Most helpful customer reviews
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4.0 out of 5 stars
one problem, Jun 2 2004
the real problem that i fould with the book was that during certain battles the author would leave out some of the people. the worst is when it came to malowan
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Wasted ideas, missed opportunities, May 19 2003
This book attempted to take three really fine D&D modules and cram them into one small novel. The results are scattered plotlines, undeveloped characters, and frankly unbelieveable resolutions. Emerson did a decent job of uniting the three modules into a plausible storyline, but so much was going on that in truth this needed to be 2 or 3 books, not one. Because she had to fit so much in, the author glossed over character development and ran the group through some tough situations so easily that at times the reader would snort in disbelief. At times the action would stop just long enough to allow the group (and the reader) time to catch their breath and actually interact with one another, then- zoom! Off they go again. By the end of the book they were actually running to get done before they ran out of pages! Kind of ridiculous.
There are many disappointments waiting the D&D purist, as Emerson here commits so many faux paus that either she had never played the game before, or she was playing a different one than I did as a kid. In particular the mage, Nemis, apparently had access to an almost unlimited supply of magic spells, and he always seemed to have another "non-detection" spell memorized when the party needed it. Now how many times did that happen in the game? And giants, which were pretty tough adversaries both in the game and in most other literature, fell like nine-pins to almost everyone in the party, even to the main charcter Lhors, who was just a farm kid! The party was always apprehensive about attacking the giants, but when they did they easily overcame them, often without anyone getting hurt. So are the giants tough or not? And the "climatic" fight at the end, which the party was dreading the whole book, is carried off virtually without a hitch (save for the sacrificing of 2 characters, neither of whom were very central to the story). Of course, they were almost out of pages by then!
In summary, let me say that no matter whether you have played the game and these modules and are reading for nostalgia, or are just looking for something new, I'm afraid you are in for a disappointment here. All of the other Grayhawk Classic books are better than this one, and you'd be better off going to any one of them, even the other one by Emerson, the Keep on the Borderlands.
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1.0 out of 5 stars
Beyond terrible, Nov 3 2002
About a third of the way in, I could only think, "Who the hell is Ru Emerson, and why did WOTC let her write a book about a classic module which she's obviously never played?"About halfway in, I just gave up. Terrible characters, zero plot, nothing to hold my interest. I have to thank Ru for one thing, though -- she's given me hope as to actually becoming a published writer one day. There's no way I could do a worse job than this. Then again, neither could a half-drunk wildebeast.
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