Customer Reviews

The Lost Library of Cormanthyr (Forgotten Realms: Lost Empires, Book 1)

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

 

 

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 us that it's an AD&D book, rather than a fantasy fiction book. The worst instance is the power of the Azmyth bat Xuxa to cast a silence spell once a day. He literally says "The azmyth had the ability to magically create silence in the area near her once a day." Might as well have just printed the spell description from the PHB or the power description from the MM or MC.

All in all, the book *was* a decent, fun read. The fate of the characters and the Library is handled quite well. But Mel had SO much to work with that he left out. The potential for conflict and suspense was enormous. The characters began well but ended up looking a bit too good and untouchable. I found myself very disappointed that someone who could write so well would sell such a great idea so short...

This book leaves much to be desired. First of all, the author leave too many unfinished stories. For example, it gives you an interesting epilogue which introduces almost the best rounded characters in the story. At the end of this epilogue, the author gives us the hint that these characters are going to return to the main story, but this never happens. This elemment in the book repeats itself even with another character Jaeleen, which is mentioned in almost half of the book but it is never given a satisfactory conclusion (the character disappears without a trace and a reason as to why). Also I found the action of the story (such as battle scenes) being poorly described and ended so fast that they became pointless. (One hit-one kill).

The development of the story and characters leaves much to be desired. For example, the main character is an "overqualified" adventurer who never lose an argument or a battle. At the end of the book, we have a main character who knows everything, fights (and wins) with everything. Indeed, it makes it difficult for the reader to identify him(her)self with the main character. My recommendation...do not buy this book. There are other and much better fantasy books out there.

This book has a lot of problems. The main character is not exactly interesting, although he isn't boring...well not much. But the writing style seems to be more for young children than adults. In fact it's very, very descriptive nature actually hurts the book as this insults the reader's intelligence. The dialog also seems to be for children without any complexity at all. So, unless your a young RPG acolyte, don't buy it.

I really liked this book; it has been the best I have read of Odom. I felt it was an excellent story. Yes its true there are several areas that could be flushed out a bit more, and it definitely gives you're a thirst for more. There are some areas characters are used briefly and disappear but I feel that these help develop the main character and the story. This was fun read that kept me glued to the book. I have read a lot of Wizards novels, primarily Forgotten Realms area. Too many times the books are set up in a way that the main character (the underdog) ends up going against the odds and saving the entire realm. This book is different. You have a ranger, which by gaming standards is not an easy class to obtain, trying to find a big treasure, in this case a library. Once he finds it he tries to save it from being lost. The realms are not being taken over and there is no great evil trying to dominate the country side. Don't get me wrong there is an evil but its ambitions are the same as the main character, to get/keep the library.

I would really like to see Wizards/TSR bring the main character back in a series and answer all the openings this book created and left open.

All in all I highly recommend this book. It has a nice cast of characters and it not difficult to follow. If you like Indiana Jones, you will like this.

This is a very well written tale of a hero continuing the search for something that his mentor was killed searching for. The characters are very well written, complete with fascinating back-stories and the plot is strong and very well though out. The supporting characters, as well as the hero's companion, are equally well written, creating a very captivating setting. Many minor characters come and go leaving your imagination to fill in their tales and adding to the intrigue of the overall tale. I think other books would be a fantastic way to explore some of these people and the fact that Mel does not stray from the plot to explore them in this book is wise choice. Anyone who likes the concept of an adventure not being focused on combat alone will thoroughly enjoy this book! I have read it many times and will continue to do so without wearing of the story.

I agree it wasn't the way I would have preferred, but it was still enjoyable, and that's the most important part. It's true that Baylee is a little too strong for a mere archeologist who usually doesn't travel with weapons, but that's one detail. Xuxa is cool. I don't think I really understood the deal with Jaeleen though (what happened to her? who knows...), and Cordyan got a little annoying. I'd give it a 3.5 stars, but it's not possible here so I rounded. Anyway, I'll try the sequel, and perhaps the change of authors will help. But overall it's a fun Indiana Jones-like book.

