The Rite (Forgotten Realms: The Year of the Rogue Dragons, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

by Richard Lee Byers (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The second in a new trilogy of novels from R.A. Salvatore's War of the Spider Queen author Richard Lee Byers.

The Rite is the second title in a trilogy exploring the ancient secrets of dragon society in the Forgotten Realms world. Author Richard Lee Byers will write the entire trilogy, and the cover art for the trilogy and the associated anthology will be rendered by award-winning fantasy artist Matt Stawicki.


About the Author
RICHARD LEE BYERS is the author of over 15 novels, including the Forgotten Realms novels The Shattered Mask, The Black Bouquet, and R.A. Salvatore's War of the Spider Queen, Book I: Dissolution.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast (December 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786935812
• ISBN-13: 978-0786935819
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #73,836 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good follow up novel, January 6, 2005

By	Keius (Ellicott City, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This novel doesn't differ too much from the first novel.
Lots of dragons, action, and good storytelling.
The storyline flows fairly well and the characters
become more defined. Easy, entertaining read.

What i didn't like:
Would have been more realistic
to have seen 1 or 2 main characters bite the dust
when you consider some of the situations involved in the novel.
It almost boggles the mind how some of them survived or how
some actions taken were even possible.
ex. The snow dwarf getting on a silver dragon w/o some kind
of saddle/mount and then being able to shoot arrows while
in midst of aerial combat. Possibly using game mechanics, it
might be explained but it's not very feasible. Small things
like this distracted me from time to time.

Overall, a very solid read. A can't miss forgotten realms novel
thats integral to the timeline.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Byers keeps the story moving, August 14, 2005

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

This is the middle book of the Year of the Rogue Dragons trilogy. As such parts of the story need to be moved along and things set up for what will surely be a great final installment.

Byers follows through on all accounts and does a fantastic job of keeping the story going without recycling things used in the first book. As you read this one you can sense things coming to a head in the next book. You can almost anticipate what is going to happen in book three, the the second you do there is a twist that makes you rethink all that you thought before.

All-in-all this is a very good middle book and makes me eagerly anticipate the third in this very good trilogy.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Bad, March 28, 2007

By	Neso (Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina) - See all my reviews

"The Rite" is the second book in the Year of the Rogue Dragons trilogy by Richard Lee Byers. I must say that the first book failed to impress, although it wasn't bad. I gave it three stars.

This novel is really not what I hoped for. I expected more mystery, intrigue and some details behind the Rage of Dragons. What I got, is 230 pages of boring, repetitive, pointless slaughter, and fairly interesting last 100 pages. I felt the author had absolutely no idea what to make of this bridge book, so he filled the page-count in the easiest possible way - with fighting. The problem (besides the obvious pressing quantity of battle scenes) is their repetitiveness. They differ from one another only in the variety of the dragon waiting to get slaughtered. As I already said, first 230 pages lack any substance. The protagonists are split in three groups and sent on different errands to try and learn something of the Rage. The problem is that they learn absolutely nothing, and then start having inexplicable epiphanies towards the back end of the novel. No feeling of progress in this book.
If you expected to see more of Sammaster and the Cult in this book, you'll be disappointed once again. The lich appears only in the prologue, and once towards the end, and that is all you see of him.
Next, the descriptions of people, places and their customs protagonists meet in their travels are minimal. You won't learn anything about Thentia, Monastery of the Yellow Rose or Damara in this book. Instead, you'll see at least 10 different kinds of dragons get terminated in the same way, with sword and sorcery.
Character development is minimal, again, and obviously everything that we had to learn about the characters happened in the first novel. Dorn is even losing his gruffness and phlegmatic habits (I came to like in the first book), and becomes more and more of the washed-out hero we see in the novels over and over again.
Another thing that bothered me is the constant use of game terms in the novel. I do understand that D&D game (which I immensely enjoyed in my time, and would recommend to everybody who hasn't tried it out) and these FR novels are strongly connected, but I think there is really no need for references such as "I can use this power only a couple times per day" in novels. On the other side, he stomps all over some of the more important aspects of the game, such as paladin's code of conduct.

IF there is a redeeming quality of this book, it must be the introduction of the wizards of Thentia and the mystery Taegan has to solve around them. Again, I would have liked to see more of that, but I understand that the author didn't have the space to really fit it in beside all the dracocide in this book.

I hope the third book will be better than this one, or at least as mediocre as the first one, but I must confess I'm a pessimist. Enjoy.