Forsaken House (Forgotten Realms: The Last Mythal) (Mass Market Paperback)

by Richard Baker (Author) "Angry winter surf boomed and thundered against Tower Reilloch's headland as Araevin Teshurr answered the high mage's summons..." (more)
Key Phrases: daemonfey army, daemonfey queen, mythal stone, High Forest, Tower Reilloch, Lord Seiveril (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The first in a new trilogy of novels from New York Times best-selling author Richard Baker. Forsaken House is the first title in a new trilogy chronicling the tempestuous return of an isolated society of elves to the mainland of the Forgotten Realms world. The events in this trilogy will have far-reaching impact across the entire setting.

About the Author

Richad Baker works as a game designer and Managing Developer for the roleplaying game line at Wizards of the Coast, Inc. A New York Times best-selling author with Condemnation, his additional Forgotten Realms novels include The City of Ravens and the forthcoming Last Mythal trilogy.

Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast (August 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786932600
• ISBN-13: 978-0786932603
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #557,127 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Before you review...consult a dictionary!, October 27, 2004

By	Geoffrey Horvath (Iraq) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

First off...it is sad that (at present) 7 of 10, and 4 of 6 people have found two reviews "helpful" from people that couldnt even be bothered to take 5 minutes to go to dictionary.com and plug in the word "cwm". One of those reviewers even made the effort to consult the "Elven" dictionary in "Forsaken House" (a great way to determine how to pronounce character's names, btw, and generally a nice feature)...but mysteriously couldnt be bothered to peruse an ENGLISH dictionary. I thought it was fairly standard on the elementary school curriculum to teach people to look up words they didnt know in the dictionary...yet these scholars presume to stand in judgment and criticize this author's work. Shameful.

In my opinion, this book was a fine piece of work. I picked it up looking for a "change of pace" from Salvatore's Drizzt novels, and found that I enjoyed it considerably more than many of Salvatore's later works in that storyline...particularly the not-even-mediocre Paths of Darkness series. Spoilers forthcoming...If you scan many of the reviews for Salvatore's books, you find complaints that the "Champions of the Hall" (terrible LotR knockoff, btw) are invincible, even in the face of ridiculously mighty opponents such as dragons and higher demons...yet when the group of principle characters in this book suffer physically from their battles and/or one of them is killed (with appropriate emotional reactions from the remaining members of the band...not sure what that reviewer was talking about)...people come here and complain about _that_. Simply amazing!

Anyway, back to the point...I thought this book was great, and I am looking forward to the rest of the trilogy. I am not the biggest fan of the world of the elves, but I enjoy a good story and this book is just that. The author offers a great depiction of fights and larger battles, and even allows for consequence in those confrontations whereby, as I said above...unlike Drizzt and his gang...enemies actually get in a few hits on the "heroes" and do some damage. What a novel concept, eh? My only complaint falls back on the fact that I am not the biggest elven fanboy, and found the names difficult to roll off the tongue...but as I said, the elvish dictionary in the back of the book helps with that immensely.

I thought this was a very solid book and a fine addition to the universe of Forgotten Realms, and wholeheartedly recommend it to like-minded fans of the genre.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Reads like the game.Argh... , March 5, 2006

By	Zoaster "Zoaster" (USA) - See all my reviews

The short answer is that this book reads like a game adventure module and I'll try to keep being brief in what follows:

- Good
1) He has a nice way of scenery descriptions. The battles use dramatic similies that are clear and fun (except for the one about flying dwarf's being "like a NINEPIN"??? Oh com'mon!! I expect to see a Bowling supplement for sporting games played in Forgotten Realms!)).
2) Dialogue was decent and writing was clear, concise and direct.
3) The Telkiira and Selukiira, even the Mythal are great seeds for a story.
4) I like the demonfae conceptually, but hated the execution in the book.

- Not so Good
1) The Demonfae concept is cool. I wish Richard stuck with them and ONE demon who helps to spawn them. Demonfae should have been the only ones supplementing the orc army, not the zoo that was in the book. This multi-legged, would-eat-their-'master'-as-soon-as-serve-her hodgepodge of random monsters was just the last straw for me, after suffering through a laborous allusion to a "delayed blast fireball." It was like reading the results of a horrible dice roll on a random monster generation table. To those questioning why I have a problem with this armies' make-up, never mind why. The reasons should be obvious and are just too long to go into here. So let's just say that Noah had fewer critters in the Ark than this army had surreally cooperative chaotic evil races.
2) The descriptions of spells and the inner thoughts of the main character are a tad too much like a game module. Spells were named out of the book or described as if out of the major arcana and battle with the Iron Golem played out like a player fought the automoton, not that a wizard encountered a living machination.

I'm not a codger or a purist or a libarian. I'm just a guy looking to find something good to read and tried out this trilogy. In general my impression is this... I own the second book and am having to search for reasons to read it. Not because Richard isn't an inadequate writer, but because with his ability and creativity, the story could be so very much better than it was.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great start to this trilogy, August 14, 2005

By	Andrew Gray "Beezer Review" (Minnesota) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Richard Bakers sets the bar pretty high with this, his first book in the Last Mythal trilogy. This is a very captivating book. The plot is fast paced and moves along at a decent speed while at the same time having very good character development.

If you are looking for a hacka nd slash style of book, this is not it. In fact I will even go so far as saying this book breaks away from the normal style of the Forgotten Realms book, but not in a bad way.

I was a little sceptical of this series, but those thoughts were quickly stymied in about 20 pages as I became captivated by this book.

If you are a fan of Forgotten Realms, or are looking for a book to jump start you in the Realms give this one some serious consideration.