Customer Reviews

The Sundered Arms (Dungeons & Dragons Novel)

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When a chapter is titled "Dissention" (sic), you know the editor is asleep at the switch. There are unfortunately more instances of bad grammar, as well as a quote from The Empire Strikes Back that take this from an average dungeon crawl to less than average.

We have three returning characters, Devis the half-elf Bard, Vadania the druid and Lidda the halfing rogue. Vadania and Lidda are uncharacteristically besotted with Devis though they are both experienced enough to know better, particularly Vadania. Tordek a dwarven fighter is the new iconic addition and Vadania is given a wolverine companion.

That being said, the actual adventure is fairly good. Some really powerful enemies and enchanted weapons with a satisfying ending. It is really too bad that this series suffers from an editor who shows such disregard to the readers by allowing such continuity and basic english mistakes.

This was one of Lain's better plots, and the character choices were interesting in that for the first time (or at least, as I can recall), there were no humans involved.

Tordek, the dwarf fighter, Vadania the elven druidess, Devis the half-elf bard, and Lidda the halfing rogue hook up to delve deep into a once-Dwarven stronghold that has been taken by evil. They all have a reason: Tordek wants to avenge a wrong against the Dwarven people, Vadania wants to stop the foul forge's sludge from ruining the forest, Devis wants a heroic story, and Lidda ... wants cash.

But! As the story progresses, there's actual character development, especially with Devis (who we've not really seen in a while, and whose serious side gets a bit of brief attention). Tordek's history is explained, and I liked it.

The cohesiveness of Lain's world is a bit off sometimes, and the way that "evil creatures of the week" seem to gang up on the heroes is sometimes a bit amiss, but this had some strength to it. Cursed evil weapons being reforged in hellfire on a profaned Dwarven altar by demonic forces intent on bringing a demon into the world? Oooh yeah.

Can they stop it? Of course they can. They're heroes. THe fun is in the how.

'Nathan