Customer Reviews

The Yellow Silk (Forgotten Realms: The Rogues, Book 4)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Like one of the reviewers here, I must applaud the author of this book for giving creedance to an oft-overlooked class in D&D literature: The Bard. Tychoben Arisaeen is as unlikely a hero as ever, described as a short hairy singer, but his gifts for music and mirth, as well as getting into trouble, kept this reader highly entertained.

The author, Don Bassingthwaite, excels in his bardic abilities as well, because I could almost hear the music in this novel. And the magic behind it? Magnificent!

The story takes place in the Port City of Spandeliyon in Altumbel, but don't let the charming name fool you. In the winter, this port is dark and cold and full of villains you wouldn't want to meet in a down-trodden tavern, much less an alleyway!

But the heroes are warm and engaging and I found myself caring for them quite easily. Tycho has an excellent everyman quality mixed with charm, a rapier wit and a good heart. His mentor, the once great Veseene "the Lark", is a wise and wily old bird whom anyone would love to have as an honored grandmother. Li Chieng, a fighter from Shou Lung makes Tycho an unlikely partner, but his story is full of the secrets of a young man trying to regain his family honor. And the luscious Laera, a rich young woman with aspirations of bardhood is a welcome addition.

On the other side of the fence are the villains, and boy, are they nasty! I was reluctant at first to mentally accept a halfling as the main master of villainy, but the retired one-eyed pirate named Brin is WICKED. As one reviewer put it, he's very Napoleonic, and the fact that he can control and frighten a world of "big people" certainly says something. He is a terror.

I don't want to give away the other villains because that would spoil this finely woven tale which had me hanging on every word. Buy it! Read it! And enjoy!

I thought this book was great simply because it focused on an often overlooked character class in the written world of fantasy and D&D (especially the Forgotten Realms). Bards are a huge part of any fantasy world with taverns and inns with common rooms, but I cannot remember the last time I read any mention of one in a FR book. Bards play an important role in any fantasy community, as illustrated in the first few chapters at the tavern of choice.

The storyline and plot was good also, although at points it was very vague on the motives behind one of the foreign characters to the city of Spandeliyon. But it was vague because the foreign character was keeping something from everybody else, but of course, it all becomes clear. While mentioning this person, Li, it seems strange to me because there seems to be a race in this book that I am unfamiliar with and could not understand if they were from Faerun or somewhere else, or just some obscure part of the Realm. This "race" just seemed to be humans with an Asian or oriental decent - which of course is fine but it is just hard to grasp what exactly this persons decent was from a stand-alone book. Maybe I'm just not as well-read as I should be. I just kept conjuring this image of stereotypical samarai warriors who somehow keep getting confused as elfs?! I guess the city is not very well-cultured. Li is also insanly impulsive and just goes nuts sometimes. It seems almost out of character, but I suppose it's not. These couple things, while simingly minor, haunted the back of my head while reading "The Yellow Silk," and thus is the reason for four stars instead of five.

Another highlight of this book is the halfling mob boss that everyone either criminally works for or is afraid to cross. He has an eye patch and is a pig/warthog hearder. It makes for a very interesting mental picture of all these minions serving this 2.5 foot halfling conducting business in the pigstys. Classic.

Good book. Great characters, good story, confusing cultural background. This book has its moments where it clearly and classically utilizes the talents of a bard. I found it almost as interesting and as entertaining as some of the battles of barbarians and the thefts of the other rogues in various FR books.

A one eyed, patch wearing, Halfling gang boss. As an unlikely bad guy as Scrappy Doo but it was still fun to dislike this wicked Napoleon.

The main charter seemed to be typical of the series, the unlucky non-hero thrown into the heroic situation; usually to save a loved one or the girl. In this case, our hero might not save the day and the girl is a little scorned.

A fun read with the required big battle with plenty of swordplay and magic at the end. Everything you should expect from a Rogue.

Actually its the best FR book hands down in my opinion. Why? Because its so un-epic. There are no world shattering consequences to failure, no rings to throw in lava, no dragons to defeat and save the kingdom. There's mud and blood and guts and a halfling named Brin who runs all the crime in the dirtiest little town in Faerun. And it kicks ass. I don't need to give any spoilers just read the back of the book...He should've kept his mouth shut. Sounds like a damn USA Network original.

I agree with most of the reviewers, this is a very entertaining book. However my only disappointment with this book was the reason's behind why the true villian became nasty and evil. It was lame and quite comical. Overall a good read.

This is the fourth and final (I believe) book in the series of stand alone novels featureing the Rogues in the Forgotten Realms.

The thing I enjoyed most about this book int he main character is vastly different from that of most fantasy books. The story is also something that hasn't been rehashed a hundred times either. It's something new.

Overall this is a very good continuation of the Rogue series and well worth the read.

Bassingwaithe's style and especially the way he handles dialogues are real refreshment on the FR novel scene. The dialogues are colorful and witty, and the author does not suppress his obviously great sense of humor. Usually, the humor in FR novels is limited to one comic relief character (a dwarf more often than not), and it lacks the spark. In this book, every single character can draw a chuckle or two. The characters (almost every single one of them) are different and memorable. They have their share of flaws and merits, and they are far from being overly powerful, as we often see in FR novels. The author does a great job of describing the xenophobic people of Altumbel, as well as the architecture and climate of the setting. The plot is pretty simple, but still strong and interesting. The book is intense throughout its course and you flip page after page without even noticing. It is a small story of a small man, and does not involve armies, dragons and such things.

On the downside, I really didn't like the way author handled the culmination. I expected something different from such an unusual novel. Otherwise, I have no more complaints.

Since this is the last book from the "Rogues" series I'm reviewing, I'm going to take a second to reflect on the series as a whole. I'm a bit disappointed, to be sincere. I really expected more of books that deal with maybe the most interesting of life-styles: the one of a rogue (be it an entertainer, thief, spoiled brat or a bard). Mathematically, the series get an overall score of 2.75, which is slightly below average. It features two very good books (Alabaster Staff and Yellow Silk), a pretty boring one (Black Bouquet) and a disastrous one (The Crimson Gold). It seems that less experienced FR writers (Bolme and Bassingwaithe) did a better job than their senior counterparts. Maybe it is time for a change at Wizards of the Coast publishing.