I just finished reading Paul S. Kemp's "The Godborn", the second of The Sundering series. It was every bit as satisfying as I'd expected. I long ago decided to buy anything Mr. Kemp writes, and have always been pleased with my investments. Thanks for bringing us along on these adventures, Paul!
I won't post unsolicited spoilers for this novel, but will say that I like the way things are unfolding in The Sundering series, thus far. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed Salvatore's "The Companions", and was eager to see how Mask, Shar, the Shadovar/Netheril and the Erevis Cale legacy would play out in "The Godborn".
I typically don't buy hardback novels at release, but did so with "The Godborn", on the basis of Mr. Kemp's name and a very affordable price on Amazon. I always intended to buy Erin's upcoming contribution; but I'm enjoying this series enough, now, that I just might preorder the rest of the series, as the novels become available.
Anyone else read this novel, yet, or have thoughts about The Sundering series thus far?
DISCLAIMER: I'm hoping my this post isn't completely mangled by my iphone. The phone does not make forums posting easy. :/
I just completed Paul Kemp's novel, The Godborn, second in the Sundering series. Yes, it advanced the plot / story line, dealing with Mask and to a lessor extent, Netheril, Shar, Amaunator, and others. Personally I have trouble warming up to most of Mr Kemp's characters as none of them are very likeable. Just personal taste I suppose. Roughly the first half of the novel was hard for me to track as jumping between the multiple characters with the assumption that the reader was well versed in the history of each character, until the story combines into a single thread for the last half of the book. Since I like intrigue, I can hardly object to a story where almost multiple secret plots and intrigues are in motion. 
If I had to express a single takeaway, I might say, "death is hardly forever, particularly for a deity in the Forgotten Realms." 
Keith
I can agree with that. This novel definitely seemed to assume you'd read, at the very least, "The Twilight War" series. Had I not, I imagine I'd have been a bit less pleased with this particular novel.
This is true, not just of the characters, but of Sembia itself, too. We see a very different Sembia in this novel than anything we'd ever seen before. I've see no allusions to anything remotely close to the state of things in this novel. I was able to extrapolate the cause because I'd read the previous trilogy; but it would've been good, perhaps, if the cause-effect were explicitly stated.
That complaint aside, I definitely enjoyed the novel, and was pleased with its conclusion. Mr. Kemp's earlier novels setup the events of this novel very well. Unlike many of the FR "retcons"/"do-overs" we are likely to see in the coming months, these events perfectly aligned with the expectations laid out by the previous Erevis Cale novels.
There are some good novels out there, for sure. If you've enjoyed these two, you should check out some of the earlier stories.
The Erevis Cale trilogy and "The Twilight War" trilogy are two of the most entertaining stories I've read, DnD or otherwise.
tallric_kruush wrote:
so IS mask back????
yes I want to be spoiled
sfdragon wrote:
Is the book readable if you haven't read Kemp before? (I did read The Companions)
svendj wrote:
svendj wrote:
I sent this message to Mr Kemp on facebook, it is something that really bugs me, but I will put it in spoiler tags.
I am currently reading Godborn and something bothers me, the complete disregard shown to Vasens mother as soon as she dies in child birth, their is a God standing by her still warm body and no one even mentions resurrecting her, in a setting where death is incredibly cheap, and not a problem at all for a divine being to over come, the message, whether concious on your part or not, strikes me as 'job done, womb utilised, may as well die'It just seems to treat her as completely disposable and surplus to requirements that no attempt to even ask is made. The implications are unfortunate to say the least.
Apart from that I am enjoying the book, hence why this jars so hard, to have Varra coldly murdered by Draseks 'shadow cancer' during the pregnancy and treated as a disposable container for Cales sperm, to have no attempt at all made to save her beyond people going 'oh we tried' *shake head*. Drasek is right their,. he is a GOD is she worth so little that asking is to much effort? Is the Oracle so busy that a mid level spell to return her to life is to much effort?
svendj wrote:
TheLastGreatMith wrote: