Kate Novak

One of the best of the Forgotten Realms (AD&D) novels. Alias, a swordswoman, wakes up one morning with no knowledge of how she got some strange tattoos. Finding out what they are and how she got them is an epic quest that is very well written.

I really like this series of books. As a sequel to Azure Bonds, this is rather brilliant. It brings back many of the characters from that book, but often in a different form than we saw them before, and it uses many of the ideas from that book, but goes off in a completely different direction. Its kind of what you'd like sequels to be....not carbon copies of the original work, but with ideas from that original work explored more fully. Its a much more grounded book, which is odd for a show more fantasy, and there's a lot of emotion, helped by a cast of well realized characters. show less

One of the better Forgotten Realms novels, with a very interesting and diverse cast of characters, well fleshed out. The best complement I can give a book is that it left me wanting to read more about these characters.

I have been a big fan of the books that Novak and Grubb have written about these characters, but this one doesn't quite work for me. I'm not entirely sure what my problem is, although I did find the plot very predictable in such a way that the characters seem a little slow for not catching on quicker. Otherwise it just seems to be missing some of the magic that made the earlier books work.