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5.0 out of 5 stars
A great adapation to one great game, July 7 2004
Having played the original TSR "Tomb of Horrors" Module this book caught my eye right away, despite reading it in 2004. I am glad to say I was not disappointed in my purchase. I found it to have a compelling plot, to be faithful to the Greyhawk theme, and to have one hell of a final chapter. The last chapter was just fantastic, in my humble opinion. The author took the time to think out why the characters are doing what they are doing, despite the obvious danger, and managed to add some depth to all the characters. My only regret is that Wizards of the Coast does not take the time to expand on the Greyhawk line to make other such novels. I am now looking forward to reading other books from this publisher including the "Forgotten Realms" line and other Greyhawk novels. It truly was a great read, and a much needed diversion. Enjoy!
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Ruined By Formulaic Writing, Mar 9 2004
This would have been a dynamite book had not the page count been limited to a mere 300 pages. Wizards of The Coast are known for keeping their page count to around 300 pages, and most of their writers do a good job portraying a good story in that word count. Strohm, however, fails in this, as his story seemed to have a lot more life to it before he pulled the plug. The 300 page formula makes him wrap up the climax in a paltry 20 pages, when it should and could have lasted 100 pages alone.The beginning and middle are good enough to merit 3 stars, so I guess its worth reading.
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1.0 out of 5 stars
It puts the 'gene' in generic, Feb 29 2004
By A Customer
When I first laid eyes on the cover of this book about two years ago I thought "It has to be a great novel" simply because of the cover 'Tomb of Horrors'. Being based off of the actual adventuring model by the late TSR Company, I also believed that this book came into print during that long ago era, however, I was to be sadly mistaken beginning with the fact that this book was written exactly two years ago. To be frank (because only a 1000 words will fit on to this review) this thing (no it's not a book, I refuse to believe so) is g-e-n-e-r-i-c, generic, in every sense of the word. First, the plot is predictable throughout the entire novel. While having the faint ability to keep me interested on some level, the depth of the book is as about as deep as the shallow end of the kitty pool (no its not that deep). Although the basic idea of the books' storyline is good, the author (Strohm) fails to take full advantage of it and instead creates some sort of sorry attempt that a person who is educated in the universe could've made better in their own spare time. Occasionally having a twist or turn, the excitement level of the book still proves to be flatter then the paper it's written on, which left me bored and extremely angered/depressed/sad that something like this actually went through the print shop. Moving on to characters (or the attempt of having characters) with the exception of the main character, Kaerion, who is only one that actually shows a sense of personality and internal conflict, every character in this book is one dimensional and acts, to the very smallest detail, of how the D&D players' handbook describes them in the 'class selection' chapter. Thus, the story can be summarized as this (this is not a spoiler since the back of the book says the same thing):
There is generic disgruntled warrior who meets uber-generic elf who decide to work together and earn money the normal, respectable, way that mercenaries do, which is killing stuff. Disgruntled warrior and Legolas soon decide to team up with generic bard, generic noble, generic 'specialized' cleric and generic old mage guy to go rummaging through the generic dungeon for the generic purpose of making money. Along the way, the generic team has generic encounters and Disgruntled Man must make generic decision of trying to redeem himself.
Simply put, for those hardcore, die-hard, fantasy lovers out there, who love a great fantasy novel, THIS WOULD BE THE ANTITHESIS OF ONE, and unless you like to have your love of fantasy clubbed over the head like a baby seal, I would advise you (in fact order you) to stay away from this book, and instead stick to authors, who actually can write fantasy like Salvatore, Greenwood, Feist, Friedman, Weis, and Hickman. (And for those of you who think that I haven't 'generic' enough well, generic, generic, generic, generic, generic.)
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