Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Soulkeeper 08-26-05, 12:12 PM	I have read the following in the last few weeks: City of Towers, The Keith Baker Binding Stone, The Don Bassingthwaite Marked for Death Matt Forbeck CoT was a great book, in my opinion, portrayed what/how I believed the races to interact and behave, the story was grapping and it kept me reading. Cover art was decent, nothing spectacular, but it didn't hurt the book. I will look for the next one. I just hope the hero can hold a sword in this one. ;) BS was also as good, it dealt with other race aspects, the story was also gripping, I could relate to the characters and felt for those that died. Again, cover art was decent, nothing spectacular, but it didn't hurt the book. I will look for the next one. MfD, well.... It gets decent marks for story, but seemed a bit disjunct at times. It's one thing to wonder what will happen next, it is another to wonder why something happened at all. The undying elf, all that power, the ability to see folks coming for miles, and no clue of the ship or their *loud* attempts at escape? I was not pleased with the portrayal of the warforged. To me, my opinion only, they acted and were portrayed way to human. KB did a far better job. I also had a hard time with the city of Construct. Not that it has legs, but that they could somehow lower to the point of only being a few inches off the ground. I know, its magic. It just seemed a bit illogical, even for magic. Cover art was horrid, and in my opinion hurt the book. The hero looked like someone from a Jim Carey movie, and Espre's mark was in the wrong place. Anyone else's general opinion? I am starting this one today: Crimson Talisman, The Adrian Cole
Thrincold 08-26-05, 12:41 PM	Out of the three I've only read MfD so far. I never go on cover art for one. Overall the book was decent, but I agree with the portail of WF being off. Not too human, but too in touch with their emotions to be the type of forged that are trying to erradicate humanity, not be them.
gaerfindel 08-26-05, 12:52 PM	Read all four novels currently out in stores; the first book from each series.  Favourites are devided between CoT & BS. Former really helped me get a handle on Sharn and showed the nationalism over racism aspect very well. Latter had simply wonderful descriptions. Kudos to Bassingthwaite for including the psionic displays listed in XPH. And I loved his creation/inclusion of the Marcher language--the name of which eludes me, at the moment. BTW, anyone notice the cartoon reference in the grammer appendix?
EvilDrPuma 08-26-05, 01:09 PM	I read the board rules about discussing novels, and I know that this thread won't survive the day.
Soulkeeper 08-26-05, 01:18 PM	It's not always about survival, or knowing the rules... :rolleyes:
Hellcow 08-26-05, 11:03 PM	And I loved his creation/inclusion of the Marcher language--the name of which eludes me, at the moment. Bear in mind that this is A Marcher language, not THE Marcher language. For game purposes, the majority of the inhabitants of the Shadow Marches still speak Orcish or Common; Azhani isn't on the langauge lists of the ECS, and as such it is optional. Especially given the fragmented nature of the Marches and the liklihood that human refugees from different parts of Sarlona could have landed there, it's a fine place to have different regional languages or dialects. The Lhazaar Principalities would be another excellent place for subdialects. But for official purposes, Common is still, well, common: the use of sublanguages is optional, for those who want to add a little local color.
Raziel_Brokodar 08-26-05, 11:07 PM	CoT was a great book, in my opinion, portrayed what/how I believed the races to interact and behave, the story was grapping and it kept me reading. Cover art was decent, nothing spectacular, but it didn't hurt the book. For sure, a REALLY great book, I loved the cover art, and Keith did a amazing job with everything, especially Pierce and other warforged! :P :P :P
Tek 08-26-05, 11:57 PM	I've read all the Eberron novels, and ranked in order of how I like them, they are the following: 1. City of Towers 1. The Binding Stone 2. Marked for Death 3. The Crimson Talisman CoT and BS are tied, because, well, I loved both of them to death. Keith obviously got all the races down pat, but I found that Don did extremely well on the Shifter and the Flame Wizard. They have their unique personalities that you can just relate to easily, and traits that you can spot from a mile away. Same goes with City of Towers, although I'm still a little sore about a death in the book. Overall, I love both of them. Waiting for the next books to come out. MfD was good, I thought. It did have some points that I didn't like, and most of them are completely tied to the Warforged part. But its something I can live with, and I love how he betrayed the Green Silver Flamers. CT was alright, definetly something I was able to read through from start to finish, so I'd give it my recommendation to any Eberron Novel fan, but I found some problems. It felt, literally, Lord of the Ringsy to me. I just didn't like that, at all. But on the bright side, it travelled to ALOT of places, so that was fun. The deathless were cool. Just had to get my thoughts in before the thread closed. Anyways, I liked all of the books, and going to persue each storyline.
