Customer Reviews

The Shattered Mask: Sembia: Gateway to the Realms, Book III

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This review is for the book `The Shattered Mask', which is Book III of the seven book `Sembia: Gateway to the Realms' series. This review is intended as a critique of the writing and flow of the book, not to reveal "spoolers". Please note: I am assuming that people have read The Halls of Stormweather and Shadow's Witness, Books I and II of the series, prior to reading this review. If you haven't, you may wish to skip down to the last two paragraphs for my overall recommendation of this book, which will not contain any information about previous books in this series.

This book focuses on Shamur Uskevren, the matriarch of the Uskevren household, written by Richard Lee Byers. This story takes place a little more than a year after the events of the short story `Song of Chaos'. The Uskevren household, as well as the city of Selgaunt, has had time to recover from the attach by creatures from the Abyss chronicled within the pages of `Shadow's Witness' a year prior. Shamur has begun to regret he treatment of Thamalon when she is used as a tool to bring down the house of Uskevren by an old rival. How will the future vision she had while dealing with the magic opera play out, and how will the revelation of her past effect everyone.

Shamur Uskevren had an colorful past prior to taker her nieces place as bride to Thamalon. The reader is brought along with the rest of the family in discovering this past and an amazing revelation.

Overall, the book is well written and well paced. The author is able to draw the reader into the action of the story. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed the short story `Song of Chaos', as well as readers of the Forgotten Realms and other shared fantasy settings. I would also recommend this book to readers of general Fantasy, looking for a new view on fantasy story telling. I would recommend reading The Halls of Stormweather prior to reading this book. Although the `Sembia: Gateway to the Realms' series is not linear, they occur in conjunction with one another, I would recommend reading the prior books of the series first. Each book will make references the events of the prior books, so the reader will have a more encompassing experience and a greater understanding of the time line throughout the series.

A Note to Readers new to Forgotten Realms: Like many shared settings, especially those stemming from gaming or other media types, the Forgotten Realms books are written with the assumption that the reader has some familiarity with the Forgotten Realms gaming setting. This frees up the author to focus on his or her story, instead of having to explain the world in which the story takes place; the calendar, geography, common races/species, magical properties, etc. This is very important when the book length is normally confined to 300 - 350 pages. As a reader reads more books in the Forgotten Realms setting, they will become more familiar with the world of Faerun and its inhabitants, making the experience more pleasant. The `Sembia: Gateway to the Realms' series is an excellent place for a reader to begin their journey into the Forgotten Realms, since the stories take place in a fairly localized area and contains mostly creatures common to fantasy literature in general.

I must confess that when I saw who the author of this novel was, I was a bit skeptic about it. Byers' work, in my opinion, ranged from mediocre to bad (Year of the Rogue Dragons trilogy). Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised by this novel.

The novel is simply a set of good elements, without an obvious weak spot. Characters are numerous, good, consistent and interesting. Byers gives the villains more space than he usually does, and that really bolsters the dynamic of the novel. I must mention one of the villains, Bileworm, who was given simply brilliant characterization. The intricate relationship between Shamur and her husband is given much space and consideration by the author, and the end result is very good. Other Uskreven family members play a greater role in this book, than they did in "Shadow's Witness" by Paul S. Kemp, and I think this book should've maybe been published as the first one (not counting the "Halls of Stormweather" anthology).
The plot is strong, fast-paced and free of any logical errors. The atmosphere and the setting are maybe a bit off the pace, but they surely aren't bad, simply disregarded, I would say. The book also features a couple of great sword-fights, something where Byers' fencing expertise comes to the fore.

As I said earlier, this is really a novel without a weak spot. I really can't find anything in this novel that particularly stung my eyes. Nevertheless, I'm giving it four stars, just because it failed to bring something extra, some little touch that differentiates a good book from a great one.

I know this original edition of the novel maybe hard to come by, but there is a reprint that should be published in a couple of months. Make sure you don't miss this great installment in the "Sembia: Gateway to the Realms" series.

The Shattered Mask by Richard Lee Byers is the third book in the Sembia: Gateway to the Realms. The story centers around Shamar Uskevren, the matriarch of House Uskevren. The story follows closely with Richard Lee Byers short story in The Halls of Stormweather, called Song of Chaos.

I'll just simply reword what the description says on the back of the book. It follows Shamar as she learns who poisoned her niece causing her to take her identity and marry Thamalon Uskevren. Lo and behold, she finds that the murderer was none other than Thamalon himself! But revenge clouds her thoughts and she forgets the enemies that Uskevren has made over the years...

Negatives:
1) The pacing. It read slightly slow. I don't know why it is, maybe just after reading Shadow's Witness by Paul S. Kemp and knowing that that story was fast paced, that this one seemed a little slow building.
2) All the 'close calls.' Generally, I know most stories have the main characters barely being missed by either a spear or an arrow, but it seemed like every time something was happening, a action was always a close call. It doesn't bother me to much, but just reading how close the sword got or how so and so felt the wind of a pebble just got a little annoying.
3) Age Limitations? From what I understand, Shamar is about 50 and Thamalon is near 60. Yet, they can take down a lot of people without really showing their ages? I don't know about that... However, afterword they were tired and exhausted, but in reality, they should have been near death...

Positives:
1) The whole plot in general. I liked how the poisoning thing was done and thought out. It seemed like no stone was left unturned in the cover-up and blame placing.
2) Monologuing bad guys. I found it funny that when the 'bad guy' started to monologue, Shamar or Thamalon made him pay in one way or another. Then the Man in the Moon, finally picked up on it.
3) Shamar and Thamalon. I really liked how Mr. Byers portrayed them. I felt myself liking Thamalon more and more than what was written about him in the short stories. I liked Shamar in the short story, and I liked her in this more and more. Also, I liked how their relationship was handled.

Overall: 4/5