5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Erevis Cale Trilogy Omnibus by Paul S. Kemp, July 15, 2010
This review is from: The Erevis Cale Trilogy (Paperback)
The Erevis Cale Trilogy Omnibus by Paul S. Kemp- This omnibus contains The Erevis Cale Trilogy along with two short stories. The Erevis Cale Trilogy consists of Twilight Falling, Dawn of Night, and Midnight's Mask. The two short stories are "And All the Sinners, Saints", which was previously seen in Dragon Magazine #297, and "Soulbound", which is found in the Realms of the Dragons anthology. The stories take place in the Forgotten Realm universe, which is a setting in Dungeons and Dragons. The story of Erevis Cale starts off with a short story called "Resurrection" in the anthology titled Halls of Stormweather. It continues in Shadow's Witness, which takes place just before The Erevis Cale Trilogy. The story finishes with the Twilight War Trilogy; Shadowbred, Shadowstorm, and Shadowrealm. He wrote the final book in the War of the Spider Queen series called Resurrection and has written a few short stories set in the Forgotten Realms. This latest Forgotten Realms novel, titled Godborn, is due out some time in 2012. Paul S. Kemp has recently been writing novels set in the Star Wars universe. His first novel in the Star Wars universe is Crosscurrent and is currently writing a tie-in with the upcoming video game Star Wars: The Old Republic titled Deceived. The Erevis Cale Trilogy Omnibus was released in June 2010 and published by Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
Review Note: This is the first time I'm reviewing an omnibus, and most likely my only. I have previously reviewed The Erevis Cale Trilogy before this, but I will be taking a whole new look at the books and giving fresh thoughts on them.
"And All the Sinners, Saints"
Erevis Cale just found his god in Mask. While unsure if being a priest of the Shadowlord, Cale decides to try to commune with his god, only to receive a vague vision of what Mask wants Cale to do. At the same time, Drasek Riven is having a similar experience. Now the question is, what does Mask want Cale and Riven to do, and how does he want it done?
Criticisms:
1) Short. This is not a bad thing, but I just wanted more!
Praises:
1) Tie In. I really like how this ties in with what happened with Shadow's Witness and some mentions in Twilight Falling. I always like this little nods.
2) Back Story. Do you need to read Shadow's Witness to know what is going on? No, and it's wonderful. You really got a good idea of what kind of person Cale is, along with who Riven is.
Overall: 5/5
Quick Thoughts:
It's a fun and interesting look at who the main characters. It's almost like a 'character study' and an excellent introduction to The Erevis Cale Trilogy.
Twilight Falling
Erevis Cale is leaving Stormweather Tower, where he's been employed as a butler for the Uskevren family for years and considers them his family. After the family's patriarch died, Cale knows it's time to move on. After saying good-bye to his adoptive family, Cale receives a letter from Drasek Riven to meet him at an inn to discuss something. After arriving at the inn, a fireball destroys the inn and Cale and Riven barely manage to survive the blast. After locating were the fireball came from, the duo confront a shadow adept wizard named Vraggen and his partner, a half-drow by the name of Azriim. After the little skirmish Cale realizes that they are after something the Uskevren has and they were trying to remove Cale from interfering. Arriving back at Stormweather, Cale finds and confronts the thieves who are after an unremarkable sphere, but is unable to stop them. Cale is only able to shear the sphere into two halves, but he is able to recover one of the halves. With the half safely with him, he goes to find his old friend Jak Fleet and get to the bottom of why this sphere is so important. After Riven joins the duo and then trio goes to a sage to get some answers to the sphere. Why does this shadow adept want such a seemingly useless paperweight and can the trio stop Vraggen?
Criticisms:
1) Cale/Tazi. I don't know what it is but for some reason I just never bought into the whole Cale and Tazi (the daughter of the Uskevren's) relationship. In the previous book, Shadow's Witness, it is somewhat believable. In this book, it doesn't seem to work on its own. Not once did I feel a connection between these two and having to be told that Cale loves Tazi just makes it worse. Cale's actions towards Tazi never really made much sense. But I'm chalking this problem up to the next problem with this book.
2) Back Ground. The reason the whole Cale and Tazi love interest doesn't work is that it seems you almost need to read Shadow's Witness to understand it along with a lot of other little references that are made. While for the most part, you don't really need to read the first Cale book, it would help a lot. There are so many references to previous events in the first fifty pages that if you go into this blind, you may miss out on some characterization and some interesting references. I would say you should read Shadow's Witness first, but it's not one hundred percent required, just seventy-five.
Praises:
1) Characters. Aside from me being an absolute Cale and Riven fan-boy, all the other characters are interesting and very unique. Of course you have the good-hearted killer in Cale and you have the sneer to end all sneers that Riven has, but let's instead look at the other characters. We have Jak, who is Cale's conscious. While he may come off as annoying, you really can see the friendship between the two. In reality, he's more like a real person when you compare him to Cale or Riven. With the villains we have the arrogant Vraggen and his blind pursuit to retake the Zhentarim from the followers of Bane and reinstate the control of the Mad God Cyric. He's more of your standard bad guy. However, with his partner Azriim, we have a totally different kind of villain. If you could pick two words to describe Azriim they would be vain and manipulative. He's the guy you never see coming until the end. Rounding out the villains we have Dolgan, Serrin, and Elura. Dolgan's the usual muscled dimwit and Serrin's the stoic killer. Elura doesn't have too many scenes but she's more like a seductress killer type of character. While these three are more stock bad guys, they each fit the mold well. Overall, the characters are just plain amazing.
2) Hints. There are so many subtle hints of things to come that you wouldn't understand them until the happen. After these things happen, you can't help but go back and check out the things you've missed picking up on. It only gets better with multiple reads, because you start noticing things that will come up in the next books as well as things that happen in the next trilogy. It's just wonderful seeing a series tie itself together so nicely.
3) Plot. While the plot was fairly straightforward, it always seemed to keep me on the edge of my seat. Even when you knew something was going to happen, you were still surprised it happened. Everything just seemed to fit in, a la the hints strewn throughout the story. Not to mention that it flowed beautifully. It's straightforward as it needed to be with a few nice turns here and there.
Overall: 4/5
Quick Thoughts:
Twilight Falling is a great beginning to a trilogy. It sets up the characters wonderfully and each of them are unique and memorable in some way. The Cale and Tazi's relationship never felt real however. It just didn't work. The plot is great with some turns, only a little too straightforward. Reading the previous book, Shadow's Witness, would be a good idea to get some of the references that are mentioned here and there. Then you have all the little hints you have that basically tells what's going to happen later on in the story. Overall Twilight Falling is great and it really allows you to know a little more about our main heroes, Cale and Riven.
Dawn of Night
Erevis Cale, Drasek Riven, Jak Fleet, and Magadon all find themselves in the Plane of Shadow. Jak is horrified to see Cale is now more than human, he's become a shade, a being of shadow. As Cale and the group traverse the Plane of Shadow's, tensions start to run high between Cale and Riven, and only escalate from there. After days of travel, Cale is forced to give into his new nature in order to save the group for the horrors of the plane. As they are trying to find a way out of the Plane of Shadow, the mastermind and father behind the Slaadi (or is it Slaad's?) plans to use the Weave Tap for powering a powerful spell. Having sent his Slaadi; Azriim, Dolgan, and Serrin, to the cesspool that is Skullport in order to plant a seed to sap the magical energies of the city. After Cale and the group succeed in escaping, can the group locate and stop the Slaadi from tapping Skullport's magical mantle or do the Slaadi succeed?
Criticisms:
1) The Sojourner. I don't know what it was but his earlier chapters felt like they went on forever. I don't know if it was because the character of the Sojourner was so dull or that the chapters themselves were dry, but I just could barely get through them. I'm leaning more towards a combination of the two. While they were interesting, I just had this feeling of 'so what' while reading them.
2) Love Interest. Yet again, we have a problem with an unbelievable and almost silly love interest. While I do know this one between Cale and a tavern waitress named Varra does get better and the whole first meeting was good, I just didn't did like how it was handled. It seemed like Cale is suddenly obsessed with her, and it comes off a little creepy more than sincere. It's just bothersome.
Praises:
1) Characters. Once again, aside from the Sojourner, the characters are wonderful and really dimensional. I'm not going to get into much detail because honestly, I'll just be repeating what...
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