6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Need more like this., July 16, 2000
This review is from: The Halls of Stormweather (Forgotten Realms: Sembia series, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)
If your a fan of Ed Greenwood or the Realms, this is a must read for you. It's a great way to write a book. "Seven parts" means seven different authors writing seven chapters of the same story. The story is about the Uskevren's, a noble family in sembia. The authors take different members of the household, write about each, and tie them all together from one to the next. In a way, it was a refreshing change from reading the same author through a whole book. This was a great way to start a four book series on Sembia. The back-stabbing and subterfuge of the Sembian nobles is almost Drow-like. You can hate one character, only to find out that the next chapter is about him, and end up seeing there is alot more to him than you thought. WOTC should do this with more series. It gives you more than one point of view, but better than a regular anthology could.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A book with very interesting characters, October 17, 2001
This review is from: The Halls of Stormweather (Forgotten Realms: Sembia series, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)
This book was placed in the realm of Sembia, and the story took place in the city of Selgaunt - one of the biggest trading cities in Sembia. The book consisted of seven really good stories. Officialy it was an anthology, but I would't call it that because of the lenght of the stories and the way it was built up. The entire book told the tales of the rich merchant family - the Uskevren - and their lives and early days history.
The book had seven stories, and each of the stories told the tale of one of the family members. There were the story of Thamalon the Patriarch, which I liked very much. Normally i don't like anthologies, but this book felt as if it was a whole novel. All the different characters worked very well together.
It was a very dark book, after my opinion. There were lots of intrigue, and murders, and other terrible things, done for the purpose of outdoing each one's rival. As said before, the city of Selgaunt was a city of trade, so there was lots of plotting against each other. So the stories had all, a really good plot. Lots of other Forgotten Realms books is just hack-an-slash battle books, but this one had really kept me reading for a very long time, even if it was 4 past 12 in the night.
Normally i only read Dragonlance books, but i have always wanted to learn about the Forgotten Realms world. So it was because of that, I bought the book. It was a book designed to introduce new fans to the Forgotten Realms, so I immediately picked it up. But still, I don't think that the book serves that really well. There was still so many confusing things, that I didn't knew a heck about, but the well built plot lines kept me reading it, so it is absolutely not a bad book - even if it didn't serve as a great introduction book.
My favorite chacter in the book, must have been Thazienne. Maybe it is just because i am a boy, that i really liked her. After my opinion, Thazienne looked very much like Kitiara Uth-Matar from the Dragonlance saga. So if you have read some of the Dragonlance Legends books you will have a very good view of Thazienne.
The other characters in the book were also very good, especially Erevis Cale and the Maid. So i really hope that I, in future Sembia novels will learn a little bit more about The Realms than in this one. It was as if you only learned about the characters in this book, but it was absolutely not bad - remember that.
So i absolute recommend this book to all fantasy lovers and Forgotten Realms fans, for this is very good entertainment.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Excellent read rich in character, and exotic backdrops, October 1, 2000
This review is from: The Halls of Stormweather (Forgotten Realms: Sembia series, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)
An excellent anthology that just seemed to be get better with each new chapter. I was immediately drawn to the idea of the exploration of the rarely seen Sembia. Each author was able to explore in reasonable depth the exotic new characters of this on going storyline. I eagerly look forward to the next book, and think that the butler with a past Cale, will go on to become one of the Realm's favorite characters. Though Cale is a stand out in the book. I do hope that the other interesting members of the Uskevran household will be explored in future works. Overall a great read for the long time fan, and an excellent jumping off point for the new to the Realms reader.
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