Bookshelf

The Parched Sea - Troy Denning - TSR œ3.99

This is the first book in an open-ended series called The Harpers,
from TSR's Forgotten Realms series. The Harpers are a secret
organisation dedicated to good and fighting for justice and
freedom. This story takes place in the desert area of Anauroch and
follows the fortunes (and mis-fortunes) of a woman called Ruha.
Before the start of the book she has been outcast by her tribe
because she has visions. These desert dwellers view any sort of
magic with great suspicion, so her father arranges her marriage to
an unsuspecting member of a nearby tribe.

Her husband, and almost all of his tribe, are killed only a few
days after her wedding when a Zhentarim army arrives. The
Zhentarim are making a trade route through Anauroch, enslaving or
destroying anyone who gets in their way. Ruha meets Lander, a
Harper agent, who is trying to band together the tribes so that
they won't be defeated by the invaders and the story covers her
struggle to get the desert sheiks to accept both her and her
magic so that she can help save her people.

The story is well written and, for a change, Ruha isn't one of the
usual helpless females that one tends to meet in books. The desert
names and dialect take some getting used to, however. I could have
done with a glossary of terms!

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Elfshadow - Elaine Cunningham - TSR œ3.99

This is the second Harpers book and tells the story of Arilyn
Moonblade. Half elf, half human, she has no knowledge of her
father and when her mother dies, her only inheritance is a magical
sword, the Moonblade, from which she takes her name.  She becomes
an assassin but one with strong scruples. She will only kill
someone in a fair fight and her sword will not allow her to shed
innocent blood. But not even Arilyn knows the true extent of her
sword's powers.

However, there is another assassin about, bumping off Harpers
left, right and centre. Everywhere Arilyn goes, a Harper dies.
Does that mean she is the assassin's next target - or could she be
the assassin? Joined by Danilo Thann, who seems to be a dandy who
cares only for fine clothes but turns out to be much more than
that, she sets out to hunt down the Harper Assassin, never sure
who is her friend and who is her enemy. An excellent book, with
many twists to the plot.

                         * * * * * * *

Red Magic - Jean Rabe - TSR œ3.99

The third Harpers book follows the exploits of two Harpers and an
enchantress. One Harper is Galvin, a druid, more used to
solitude and not happy dealing with city life and who is able to
transform into various creatures. The second is a centaur, Wynter.
The enchantress is a woman called Brenna, a councilwoman from
Aglarond. The three of them have travelled to the land of Thay,
east of Aglarond, to check out rumours that have reached the
council and concerned them.

Thay is a strange and dangerous place, inhabited by many Red
Wizards, some of whom are powerful zulkirs, members of the ruling
council of Thay. The two mains ones are Maligor, the Zulkir of
Alteration and Szass Tam, Zulkir of Necromancy, a lich.

The rumours concern Maligor, who seems to be planning ...
something. Is it to attack one of his neighbouring wizards or
maybe to attack Aglarond? Only by infiltrating the area can the
Harpers and the councilwoman discover the truth.

I found this the least enjoyable of the Harpers series. Galvin is
very nice, but not strong and I couldn't help but get a bit
infuriated with him. Maligor is a suitably evil character but
since many of his experiments involved cruelty to animals, I found
them disturbing to read. The story isn't very quick-moving either.

                           * * * * * *

A Forest Lord - Michael Williams - Questar/Warner œ2.99

According to the acknowledgements, this is the second book in a
trilogy. It would have helped to have given the name of the first
book so I could have read it first and maybe the story would have
made more sense and been more enjoyable. It is the tale of Brenn,
a young lad who has escaped the evil King Dargmond and his
sorceress lover, Ravenna, with the Mage Terrance into the forest
of Corbinwood. Little does Brenn know that he is, in fact, the
true King's heir.  There they meet the outlaws of Corbinwood, led
by the Forest Lord, Galliard. He and several members of his family
are all in the forest because they are under a curse and have been
accused of theft. Brenn has to find a way to release the curse so
that they can leave the forest and help him ... and to do that he
needs to confront a dragon, Amamlek.

This book is the slowest I have read for a long time. It was only
sheer persistence that made me keep reading it. None of the
characters is particularly well created, the atmosphere is minimal
and the story boring. Maybe it would have been better if I'd read
the first story - but I doubt it.

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Echoes of the Fourth Magic - R.A. Salvatore - RoC œ4.50

The cover of this book shows a wizard, a king-like figure and
several strange creatures riding lizards as a group of men emerge
from the sea from a life raft. Intriguing, eh?  The storyline is
that a US submarine gets trapped in the Bermuda Triangle and gets
dragged through some strange warp in time and space to emerge in a
magical realm. Four men survive and learn of the struggle between
good and evil taking place there (doesn't it always?). The main
character, Jeff DelGuidice, doesn't hesitate to join the forces of
good, but things are not so clear-cut for all of his companions.
Quite a good book, not the fastest-moving one I have read, but
pretty enjoyable.
                                                  Sue