If you like stories, where the author confuses acorns with sycamore seeds then read this and laugh out loud. Further, there is a young hero who usually carries no weapon but is an expert with bow, sling, staff and sword nevertheless. Along with all the archaeological knowledge he has, he is undefeatable. Unbelievable. The lich is the usual stupid enemy that fails to kill the hero, although it had 1 Million opportunities to do so. I did not like the bat, because if it had all the abilities described in this book, why don't they rule the world ?

This novel is the first book in the Forgotten Realm Lost Empires series and it was a FANtastic Adventure!

I am currently on a fantasy reading quest where I am reading in chronological order (FR Time) the entire Forgotten Realm series of books. This was my first reading experience with Mel Odom and frankly I was very impressed as an educated adult reader. I had read the Amazon reviews prior to delving into it and was literally stunned at some of the reader criticisms. I decided to defend the author's vantage point since most authors' usually fear reprisal from that with their readers.

EHM wrote - "At the end of this epilogue, the author gives us the hint that these characters are going to return to the main story, but this never happens."

I believe the critic was referring to the Prologue which is dated 600 years prior to the main story and characters. It is simply to set up the back drop to the entire book or prize if you will from an archeologist point of view. {Very Minor Spoiler Next Two Sentences} Also take into account that the author is giving you this for an elf historic reference which can be pleasant or despicable depending on what history book your reading (Victor vs. Conquered). Jaeleen was a fly by night character that would pop in and out of Baylee's life. If you are honest with yourself, we all have those type characters in real life; I believe the author's character trait of disappearing was spot on. As far as the "One hit-one Kill" comment, well in real ancient battles a person's life expectancy was literally less a few seconds on the front line in a very intense fight for their lives.

{Minor Spoiler Next Two Paragraphs} In response to a-n onym's criticisms, I believe the main character was flawed not by the idea that he was an expert weapon specialist that made a choice of not carrying a weapon, but rather that he made that choice in an unforgiving fantasy world. I thought that was an enormous character development trait provided within the genius behind the main character himself. As far as the bat is concerned I disagree, it was a companion or familiar if you will and it was simply that, it is a bat. It is hard to influence people of Faerun when you're a bat, even a great creature character like Xuxa. Her influence was grounded in the main character's traits and behaviors.

If you are looking for a different style of read (Indiana Jones Action Mystery) within the confines of the Forgotten Realm books, then I believe you will enjoy this book VERY much. I think most of all the criticisms come from various readers who tend to think that the Evil side of things does NOT have character flaws because they know what they want. Especially when it comes to the infamous Drow or even a very powerful Lich that might not be focused on one person but rather a collective of priorities over an extended periods of time where you are borderline insane in the first place. Remember people that the AD&D Lich is on the verge of lunacy no matter your affinity to it personally!

The Lost Library of Cormanthyr is the first in a series of four novels (known as the Lost Empires series and which includes Faces of Deception, Star of Cursrah, and the Nether Scroll) that deal with the secrets of four of Toril's long lost ancient civilizations.

The book describes the adventures of an archaeologist ranger named Baylee Arnvold who, along with his azmyth bat familiar, tries to find out who killed his mentor, Fannt Golsway, in the city of Waterdeep. His efforts lead him from adventure to adventure before he has to face a powerful undead which in its quest for power is set on magically transporting one of Faerun's oldest and most magnificent libraries to the Astral Plane so that it may protect its contents from interlopers as well as unlock Toril's secrets without the threat of that many adventurers interfering.

