Customer Reviews

Plague of Spells (Forgotten Realms: Abolethic Sovereignty, Book 1)

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

 

 

Lovecraftian Horror in Faerun. If that was the goal of the book, it missed the mark completely. The book reads like players playing through a typical D&D Adventure rather than characters adventuring through a story.

Plot: 5/10
This is a pretty basic Dungeons and Dragons adventure that takes place during the Spell Plague. Faerun is engulfed in blue flame and then the book skips ahead 10 years. Most of Faerun has been destroyed and malevolent creatures roam the lands. Characters begin a quest to recover a powerful artifact claimed by a mighty enemy. The book begins almost as three separate stories, then the characters meet and attempt to recover the lost artifact.

Setting: 6/10
The book's setting is the most interesting part. The world is in turmoil, cities have been reduced to ruins, and creatures have been malformed. Refugees band together for survival. Mages cannot rely on their spellcraft... This is an interesting twist to the Forgotten Realms Series.
However, most of the book takes place at sea, where the sea is just like every other sea. The book should have stayed in the more interesting parts of Faerun. The audience is really excited to see how Faerun has changed during the Spell Plague, but this book takes most of the action away from that.

Characters: 4/10
The adventuring party is composed of a band of unique characters. A mysterious captain, a drug addicted warlock, a mage, a monk, a Kuo-Toan Whip, and a girl with mysterious powers. The character's physical descriptions are glossed over and for the most part are pretty uninteresting. They don't really act like they are in an adventure together. They just respond to their immediate surroundings... and that's it. You really never get a sense of what motivates these characters. They all seem very superficial.

Dialogue: 3/10
The dialogue reads like people playing Dungeons and Dragons. There's no emotion behind what they say. There's really nothing guiding their actions except for the main quest and they rarely communicate with each other. Some of the lines had me cringing, they were so bad. "Ok, fishy face, don't get your scales in a bunch." If a monster enters the room, someone says, "A monster!" Someone else sarcastically says, "Brilliant." You don't get much more than that.

Writing Style: 4/10
Lots of the paragraphs are anti-climactic, where the last line undermines the previous lines.

Here's an example:
At one point, one of the characters finds a powerful weapon and they're ready to head off and battle the main enemy. The book reads, "Afterward, he would turn his hand to the multitude of lesser moral failings still plaguing Toril." So forget about the big-bad that's gonna destroy the world, we're gonna go catch us some muggers in alleys.

There is a great deal of set up for the largest battle in the book, then the book skips over that battle and talks about what happened in it after the fact.

The last battle in the game is very short and ends in a cliffhanger. It almost feels like half of a battle.

The action in the book is really hard to visualize, too. I had to keep re-reading the scenes to figure out what was going on.

Horror: 6/10
Most of the book is not scary at all, but there are few scenes that are really good and save the book.

I really wanted to like this book, but I was very disappointed. Bruce Cordell gets points for tackling the Spell Plague, but then loses points for not taking advantage of it. I guess I could recommend this book to D&D players who want some basic inspiration for a Spell Plague campaign setting, but that's about it.

Plague of Spells by Bruce R. Cordell- This is the first book in the Abolethic Sovereignty, with the second book called City of Torment and the third and final book called Key of Stars (due out in November of 2010), all set in the Forgotten Realms universe. Bruce R. Cordell is the author of other Forgotten Realms novels and has contributed a few short stories to various anthologies. His other Forgotten Realms novels include; Stardeep (which is part of The Dungeon series of stand-alone novels), Darkvision (which is part of The Wizards series of stand-alone novels), and Lady of Poison (which is part of The Priests series of stand-alone novels). Some characters from the novel Stardeep also appear in this trilogy.

The story follows three different story lines that intersect at the end of the story. We are first introduced to a monk named Raidon Kane, who is returning to his adoptive daughter after killing an abomination as dictated by an amulet he wears called the Cerulean Sign, which can sense aberrations. During his trip home, he becomes trapped in a Spellplague outbreak, holding him in a cocoon like structure for a decade. Upon breaking free, he discovers that the amulet is not a tattoo on his chest and allows him to 'feel' aberrations. After finally returning home after ten years, he finds his daughter has died. He then embarks on a quest of revenge, with the aid of a voice called Cynosure, who is a sentient golem pledged to the Cerulean Sign. The second story line focuses on a kuo-toa named Nogah and her discovery of an artifact called the Dreamheart. After learning some tricks of the Dreamheart, Nogah rallies some of her people to join her cause but it turns bad in the end. A kraken named Gethshemeth, takes the relic from Nogah. And Nogah wants it back. The final story line follows a young woman named Anusha and a drug addled warlock named Japheth. Anusha learns she has a unique gift to 'dream-walk' while she is asleep. After finding out that her step-brother means to hold her up in one of the family estates, she decides to run off on a ship in which her step-brother is employing the warlock to act as his proxy on a deal that could make the step-brother wealthy beyond belief. But how do these story lines come together?

