Review: 1 cake is better than 3 cookies
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 31, 2013
So the three stories that are contained within this book exist in the same fantasy realm of the first book. You don't need to have read the first in order to read this one since all of the short stories seem to be independent of each other. Either that or I have a very bad memory, which these days can indeed be construed as fact.Like the first book, the settings of the three stories varied in that one was in a cold, Nord-like area, the other was within an Egyptian-like setting, and the last was your average medieval locale. Each story had something to do with curses, past deeds, redemption, vengeance, etc. and they were all solid as short stories.Herein lies the problem though. The author is a pretty good writer, especially for an independent. She's able to weave a tale much like many D&D authors have done in the past, but the bad thing is that the format of the book is not one solid story with characters that you can follow through an adventure. It's 3 wholly separate cast of characters and plots. For fantasy novels, most readers like myself enjoy it when a whole book is dedicated to one group or one protagonist. The Dragonlance Series was one of the best in the whole D&D; world in my opinion, and all the books that sprung up from the 6 primary books all somehow related back to the main group of characters or their locations. Additionally, Drizzit was the main character in all of the books that sprung around his character in the Forgotten Realms Series.I believe if the author concentrated on doing something like this, it would make for a more solid book. For what it was though, the book was good, but unfortunately it was also forgettable because the characters were only around for a short period of time. Hopefully in the future the format of her books will change into more lengthy novels.