Mel Odom does a good job of acquiring and presenting essential knowledge relevant to Faerun, including customs, religion and the history of the peoples of Toril e.g. "The city had once been called Rainydale, known as Selarrynm in the elven tongue, and had been one of the larger trading posts outside of Myth Drannor proper." (p.256) Additionally, the author does a wonderful job of describing the Legend of the Sleeping Kings (pp. 47-48) as well as the sacrificial altar dedicated to the god Vaprak, a deity worshiped by trolls and ogres alike. (p.46)

Moreover, on page 133 he provides very good descriptions of the fireball and web spells, while on pages 267-268 he does a good job in his portrayal of hook horrors.

Furthermore, Mel Odom is on the ball when the baelnorn utters: "In truth you are all humans, and I would care less if you all die in this endeavor. Myth Drannor and its environs should never have had to suffer the presence of humans, dwarves, or any other barbarian species that came into the City of Songs and drew her down." (p.284)

Finally, the author succeeds in keeping the reader focused with phrases such as "Trollkin are known for their appetites. Human flesh is thought of as a delicacy by some." (p.49)

On the negative side, the author repeatedly fails in providing an accurate description of the drow and instead treats them as if they were mere kobolds (!) e.g. "The dark elves had more lies than truth, and absolutely no honor. To enter the Underdark was to walk into death itself," (p.70) while on page 274, Baylee tells the dark elves "You have a chance at living. Take it and run," and... they actually fled (!) before Caleban, the wizard, added "You can't trust even a drow's cowardice." You have got to be kidding me!

Moreover, in Chapter 12 Mel Odom shows what apparently are 1st level characters picking off drow who die after a single blow!!! In truth, the dark elves would have pulverized these humans without even breaking into a sweat. In short, the fight against the drow described on pages 270-274 was just sad!

Additionally, there were silly and wholly unnecessary mistakes e.g. Fellhammer is more a dwarven family name than a dark elf's; it's elementary! To that one should add that a Bag of Holding does not transport troops. Also, Mel Odom refers to a dead drow male on page 273 as "the dead man" and then goes on to say "...then heard a man scream in agony: `My eyes, my eyes.'" Really? In Common? I seriously doubt that. Furthermore, a lich does not only NOT scream in pain when thrown ordinary caltrops, but is actually unaffected, so to have this be THE highlight is highly inappropriate to put it politely. So it's silly mistakes like that that take away from the overall enjoyment.

Other drawbacks include Xuxa, the azmyth bat, which was just not interesting at all and the mystery behind Jaeleen; one moment she is part of this novel and the next she just vanishes.

Finally, Mel Odom could have done a much better job of describing how and why the dark elf got involved with the lich and why one of the most amazing libraries of all times was not protected with traps or mythal that would have kept it both fire-proof and lightning-proof.

I wish more novels would be set in never or little-before covered areas of Faerun, namely Hillsfar, Zhentil Keep, Thay, Chessenta, Threskel, Unther, and Mulhorand to name a few, as opposed to the usual, Waterdeep/Sword Coast or Western Heartlands locations.

If it's Myth Drannor you long for, try and get your hands on a copy of the Ruins of Myth Drannor accessory/adventure (it is Second Edition AD&D, out of print and it will take a bit of searching, but it's well worth it).

In conclusion, The Lost Library of Cormanthyr will provide for a fair amount of entertainment though it could have been so much better. 3 Stars

The author purposefully provides room for a sequel, though I am not sure there is a demand for it (at this point it's been years since the book was published and I do not believe the sequel ever materialized).

Although I was happy with the over-all book, the characters kind o sent me into a tailspin. I was hard pressed to believe that some snot-nosed kid (Baylee) got away with some of the stunts he did with the Waterdavian Watch.
In most othe FR books, the Watch would react now, and ask questions later. These guys were lamers, It was almost as though Baylee was thier leader.
Another thing was this talking telepathic bat. Damn, wouldn't life be easy with one of those hanging around - (no pun intended). That rodent got on my nerves really fast. Acting like some onmipotent everseer to poor Baylee. Why the rodent would waste his time with him is still a mystery.
The story was good, but could have been so much more than what it was. It would have been nice for things not to have worked out to well for the primary character all the time.