its own right.

But, that said, I really did enjoy this book. The action was great, and the magic was exciting and well-drawn. Also, I really did like the characters of Taeauna and Rod Everlar, and cared for them along their adventures. So, let me say that I did love this book, and I do recommend it...with some minor caveats.

Oh Ed, how did we ever get here?

Let me start off by saying I read a LOT of fantasy, and as such can enjoy a shallow tale of swords and sorcery. I've been a fan of Greenwood since, well, the original Forgotten Realms years and picked this up hoping to be transported back to the days when the genre was fresh, and closer to the RPG roots from whence it originated.

How disappointed I was.

This is a terrible book and really smacks of a half-hearted attempt at a pay-day for Greenwood.

The writing is lazy, virtually unedited as far as I can see (as another reviewer noted, the word 'shapely' is used almost every page - also, I silently screamed every time I read the word 'wherefore' it's used so often). Random plot devices, hideously cliched exposition, uninteresting characters, lack of any real storyline... I could go on. But I won't. I've wasted enough of my life reading this trash.

If you prefer your brain cells to stay in your head as opposed to sluicing out your ears, avoid.

I've read quite a few books this year, and as a student the year for me begins in September, so that's quite some time to be reading. But this is very likely to be the most unique of all of them.

I decided to review it almost entirely on the strength of the title, "Dark Lord", with the incredible artwork on the cover enticing me further. It embarrasses me somewhat to say that I actually had no idea of what it was about... But it paid off. If I had read the blurb, I would have chosen a different book. It's about a man who travels to his own fantasy world, and I generally avoid these books, for reasons which will be explained below...

But before I heap praise onto this book, there is one major thing that stops this book from receiving full marks. There isn't a particularly strong plot. The story is driven by consequence, rather than the goal, which is equally indirect - wander around until the main character feels right. But it IS the first in a trilogy, and the foundation is laid for a stronger story arc overall, which offers some comfort.

So if it's not in the plot, where does the strength of this plot lie? The answer is pretty much everywhere else. The obvious one to say would be the Characters, and they are done very well, particularly the main characters: Rod and Taeauna. But I'm not going to go into that because, in my opinion, there is a much more interesting aspect to the story.

It's not the action either, although there's plenty of it, again done very well. This varies between tense, serious fighting, to the more comedic situations of the characters being attacked while bathing or making love. It's a broad range of writing types, and I'm quite impressed.

But the thing that really stood out was how well the modern character interacted with his world. This is the thing that makes me wary of these types of books in general, because in nearly every thing I've read with a modern day character there is a pattern: initial wonder, immediate denial, acceptance of destiny, forget that the modern world exists. This isn't strictly adhered to, but generally occurs in the first few chapters. In this book however, the main character is constantly reminding hi

Self that he's from our world, for instance saying that something is as heavy as a cart, at which the other characters become confused. While there is a Vague resemblance of that cycle, it's less obvious, and doesn't complete even at the end of the book. In fact, he's a pretty useless hero, following Taeauna around trying to Learn about the world.

And the other interesting aspect is that while most of these type of books are people who stumble across the fantasy world, or maybe dream it up, Rod is the author of a series of books about the world. Now that wouldn't be so different in itself, but there is also a computer game of the series. It's that computer game company, Holdencorp, who have made the world of Falconfar such a terrible place, because of the simple dynamics of video games (ie in video games, there needs to be lots of enemies for the player to kill, so there's lots of enemies in falconfar since Holdencorp acquired rights). It's this kind of thing that makes the book so unique.

I really would like to give this book 5/5, but since the plot is lacking I don't think I can. But I loved it, and plan to recommend it to everyone. Including you. Read it.

As a creative person myself I WINCE to write negative reviews about creative works. That said, let me give you my perspective & leanings to give this review fair context: I am a fan of fantasy, particularly the Dragonlance Chronicles and Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. I found Dark Lord extremely dissatisfying.

Plot summary: Fantasy Writer Rod Everlar awakes from a bad dream only to be sucked into Falconfar, a fantasy world of his own creation. Unfortunately for Rod, Falconfar has fallen on dark times thanks to the revisions and additions of the greedy, sinister video game company to whom he licensed his world. Now he must save Falconfar from the evil he let befall it.

The short short version: Good premise executed poorly.

