3.5 stars
I felt this book got off to a shaky start. It introduced the main characters from book 1 again, but they were all acting against type. Throw in some new characters who are overly protective of what they think and it becomes a farce of everyone jumping to the wrong conclusion.

I'm sure this is meant to add suspense but all of the characters seem unlikeable from the start.

Once everything is sorted out and the story proper gets going then it's back to an enjoyable read with a lot of actual suspense and action.

The ending leaves a bit to be desired. There's a brief explanation and wrapping up, but some of the characters are completely ignored.

 

Well, I am currently sitting in economy class about an hour away from Melbourne airport, on the final leg of a rather exhausting trek. Even though I have spent most of the last seven hours in some sort of daze while my body clock tries to catch up with Australian Eastern Standard time (and the fact that I have spent the last 28 hours either in an airport, or in the air – though in reality we left London Thursday morning and will arrive in Melbourne Friday evening, which makes it around 36 hours, though eight of those hours are technically missing hours – then again we did gain them on the way over, if it wasn't for the fact that six of those eight hours involved the plane flying up, dumping all of its fuel, flying back down, and then forcing us to change planes).

 

Anyway, I still had this one graphic novel to read, and fortunately in between snippets of sleep (I am too stingy to pay for anything more than economy class), I did manage to read it, not that it was a huge story. In fact it was just your basic fantasy novel in comic book form – a lone elf comes to the city and stumbles upon a dragon cult, and in the end they fight, and kill, a dragon. Okay, maybe that was a bit of a spoiler, but honesty, what to you expect from a fantasy story? Isn't that what happens in The Hobbit? The difference is that this story is done in comic book form (though I'm sure there is a comic book version of the Hobbit floating around somewhere).

 

One thing that I noticed though was something that C.S. Lewis touched on in the previous book that I read: Of This and Other Worlds: the idea of why the comic book is loathed so much as a form of literature. His suggestion is that it is loathed simply because it mixes two forms of art, and both of them tend to be pretty bad. Not only do you have what is in effect a play (the comic book artists tend to create a script prior to drawing the pictures), but you also have multiple drawings that go with the story, and act to explain what is happening. Actually, I have seen some comics based on Shakespeare plays, and while the story is basically Shakespeare, the art is anything but, and because the actual art is to bad then the book is dragged down with it (it is short of like a bad performance destroying a great play).

 

 

The other interesting thing is that like science-fiction it does take a while for comics to enter into the mainstream. This hasn't always been the case, particularly with the Francophone comics such as Tintin and Asterix. However putting them aside (particularly since I don't view the Francophone comics the same as I do the Anglophone), when many of us think of comics we usually think of superheroes, bad artwork, and things that children read (ignoring the fact that quite a lot of adults still enjoy comics). However, it is interesting that even then I tend look down on the comic book as a lesser form of literature, and while I have read some, I really have no desire to go out and pay money for any more (unless I am reviewing a comic book store).

 

Oh, and since it is set in Balder's Gate apparently there is a reference to the computer game of the same name in the form of Misnc the ranger and his miniature giant space hamster. The problem is that I played the game so long ago that I barely remember anything about the game, that is until the connection was pointed out to me. I sort of remember Minsc, but since, like books, I tend to only play a game once, an once finished I tend to forget all about it and go and do something else. I do know that the game had something to do with Balder's Gate, but then that is pretty obvious from the title.

 

A game based Sword & Sorcery Fantasy that is more than it's origins

 

 

 

BOOK DETAILS:

Azure Bonds by Kate Novak & Jeff Grubb, read by Kristin Kalbli, published by Audible Studios (2015) / Length: 14 hrs 44 min

 

SERIES INFO:

This is Book #1 of 4 that include these characters. The "Finder's Stone" trilogy plus Masquerades (which is apparently "The Harpers" #10, but I haven't read any of those and wasn't lost at all).

 

SUMMARY:

I received this book many years ago as a birthday gift. I was a bit mystified as to the selection. I had only ever played a role playing game once, and not with the person who gave me the book. It's not that I disliked it, but as an unsocial bookworm I would rather be reading. I decided to give it a chance anyway, since the story sounded interesting, and I have read it many times since. When the audiobook came out a few years back, I snatched up almost immediately. I have tried others that are similar, even by the same author, and never found one I liked as much.

 

This book isn't perfect, and it isn't deep; but I love the characters & the writing, and I listen to it frequently. So it fully deserves my 5* RATING. I also recognize that it might not be for everyone.

 

Regarding the cover: That outfit wasn’t something she was wearing by choice, and it’s impracticality is specifically called out in the book (which made me smile).

 

Baldur's Gate (Forgotten Realms: Baldur'...

I was a bit surprised by this book.  I was feeling like reading some absolute fluff and took this down from the shelf for a read.  It was significantly better than I expected.  The low rating is just because I use one rating for all works of fiction, so its up against the likes of Hamlet and War and Peace.  It might be that many of the virtues of the book, such as plotting and character are due to the videogame, which the book is based on.  The videogame was by Bioware which is a very good company for plotting and character and has pushed the limits of what videogames can do.  However, even if this is taken into account, the writing by Philip Athans is better than most writing for D&D novels and he knows how to set a scene and makes good choices throughout.  Still its just meaningless genre fluff, but much better than one would expect.

Well, it is my second to last night here in Adelaide and I have to say that I am going to appreciate being home in my own bed on Saturday night. Okay, it has been interesting working out of the Adelaide office for the last three weeks, but it has also been quite exhausting working a full day and then going exploring in the evenings so that I can have more businesses to write about on Yelp (and the other websites). At least I managed to visit the three comic shops in the city: The Adelaide Comics Centre, Pulp Fiction Comics, and The Comic Shop, as well as what is now the only gaming shop left in Adelaide Infinity Games (not that they actually stock any roleplaying game products).

 

Anyway, after really enjoying the first graphic novel, when I went and checked out Pulp Fiction Comics and trying to work out what I was going to buy I suddenly discovered that they hadn't written just one, but all three of the Drizzt prequel novels (though some seem to argue that these novels were written before the Icewind Dale trilogy). As such I decided to grab this one, and since I was meeting up with a friend of mine (who I had passed the first one to previously) I decided that I would mark this one as a 'read immediately' – which I managed to do to my amazement.

 

So, after Drizzt leaves his people to go into voluntary exiles he ends up spending years alone in one of the caverns, however because he is isolated from all other intelligent creatures, his bestial nature begins to take over, and when he is discovered by a drow patrol (from house Do'urden no less, since they are attempting to track him down due to the fact that his existence means that his house is out of favour with Lloth), he realises that he must do something about it. So he decides to take a risk and rocks up at a deep gnome stronghold expecting that by doing so he will be executed. However one of the gnomes remembers the mercy that he showed him and decides to vouch for him.

 

Unfortunately, he simply cannot escape his former life, especially since his mother creates this zombie assassin to go and track him down. This does lead to quite an interesting adventure and they travel to all parts of the underdark and even get captured by the mind flayers (who then discover that their powers are useless against a zombie assassin – actually the word zombie makes this creature sound weak, and I have to say that it is anything but).

 

The main theme of this part of the story is the idea that people aren't supposed to live outside of a community. I would say civilised society, but some may argue that the Drow society is hardly civilised (but then again isn't the modern capitalist society just as cut-throat as the Drow society?). However, it is not the question of civilisation but rather the question of community – living with other people and having people to communicate with. When one cuts themselves off from others one begins to loose the ability to be able to communicate with them, to understand a concept of manners, and how one is to act around them. It is interesting that there is that ideal of the Grizzly Adams type of character that lives in a hut in the mountains with only a bear as a companion, and in a way that lifestyle is an idea (and a fantasy). Sure, some have that desire to completely withdraw from humanity because, well, humans can be little more than pricks, however even if that is the case I believe we humans are social creatures, and we thrive and grow much better surrounded by people than in isolation.

 

 

 

Actually, as a side not, it turns out that Grizzly Adams was a real person, however the TV series, as is typical of Hollywood, is only based on the guy.

 

Mind you, as I was rereading this before posting it I suddenly realised that there is a second theme (wow, a Dungeons and Dragons novel with two themes) and that is how difficult it can be to escape from one's past. In fact it can be really hard to escape from a bad group of people. As I have mentioned humans are social creatures, and if the only people that you know are these bad people, then many of us would rather stick with the bad people than risk being alone. I remember a lady at work bemoaning how her son had become caught up with drug users, and that it was had from him to break away from them because to do so meant that he would have no friends. The same is true when you make enemies, because is many cases these enemies won't let you get away that easily. Sometimes in fact they will hunt you to the ends to the Earth to make sure you pay (though I am speaking in extreme terms here – sometimes these people are too lazy to actually do anything beyond bitch about you behind your back).