The Dragons' Return (Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved) [Paperback]

Monte Cook (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 277 pages
• Publisher: White Wolf Publishing (February 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1588468836
• ISBN-13: 978-1588468833
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 1 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: #3,074,227 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

4.0 out of 5 stars Dragons, dragons, and more dragons..., September 9, 2008

By 

Wayne's Books "www.WaynesBooks.net" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Dragons' Return (Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved) (Paperback)

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories. The Diamond Throne setting is compelling, and the authors are well-known to readers of Forgotten Realms ad Dragonlance.

I had no knowledge of Arcana Evolved when I started this book, so all the various dragon sub-races were a mystery at first. But for the most part they, and the re-visioned classic races are adequately explained. Kobolds are budded-off "children" of mojh, for example. Still, they could have done better for readers unfamiliar with the RPG setting. I still have no idea what a sibeccai looks like.

The story of Nithogar the dragon makes for nice bookends to the anthology. Monte Cook's story at the end was the best, in my opinion.

3.0 out of 5 stars nice, fun collection of tales, March 6, 2006

By 

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

This review is from: The Dragons' Return (Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved) (Paperback)

A number of the stories in this collection were well written and all of them had interesting plots. My personal favorites were "Envoy" by Jeff Grubb, "The Land is in Our Blood" by Stan!, and "Essence of the Dragon" by Will McDermott.

These stories stood out because of the lessons they illustrated and their interesting characters.

One of the strengths of this anthology is it provided a somewhate different view of dragons than is typical of most fantasy and D&D-related novels.

The tales in this anthology were a fun mixture of action, adventure, and magic and many had interesting themes and lessons to think about.

If you are a fan of Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved RPG (or any other RPG for that matter) or are just looking for a fun set of tales you might want to pick up this collection.