The climactic conclusion of The Year of Rogue Dragons! Madness takes hold, Sammaster draws closer to victory, and forgotten secrets are revealed at last. Dorn and the rogue dragons will have to find the source of a millennia-old curse, then find some way to destroy it, before the Rage overcomes the world.
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More About the Author
Richard Lee Byers is the author of over thirty fantasy and horror novels, including a number set in the Forgotten Realms universe. A resident of the Tampa Bay area, the setting for many of his horror stories, he spends much of his free time fencing and playing poker. Friend him on Facebook, Follow him on Twitter, and read his blog on Livejournal.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing Conclusion to this Trilogy,
By
This review is from: The Ruin (Forgotten Realms: Year of Rogue Dragons, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)
The Ruin by Richard Lee Byers is the third and final book, in The Year of the Rogue Dragon trilogy. The first two books are The Rage and the Rite. This book follows the characters through their final trials of trying to stop the evil wizard Sammaster and finally putting an end to the dragon rage that is happening all over the world.
The plot of this book is fairly well thought out. The plot carries over from the last book, The Rite, rather well and keeps the over arching plot moving. However, there are very few side stories that would have added more depth to this book. It's pretty much what you see is what you get. While the main plot line is tight and succinct I was still left disappointed. After all this is the third book to a trilogy, it should be the best book; it should anchor everything else that has come before it. Yes, Byers ties up the vast majority of loose ends, and leaves a few for possible books in the future, but at the end everything seemed too nice and tidy. Think of it this way, dragons all over the face of the planet have been raging for a year, yet at the end it is made to seem that everything in fine and are few long-term consequences. The characters in this book were rather disappointing to me as well. Simply put, I could have cared less about the characters for a couple of reasons. Number one, there is no reason more characters should have died through this entire series. I mean come on, they were fighting at times HOARDS of dragons, yet got only a little banged up from time to time. I do not like characters that are all powerful and you have no doubt they will survive. To me the characters were rather two-dimensional and lacked any real depth. At times there seemed to be little reason they did what they did, other than the author knew where the plot needed to go and forced the characters to make those decisions. Like I said before, I simply cared very little for the characters, you could have inserted any character into these roles and it would have been the same story to me. Don't take me wrong, this is not a bad book, I just expected much more for the conclusion of this trilogy. The plot is good, but there are more things about this book that I was disappointed in than I liked. If you have read the first two books in this trilogy, than you need to read this for no better reason that to finish the story. If you are a fan of Realms novels than you may like this trilogy as well. However, if you are looking to get into the fantasy genre I would read this one much later. All in all.... A disappointing conclusion to this trilogy.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Two and a Half Stars Rounded Down,
By
This review is from: The Ruin (Forgotten Realms: Year of Rogue Dragons, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)
This conclusion to the Year of Rogue Dragons trilogy was hamstrung from the every beginning with the lackluster plot and tone set by its predecessors. As the first two books in the series didn't exactly blow us away, I cannot say that The Ruin singlehandedly ruined the series, but it definitely left MUCH more to be desired. The Ruin made me so disinterested that only my status as a hardcore Forgotten Realms fan enabled me to truck through this book after several weeks and several sittings. This once promising story is so devoid of any excitement, richness and character, I couldn't care less, with the exception of Pavel the priest, what happened to each and every personage. I could think of a lot of things, a rock for example, I could better empathize with. The author just seemed to randomly generate a band of 7 wildly dissimilar yet completely bland adventurers (a half-golem, song dragon, human priest, winged elf, halfing, ice dwarf, and a pseudodragon) and have them quest AND survive against humorously impossible odds. There is zero connection to them and the Forgotten Realms universe; the author might've well as written "abracadabra" and then have 7 adventurers appear out of nowhere to do battle with dragons. Cursory and transparent attempts were made at character development such as the love affair between the Dorn the half-golem and the Kara the song dragon (!?!?) but it is painfully obvious that this was nothing more than a page filler until the next gigantic battle. The redeeming qualities? It is a grandiose journey through a large breath of Faerun that includes Sammaster and Iyraclea and has plenty of varied and frenetic action albeit ill-conceived.
Needless to say, I expected more out of the talented Mr. Byers.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A fitting conclusion of a disappointing trilogy,
By Neso (Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Ruin (Forgotten Realms: Year of Rogue Dragons, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)
"The Ruin" is the last novel in the "Year of the Rogue Dragons" trilogy by Richard Lee Byers. The trilogy was a disappointment so far, and this book follows that trend.
I won't berate much about this book, since it generally follows the line of previous installments. Very action oriented, with no intrigue, mystery or realmslore whatsoever. There are fewer battles in this one, to be honest, but even that is way too much for my liking. The novel culminates, of course, with a 60 page battle on the end. I didn't expect anything less. The series as a whole, as I said, is a very weak piece of FR literature. What you won't find in these books is details about Cult of the Dragon, any intrigue or plot twists. You'll get only plenty, and I mean PLENTY, of dead dragons, of all kinds and colors. I'm a gamer, and I confess I've never heard of half of the dragons that appear in this books. I just can't imagine how hard and confusing would reading of these novels be for someone who doesn't play the game. At moments I had a feeling that this trilogy is nothing more that a huge advertisement for some WotC D&D supplements. The problem with the battles in this book, besides their sheer quantity, is their repetitiveness. You've read one, you've read them all. I had a feeling the author was in serious creative crisis while writing these books. All in all, a bad set of novels. A grand idea that went awfully bad. If you like your books with much muscle and no brains, then this is the trilogy for you. Otherwise, avoid it. If you want some nice dragon stories, check out the two anthologies published alongside this trilogy, Realms of the Dragons II: A Forgotten Realms Anthologyand Realms of the Dragons (Forgotten Realms Anthology). Some very good stories in both of those books.
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