Charles Phipps 08-27-05, 12:14 AM	Since we're discussing this and it's not locked yet. City of Towers: Sharn is something that I've enjoyed most because the characters are the easiest understood and the social issues most relevant to understanding how the game works. The fact it's the Dreaming Dark Trilogy makes me hopeful we'll see more of the Quori and one of their plans thwarted in this series. I don't think the complaints about editing were justified either and I like how they're all mourners and Keith hints that we'll find more about the origin of the warforged in the work. The Binding Stone is my next favorite. The first reason is because Dandra is HOT and I rarely say that about any fictional characters that exist only in artwork. The second reason is that even more than Keith's characetrs (though just barely) the protagionists leap off the page. The Shadow Marches and Eldeen Reaches are also places I'm likely to play in now.
Tek 08-27-05, 12:21 AM	Dandra is HOT Tetkashtai is SOO much hotter.
Hellcow 08-27-05, 12:23 AM	The fact it's the Dreaming Dark Trilogy makes me hopeful we'll see more of the Quori and one of their plans thwarted in this series. Certainly the quori will have an exponentially increasing role in the next two books. Of course, Book Three ends with their conquest of Khorvaire. What? I'm not allowed to talk about Book Three yet? Um... just forget that last part. ;) The first reason is because Dandra is HOT... Because she's a pyrokineticist, right? Ha! Sorry, couldn't resist...
Hellcow 08-27-05, 12:24 AM	Tetkashtai is SOO much hotter. It's a 'kashtai thing. I'm waiting for the Dandra - Lakashtai Kalashtar showdown.
Charles Phipps 08-27-05, 12:28 AM	I didn't care for the Mark of Death opener at all. Ironically, I've never hated a character in a novel save perhaps the Harkonnans in the Dune Trilogy by KJA (and not because they were evil, but because they were so badly written). Yet, that changeling is such a *@*@( god modder, it ruins the book to see her get away and be so annoyingly brazen. Her escapes form almost the entirety of the book too. I did love Construct the city though. I just wish the Mark of Death had well been...more impressive in it's effects. Personally, I hope Keith continues to write novels and ones that carry on with these characters. I'd like to see them develop a bit more beyond the steoretype at present. I'm especially interested in what his outcast Cannith will develop into with her knowledge and also our warforged friend.
Majorafire77 08-27-05, 12:32 AM	Haven't read Binding Stone yet. I'm into the first few pages and it hasn't really "gripped" me yet. I've heard good things about it though, and I hope it turns out to be a page-turner like The City of Towers was. I can't really decide if I liked The City of Towers or Marked for Death better. Both were pretty good. The City of Towers was a really good page-turner though, and was better than the standard WotC novel. The Crimson Talisman was alright, but the story wasn't as good as the other Eberron books that I had read. The whole Half-Elf + Mark of Passage thing ****** me off, but other than that it was alright. Just out of curiousity, are the Lost Mark books and the Dragon Below books also series just like the Dreaming Dark books are? I seem to remember Edward Bolme (author of The Orb of Xoriat) saying that the War-Torn books were not part of a series on the Worlds of D&D message boards, but then again, I might be wrong about that.
Hellcow 08-27-05, 12:33 AM	I'd like to see them develop a bit more beyond the steoretype at present. The other characters do get more head time in the next book, so hopefully you'll be satisfied. Pierce, in particular, is pretty quiet in book one, and gets more of a chance to shine. Just curious: what is a "god modder"? It's not a term I'm familiar with.
