Unclean: The Haunted Lands, Book I [Mass Market Paperback]

Richard Lee Byers, Unclean (Wizards of the Coast, 2007)

I have to admit that with a very few exceptions, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons books since the first six Dragonlance books have been a guilty pleasure at best; unless one of the best of TSR's (now WOTC's) stable of writers-- Bob Salvatore, Ed Greenwood, Weis and Hickman-- was at the helm, I knew I could expect all the trappings of genre writing without any real strong points to distinguish the book in question. Even some "name" writers, on their way up (Laurell K. Hamilton) or on their way down (Gene DeWeese, who wrote the wonderful Something Answered way back when) turned in substandard AD&D books. It got to the point where I stopped following AD&D series altogether. All of them. Then, through some agency I no longer recall, I started hearing the name Richard Lee Byers, and how he was going to be the guy who put AD&D novels back on the map. I heard it enough that when I found out he had a new Forgotten Realms trilogy starting, I decided to pick up the first one and see if there was any substance behind the smoke.

Boy oh boy, is there. I grant you, this is still very much genre writing, but it's good genre writing. Byers manages to integrate game mechanics into his story without it being annoying, something a lot of writers over the years who wrote for TSR/WOTC never managed to do (and, perhaps more annoyingly, many others simply tossed the rules out the window and went their own way). But that is far from the only thing about Unclean that impresses.

The story centers on Thay, the mysterious home of the Red Wizards, and the lives of a number of disparate personages therein. For those unfamiliar with the Forgotten Realms, a quick overview: Thay is ruled by the eight most powerful Red Wizards, known as Zulkirs. The book opens with one of them, Druxus Rhym, getting killed after an attacker slips into his heavily-fortified house. This, understandably, worries the other zulkirs. Szass Tam, the ageless zulkir of Necromancy and first among equals, orders an investigation into the death. Meanwhile, he's also discovered an unsanctioned raid into neighboring Mulhorand, saved the Thayan troops (who got ambushed), and concocted a story with their leaders to put a good spin on what would have otherwise gotten them executed. As if that's not bad enough, throngs of undead bent on overtaking the country are marching out of the Sunrise mountains to the west. What's an omnipotent zulkir to do?

And I've only touched on the tip of the iceberg. There are also subplots about a bard coming home to marry his childhood sweetheart only to find she's sold herself into slavery, intrigue in the Flame Temple of Kossuth, a spy who may be older than Szass Tam himself, a demonic fetus (yes, you read that right), and much, much more. Byers has a lot of balls in the air here, and while it would be overstating the case by a long, long way to say that this is as good as Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen, Byers certainly shows himself capable of juggling an entire fakebook full of plots and keeping them all consistent and easy to follow, in the Erikson tradition. Since I seem to have trapped myself into comparing Byers and Erikson, I'll continue on: while Erikson's characters are much deeper and better-rounded, each of his books is also at least twice the size of Unclean. Not to forgive Byers for shallowness, but Erikson's characters are rare commodities in any fiction, much less genre fiction. Compared to the last handful of AD&D novels I've read, Byers' characters could have stepped out of an Orson Welles movie. And, as seems to be written into every WOTC contract, the action is thick and fast, which generally leaves no time at all for character development; Byers handles this task better than most (certainly better than any AD&D novel I've read since Weis and Hickman's legendary Dragons trilogy back in the mid-eighties). A very promising start to the series. *** 

Unclean by Richard Lee Byers is the first book in The Haunted Lands trilogy. This book marks the second trilogy penned by Mr. Byers in the Forgotten Realms universe. The first trilogy, Year of the Rogue Dragons, finished up in 2006 with The Ruin. This novel focuses on one of the more intriguing areas of the Forgetting Realms landscape, Thay. There have been countless novels with bits and pieces about Thay, yet rarely do books focus exclusively on Thay and the subterfuge that is Thay.

The plot of this book, at times, is hard to follow and a little disjointed. The reason for that seems to be that there are many story lines and sub plots that Mr. Byers needs to get started, since this is part of a trilogy. At times, these extra sub plots take away from the main plot. There were a couple of times where I found myself just starting to get going with the main plot only to be jerked away by a sub plot. The main plot centers on what appears to be the beginnings of a civil war within Thay. Two of the sub plots are romantic in nature, which both seem artificial to me and thrown in just because there needed to be a romantic element to this story. I believe this novel would have been better off focusing on the main storyline and cutting back, what I see, as some unnecessary sub plots.

The characters in this book are the redeeming quality, to a point. Long has Szass Tam been a popular figure in Forgetten Realms lore, fans of his are finally given a book with him as a prominent character. A few other characters will be familiar to perceptive readers as well. Mr. Byers does a pretty good job at mixing the established characters in with some new ones and weaving them throughout the story. Two memorable characters are Aoth and Bareis, both are solid characters and should take this trilogy far. However, during the course of this book - there is really little to no character development with them. In the end of the novel both characters are essentially the same and haven't grown (or regressed) in any way. One would think, that given this is the first book of a trilogy the characters would have some development, but that's not the case with this one. If this was a stand alone novel, I could maybe excuse the lack of character development. However, being that it is part of a trilogy it leaves me disappointed.

My main criticisms of this novel are the forced romantic sub plots that just seemed really out of place with the overall feel of this novel. The complete lack of character development, and the many sub plots which take away from the main story arc.

I did like that this novel focuses exclusively on Thay and finally gives the fans of the Forgotten Realms a little peak into that world. I also liked the main story line seems to have good things in store. There are quite a few possibilities that Mr. Byers could use and that is exciting.

Overall, I think things balance out and this is a good to solid Realms novel. Fans who are interested in Thay will no doubt enjoy this book. I also think that fans of the fantasy genre, particularly the horror genre will enjoy this as well. If, however, you are looking for a book with a great deal of character development, then this book may not be for you. When all is said and done, I think this will advance the Forgotten Realms lore and leave many readers clamoring for more.

Thay is one of my favorite parts of the Realms, and when i saw they are giving it a whole trilogy, which really delves into the future of Thay, i was really excited. Then i saw they gave it to Byers, and my eagerness turned into disappointment. I personally consider Byers one of the weakest Realms authors, who pumps up his word count with one pointless battle after another. Year of Rogue Dragons is a testament to that statement. To be fair, Byers is capable of writing a good book and The Shattered Mask: Sembia: Gateway to the Realms, Book III (Forgotten Realms) proves it. So, with those mixed emotions i started reading this novel. And im really happy i gave it a shot.

This novel is everything i expect a big-scale epic fantasy novel to be. Many subplots, many interesting characters, big epic (yet not boring and pointless) battles, and even some tragedy. Seems that the Wizards gave their authors some more breathing space, so now more often then not we see shades of gray, which is a welcome change from the boring good vs evil concepts we all reread a million times over. To put it simple, there are no heroes in this book, and that is what makes it big. Also there are no annoying characters, and that is a miracle lately.

I really have no complaints about the novel. I see a lot of people criticizing two romances in the novel, but to be honest i dont see anything wrong with them. They dont take too many pages, and they arent cheesy at all. I really dont understand what is the big deal with them.

A must-read for every Realms fan, and a highly reccomended book for a casual fantasy reader. Cant wait for the next installment.

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