4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Short of Potential, but Decent, September 17, 2005
This review is from: The Lost Library of Cormanthyr (Forgotten Realms: Lost Empires, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)
MINOR SPOILER WARNING: There are no crucial plot elements revealed in this review. However, in the interest of providing a very in depth review, there are some minor spoilers in the text. They should not in any way ruin the story, but they do reveal some story events. If that bugs you out, STOP HERE!
Some background on this review: I had read a few Forgotten Realms books. They were not good. In fact, they were mostly refuse, most notably the Ed Greenwood, creator of the Realms, authored "Spellfire," which I threw across the room halfway through, it was so pathetic. Even though I had enjoyed "Horselords," I had sworn off of FR books altogether due to my other reads, until an online acquaintance who worked in the WotC/TSR fiction dept. convinced me that they were doing some new and exciting things. So based on his recommendation, specifically for this then "new" series, I gave it another shot. Now, the review:
The story revolves around Baylee, a ranger/archaeologist who was mentored by a mage with whom he's had a falling out. Baylee is more interested in knowledge than riches, much like his mentor. When the mage, Fannt Golsway, is murdered by a drow (yes, there's them drow again :-/ ) early on, Baylee, away on an expedition, is implicated. Fannt lived in Waterdeep, so a contingent (read: small army) from there is sent to find Baylee, which they do easily enough. It becomes quickly apparent that Baylee is not guilty of anything, and the search for the murderer is tied up in Fannt's search for the Lost Library of Cormanthyr, which was lost at the fall of Myth Drannor and is now guarded by a lich.
First, the good: Mel's writing style is easy to read. He isn't overly wordy, nor does he belabor anything to much, so the story moves along at a fairly brisk pace. The plot itself is compelling, especially the idea of a vast, hidden store of ancient knowledge that far surpasses anything known on Toril today (!) including Candlekeep. Baylee is a sympathetic character, one you want to see succeed. He has a sidekick, an Azmyth Bat named Xuxa, who can telepathically communicate with others. The bat is rather endearing and is kind of a conscience to Baylee, being portrayed as an older, wiser being. A feminine interest is the civilar of the Waterdeep Watch, Cordyan Tsald. She's portrayed as strong and efficient, if a bit wet behind the ears. The drow mage is Krystarn Fellhammer, who is under servitude to the lich Folgrim Shallowsoul, guardian of the Lost Library. She displays the standard hatred and lack of moral stability we're used to from drow. The lich is sufficiently evil and cunning. Also involved is another ranger by the name of Civva Cthulad (sounds Lovecraftian, does it not... not that there's any other connection here... Civva is as honorable as they come.) The characters are sufficiently distinct and recognizable from scene to scene to give the story a consistent feel, for the most part. The ending, too, is rather satisfying. I won't go so far as to tell what it is, but, as you'll see below, it saved the book from becoming just another reason not to read anymore FR stuff...
Which takes us to the gripes: There were many. None of these, keep in mind, were enough to make me want to pitch the book aside, because, all in all, it was a decent read. But I do have quite a stack of books still left to read, and I don't want to spend my time in books that don't live up to their potential if I can help it. This book was borderline. I truly believe that Mel sold his subject matter furiously short, and not just that, but also the characters that he developed deserved much more attention and development than he gave them.