Tek 08-27-05, 12:34 AM	I just looked at the back of the Binding Stone, and I see that it says that Daine and the crew go to Xen'drik in The Shattered Land! Awesome! I crave the book even more now!
Charles Phipps 08-27-05, 12:51 AM	Just curious: what is a "god modder"? It's not a term I'm familiar with. It's a phenemenon that can also be called "Dm's pet NPC" though in this case, it's the writers. A character is unnaturally favored and survives even the PC's direct efforts to kill them that SHOULD work through less the use of their own talents or flaw in the PC's plan than sheer Dm's fiat
NekoWorldOrder 08-27-05, 01:32 AM	I'm very character driven, so keep this in mind. The Binding Stone was actually a good book. The author had a good grip on the feel of the setting, it had a solid story line and was well written, particularly the battle scenes. Most importantly for me, the characters were actually interesting and entertaining with little quirks that made them stand out. I can't really think of a character that didn't have some sort of interesting aspect to them. Oh, and the shade of the daelkyr castle is a very cool idea. I'm stealing it. :D I liked Marked for Death as well, but it was rather scattershot. Somethings, like the Silver Flame crusaders and Burch, were well written. Others, like the warforged scenes, were alright but seemed to be lacking somehow. Construct was a good idea; I don't suppose it's cannon? At times though it felt like a generic fantasy novel. It's the type of book I feel would be better if it wasn't based on Eberron. I'll probably take flack for this, but I was unimpressed by City of Towers. Although the descriptions and characters are dead-on flavor-wise(which makes sense given the author), the writing seems a little flat. I think the problem was that I felt like I was listening to someone tell me about a gaming session they'd played instead of a story. It wasn't bad, mind you; maybe I've just set unreasonably high expectations for Mr. Baker. Also, I didn't really care about any of the characters with one execption; Pierce, who was very well written and set the tone for warforged perfectly; Daine has potential though, but I'll have to wait to see how he turns out. I'm still looking forward to the next book...one final gripe though, if the series is called "The Dreaming Dark", it should actually involve the Dreaming Dark for more than a few pages. Crimson Talisman bored me. It's way too typical fantasy for Eberron, the characters were either boring or cliched (so much so that I can't remember a single name) and the opening and ending seemed cobbled together. It had some good moments, particularly the Madwood and the demon city (forgetting the name), and was still a decent book, but I though it was the one that felt the least like Eberron. Heck, I didn't even care about the half-elf with the wrong dragonmark. :)
Tek 08-27-05, 01:38 AM	one final gripe though, if the series is called "The Dreaming Dark", it should actually involve the Dreaming Dark for more than a few pages. Who says it didn't, but you won't recognize that the Dreaming Dark were pulling the strings until it becomes obvious, such as in Book 2 or 3. You'll go back, and say, "Aaaahhh!" Shrug. I liked it.
Charles Phipps 08-27-05, 01:41 AM	I admit, I would have preferred a bunch of Quori versus more Dragon Below cultists but this worked fine. Part of the problem largely is that in game fiction, we rarely find out much about the home lives of the characters. I wouldn't mind personally hearing more about how everyone was raised and their existences in day to day life of Eberron. Am I stupid also for getting only now that Pierce is a play on a sword thrust rather than just a human name?
Tek 08-27-05, 01:55 AM	Hmm. I always seen Pierce as his name because he uses arrows so much, and they 'Pierce' things.
Hellcow 08-27-05, 09:39 AM	Who says it didn't, but you won't recognize that the Dreaming Dark were pulling the strings until it becomes obvious, such as in Book 2 or 3. You'll go back, and say, "Aaaahhh!" Indeed, that's the idea. Things will become much clearer with Book Two, and the trilogy revolves around the Dreaming Dark - but just like in the typical game, it takes time to bring their schemes into the light. Still, The Shattered Land should be more satisfying for those who want more quori/kalashtar action. (I am amused that both Don and I are using 'kashtai lineage kalashtar - it seems they get around!)