Negatives:
1) Nogah's Scenes. These are a chore to read through. I didn't care for the character nor the story she had. To me, it was just filler and it felt like it. It's even worse when the other story lines are much more interesting. However, later in the story, they are a little more bearable, mostly do to the fact that she isn't the focus of the story. I didn't like the character because she was boring and just bland. Just thoroughly uninteresting.
2) Jumping Actions. This is a little more hard to explain. Every so often, there are times when there was a 'jump' in the action, but I'm not talking about the physical action. It's more like a lack of observations, but it makes things disoriented and a little confusing. For example, when we learn of Raidon's daughter has died, there wasn't any big moment of remorse or shock. Yes, there is some emotion shown but it feels wrong. I don't even read how Raidon learns of this devastating news, and that would be much more emotionally driven and powerful. Then there are lacking observations. Usually these are smaller little details that are easily missed, but it feels weird reading them.
3) Word Choice. Usually, I don't mind using 'big words' in a story. Usually, I can figure out what they mean within a few minutes. But here, there are so many awkward words that, for the life of me, I couldn't explain what they are. It doesn't help that almost every sentence has one such word. Also, these words were constantly used in everyday conversation , which doesn't seem to fit to well with some of these characters. It honestly feels like someone had a field day with a Thesaurus.

Positives:
1) Characters. I really didn't enjoy the characters for the most part, except for a few. Raidon was a very intriguing character. His fighting skills were, for the most part, amazingly written. Not only that but at times you can really feel his despair towards his lost daughter. It was touching and sad. Anusha and Japheth, were interesting in another way. They become close to on another and that's written very well. It almost becomes believable at times. As for themselves as separate characters, they are still enjoyable. With Japheth, the more interesting of the two, his addiction and how he deals with it is very interesting. I can't really give that much away from his story, needless to say it is really enjoyable. Anusha, however, is kind of more generic. The only thing I enjoyed was her naïve attitudes towards everything and her 'dream-walking', with the latter being the more interesting aspect. Then you have the supporting characters of Captain Thoster and Seren. They are both have unique aspects about them, but not as interesting as the others. Still, they are well written and have distinct personalities.
2) The Two 'Other' Story Lines. They were good, but more enjoyable to read than Nogah's. I'm not going to say much about them, but they were just much more engaging and interesting. I really couldn't wait to read more about Japheth and Anusha or Raidon after their chapters ended. While Japheth and Anusha's story was a little more straight forward, Raidon's jumped around a lot. They just enjoyable to read about.
3) The Ending. The ending was action packed, exciting, and just good. The battle with the corrupted kuo-toa was really well written that it was so easy to follow and comprehend. Yes, it ends on a cliffhanger, but it makes you wonder what happens next. And I'm ready to dive right into City of Torment.

Side Notes:
1) Anusha. How is she suddenly able to understand her talent? It didn't make much sense that she would just be okay with it.
2) Traveler's Dust. This is what Japheth's addiction is and it does seem really deadly and kind of frightening at times.
3) Cover Art. It's interesting, it does catch your eye with the cooler colors and the psychedelic look of the thing behind the person. I just don't know who it's meant to be. I think it's supposed to be Raidon, but it is a little hard to tell. Regardless, the cover is eye-catching and good.

Overall: 3/5
Final Thoughts:
This story really should deserve a 4, but it just doesn't cut it. The Nogah scenes felt too long and I just didn't care to read them. Then I felt like sometimes things didn't really flow too well with jumping around and skipping things to make some of the actions go by faster. And the Thesaurus words were at times unbearable to read. At least most of the characters were interesting and really engaged me, and that the other two main story lines were wonderfully done. Even the cliffhanger ending is making me want to jump into the next book as soon as possible. But honestly, I don't really think that this story warrants a 4/5 rating, maybe a rating of 3.5 but I don't use decimals.

Plague of Spells by Bruce Cordell is the first novel in the Abolethic Sovereignty Trilogy. The second book is titled City of Torment and is scheduled for release in September, 2009, the third book in the trilogy is titled Key of Stars and is slated for release in August, 2010. Mr. Cordell currently has two other novels set in the Forgotten Realms; Stardeep: The Dungeons and Darkvision (Forgotten Realms: The Wizards). He has also penned a short story for the Realms of War anthology. Fans of the Forgotten Realms will be especially interested in this novel in relation to the Spell Plague and the new 4th Edition Rules. Most new Forgotten Realms books are picking up 100 years after the Spell Plague. Not so with this one. This novel has some of the initial Spell Plague and then picks up a mere 10 years later. I am pleased to find a book set during this time frame. Based on that aspect alone, I think this is almost a must read for most Forgotten Realms fans. Here are my thoughts on the novel as a whole.

