The story of the elves of Faerûn stretches from the dawn of history to the battle for the future of a world in constant upheaval.
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34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Decent Anthology - nothing really special (Except Ms. Smedman's story),
By
This review is from: Realms of the Elves: The Last Mythal Anthology (Forgotten Realms) (Mass Market Paperback)
Realms of the Elves is the latest anthology released by Wizards of the Coast and is set in the Forgotten Realms. Like most of the other anthologies WotC releases there is a central theme to this one, and that is Elves. This anthology is supposed to drum up more interest for the final installment of Richard Baker's Last Mythal trilogy.
Instead of giving a full review for each short story, which would take entirely too long, I will try to say a few words about each story. I will do so in the order they are in the book. #1- "Traitors" by Richard Lee Byers. This is an ok story. For whatever reason, Mr. Byers can't stay away from dragons right now. Everything has to have something to do with his The Year of the Rogue Dragon trilogy. See his last novel Queen of the Depths for what I mean there. I had a feeling dragons would appear and they did. I was disappointed by this story. Average at best. #2- "The Staff of Valmaxian" by Philip Athans. Athans was the editor of this book, so I am a bit surprised he found time to write his own short story as well. Decent short story here. As with most short stories they either grab you quick and interest you, or you have to drudge through and finish it to move one. I enjoyed this story, but not to the extent I was hoping. Slightly above average for this one. #3- "Necessary Sacrafices" by Lisa Smedman. This story, I think anyway, is the crown jewel of this anthology. It was a fantastic read. It has a small compact plot, interesting characters and a very, very good ending. In fact I gasped at the ending of this. This story grabbed me right away and didn't let go the whole time. Excellent read in my opinion. #4- "The Greater Treasure" By Erik Scott de Bie. This story is the hardest to rate out of this anthology. There were some things I liked, the Character Twilight for example and some things I didn't like, the character Yldar for example. The actual story, plot etc, is pretty good. I still think Mr. de Bie's short story in the last Realms of the Dragons anthology was better. This story does have some good moments though. Above average for this one. #5- "Comrades at Arms" by R.A. Salvatore. This story is probably the most anticipated short story in this anthology because it features Drizzt. However, some Salvatore fans may be a little disappointed in that it's not the classic hack and slash Drizzt we see here. This story is all character development for Drizzt. Saying that other Salvatore fans will absolutely love it. Myself, I would have like to see a mixture of both, but that is merely my opinion. Very good story none-the-less. #6- "Tears so White" by Ed Greenwood. There are few books or stories by Greenwood that I have ever liked. This proves to be no exception. I did not finish this story because, to me, it had very little flow and even less purpose. I will withhold a rating on this one for fear personal bias would cloud that judgment. #7 - "The Bladesinger's Lesson" by Richard Baker. Mr. Baker does a very good job in writing this short story. He captures the readers attention right away and keeps the plot moving at a pretty good pace. Not only is the plot good, but he made me care about the main character in just a few pages. While I don't think this story is as good as Ms. Smedman's, I think it is right up there with Salvatore's. Very good read. In my opinion there are four good stories in this anthology. Most are fairly quick reads, so even if you don't like them you didn't waste too much time at all. I recommend this anthology to fans of the Realms, but if you have no connection to the Forgotten Realms there are probably betted books out there for you to buy.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty Good,
By Neso (Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Realms of the Elves: The Last Mythal Anthology (Forgotten Realms) (Mass Market Paperback)
Here are my reviews of these seven not-so-short stories.
1. Traitors by Richard Lee Byers. I'm not a big fan of Byers' works, because I find his novels way too action oriented for my liking, with plot and character development often completely disregarded. I was pleasantly surprised by this story. A very strong story of conflicting loyalties. He kept a nice pace through all of 70 pages, and gave us a good ending. Indirectly touches the events in his Year of the Rogue Dragons trilogy. **** 2. The Staff of Valmaxian by Philip Athans. This story didn't sit with me, to be honest. Had a promising start, by completely faded towards the end, which was a big cliché by itself. ** 3. Necessary Sacrifices by Lisa Smedman. A beautiful, sad story. The idea was simply great, but got a bit drawn out. Could have been shorter. A very good story, nevertheless. **** 4. The Greater Treasure by Erik Scott de Bie. The author shows us again that his storytelling is brilliant. The characters are interesting (if a bit annoying) and well fleshed out. It is worth the mention that this is maybe the most erotic story ever published by WotC. Very good.**** 5. Comrades at Odds by R.A. Salvatore. Besides some good, deep dialogues on the nature of orcs, this book also gives some flesh to one potentially important character in the upcoming books. A good Drizzt short story. **** 6. Tears so White by Ed Greenwood. I've given up on trying to decipher Greenwood, so I simply skipped this story. 7. The Bladesinger's Lesson by Richard Baker. While reading this story, I had a feeling of déjà vu, and that is never a good thing. Don't get me wrong, it's not boring or anything, but it really offers nothing new or unique. *** As you can see, there are only seven stories in the 340 pages of this book, so you can do the easy math and see these stories are significantly longer than usual WotC short stories. I must say I like to see a greater number of shorter stories. The book offers a number of very good stories, but none of them are brilliant. They just lacked that something extra. A very good anthology, check it out.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Some good, some bad,
By
This review is from: Realms of the Elves: The Last Mythal Anthology (Forgotten Realms) (Mass Market Paperback)
As with any anthology, some of the stories in Realms of the Elves were good, some were bad, and some were just average.
The first tale in the books was "Traitors" by Richard Lee Byers. I enjoyed this story as I thought the author did a good job of exploring the conflict between the characters' beliefs and what they learn as the story progresses. The characters were interesting and the story was engaging. (4 stars) The second story was the "The Staff of Valmaxian" by Philip Athans. This one started out quite good and really grabbed my attention but I found the ending a bit clichéd. Although it was well written, I found this story to be just average. (3 stars) The third tale in the book, "Necessary Sacrafices" by Lisa Smedman, was my favorite. As others have mentioned this is a tragic tale. You really feel for the main character and see where his road is leading him, but still in the end you are left thinking "no that can't be happening" (5 stars) The fourth tale was "The Greater Treasure" By Erik Scott de Bie. As Beezer mentioned in his review, this story is the hardest to rate. While the story started out good the characters' motivations were unclear to me. The dialogue was hard to follow and in the end I was left feeling a little disappointed. Overall, just average (2.5 stars) I enjoyed the fifth story in the collection, "Comrades at Arms" by R.A. Salvatore. But then again I am biased as Salvatore is one of my favorites. I liked that the story was not just about the action. I think the story was a nice bridge between The Two Swords and The Orc King, but might not stand so well on its own. (4 stars) "Tears so White" by Ed Greenwood was the sixth story and was my least favorite. All action and no substance. The story felt repetitive and the dialogue was not good. (1 star) Finally, we have "The Bladesinger's Lesson" by Richard Baker. Although a bit clichéd at times, the story is well-written and interesting. The main characters showed development, which I think is hard to do in 50 pages. The dialogue was good and the action well done. I found myself eager to read what would happen next and wondering how the characters were going to get out of their predicament. (4.5 stars) Overall, I gave the book 3 stars but would definitely recommend it to fans of the Forgotten Realms and fans of R.A. Salvatore.
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