Now, to get specific: Mel is a good writer. But, he has a tendency to drop into spurts of over-description all at once. He'll drop out of the action to completely describe a character or scene with, to me, an overabundance of flowery metaphoric description. Now, if all of his writing was like this, it wouldn't be noticable, but much of his writing is quite efficient and sparse, and these fits of description sound like he doesn't trust himself to adequately give us the picture in the midst of the action, and that he doesn't trust our imaginations to fill in enough of the blanks for him. He needs, I think, to trust himself more. That said, the book needed, I think, about another 75-100 pages, and not for more description :-) Several times characters were introduced, then disappeared into the ether after they were made to seem *very* important to the plot. The most glaring instance was at the very beginning, with the introduction of the lady warrior/thief (?) Jaeleen, an old love interest of Baylee's. Mel gave her as much importance as Baylee, to the point where the reader thinks he sees the pattern that these two adventurers are about to be thrown together into something bigger than themselves, and will need to overcome their personal conflicts (fairly well established by Mel) to succeed. A few pages into chapter six (where the basic plot is still being established) she's gone, never to return. She is not so much as mentioned, save as a comparison to the civilar a scant two or three times. This reader still wonders what in Hades happened to her. Though there was conflict between Cordyan and Baylee, it was fairly superficial because they had no history. The conflict between Baylee and Jaeleen was fat with potential, potential Mel tossed to the wind. In fact, had he found a way to keep Jaeleen around, the additional conflict with the civilar would have given much more body to all of the characters. Speaking of the Cordyan, Mel backed off of that one too, unfortunately. She comes off as two-dimensional. The only depth you see is an inkling of attraction to Baylee, which goes basically nowhere throughout the book. Otherwise, she the standard, young, efficient do-gooder who also happens to have the looks of a Victoria's Secret model. In fact, Mel, to my chagrin, treated most of the women somewhat as objects, making more of the way their clothes fit their lithe figures than he did of their actual personalities. This is just a lack of care and dedication, because Mel's writing makes it obvious that he's more than capable of the depth that I was expecting but missed. The drow, Krystarn, is hopelessly stereotypical. She does the standard deal-making and doublecrossing, right from the beginning, in the continual power-struggle of the underdark. Mel deals with Folgrim, the lich, with much more skill, IMO. Early on, you have no idea who he is. He is shrouded in mystery for much of the book and his shadow looms large. Unfortunately, he ends up coming off a bit inconsistently at the end when he's finally revealed to everyone involved, showing massive and impressive strength (as he should) and at the same time, having glaring weaknesses that don't seem consistent, such as the complete inability to deal with a fire started in the library, his raison d'etre, during the big climactic scene. Baylee himself is much better handled, as the main character should be. However, he comes off as a bit too 'heroic' if I may say so. He's incredibly brutal in battle, but doesn't carry much in the way of weapons (a sling is it, for the most part) as a ranger normally would. He's somewhat of an archaelogical Dudley-do-right, at least toward himself, and this detracts from the personality that Mel started to add at the beginning by hinting at some weaknesses, especially in terms of trusting others. But he progresses into someone that's pretty much got it all down to a "T", despite his youth. He's street-savvy, battle-savvy, quite knowledgable, and has high, high ethics, esp as concerns knowledge. He's missing some glaring weaknesses.
Now in terms of story, a glaring problem with the plot is that the opposition to Baylee's goals aren't consistent. He isn't dogged at every step by an overwhelming evil. In fact, for the most part, you never doubt Baylee's ability to pull through the situations, which takes away some of the possible suspense. He doesn't take enough hurt in battles, he doesn't have conflict from the others like he should, and he's never *really* wrong
about anything important. Even though he was a suspect in his mentor's murder, he was basically off the hook right away, even after he took off without informing the Waterdeep watch that he was going away... It would have added greatly to the suspense if Mel had taken the care to make sure that Baylee was up to his eyeballs in suspicion and therefore *had* to follow his master's trail in order to clear himself. Instead, that possibility is whitewashed and Baylee's just after knowledge in memory of his master, which is reasonable motivation, but not as urgent. Another conflict/threat problem is Krystarn. She never *really* provides the level of threat she could to Baylee, even though she began the story by *savaging* Baylee's mentor, a very powerful mage in his own right. She is sent to dispose of him, then just disappears and is far too easily diverted later in the story. She goes back instead and works on her own ambitions that, while they will eventually intersect Baylee's motivations, don't serve to dog Baylees' steps and make *real* trouble for him. One point in the book, after an underwater scene, Baylee is at odds with a Pirate captian who was begrudgingly helping him. There's no setup. At first they're off balance and helping each other warily, then, with a
chapter break, they are throwing knives at each other and fighting with no reasonable transition work provided by the author. This is just sloppy, and, I'll say it again, Mel's ability is, I think, much higher than what he did there.
One final gripe: Sometimes Mel was a little to plain about game mechanics. Specific spell names remind...
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