Customer Reviews

The Paladins (The Double Diamond Triangle Saga , No 2)

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

 

 

The Paladins is the second of a series of nine short books, known as the Double Diamond Triangle Saga, set in the Forgotten Realms. The book starts off where The Abduction left off, namely in Waterdeep, the City of Splendors on Faerun's Sword Coast. Open Lord Piergeiron Paladinson, ruler of Waterdeep, charges Noph, the main character, and a group of paladins to travel to the Utter East via means of a magical portal deep within Undermountain on a search-and-rescue mission for the Lady Eidola, his bride-to-be.

James M. Ward and David Wise do a wonderful job of providing a feel for much of what lies within Undermountain with chapter 3 presenting a very nice portrayal of the underground port-city of Skullport.
Moreover, the authors' depiction of the Tanar'ri and their chaotic evil behavior/alignment along with their abilities is very realistic and accurate throughout the book.
Additionally, the confrontation on page 66 between fiends and paladins is very well done with dialogues that really bring the characters to life such as: "Tyr-slime, unloved by Tyr... [w]e shall eat you alive and take this man-boy back to the Abyss, where he will be turned into a larva!" and "No I say!... You shall not have him! If there is justice in this or any world, I shall have it, wherever I stand!... Your evil power is nothing before justice! NOTHING!"

My only reservation is in relation to how accurately the authors portrayed the paladins Miltiades and Kern since I have not read the Pools of Twilight yet, which is where they first appear, and thus cannot have an opinion.

Finally, the book does a great job of providing a breathtaking cliffhanger! This is definitely a significant improvement compared to the first book, though I have to laugh at how the book price went up by a dollar from one book to the other...
4.5 stars

The Paladins

The Paladins is the second book in a nine part serial novel called the double diamond triangle saga. The books can be read in a couple of different orders. This one being the second one is the logical next book in the series, but one can forgo this to read book 3 The Mercenaries. For now, here is the review of The Paladins.

The paladins continues right were the first book left off with the abduction of the open lord's fiancé. Now however, the open lord has fallen into a coma and so the paladins that have been assembled must begin the quest without him to find Eidola his fiancé. The paladins also have an extra person to take with them by the name of Noph who has proven himself as very loyal to Waterdeep and is rulers. They also have at the behest of the lord mage Kelben Arunson to take along Aleena Palidinstar. The paladins are Miltiades, Kern, Jacob, and Harloon.

Another short book to continue the serials, this one's main plot is more of just the typical adventure fare. Since one of the characters possesses resistance to magic, the party can not be teleported to the Utter East where they believe Eidola is being held and where the kidnappers are, so they have to travel through Skullport to get to a teleport gate in Undermountain. There are a couple of subplots with the fiends from the abyss, Noph's trying to fit in with the paladins, and the paladins trying to stay the course with all the evil they witness in Skullport.

Some criticisms

1. The subplot with the fiends was ok, but it was input into the story between each chapter and seemed to distract from the overall storyline.

2. The flow of this book was just not there. Once something got started, the book jumps to something else and then back and it was hard to want to pick the book up again.

3. The paladins are just too stereotypical. If I remember correctly, Kern and Miltiades were much more than they were here. I was a bit disappointed to see their characters undevelop (for lack of a better term) from a previous series.

Some positives

1. Once again I really enjoyed Noph's character. I know that this one is written by different authors from the first book, but I feel that they kept in the spirit of Noph's character and developed him a bit.

2. Even though the book is mostly just another adventure of getting the characters to their destination, the things that they go through on the way to their destination was entertaining and even a bit comical.

Overall, it is an average continuation to a good series so far. I wished that this would have kept to the standards set in the first book, but I was a bit disappointed there. Maybe I was expecting a bit much.

Is this how the Double Diamond Triangle Saga functions? By lumbering noisily through every single plot point? This segment could be reduced to 20 pages, instead it's 96. Kern and Miltiades, so interesting in "Pool of Twilight", are here now reduced to squarejawed paladin stereotypes and are barely interesting. The way Piergeiron's illness is introduced is so amateurish that it seems like an afterthought. The tanar'ri subplot (since when does 96 pages allow suplots?) is incredibly dull, and our nominal hero is too klutzy for us to believe he would be sent on a rescue mission under any circumstances. And didn't anyone notice that a paladin dies solely because Kern's resistance to magic didn't allow Khelben to teleport him? Disappointing.