Product Description

Four Words: Forgotten Realms® Fourth Edition!

The Spellplague--and other things from horrifying disasters to monumental achievments--has changed the face of the Forgotten Realms world, and this series is the first to plunge fully into a bold new era for the venerable line.

The first novel to fully embrace the exciting new elements from the next edition of the Dungeons & Dragons® game, award-winning game designer and New York Times best-selling author Richard Baker's Swordmage goes where--and when--no Forgotten Realms novel has gone before.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #373567 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-06
• Released on: 2008-05-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

About the Author
Richard Baker is a best-selling author and award-winning game designer, and one of the pricipal architects of the new edition of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. A former Navy officer, he currently resides in Western Washington.

Customer Reviews

A solid start, a little different than what I was expecting
Swordmage by Richard Baker is the first book in the Blades of Moonsea trilogy. Forgotten Realms fans will be most interested in this book due to the fact that it is the first book in the post-Spellplague era. The second book is titled Corsair, but as of yet there is no release date announced for it. The prelude takes place in 1477 DR and the rest of the novel takes place in 1479 DR. There has been much talk about just what the Spellplague means to the Realms and the repercussions of it. After finishing this novel, I have to say that the jury is still out. There was not much real `change' blatantly apparent in this book.

The plot of this book is a somewhat recycled, clichéd, plot. That of a small town trying to turn back what appears to be an insurmountable horde of monsters. To further cliché that plot line there is an evil mastermind using the horde as a marionette to further his own goals. There are also several subplots woven into this story. The largest, most important subplot for the book, is the political tensions in the town of Hulburg. There are several factions vying for control of the city and the textiles within the city. There is also a mystery surrounding the death of a beloved captain of the Shieldsworn. Another subplot is the discovery that someone, or a group of people, are violating long standing laws and breaking into barrows scattered around the realm. The reason these laws are in place and just what lays in some of the barrows is well explained in a few small subtle passages. Along the way a few other subplots are tossed into the mix to add to the overall story. Even though the basic premise of this novel has been told before, as well as some of the subplots, for he most part it works for this book. The overall plot, and for that matter the subplots, don't come across as overstated or too much. However, I was disappointed that being as though this was billed as the first Forgotten Realms novel set in the post-Spellplague era that it did not include more fact about the Spellplague and just what it did to the Realms.

The characters in this novel are the highlight of the novel for the most part. I do have a couple minor complaints about them, but for the most part they are interesting and well written. The only real complaint I have about any of the characters is there is a `bad guy' who is written in such a way that the reader isn't supposed to know that the character is `bad'. However, to me anyway, the character was written too strongly that when the character is revealed as being evil it is not really a surprise. There are several interesting characters in this novel such as; Hamil, Mirya, Kara, Geran and many more. The heroes in this book are all well written and seem to have their own individual motivations, actions and dialogue. Nothing frustrates me more than when every character seems to talk the same in a book even though they are vastly different. That's not the case with this book and I appreciate that. Being that this is the first book in the trilogy there are small pockets of character development but that is not the focus of this novel. Hopefully more of that will come in the future novels in this series.

I do have a couple minor criticisms with this novel.

1 - As I said in the opening. Being that this is the first book in the post-Spellplague era I was hoping for more information on it and was disappointed that the information we are given are really small nuggets that don't give much information at all. This novel seemed like a perfect opportunity to describe at least a few things (in greater detail) that were a result of the Spellplague.

2 - The `bad guy'. I was just disappointed that there was really no mystery as to who it was and what was really going on. If it was meant as a red herring or something to push the reader in another direction it failed on me. I would have liked a little more mystery for the first half of the novel.

3 - The overall plot, and some of the subplots, just seemed to be over done and redundant in the fantasy genre. While I understand the sentiment that there really can not be any new story lines any more, at least don't make them so standard for lack of a better term. I would think that being the first book in the post-Spellplague era that there could have been numerous stories to tell.

Some things I particularly liked about this novel.

1 - It was not lost on me that the first Forgotten Realms book was set in the Moonsea Isles and the first book in the `new' Forgotten Realms is also set there. It's nice to see that come full circle.

2 - As with the other books that Mr. Baker has written the pacing and flow are very good. The story never seems to bog down in needless details and the scenes are crisp and to the point. It's a comfortable prose that doesn't try to be anything it's not.

3 - I also liked that it was a (mostly) rather contained story. It seems that some Realms novels of late have encompassed large areas and while that's fine and good, I also like the smaller scope stories and that's just what we have here.

Overall, I was satisfied with this book. Granted, I may have had too high of expectations of what to expect with the Spellplague and all that. Looking at this strictly as a fantasy book, and the first of a trilogy, I think it serves its purpose. It establishes characters and tells a solid story. It may have to live up to some high hopes from Forgotten Realms fans, who like me may be disappointed at first with what is `missing' in the book. Putting all that aside ad judging it strictly on what it is, I think it's a solid start not only to the trilogy but to the new direction of the Realms. All Forgotten Realms fans will surely want to check it out, and fantasy fans looking to get into the Realms would do well to take a look at this one as well. I am excited to see what the new direction for the Realms will be.

Swordmage Review
Richard Baker's "Swordmage" is the first book of the Blades of the Moonsea trilogy, which takes place in the Dungeons & Dragons' Forgotten Realms world. This is the first novel utilizing the new fourth edition rules introduced during the course of this year.

