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The beloved Harpers series kicks off with a thrilling tale about an outcast witch, a foreign agent, and the endangered desert tribes of the AnaurochDetermined to drive a trade route through Anauroch, the Zhentarim have sent an army to enslave the fierce nomads of the great desert. As tribe after tribe fall to the intruders, only a single woman, Rhua, sees the true danger—but what sheik will heed the advice of an outcast witch?
Ruha finds help from an unexpected source. The show more Harpers, guardians of liberty throughout the Realms, have sent an agent to counter the Zhentarim. If she can help this stranger win the trust of the sheikhs, perhaps he can overcome the tribes’ ancestral rivalries and drive the invaders from the desert.
The Parched Sea is the first book in a series of loosely-connected novels about the Harpers.. show less
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After reading this book, I've made a discovery: the Harpers are a medieval PMO. The key here being that they take on projects, set goals, maintain a vision, but don't actually do any work. Well, they don't do any real work, but do expend a great deal of effort explaining why they WON'T be doing any work. I'm surprised they didn't refer to the warriors as "FTEs" and the battle as a "deliverable".
Anyway, there's some cubicle humor for you.
Anyway, there's some cubicle humor for you.
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Title: The Parched Sea
Series: Forgotten Realms: The Harpers #1
Author: Troy Denning
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 310
Format: Digital Edition
Synopsis:
The Zentarim, followers of the god Cyric, are trying to forge a path through the desert to establish a lock on future trade routes. This “forging” includes the pacification of the tribes of the desert, whether by bribery or coercian, the Zentarim don't particularly care. The show more tribes must either support the Zentarim or perish tribe by tribe at the hands of the lizard mercenaries hired by the Zentarim.
Into this situation comes Lander, a relatively new Harper. He has been chosen to oversee the situation and do what he can to unite the tribes against the Zentarim. He comes across a lone survivor of one of the tribes, an outcast young woman named Ruha, who has been outcast for her magical powers. Now it is up to these 2 to convince children in the guise of tribesmen to confront a force that only promises riches.
With the help of a god, Ruha and Lander can do it. But the victories that the Harpers win are not without cost, as Lander finds out.
My Thoughts: Spoilers
I've read enough Forgotten Realms books to know when I've hit a good one or a bad one pretty soon from the get go. Unfortunately, this was a typical Troy Denning book, which means it was mediocre pablum, even given the context of the universe he was writing in. So this was not a good book.
The Harpers sub-series is written by enough various authors that I'm not giving up on it just from the first book, but I have to say, this does not bode well.
Lander was not a very engaging main character and when he dies near the end, it was more of a “meh” moment than anything else. Ruha is more of token “woman” than anything even while becoming more central to the story than Lander. For a Harpers novel, they certainly didn't play much of a part. The little bit I did see of them makes me wonder if I'm going to enjoy their adventures or not. They seem to be meddlers and instead of taking direct action, manipulate others to do their work [dirty or otherwise] for them. While they claim to be proponents of freedom, etc, they sure don't act like it.
★★☆☆ ½ show less
Title: The Parched Sea
Series: Forgotten Realms: The Harpers #1
Author: Troy Denning
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 310
Format: Digital Edition
Synopsis:
The Zentarim, followers of the god Cyric, are trying to forge a path through the desert to establish a lock on future trade routes. This “forging” includes the pacification of the tribes of the desert, whether by bribery or coercian, the Zentarim don't particularly care. The show more tribes must either support the Zentarim or perish tribe by tribe at the hands of the lizard mercenaries hired by the Zentarim.
Into this situation comes Lander, a relatively new Harper. He has been chosen to oversee the situation and do what he can to unite the tribes against the Zentarim. He comes across a lone survivor of one of the tribes, an outcast young woman named Ruha, who has been outcast for her magical powers. Now it is up to these 2 to convince children in the guise of tribesmen to confront a force that only promises riches.
With the help of a god, Ruha and Lander can do it. But the victories that the Harpers win are not without cost, as Lander finds out.
My Thoughts: Spoilers
I've read enough Forgotten Realms books to know when I've hit a good one or a bad one pretty soon from the get go. Unfortunately, this was a typical Troy Denning book, which means it was mediocre pablum, even given the context of the universe he was writing in. So this was not a good book.
The Harpers sub-series is written by enough various authors that I'm not giving up on it just from the first book, but I have to say, this does not bode well.
Lander was not a very engaging main character and when he dies near the end, it was more of a “meh” moment than anything else. Ruha is more of token “woman” than anything even while becoming more central to the story than Lander. For a Harpers novel, they certainly didn't play much of a part. The little bit I did see of them makes me wonder if I'm going to enjoy their adventures or not. They seem to be meddlers and instead of taking direct action, manipulate others to do their work [dirty or otherwise] for them. While they claim to be proponents of freedom, etc, they sure don't act like it.
★★☆☆ ½ show less
It was an average story, it felt rushed and the story too pat. However was fun for a good quick read.
The first of the Forgotten Realms books but not the best.
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109+ Works 19,418 Members
Bestselling fantasy and science fiction author Troy Denning was born in 1958. He has written many novels, including the Prism Pentad series and multiple contributions to the Star Wars and Forgotten Realms universes. Denning is one of the founders of the game company Pacesetter Ltd, and he co-designed the Dark Sun Dungeons & Dragons campaign show more setting. He has published under his own name and the pseudonym Richard Awlinson. Denning joined TSR as a game designer in 1981, and was promoted a year later to Manager of Designers, before he moved to the book department. He then worked for two years managing the Pacesetter game company, and had a stint at Mayfair Games. Denning wrote the third novel in TSRs "Avatar Trilogy", Waterdeep (1989), which he wrote under the house pseudonym Richard Awlinson, the book became a New York Times bestselling novel. In October 1989 he rejoined TSR as a senior designer, co-creating the Dark Sun setting with Tim Brown and Mary Kirchoff. Denning returned to freelance writing again in 1991, writing the bestselling "Prism Pentad" for the Dark Sun setting, and the Forgotten Realms "Twilight Giants" trilogy Denning also wrote the Planescape hardcover Pages of Pain "It had to be from the Lady of Pain's viewpoint which is something of a problem, since (as every Planescape player knows) she never speaks and (this was the really good part) the reader must know less about her at the end of the book than he does at the beginning, and nobody knows anything about her at the beginning. In 2010 Troy Denning published his book Vortex and it hit the New York Times Best Seller list. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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TSR (8485)
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Parched Sea
- Original title
- The Parched Sea
- Original publication date
- 1991-07
- People/Characters
- Ruha; Lander; Kadumi
- Important places
- Anauroch, Faerûn; Faerûn
- Dedication
- For Barry, who's always been a great brother.
- First words
- Ruha woke abruptly, unsure of what had disturbed her languorous nap.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"Where else do I have to go?"
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- 552
- Popularity
- 53,975
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (2.85)
- Languages
- English, French, Polish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 4
- ASINs
- 1
