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4.0 out of 5 stars
Realms of the Arcane edited by Brian M. Thomsen, September 14, 2009
This review is from: Realms of the Arcane (Forgotten Realms) (Mass Market Paperback)
Realms of the Arcane edited by Brian M. Thomsen was released in 1997. This anthology has 10 short stories written by David Cook, Elaine Cunningham, Tom Dupree, J. Robert King, Mark Anthony, Monte Cook, Ed Greenwood, Philip Athans, Brian Thomsen, and Jeff Grubb. There is also a prologue, two interludes, and a epilogue that are written by Wes Nicholson, I will not comment on these except to give a basic overview of them. As you can guess, the stories within deal with things that are arcane in nature.
Prologue by Wes Nicholson- As with all prologue, this sets up the following stories. A probationer, named Wes, is hoping to become a monk at the fabled Candlekeep. He is told by the abbot to clean a reading room in which he finds a secret room filled with text and begins to read.
Wishing You Many More by David Cook- The story is told through correspondent letters between Perfect and Absolute Magister Fannol Pavish and a conjurer named Torreb. Pavish and Torreb were both classmates in an academy in which Torreb was the first student and Pavish was the second. However, Torreb was kicked out due to claims of plagiarism and cheating. Pavish sends a letter to Torreb asking for his help with finding a very powerful staff. Why would a former classmate and a rival ask for one's help when the one bettered Pavish in every way.
Negatives:
1) Predictable. What happens in the story you could tell from, probably, the first five or so pages. Nothing really came as a shock or anything.
2) "Hatred." I never really felt the hatred between the two characters. It just seemed maybe a little forced and ingenious.
Positives:
1) "Gift Exchange." I thought that the exchanging of various different gifts were pretty clever. It really seemed like an "Oh look, the Smiths have a new car. Bob, why don't we have a new car. Oh wait, even better, make it a new boat" scenarios.
2) Correspondence Letters. I like how the story was told this way. It made it a little different and pretty interesting.
Overall: 4/5
*I liked the story and how it was told. It really made it interesting.*
Secrets of Blood, Spirits of the Sea by Elaine Cunningham- This is a tale of how the sahuagin came to exist. A dark elven wizard named Ka'Narlist created this creatures from his blood and the blood of other creatures. His servant, a wemic named Mbugua, wants to ruin Ka'Narlist so he sabotages the dark elf's experiments and Mbugua creates a sahuagin/ sea elf named Malenti. However, does Malenti take down Ka'Narlist?
Negatives:
1) The Ending. While it is okay, the problem I have is that, it didn't really say what happened to Ka'Narlist. Did he obtain godhood or is he dead?
2) The storyteller. During some scenes in which the storyteller is talking to his elven captures, it just didn't seem to fit. I do like the idea, but it just seemed a little weird to me at times.
Positives:
1) Telling. I do like how this "creation" story is told. It isn't boring like some of the ones I have read, and it actually is pretty exciting.
2) Sea Elves. There isn't many stories (at least to my knowledge) about the sea elves. Sure there maybe a quick cameo or a short story here and there, but nothing really substantial. Granted, this story doesn't really have much about these creatures, but any story with a little information just really interests me.
Overall: 4/5
*It kept my attention for a creation story, which if you didn't know, I don't like at all. It was just interesting.*
Bread Storm Rising by Tom Dupree- The story follows Wiglaf Evertongue, an apprentice mage, and Sasha, a warrior in charge of his safe keeping, on a vacation back to Calimport, Wiglaf's home. When showing the city to Sasha, Wiglaf comes across a bottle with dough in it that can stop a famine, or at least that's what Wiglaf is able to translate.
Negatives:
1) B-Horror Movie Feel. The whole story just felt like a B- horror movie. You get the "normal" stuff happening at the beginning, and then some crazy monster comes along and terrorizes. Cliché and overdone.
2) "Saved." This is the second short story featuring Wiglaf and yet again, his master saves him. Been there, done that.
Positives:
1) Wiglaf and Sasha. The characters were interesting. As I mentioned before, Wiglaf and Sasha were in another short story in Realms of Magic. It was nice to see Wiglaf develop more and have Sasha actually have a main role. I would like to see more about them.
2) Build-up. All the way up to the freakishly pathetic "monster" was interesting and good. You see how Wiglaf was treated by everyone and how everything was for him back in Calimport. It was pretty entertaining.
