Customer Reviews

Return to Quag Keep

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I remember being very excited, 30 years ago or so, when I learned that there was a novel based on the "really, really cool" game my friends and I were playing every weekend. Even at the tender age of 11, I had been reading Andre Norton for a couple of years and liked her work. Quag Keep was a good example of Norton creating a suitably exotic locale and likable characters who were not entirely cut from the same cloth. (Though I still haven't a clue as to how one pronounces "Ingrge".) And, yes, the ending was frustrating since she never wrote the obviously necessary sequel.

Until now...the quondam Ms. Norton's habit of co-authoring novels in her later years was always a hit-or-miss proposition, and this time it missed. First off, if Jean Rabe is going to write a sequel to Ms. Norton's book she should make sure she's done some research and gets the characters' names right -- the pseudo-dragon's name is "Afreeta" not "Alfreeta" (which sounds like some faux Italian pasta dish). Even a cursory reading of the first novel makes that clear.

There's also no context and, with the exception of the 7 original characters and Quag Keep, almost no reference to the first book. The story begins in a nameless city where the group is hard up for cash, meanders through nameless (and geographically confusing) countryside (whatever happened to the Sea of Dust which surrounds QK?, for example), suffers some rather arbitrary plot devices to get the characters back together after they have been separated, and then ends up with a lackluster ending. And I was disturbed by the callous death and dismemberment of several of the characters. I'll refrain (though just) from spoiling things entirely but one character gets "offed" in the first few chapters; and another has his arm sliced off. Now, don't get me wrong, I've read (and enjoyed) novels where fairly important characters die, sometimes even arbitrarily, but the original QK was a young-adult novel and its "atmosphere" was not a serious theme but an adventure story -- the heroes aren't supposed to die or, if they do, it's for a fine, suitably epic cause (Boromir's death in LOTR comes to mind). Perhaps I'm getting old, but if this is what passes for young-adult fantasy nowadays, let me return to the old stuff like Norton's own original Witch World novels or her Solar Queen stuff.

Finally, the villains in this piece just don't measure up. I was hoping to find out who was behind the mysterious and sinister QK Productions. Were they Earth men who had discovered how to pass between worlds? Were they natives of the game characters' world? Were they from both? What was their purpose? And whatever happened to the master dice and the gamemaster's notes that Milo and the others captured at the end of the first novel? Instead, we have a stereotypically black-cloaked villain named Fisk and his master, the distilled quintessence of the evil Ids of the sorcerors who built QK (shades of Forbidden Planet), Pobe.

Pobe?...Pobe? How is this pronounced? Like "Job" from the Bible, or are both syllables pronounced so it's like "Po-bay"? Either way, it doesn't inspire much in the way of fear. Where's the menace inherent in names like Sauron or Morgoth or Lord Foul the Despiser? "Pobe" is the facial cream my girlfriend uses.

Read the original Quag Keep and, if you like it, read Norton's older fantasy like the Witch World (before she began farming it out to other authors). And if you want more adult-oriented fantasy, try authors like Robert Jordan, George Martin, Glen Cook, or Steven Erikson. I am not looking forward to anymore QK sequels from Ms. Rabe's pen, I'm sad to say.

I realize, as a sequel, that this should be different than the first in many ways. BUT, I would hope the characters would have retained some of their charm. The original was a good read and felt, well, original, sadly this sequel feels like the same ole same ole. It might still be in the same universe but seems to have forgotten to follow the rules of said universe.

A hero dying in the first few chapters? And going out as if he had no idea how to use his powers like he did in the first book. He same can be said for the fighters. One went from an interesting, Amazon type female warrior to one that seemed to have been poured into her armor and showing her curves, etc... In other fantasy this is ok I guess, but it just doesn't `feel' right in this setting.

If you're young and haven't read fantasy for 30 plus years, I guess it might be new and exciting but to older readers, it's very much like a typical fantasy. Not that that is bad, there are only so many plots and stories to be told after all, but this does not even feel remotely close to the original. A shame as I was looking forward to it.

