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shcleveland's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
I picked this up specifically because I'm playing a cleric of Loviatar in a D&D campaign set in Forgotten Realms. So I slogged through the whole book mainly to get an idea of how such characters are treated in canon. Anywho, this is probably the worst Forgotten Realms book I've ever read.
The idea of Ythnel being more of a neutral, morally-gray character was interesting. I liked the nuance of the approach to a book about a cleric to an "evil" deity. And that's pretty much where my praise for the book ends.
I found the overall execution of the book clunky. I did a lot of skimming, if I'm being honest. And while I normally like many POV characters, I think the story bounces around a little too much in places or show a scene from the wrong POV. Saestra, for example, was a completely pointless character and I have no idea why ANYTHING was told from her POV. And on that note... what was the point of the vampires? They did nothing for the plot that I could see. Padding to hit a minimum word count?
On the bright side, I did find some interesting tidbits for my D&D character, so it wasn't a total waste. I just regret buying it and instead of checking the library first.
The idea of Ythnel being more of a neutral, morally-gray character was interesting. I liked the nuance of the approach to a book about a cleric to an "evil" deity. And that's pretty much where my praise for the book ends.
I found the overall execution of the book clunky. I did a lot of skimming, if I'm being honest. And while I normally like many POV characters, I think the story bounces around a little too much in places or show a scene from the wrong POV. Saestra, for example, was a completely pointless character and I have no idea why ANYTHING was told from her POV. And on that note... what was the point of the vampires? They did nothing for the plot that I could see. Padding to hit a minimum word count?
On the bright side, I did find some interesting tidbits for my D&D character, so it wasn't a total waste. I just regret buying it and instead of checking the library first.
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