Customer Reviews

The Sorcerer: Return of the Archwizards, Book III (The Return of the Archwizards)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Caution: Spoilers within my review, If you havent figured them out yourself, wise readers...

Ok, I liked the story. Given its scope, I should have loved it. I doubt if I ever read it again. Mystra's Chosen are too powerful and snotty for my taste! One, if not more of them should have died. Magical superheros belong in another setting. The formidable Shadowmages are easily defeated and quickly forgotten. What a shame...

At least the city of Shade was not totally destroyed. It wobbles in the desert twilight, precariously. The elves recover Evereska, predictably. Cormyr is left unharmed, and the Realms return to normal, right?! This is a classic case of boardroom writing with Troy Denning getting all the credit. He is not my favorite writer thus far. Perhaps he should try to take his time and write a good tale of the Forgotten Realms. I know he can!

I am not disappointed with the story. I think it could have been more carefully plotted and richer characterizations involved. I see Paul S. Kemp is resuming the tales of the Shadow magic. Perhaps he can do better. These fantasy novels are not a race for publication to see if they become best sellers. Let Troy Denning write Star wars novels, if he cannot handle the much loved Forgotten Realms!

Finally, just before it is ending, Denning decides to actually use all of the characters and shows us the point of view of a phaerimm, the points of view of Vala and other characters (still not Aris, though!) etc. This book is by far the best of the three, and it was nice to see Galaeron finally stop whining about his shadow and what he did ot Evereska and all of Faerun.

The book's characterization was better than the rest of them too. The characters were more believable and had more individuality. The novel, in general, seemed better edited, less hasty, and more sure. The ending was not all that I'd hoped for, but I am interested in seeing what will finally become of Malik, after he gueststars in two different series.

Better than the other two, but is it worth reading all three? I would say no, unless you have a couple of days and twenty dollars to kill. A good book, though.
Harkius

I am not going to dissect the plot because I don't see the point. I will say that the end is slightly underwhelming. But then, any FR novel not written (or co-written) by Ed tends to be (in my experience). Mostly because the world rides on his rails and goes where he wants. Main characters are never in any real peril, and the world is rarely in any real danger...

Keeping that in mind, the scope of the entire trilogy is plausible and exciting to read, as most of Troy's works are.

Now, for the main reason I am writing this review. Troy is without a doubt the best author I have come across at putting the choreography of the moment into words. What his writing lacks in depth of verbiage (waves at Ed sarcastically) it makes up for in flow... In other words, he makes what is usually most difficult for me to read by most authors (fast action combat) not only easy, but pleasant to read... As a matter of fact, it is the main reason I seek out and read his work...

Note: This may be why he has written so many Star Wars novels... Oh, and if you like this trilogy, I recommend checking out his Dark Sun works...(which are coming to re-print from the looks of it) Top notch stuff.

Tj.

First, I have to say that I disagree with the majority of the fellow reviewers. This 3rd book of the series, though a little down the ladder compared to the former ones, maintained the quality well enough. I must say the story is a bit confused in the end, but the overall plotline was quite clear. Yes, I agree when you say the Chosen weren't well portraited, but THEY aren't the spotlight. I think we should take into account the whole series, and not consider the book independently. Maybe people got confused because they didn't read the first ones well enough.

While the first book in this series was quite excellent the last two lag. This is the fantasy equivilant of a big budget summer movie without a good deal of rational plot or interesting settings.

Most of the book is chaotic battles that are rife with super human characters that cannot possibly die. While in the first book the enemies were built up to be incredibly formadible, the heroes seem to slash and blast their way without very much difficulty here.

Perhaps hurting the Forgotten Realms setting more than anything is the resurgance of the LOTR, with the new movies. The copies of that work are showing their shallowness. Elves are threatened and the magic must be restored in order to save the world. The climax comes down to an against all odds defense of a single city. How many times has this been done before and far better? The Elfstones of Shanara do this story better justice.

The neat things about this series were the Shadovar and the potential threat they posed to the Realms. That would have invigorated the tired setting a bit, but instead that threat is rendered all but impotent at the conclusion of this novel.

Even worse is the sitcom soap opera that is so sterotyptical it's hard not to skip pages.

While the book admirably tries to make Galaeron interesting, his transformation into Shadow Wizard is still a pale likeness of Raistlin. Without giving a way too much, the tidy ending was wholely unsatisfying.

Unfortunately, much like the Cormyrian Trilogy, this one falls apart with the last two books after an excellent first book. I recently reread the excellent "Crusade" as proof that the Forgotten Realms can still be a viable setting of excellent fantasy. Unfortunately, more of the current novels lose the focus of the story and fail to stay as tight as the Hoard Saga. It would have been a far more interesting saga if Azoun had been able to form his Alliance and fought the Shadovar in an epic war. But alas, we are left with superhuman divine intervention instead of realistic and mortal heroes.

I really liked this series, and though I do think some of the characters were a bit too unbeatable, overall I enjoyed them all, and the somewhat unusual ending to the book. I look forward to the future encounters with the Shadovar, and am glad to see them a force to stay!

This is one if the worst books I have ever read, no kidding. The plot is boring, the characters are the epitome of un-pleasant and dis-likeable, I rooted for the vilians to win (giant uber-nasty magic space bug thingies). Oh, and the whole world, no universe, no creation, NO MAGIC IT SELF is threatened! (Gasp) If you are masochistic, this books for you!