Customer Reviews

Realms Of Mystery (Forgotten Realms Anthology)

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Since I'm not familiar with the Forgotten Realms fantasy line (this is the first book that I've read), I found several of the stories rather confusing and complicated with creatures and worlds I've never heard of before. But if you're a FR fantasy fan--or just a fantasy fan, in general--then you'll probably enjoy these 14 stories:

1) "Speaking with the Dead" by Elaine Cunningham -- When a gnome is murdered, a young bard and his elven servant try to prove their caravan leader's innocence. A little slow at the beginning, and confusing, but it has its moments.
2) "A Walk in the Snow" by Dave Gross -- Another (somewhat better) murder mystery, this one of a wizard being murdered and an innkeeper in charge of solving it.
3) "The Rose Window" by Monte Cook -- Upon bringing a rose window into his church, a loremaster notices unearthly shadows in its panes. A captivating story, though the ending does leave you hanging a bit.
4) "The Club Rules" by James Lowder -- A butler is accused of murder and a young explorer is assigned to prove his innocence.
5) "Thieves' Justice" by Mary H. Herbert -- While stealing a horse, a horse thief and her friend stumble across a dead man, resulting in the friend being accused of murder. One of the best stories here.
6) "Ekhar Lorrent: Gnome Detective" by Steven "Stan!" Brown -- A rhyming gnome detective with "a sixth sense about murder" investigates the death of a cyclops. An interesting murder plot with an unforgettable, if not slightly annoying, character.
7) "The Devil and Tertius Wands" by Jeff Grubb -- An adventurer and his genie set out to recover a stolen family heirloom for a beautiful stranger. Another good story.
8) "H" by Richard Lee Byers -- One by one, a band of adventurers are killed in their sleep, leaving only a blood-written letter "H" as a clue. Fast paced and well written.
9) "Strange Bedfellows" by Keith Francis Strohm -- A dark priest saves a captain's life, and, in return, asks for a powerful dagger.
10) "Whence the Song of Steel" by J. Robert King -- A bodyguard is hired to protect two opera tenors from death threats.
11) "An Unusual Suspect" by Brian M. Thomsen -- An amnesiac sets out to avenge his friend's death.
12) "Darkly, Through a Glass of Ale" by Peter Archer -- A merchant observes the happenings in a warring city. Dull and complicated.
13) "Lynaelle" by Thomas M. Reid -- A young sorceress is accused of killing her teacher. Jumps right into the action on the first page (the first sentence, really), but then drags a bit during the back story.
14) "The Grinning Ghost of Taverton Hall" by Ed Greenwood -- An estate is haunted by a ghost who appears just prior to someone dying.

This is the last in an abruptly ended series of 4 novels that tries to take mystery/suspense stories and put them in a D&D setting. In this anthology it's a lot of misses with few hits. I won't go too deeply into the misses. Suffice to say that they are the bland, almost generic, style of modern fantasy. If you've read any of the other Forgotten Realms novels, then you should be familiar with this style. But since these stories revolve around the solving of a murder, the author has to come up with a device so that some magic-user doesn't use a spell to speak with the dead. This is similar to a lot of Matthew Reilly novels, where Mr Reilly likes to use a device so that the characters don't overwhelm the stories with their blazing guns.

There were a few stories that really stood out. The first is 'The Devil and Tertius Wands' by Jeff Grubb. I enjoyed the main character, who reminded me a little of Cugel, from Jack Vance's 'The Dying Earth'. Kind of a rich, pompous snob. The plot was a generic hard-boiled plot : a man hired by a woman to recover a McGuffin. But the pace was brisk, the style was entertaining, and there was just enough humor. The next was 'H' by Richard Lee Byers. This time the plot is a classic suspense plot: a group that's slowly being picked off by an unseen enemy. In this instance, it's a group of treasure hunters/adventurers. I liked the economy of writing this author displayed. The chase could have been drawn out through 200 pages. Instead, the author uses 22 tense pages. He also set up the right mood for this story without going overboard and ending up with a stinky piece of Lovecraftian cheese.

I'm a big fan of short stories, and this book has some good ones. Characters tied in from other novels and products. I especially liked Bentley Mirrorshade and the Friendly Arm Inn, which fans of the Baldur's Gate computer game will recognize.

Many of the mysteries are unfounded, since they are brought to light, or lead up to where you can figure their intent befor the conclusion. "The Rose Window" by Monte Cook, Monte being a relatively new author for TSR Forgotten Realms books, has the mysterious ending that I feel was really what this book was trying to emmulate. There was not a precise ending like most of the other stories, but where Loremaster Jaon says if you read this, you can "right my wrongs!" I believe all the authors from Elaine Cunningham through Ed Greenwood had good stories, but the Mysteries were concluded, even though I liked the conclusion by Ed Greenwood a lot. This book is a definite keeper, and it is a welcome addidition to my collection. I still prefer books that have a single plot and the same characters through the whole book, but I think that this just adds to the knowledge of some of the character's we have already come to know. Also, adding an excerpt from R.A. Salvatore's "The Silent Blade" was a good idea. You'll want to purchase it also, if you don't already own it! See ya'll later!