The story takes place approximately one hundred years after the Realms event called The Spellplague, which is the method used to introduce the changes to the rule set. It is set in the Northern Moonsea in a growing and thriving town called Hulburg. Geran, the main character, is a human swordmage who studied magic and swordplay from the elves in Myth Drannor and is the nephew of the town's leader, the Harmach. After ten years away from home, Geran receives a letter stating that his childhood friend had died. He returns to pay his respects and makes sure that his friend's estate and family are taken care of and not ruined by the loss.

Traveling with Geran is a halfling named Hamil, a good friend from his earlier adventuring days and his business partner. Upon returning to Hulburg Geran notices the many changes in the city, not all of them positive. A run-in with a nefarious slave trading gang in his city sets Geran off to find out what has happened while he was away. Little by little Geran learns that the situation in Hulburg has gone down hill while leaving the Harmach powerless to do anything about it.

Meanwhile, brewing in the plains far north of Hulburg a mysterious warlock makes a deal with an orc chieftain to raise an army. This army soon begins marching south to take control of the lands around them with Hulburg in its path. Geran also discovers the reason behind his friend's death and investigates the opening and robbing of sacred barrows located near the town.

Political intrigue, an advancing army, and leadership strife within the town establish a story rife with possibility, and seeing how this is the first of three books, we can only watch and see how Mr. Baker can weave the elements together to complete the trilogy.

Overall, this was a good book. I enjoyed reading it and was interested in following the story. The setting was very well done and the Mr. Baker weaves some interesting subplots around the whole story arc. The characers kept my interest and the pacing was very nicely controlled. I liked the escape scene from Griffonwatch, it contained plenty of action and suspense.

Regarding the characters though, I believe this story could have used more intimacy with the spotlighted characters. They were good but the narrative felt a little more distanced than I think it should have been. I would have enjoyed the story to be just a slightly bit more cerebral and emotionally involved. Again, the characters were done well but I think as a reader it would've made for more involvement.

**Info for Realms fans below**

As an avid Realms fan, my big disappointment regarding this particular book, which I must add was my expectation going in, was the introduction of the "new and improved" Forgotten Realms world. After all the readings and hintings and discussions going on regarding the big changes in the world - and I'm not up-to-the-minute involved with those discussions - I went in expecting something much different, much more than the adventure Richard Baker takes us on. Information regarding the death of Mystra, the goddess of magic, and the disruption of her weave, the impact of Shar's efforts leading up to the Spellplague, the rearrangement of the gods and their portfolios, and the sundering of Abeir with Toril (or however it's described), all of these events leading up to this new era seemed to be nothing but a minor cosmetic change in this book.

What struck me most in my expectation was the mere side comments regarding Changelands and a quick observation of a particular gods return/change - Lathander back to Amaunator, not to mention the spell-scarred, which seemed only a new variety of feat , like tattoo feats, rather than something more central to the events. This is still a Realms novel and everything acted, behaved, and read the same as before this Realms changing event. I was expecting a darker, more strife ridden Realms. A world where danger seemed more suffused with the common, less sword and sorcery and more tragic/gothic/sinister tales which would provide a much stronger contrast for heroics or anti-heroes.

Paul S. Kemp's telling of the events leading up to the Spellplague in the Twilight War trilogy leave one expecting the new Realms tone and mood to have this flavor of the dark and foul, similar in concept to Eberron's overall theme of a war ravaged world, where the effects and consequences of this theme are somewhat inherent to the stories taking place.

Anyway, once I let go of my expectations the book was good, well told, and enjoyable, but I am somewhat leary of seeing what comes out of this new edition regarding these novels and short stories, especially if this is the ground floor the other books will be based on. For fans of the Realms, I would offer a warning to suspend whatever ideas you have going in and enjoy another tale told in the world you know and love. To everyone else, I do recommend reading this story, it is good quick read and has enough going on to keep you interested and entertained.

I was expecting much more...
To be honest, I'm rather surprised by the rather good comments this book has received. I know everybody is entitled to his/her own opinion, and I respect that, but I consider myself a rather easy audience, and this book did not impress me much.

Don't get me wrong. I think there are some brilliant ideas in this book, including the orc and Vaasan knights alliance, and the appearance of the king of copper. But that's about it. I thought the characters were quite shallow, not to mention that none brought anything new to the FR campaign.

You want a tormented adventurer returning home after many years, or a real halfling sidekick whose opinion actually matters (and voices it), you'd be better off reading the Erevis Cale trilogy. All the characters felt like pale copies of previous characters from other stories.

And the villains ? Nothing that the villains did in the book I did not forsee 50 pages in advance. And the "duels" were plain silly. Why would some merchant/diplomat mastermind duel an expert duellist trained in Myth Dranor ?

Finally, this book was advertised as the first novel based on the D&D 4th edition rules, and I tried to find them. True.. once the hero had to rest 5 minutes to recover his teleporting ability, but that was pretty much it, and I was quite disappointed.

So all in all, not a book I would recommend, definitively not in hard-cover. Maybe the sequel will be awsome, and I'll glady read the reviews, but unless there are really good, I'll skip the next 2 parts of this trilogy.