Maybe it would have been better if not a sequel and a story of its own in a universe of its own? I guess we'll never know.

Like others, I was excited to see a sequel to the book that opened the fantasy book world to me. What a total dissappointment.

This book seems to have been written by a highschool creative writing student. Storylines that go nowhere, characters appear and dissappear and many bring nothing to the story. Plot lines that just end seemingly at random.

I reached the last sentence of the book and turned the page, thinking there was more to go. I have never done that with a book.

The biggest dissappointment is that the storyline and characters have almost nothing in common with the original book other than in name. Personalities are totally different. Situations left off in the original book are not even addressed. The setting itself is also different. The Keep was next to a forest? What happend to the Sea of dust and the Swamp (QUAG) that it was named for? Also, for some inexplicable reason, the author divides the group of characters at the very beginning of the book, with two of them having virtually no part in the story at all. She then rapidly kills off a third.

The villians are mediocre at best and the demise of one is almostl an afterthought.

I could go on and on but I leave it at this. As a stand alone book, I believe it is poorly written but passable. As a sequel to a book that opened up a whole genre, it is a major failure.

I wanted to like this book. I really did. However, this has to be the most disappointing sequel I've ever read. I had never read any of Ms. Rabe's other works, and now I never will. She claims that this novel was very much a collaborative effort between her and Andre Norton; but I sincerely hope that's not true, because that would mean that Ms. Norton did not even remember her own book. In the foreword, Ms. Rabe talks of how her husband had recently re-read Quag Keep to her, over the course of several evenings. From the results, I can only assume that this is the extent of Ms. Rabe's research.

One character's animal companion, a small pseudo-dragon, was named Afreeta in the first book; but in this one, it is named Alfreeta. The characters in the sequel were so totally unlike the characters in the first book that I couldn't believe they were supposed to be the same people. The first book named several prominent landmarks in the old World of Greyhawk (where the book is set, with a few small changes). Yet very few geographical features are named in the sequel- the city in which the characters begin is not even named, and the desert which surrounded the `Quag Keep' of the title is treated as a minor annoyance, instead of the major obstacle that it presented in the first story.

In addition, while the first story was written from one character's point of view, the sequel was written in a different narrative mode... switching from one character's point of view, to another's. I have NEVER read a sequel where the author(s) changed the narrative mode between books. (Sometimes from a different character's point of view, but never switching from first to third person narrative.) If I'd handed in a story like that in my high school writing classes, I would have received a well-deserved `F'.

However, the main problem with this book is the lame story line. I'll give a spoiler alert, although if you heed my advice above it won't matter. In the first chapter, two of the major characters leave on some minor quest that isn't mentioned throughout most of the book, and they don't appear until nearly the end. The second chapter has two of the characters in a tavern, looking for work... how many times has that been used in a game? As expected, there was a bar fight (yawn). The rest of the book was equally uninspired. Back in my role-playing days, any game master who ran a fantasy game like this would end up losing all of his players.

I won't go on. If you truly loved the first book, like I did, you are better off not reading this so-called `sequel'. It will spoil your memory of an old favorite.

Return to Quag Keep (2006) is the second fantasy novel in this series, following Quag Keep. In the previous volume, the seven heroes have fought their way across the Sea of Dust to the quag surrounding the keep. Gulth provides transportation across the quag to the highland surrounding the keep itself, but oversized fanged frogs dispute their passage. After a final battle with Carlvols and his fighters, the heroes enter the keep and confront the power who has brought them to this world.

In this novel, the heroes have come to a city to regroup after leaving Quag Keep. However, Gulth is dying and Deav Dyne has no cure. They meet with Yeleve, Wymarc and Ingrge to pass on their plans and then leave the city to travel to Gulth's swamps.

Milo and Naile are waiting in the Golden Tankard, hoping to get a job with a merchant caravan. Meanwhile, they are drinking ale and getting drunk. Three other drunken men enter the tavern and insist that Milo and Naile are sitting at their table. One of the three gets very insistent, but Milo and Naile ignore them. Finally they see someone who looks like a prosperous merchant and get up to approach him. Naile, however, accidentally knocks down the most vociferous of the three drunks and a fight ensues.