The plot of this book is not your typical, linear plot. It is actually several plots, and perspectives, mixed together. This allows the story to take on a larger feel and cover more elements. There are three separate plots that are separate for some of the book before slowly being drawn together by a common theme. The first is that of Raidon Kane and his quest to find lost friends, a lost artifact, but more importantly finding himself. The second plotline focuses on an artifact being found by a Kuo-toa and just what powers it has, and if it is more than what it seems. The last major plot revolves around a small group of people who are drawn into the larger plot listed as number two in this list. Strictly speaking on the plot, I really enjoyed it. I like how the reader is given some background information on the Spell Plague and how it has effected, the people, lands, and other systems in the world. It flowed well and the pacing between each of the plots was well done. None of the different plot lines seemed to dominate the book at any time, conversely none of the various plot elements were lost either. There were a couple parts of the plot that felt slightly contrived and a little forced, such as how all three plot lines come together, but overall I enjoyed the plot quite a bit.

The characters in this book are a mix of new and old. Fans of the novel Stardeep will be pleased to know that Raidon Kane makes a return as does another character from Stardeep, but I will let readers find that one. Most of the characters are new, and most are rather interesting. Characters such as Anusha, Japheth, Thoster, Nogah, and Seren. Of all the characters in this book, I found Japheth to be the most interesting. There are multiple layers to who he is and why he does what he does. Unlike in Stardeep, Raidon was much more interesting in this novel. That could be because of the setting, and circumstances but either way I found myself interested in his plight and his calm quiet demeanor. There were two characters that I didn't really care for however. Nogah and Anusha. Nogah primarily because I was simply never able to really connect with her on any level. To me her character felt more like a way to advance other characters and plots that really being her own entity. Anusha I didn't care for because of a different reason. She experiences a great deal of, shall we say change during the novel. The issue I had with this is not so much the actual change, but the speed at which it happens and the ease at how she deals with the change. It just seemed unnatural and too easy. Aside from those two things I thought the characters were well done. The dialogue gave each character their own voice, especially Seren. For the most part all the characters were easy to connect with and understand, making the novel enjoyable and interesting.

A couple criticisms about the novel:

1 - As I mentioned above, the development of Anusha. It just seemed rushed and almost forced to make sure that the rest of the story happened as intended. I thought it was interesting, but I would have liked it to have taken longer than what it did. (I know that's vague, but I don't want to ruin anything for anyone)

2 - I would have liked for the `final battle' to be longer and more engaging. As it is, it seems there is a great deal of build-up to it. A lot of apprehension from the characters and then the actual scene was a little disappointing to me.

Some things I liked about the novel:

1 - I loved that we are finally seeing glimpses of the much talked about Spell Plague and what the consequences are for it happening. I also like that this novel takes place 10 years after the Spell Plague and not the 100 years like most novels. While it doesn't answer all the questions about the Spell Plague, it does give the reader a good idea at what things are like.

2 - Normally I tend not to like cliffhanger endings. However the ending of this book fit the novel perfectly. It finishes the book off, but it also leaves so much left to be decided in the next two novels.

3 - The prose in this novel was well done. It has a nice even flow to it, and the descriptions are near perfect. Visualization in novels is almost always a key component to the author really giving the reader his vision. Mr. Cordell succeeded in showing the reader his vision with this novel.

Some readers may remember my some what critical reviews of Mr. Cordell's first two novels. However, I like to give credit where credit is do and this is one of those instances. While there were a couple things in the novel that didn't really work for me, overall I enjoyed this novel quite a bit. In my eyes Mr. Cordell has improved quite a bit as an author. I am still under the impression that he would make a great Eberron author given his love of using gadgets and such, but is a very solid Forgotten Realms novel. Fans of the Forgotten realms should definitely read this book. Especially those who have been critical of the switch to 4th Edition just so they can see what those changes really entail. Readers looking at getting into the fantasy genre may be better served by getting other novels under their belt, if for no better reason so they can understand some of the things that occur in this novel. When all is said and done I can easily see myself recommending this novel to Realms fans. I certainly enjoyed it and am eagerly looking forward to the next installment.

This is an excellent book that helps readers transition the Forgotten Realms campaign into a new generation! It lays the background for the emergence of the Abolethic Sovereignty that now threatens the whole of Faerun. While some readers may find the pacing a little slow, I didn't. It is quickly apparent that it would take quite a few words to describe the rise of the Sovereignty. How did I know I liked this book? I wanted to read the next two! When an author can submerge the reader in the telling of a long involved story and make you want to know how this will resolve itself, the author has done his job very well.

Very good job for a very difficult undertaking.

The Forgotten realms setting of Dungeons & Dragons has had more novel support than any other setting, I know because I have read almost all of them. And through all of those books, you knew you were in the Realms no matter where the story took place. The same cannot be said for this book.

Aside from the occasional name drop, nothing about this book feels like the Forgottern Realms, or even Dungeons & Dragons. To be honest, this book felt more like the Magic The Gathering novels that support each card release.

As to the characters of the book, none of them are interesting, they are litteraly just words on a page. Nothing about them stands out or draws you in. And for a high magic setting, this book has little wonder in it.

I admit I don't like 4th edition D&D, but I thought maybe if I could see it from a novel's point of view, the point of view of the characters, they could change my mind. But this book is just as bland and boring as the edition of the game it is based on.

Poorly written, with uninteresting characters and terrible dialogue. The concepts for some of the characters were intriguing, but this completely fails due to the 12-year-old interaction style between some of the characters. I completely agree with another reviewer who said that it was like watching a D&D game, but I'll go a step further: it was like a D&D session run by really young players who overact in an attempt to be gritty or humorous. This fails on all counts as a "Lovecraft-style" novel, and I'd return it if I could.

This is the first in a new fantasy trilogy called the Abolethic Sovereignty. This refers to Aboleths, that race of deep sea dwelling evil fish creatures. Aboleths are highly based on H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos creatures. It's an evil race that is one that hasn't been terribly explored in D&D fiction, obviously due to its limitations as an underwater evil so this book is a refreshing change. Raidon Kane is a Half-Elf Monk who has wandered headlong into the Spellplague. The Spellplague in the lore of the Forgotten Realms was an incredibly powerful storm of wild magic that was caused when Mystra, Goddess of magic, was killed by two rival Gods leading to a plague of uncontrollable magic which destroyed entire kingdoms. Raidon emerges from the plague after ten years to find the symbol of his magic amulet burned into his flesh and providing him tremendous powers. While this is going on, an Aboleth named Nogah has found a very ancient artifact which gives her God-like Powers.

There are three main plots running through the fist book and it makes the story a bit fragmented but stick with it. While it's initially difficult to see how these plots tie-in to each other, the payoff is worth the wait. Very good start to this new trilogy.

I am the first to admit that I was a bit put off by the ratings found here. Regardless, as a fan of the Realms and Bruce Cordell, I decided to give it a shot. I was pleasantly surprised to find the novel excellent. Not only is this one of the better books under his belt, it is a great reprieve from how many D&D authors choose to write their books. I certainly don't feel this book should rate below 3-stars but I fear many people are doing such out of spite of the latest game edition and not the book itself.

Kudos to Bruce. Keep up the great work.

... it's also a really good read. Plague of Spells is a lot more than a teenaged boy's sword-and-sorcery fantasy.

Ok, confession: I don't know anything about the Forgotten Realms, and I've never read a D&D tie-in book before. And without knowing any of the characters or the setting from anywhere else, I really enjoyed this book. I liked the parallel narratives, although like other reviewers I found myself liking some of the main characters more than others: Raidon is a great character with a compelling story line, although I got a little tired of his incessant harping on his guilt, and I liked him a heck of a lot better before he found that stupid sword. Maybe he'll lose it in the next book. Japheth, for me, is the more complicated and more interesting character, and I suspect that his journey in the next book will be the one worth watching.

Alas, I bemoan the lack of truly compelling women characters, but that said, I liked the way the book is at least as concerned with the backgrounds and motives of the characters as it is with combat scenes. This is a much more sophisticated book than many of its kind, and it omits the blow-by-blow descriptions of battle in favor of far more satisfying character development. And the writing is good: most of the time, the prose disappears as you read it, so you get that feeling of watching the story unfold instead of hauling yourself through the plot paragraph by paragraph. The multiple story lines were well balanced, and if occasionally some of the dialogue fell into stock phrasing (I kept expecting Captain Thoster to say "Aarrrggh, me hearties!"), still the characters who said it were essentially so interesting that you can forgive the lapse (but where did he get that sword? and why didn't the poisoned arrow kill him?). I got to the end and found myself impatient for the second book. What happens next? When you really care about the answer to that question, you know you're reading something good.

They call the events this book explores "Fascinating"

And they call this book forgotten realms.

I suppose I shouldnt expect better from someone like cordell though