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shane_tiernan's review against another edition
2.0
I've probably had this book sitting around for 20 years and finally decided to read it because I'm running the Curse of Strahd campaign. I didn't expect it to be amazing and it wasn't. It's a strange setup, the main character is an evil bastard, so you don't want him to succeed at anything. The powers he's fighting against are not well defined so you don't have a "bad guy" to hate (unless it's the "hero"). So it's original, but confusing and not very satisfying.
sugarpop's review against another edition
4.0
Succeeds where Vampire of the Mists does not. Delivers some well needed action but could have maybe used a bit more.
crankyoldqueer's review against another edition
2.0
Even by the literary standards of D&D tie-in novels, this is one of the weaker ones. I don't necessarily have a problem with an evil protagonist, but this one is both evil and boring, and the plot barely makes sense.
iggymcmuffin's review against another edition
1.0
This ill conceived novel is what you get from a culture of corporate cross selling. It's a cross over between the relatively new (at the time) Ravenloft setting and the immensely popular Dragonlance setting.
It was obviously made to try and sell tweens on the new campaign setting. I say this with confidence because it spends to much time riding the Dragonlance coat tails and name dropping places, characters and other details from that setting that it doesn't get around to having it's own plot until almost half way through the book. What little plot it has is extremely basic and is a transparent attempt to transplant popular Lord Soth from his previous world to the new one.
Even once this rudimentary plot begins, it's littered with disjointed flashbacks to the other setting that add little to nothing to the story. It also suffers from the same thing most of the Dragonlance books do in that I can pick out what version of the D&D rules they were selling by the action in the book. Terrible. Just terrible. And for such a basic tale it doesn't even finish well, leaving many strands unfinished.
The writing itself competent, but because this is a corporate hack job lacking in the things that make a story an actual story I can't rate this higher then a 1/5.
It was obviously made to try and sell tweens on the new campaign setting. I say this with confidence because it spends to much time riding the Dragonlance coat tails and name dropping places, characters and other details from that setting that it doesn't get around to having it's own plot until almost half way through the book. What little plot it has is extremely basic and is a transparent attempt to transplant popular Lord Soth from his previous world to the new one.
Even once this rudimentary plot begins, it's littered with disjointed flashbacks to the other setting that add little to nothing to the story. It also suffers from the same thing most of the Dragonlance books do in that I can pick out what version of the D&D rules they were selling by the action in the book. Terrible. Just terrible. And for such a basic tale it doesn't even finish well, leaving many strands unfinished.
The writing itself competent, but because this is a corporate hack job lacking in the things that make a story an actual story I can't rate this higher then a 1/5.
shumphrey's review against another edition
4.0
A good second outing in the Ravenloft setting that sheds light on on how Barovia was created. We follow the adventure of a death knight transported through the mist to Barovia and his quest to return back to Krynn.
The ending felt somewhat rushed and I felt some unexplored potential in a few characters, but was satisfied overall and hope that I may learn more in further books.
The ending felt somewhat rushed and I felt some unexplored potential in a few characters, but was satisfied overall and hope that I may learn more in further books.
youngserfs's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
raechel's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Lord Soth is one of the coolest Dread Lords I've read about so far. I don't know anything about Dragonlance but I really enjoyed this novel. It is a bit meandering at times, especially with the portal stuff, but seeing Soth compared to Strahd was so interesting.
anna_m_k's review
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
A fun and bad but good, but bad book about the undead, dishonored Knight of Solmania Soth and his attempted escape from Barovia. He plays a battle of wits and wills against Count Strahd and has the somewhat reluctant help of a Vistani woman named Magda and the eager help of a were-badger cannibal dwarf named Azrael.
It starts a little slow, delving first into Soth's place in the world of Krynn - the world of the Dungeons & Dragons tie-in novels - and then the details of how he gets transported to Barovia. He's an interesting character, and quite right in his assertions that, "I forged my own doom. I am the cause of my damnation". Which is very fascinating, and I would love to see more stories with characters revolving around this idea.
It starts a little slow, delving first into Soth's place in the world of Krynn - the world of the Dungeons & Dragons tie-in novels - and then the details of how he gets transported to Barovia. He's an interesting character, and quite right in his assertions that, "I forged my own doom. I am the cause of my damnation". Which is very fascinating, and I would love to see more stories with characters revolving around this idea.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Gore
Moderate: Ableism and Racism
Minor: Cannibalism, Misogyny, and Physical abuse
The racism tag is mostly about who the Vistani are and how they are treated. The Vistani are Romani, but the book (pub. in 1991) only uses g*psy and relies heavily on racist stereotypes about the Romani. Additionally, the ableism mostly comes in when creatures that are supposed to be disgusting are described as being hunchbacks and that that is supposed to be part of the horror.