Milo and Naile have been blamed as the persons who started the fight and thus liable for all the damages. Yeleve and Ingrge get them bailed out of gaol, but they are now indebted to the merchant, Ludlow Jade, and will be working for him without pay as caravan guards. Wymarc stays behind to play in the inn as restitution for the damages.

As the caravan wends its way north to several small villages, Yeleve drives one of the wagons. Milo and Naile walk alongside until they tire and then ride on the wagons for a while. Ingrge scouts ahead and behind to search for the bandits expected by Ludlow Jade. He finds partially obliterated footprints ahead of them and then discovers someone following them.

Just then the caravan is attacked by the Undead buried alongside the trail. Everyone fights back, but Naile changes into his were-boar form and becomes the most effective combatant against the skeletons and zombies. Although the caravan suffers losses in personnel and horses, they continue to the next village.

The man who had been following them is Berthold, a thief and wearer of another bracelet identical with their own. He was himself a gamer and a member of another group seeking Quag Keep, but the others were killed or vanished before they reached their objective. Now he is alone and certain that something is seriously wrong in this world.

Berthold has had a dream about a wizard imprisoned below Quag Keep. Although Milo explains that they had thoroughly searched the Quag Keep tower, Berthold points out that they did not search the underground portions. Milo and Naile agree to travel with him to Quag Keep while the others remain with the caravan.

In this story, Fisk Lockwood is an agent for Pobe, a shadowy and amorphous creature who has imprisoned the wizard Jalafar-rula beneath Quag Keep. Fisk has already killed the others in Berthold's party and now is after Milo's group. He has maneuvered several of them into the caravan and has set up the Undead to test their meddle. Another trap awaits further along the caravan's path.

This novel is more like a roleplaying game than the original story, but Jean Rabe has had considerable experience in the roleplaying field. However, the terrain and vegetation are less vivid that within the original story, but the personas of the gamers themselves are much better developed. In fact, so are the personas of the agents of Chaos. Overall, this story seems more alive than the original.

This story has a more satisfying ending, but still leaves many loose ends. Some of the group have returned to Earth, but others have been left behind in the other world. Possibly there will be another sequel.

Recommended for Norton & Rabe fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of questing, combat and magic.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Hailed as the first fantasy novel based on the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, the original Quag Keep was a pretty linear adventure. Like roleplaying gaming at the time, there was little reason for the characters to stay together (other than a magical geas) and a bigger focus on overcoming the obstacles and puzzles to succeed at their quest than there was on character development and interaction. As gaming matured, however, character background and interaction became more important, atmosphere and credibility of the adventuring environment developed substantially, and motivation and group dynamics made characters more complex and interesting. The long-awaited sequel, Return to Quag Keep, parallels these developments in gaming, with more vibrant narrative description, more complex character interactions, and more focus on motivation--all amidst a rollicking fantasy adventure with all the swashbuckling battles and magic that are essential for any adventuring yarn. Comrades even fall by the wayside as things become more dangerous when the party splits to go separate ways, each group following their own agenda--a nod to an all-too-frequent gaming experience that heightens the suspense and credibility of the tale for gamers and non-gamers. Fast-paced and fun. Jean Rabe, a renowned gamer and fantasy writer, proves herself worthy to help carry on Andre Norton's tradition of compelling fantasy novels. Recommended for all gamers and lovers of fantasy, as well as for anyone who read the original. Also recommended fantasy reading: The Finest Creation; The Dragonlance Chronicles; and Warprize. Donald J. Bingle, gamer and author of Forced Conversion.

I loved Quag Keep, so I was excited to discover the sequel. Unfortunately, Return to Quag Keep has so little in common with the original book that it might as well not be a sequel. It's not even a fun book.