Overall: 3/5
*I don't really enjoy the B-Movie feel of this story.*
Interlude by Wes Nicholson- This just basically tells of how Wes is still looking through the books in the secret room as told in the prologue.
When Even Sky Cities Fall by J. Robert King- The story is about an attack of a sky city called Lhaoda by another sky city called Tith Tilendrothael, which are both inhibited by the ancient Netheril. The main characters are a griffon named Peregrin and the mage Josiah, who are leading the attack on Lhaoda. Things go as planned except that Josiah and Peregrin notice that the city is falling, but how can the city fall if the attack just began?
Negatives:
1) Lack of action. Yes, there is some action, but I didn't think that it was really written to be exciting. It just felt kind of stale and boring.
2) Characters. I didn't really care for the characters. Maybe because they weren't the main focus, or that they were dull and bland. They weren't interesting at all.
Positives:
1) Sky Cities. I haven't read much about them, but they were the most interesting part of the story. The only problem I had was there wasn't much detail about them. However, the whole falling down part was entertaining.
2) Help. When they noticed that the city is falling, the attackers start to help. It thought it was a nice touch but honestly, nothing really major or ground breaking.
Overall: 2/5
*The whole story seemed kind of boring and unexciting. There really was no interesting characters, which is the major downfall of this story.*
The Grotto of Dreams by Mark Anthony- The story is about a skull named Muragh Brilstagg, who once was a priest of Lathandar, god of the dawn. Muragh tells about how he was killed, came to be a skull, and his "travel" to the Undermountain, which is under the city Waterdeep. During his Underdark "travels" he mets a "half-elf" named Aliree, who is searching for a place called The Grotto of Dreams. Throughout the journey, Muragh learns an important lesson.
Negatives:
None.
Positives:
1) Humor. The way Muragh tells the story is very humorous. It's funny and kept me interested.
2) Muragh. I liked his outlook on this and as I said above, his humor. He was a very interesting main character.
3) Descriptions. Mark Anthony did a great thing by doing descriptions of various creatures that I wouldn't know what they are.
Overall: 5/5
*I liked how this story was told and Muragh was just great.*
A Narrowed Gaze by Monte Cook- The story is about a bard, Tiuren, returning to Vantir and his friend the King of Vantir, Kohath, when the king needs help. Tiuren finds out that a wizard placed a curse upon the queen in order to get Kohath to step down as king. Things don't go as planned.
Negatives:
1) Boring. The whole story was just not exciting and I didn't care for the characters. Everything was just bland and cliché.
2) Pacing. The whole story really blew by. It just flowed way to fast and there was hardly any description or time to develop a character or any events.
3) Characters. No one in this story was memorable or exciting. They weren't developed enough and they weren't interesting.
Positives:
1) The Beginning. The start was really the only interesting part. The whole Dark Eye of Gavinaas was pretty interesting but very underdeveloped.
Overall: 2/5
*Boring, no character development, and all very cliché. The whole story was really missing the details.*
The Whispering Crown by Ed Greenwood- The story is about the Lady of Dusklake named Aerindel and is awaiting the coming of the Lord of Grand Thentor named Rammast. Rammast wants Aerindel to himself for a slave and "play" thing. So Aerindel is going to duel him and of course, loses. However, Rammast was unable to gain his "prize" and Aerindel goes down to the family crypt to visit her beloved father, who taught her magic. There she finds a crown given to her by Mystra, the goddess of magic, and finally gains the power to defeat Rammast and the armies of Grand Thentor. With awesome power, comes dire consequences.
Negatives:
1) Some parts seem fast. There were times in which I didn't know what just happened and rereading it didn't help find out. It was like there was a sentence or key word missing.
2) Lack of Information. While you do get a brief history of Dusklake and the feud between Aerindel and Rammast, there seemed something lacking.
3) The ending. I didn't care for the last words. I didn't understand why Aerindel said them and it just seemed pointless and silly.
Positives:
1) Story. I did like how the story went. It was interesting and fun. I'm not the biggest fan of Ed Greenwood's storytelling but here it was great (aside from my complaints).
2) Characters. You really got a good look into their personalities and how they are. Once again, in Ed Greenwood's other stories, I never really identified or knew who the main characters were and I wasn't able to...
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