My main complaints: 1.) All the women of Falconfar are, of course, sexually promiscuous, winged lingerie models desperate to suck on Everlar's extremeties (his blood has healing properties) and bear his children (he is, after all, Lord Archwizard and Shaper.) 2.) Since the story begins on present day earth, The 3rd person omniscient narration starts off in modern day English. Once we enter Falconfar, however, the narration style begins to vary wildly and apparently without motivation between modern day English and a sort of bad pseudo-Shakespearian dialect, which is both trite and distracting. 3.) You could say that one theme of the story is "the power you need is already inside you." However, in this case the delivery mechanism for that theme is so transparently self-indulgent (a writer who feels betrayed by the company that licensed his story) there is little room for the reader to insert his own life or imagine himself as the hero.

I would not recommend this book.

I couldn't even finish this book. The whole thing felt like Mr. Greenwood's personnel fantasy, and i am not interested in reading his wet dreams. i wish i can have my money back!!!

I've heard lots of good things about Ed Greenwoods fantasy writing and the plot of this story sounded interesting. Unfortunately, I barely made it 100 pages before I just couldn't read any more. I felt this book was written by someone who just thought one day - "I'm going to write a fantasy novel." I wasn't drawn into the story and I didn't connect with any of the characters.

When fantasy author Rod Everlar's world of Falconfar turns from being his fantasy to being his reality, he begins to question his own sanity. But, this is truly not his Falconfar - the corporation that now owns the rights to Rod's world has turned it from an idyllic world of fantasy, into a dark world of horror. And now, drawn across by the wounded Aumrarr, Taeauna, Rod Everlar must find out what he can do to put the world right.

I do like a good fantasy story, and this story does rise to the level of good...I just wish that it had risen a bit higher. The Fantasy world of Falconfar is interesting, and the action and adventure is quite good. The problems with the story, though, do drag it down, down and down. The main problem being that the story tends to drag along, with too many characters introduced and a storyline that never seems to develop a true direction. It's like the author took an idea for a great book, and turned it into a rather bloated trilogy.

Now, I have not seen the rest of the trilogy, so perhaps the stories the trilogy gets better after the first book. Certainly the sexual tension between Taeauna and Rod Everlar seems an interest, though rather underdeveloped, part of the plot. The trilogy has a lot of potential, but it definitely hasn't been fully developed yet.

(Review of Dark Lord: Book One of the Falconfar Saga by Ed Greenwood)

I read this book and book 2.What an incredible waste of time and $35. It was actually depressing trying to plow through these books.Buy them only if you are hard up for lousy reading.

This first book "Dark Lord" (in the Falconfar series) gets 3 stars in my opinion. The other two books are 2 stars.

All too often authors can be very boring in the middle of their stories, like a walk through a bog. I found myself pushing through so many parts that were not enjoyable and boring. Greenwood has a love of being surreal and confusing the reader with vague atmospheres and non-linear time schemes.

With that said, the creator and author has a great concept in Falconfar. I love the protagonist and love the concept of a book/story/computer game coming to life. I also appreciated new creatures and new concepts of life. All too often the same dwarf and elf cultures pop up in Fantasy. Falconfar does seek to be very creative and unique in this way, and exploring it was interesting.

However... much like a movie where the main characters get involved with too much bedroom activities and distracts the audience from the overall goal of the story, so too the Falconfar series borders on a Penthouse Forum. Maybe I am being too harsh, but the very nature of sex can muddy a plot and sidetrack the main push of one (no pun intended). For those of you hard up for a sexual story, don't bother, for these books do not satisfy those requirements either.

Also, the author has too many characters. I found myself wanting to write down and keep track of every name and to who they belong, etc etc. Much like a homework assignment! Greenwood also like throwing characters in "willy-nilly" without much consequence

What I found frustrating is Greenwood also chooses to switch characters and scenes too quickly, thereby leaving the audience hanging so abruptly, that in the time it takes one to recover, your already in another land or in another castle witnessing a overly bloody scene or sexual act. In this whole process, One finds themself reeling having to rereading pages to clarify. I also found myself preparing and trying to anticipate to compensate for this as well.

I have to admit, that I have not yet finished book 3, yet I am at the limit of patience with the story. Too many characters with no reason or history, in and out of dimensions without explanations, dreamlike acid trips explained from characters experiencing magic, all are wearing thin.

Sadly the author does not believe in keeping it simple (like Bilbo traveling to the great mountain with the dwarves).

In summary, if I had to buy these books, I'd be upset. Since the public library let me obtain the stories without financial strain, I am grateful. In many regards I did enjoy the story, even though Greenwood is on the verge of porn. I also believe that the level of gore goes a bit too far in Falconfar. I am sure that Aragorn or Legolas hewed many a limbs or decapitated many foes, yet Tolkien didn't overdue the description of these actions because it didn't advance the story.

With some refinement, easing of porn and simplification, these books and the Falconfar world have real potential, for the concept, unique qualities and richness of Falconfar could of been something great.