The story seems to start shortly after the events of the first book, but that's not entirely clear. Gulth tells the other members of the group that he's dying and needs to leave them in order to find help. Deav Dyne goes with him. And I hope I'm not being too spoilery here, but that is the last we hear from either Gulth or Deav Dyne until the last three pages of the book.

In Quag Keep, Milo was the stoic, serious, worried leader of the group. In Return to Quag Keep, he starts off the book getting drunk in a tavern when he and Naile are about to meet a prospective employer--not a Milo-ish thing to do at all. It doesn't matter, because through roundabout means (and rather transparent plot devices), they get the job anyway. They're guards for a caravan, of course. And of course they're attacked by various baddies and things go awry, and then they discover they all need to go back to Quag Keep, where something important has been left undone.

I found the plot uninspired and the characters sadly interchangeable. The writing was also not very good. In one scene, just after a character gets an arm cut off (can you say "consult limb loss table"?) and has to have the wound cauterized with a torch, another character calmly peruses some books, complains that he's hungry, and then reads a long and meaningless passage from a book aloud. It makes no sense. Many plot setups have no payoffs. For instance, as a result of reading the book aloud, the character writes a message for help and sends it with Afreet (called Alfreet in this book, for some reason)--but there was no need to send for help, since the other characters were on their way to help anyway. That's just one small example of sloppiness that continued throughout the book.

The ending was particularly disappointing. There was no closure at all, very few plot points were resolved, and all the characters were left hanging--some of them in dire straits indeed. I really find nothing at all to recommend in this book, and that's too bad because I wanted to like it very much.

A group of adventurers, who have been whisked away from Earth to a magical land much like the one they play Dungeons and Dragons in, are forced to protect a caravan to pay off their debt that they made when they accidently started a bar fight. On their way to one of the towns, one of the scouts, Ingrge, captures a man who was following them. The man tells them he was sent here to, and why they were whisked away here after they touched the figurines. He also tells them that the only way to get back to Earth and to save Earth is to save a wizard locked in Quag keep. The band of adventurers try to make their way to Quag Keep, while encountering more and more dangers, that help them find out the truth of why they are here. Will the adventurers save Earth or even find their way home???

I thought this was a great book. I love fantasy books so this suited me well, and would be great for fantasy readers and Dungeon and Dragon players. This book was confusing, however, because this was the sequel to the first book, so I reccomend reading the first one before reading this. This book really intrigued me because it had a lot of mystery and suprises that really kept me interested. I also thought it was cool because the main characters were regular people like you and me. The authors are very good writers, and they kept me wanting to read more.

Reviewed by a student reviewer for Flamingnet Book Reviews
www.flamingnet.com
Preteen, teen, and young adult book reviews and recommendations

Now, I realize that I am dating myself, but I remember when the original Quag Keep was released, and how excited my gaming buddies and I were to read it. We enjoyed the story, with its gaming references and those mysterious bracelets.

But I have to confess that I enjoyed this book even more, at times laughing right out loud as the characters from our world tried to cope with life in a fantasy realm. You don't need a gaming background to understand the problems modern people would face, or their dismay at that lack of hot showers and soft beds.

This tale gives the characters life and breath, and expands the world around them. It's a wonderful blend of adventure and humor that any fantasy reader would enjoy.

When I picked up RETURN TO QUAG KEEP I was a bit concerned that Ms. Rabe wouldn't be able to fill the large shoes of Andre Norton. I have read lots of Ms. Rabe's works in the past and enjoyed every one of them, but she was working in the shadow of one of the true giants of the fantasy genre. I was working for TSR when Andre Norton started writing the excellent first version of QUAG KEEP. She more than made the D&D game come alive in her pages of that work. I loved the story then and I still like it many years later when I reread it before taking up this sequel.

I found Ms. Rabe's approach to the new story refreshing and quite in keeping with the style of the first book. Being a great fan of fantasy, this book kept me interested from the first to the last page. I found myself wanting to read more, which is high praise to my mind.

I would strongly reccommend this new version to any fans of role-playing in general or Andre Norton's works.

James M. Ward