Swords of Eveningstar: Bk. 1 (The Knights of Myth Drannor) [Hardcover]

Overall the book was rather weak, with a bit of action at the end but not too many other redeeming qualities. The writing style became very disjointed during the middle of the book (much like my review) and never seemed to correct itself. Besides that, the characters were fairly boring, and there was too much wizard glorification for my tastes. The book ends with somewhat of a resolution (if any), but just enough loose ends to leave the reader curious about the next book. If not for the hefty price tag of what might also be another disappointed book I'd pick it up myself.

I enjoyed reading the beginning of the book which dealt with some restless youngsters desiring the life of an adventurer, as well as all the wise-alec quips Florin was giving Narantha. However, my enjoyment of the book came crashing down after the daring rescue, and the start of their actual adventures.

That's not to say the beginning was perfect either. There were plenty of parts where I couldn't help but roll my eyes as all the side characters were singing Florin's praises. It goes a little something like this:

S - Man I wish we could go on an adventure
J - Yeah I bet Florin McAwesomesexypants is on an adventure right now
I - Yeah, since Florin's so awesome
J - And Sexy! I think I'll waste a few paragraphs pining for Florin while I stare at the moon and weep bitter tears because my worth can be measured by the number of times I cast magic missle. {Which happens thrice, if that)
S - I wish I could be like Florin.. Unfortunately, I am but a mere sham of a priest that will be delegating into the side character role with nothing to do all day but crack jokes with my equally useless priest friend.
I - Having no effect on the convoluted story guarantees you'll live on to the next book.
Ghost of dead side characters - Boo! Hiss! Boo!!
S - Fair enough!

Not that the borderline important side characters don't have reason to worship him or anything. He's in the Odysseus class when it comes to the amount of women he beds even though he's supposedly has a nobleborn sweetheart, oh well. Then again the majority of the characters in the book end up being very promiscuous so I suppose it's too big a deal.

Afterwards, they're to explore the Haunted Halls of Eveningstar which their group was named after. Not that they spend much time there, nor do you the reader have much of a chance to understand what's going on let alone make a mental image of the place. It's around here that I felt the writing was really falling apart, it was hard to tell who was moving where, and why. Furthermore, at this point you've got about 3-5 people constantly spying on them for their own petty schemes, many of them almighty wizards whose interest in them isn't the least bit well defined. One of them never being revealed throughout the book, although I'm sure he'll make an appearance later in the trilogy.

***Minor vague spoilers ahead***
The constant scrying and scheming continues throughout the book and leads you to boredom, since you, the reader, realize that the Swords of Eveningstar are little more than rats in a cage. They end up in a town named Arabel later on where they manage to piss off every guardsman and evil crime organization agent in sight at no fault of their own. Then proceed to jump through a plethora of portals defeating some wizard who was weakly introduced earlier on. They didn't defeat him due to their own merit of course, only due to the intervention of some powerful wizard who decides to mess with his subordinates wizards plans and conveniently let the adventurers live. More of this continues with all the spying schemers playing their hands until finally they get a ticket to invincible archmage tower, then ride into the sunset with the queen of Cormyr to be knighted for their lack of grand deeds or some rubbish.

*****MORE SPOILERS ALTHOUGH IT'S ABOUT AS IMPORTANT AS THESE CHARACTERS IMPORTANCE TO THE STORY OR LACK THEREOF****
The main antagonist is also killed at the end by some other minor character, who guess what? Also happens to be a mighty wizard. Add some more cameos of important FR figures and the book wraps itself up. Maybe the next book will explain why he put melting elven wizards brains on pause and fool around with the Swords of Eveningstar. Heck I'd cast him as the hero of the story if he had been keeping the population of interfering almighty wizards in Forgotten Realms down instead of mind-melting the reclusive elven why-can't-I-Just-live-with-my-cats types. Of course without those pesky meddling mages we might actually get a story about *GASP* adventurers. Particularly the Swords of Eveningstar **Double Gasp!!**

***
Well that's enough satire out of me, time for some:
Ending Thoughts
***

While I had no problem with the constant perspective shifts, it may irritate you and ruin the plot. Not that there is much of a plot, nor do any of them really come to fruition. Essentially you're reading a book about a bunch of meddling wizards who manage to have all their schemes ruined by other meddling wizards on team good guy, with a few loose ends that will likely be tied up in later books. While the book is about the Knights of Myth Drannor (formerly know as the Swords of Eveningstar) they really contribute nothing to the story, besides being tenacious pawns for a bunch of meddling all-powerful wizards. If you've ever played a pen and paper game, be it D&D or whatever, the story feels much akin to a railroading DM and a helping handful of deus ex machina. If that's what you're into then by all means go for it.

Swords of Eveningstar by Ed Greenwood is the first book in the Knights of Myth Drannor trilogy. The second book, Swords of Dragon Fire is scheduled for release in August of 2007. Greenwood is the creator of the Forgotten Realms and as such, it seems as though he is awarded more freedom when writing novels. There are usually two schools of people in regards to Greenwood's work, you will either really enjoy him or dislike his work. There is usually no middle ground.

I must be honest; I bought this book for only one reason. One of my favorite characters, Florin Faconhand, is one of the main heroes. As with any Greenwood book you can expect to see a plethora of characters and some are the redundant `heavy-hitters' of the Realms. Please keep in mind this entire trilogy is a `prequel' if you will to things that have already happened. You get to run into characters such as Dove and Khelban. I was surprised Greenwood didn't throw Elminster into this book. For the most part the characters were just all right. Florin I enjoyed reading about as it gave some further insight into how he got where he is. I fully expect to be more fleshed out in the second and third books as well. Yet, the rest of the characters seemed really contrived to me. They were card board cut outs of the clichés you would expect to find. Their dialog was witty and funny at times, but at other times it was like Greenwood wanted the reader to make sure they understood something so he had a character recite it to make sure. The villains in this book were not well done at all. On one page Greenwood tries to make them seem all powerful, yet in the next page they are screwing something up and their plans go awry. It didn't seem real, rather it was disjointed and out of place.

The plot is typical Greenwood, and that is not a good thing. It jumps from perspective to perspective and at times becomes so disjointed I had to go back and re-read parts of it. It almost felt that Greenwood wanted to fit as many characters as he could into this book. When, conversely, I think fewer characters in a more intimate plot would have done much better. There are no less than two times when the plot shifts focus to a new character that seems so out of place within the current story that it almost shocks the reader from the story. This constant shifting of perspective makes the plot feel jumpy and jumbled together. However, I must say in the middle of the book the plot picks up and has a very good flow, but at the end of the book Greenwood decides to start jumping around again. It is not a consistent book by any means.

Guru's of the Realms will need to read this book, for no better reason than to make sure you know the whole story of Florin and his group. However, casual fans of the Realms may be put off by the things I mentioned above. This is certainly not a book I would recommend to someone looking to get into reading fantasy. In fact, this is not a book I would recommend to someone who is an avid reader of fantasy but is looking to start reading in the Realms. It doesn't `feel' like a normal Realms book.

While I have no doubt Greenwood is a brilliant man and did a fantastic job at creating the Forgotten Realms I wish he would stick to writing source books instead of novels as his novels are almost painful to read at times.

I'm not sure I could add much else-- Red Hobbit sums up my opinions very well.

I'm getting back into "D&D" after years of being away and this Greenwood series is the first set of novels I'm reading. I was expecting so much more. The characters are hollow with no real progression. The "characters" (from a D&D PnP perspective, not a story perspective) seem to go from Level One novices to Level 10 heroes in no time flat with no real experience.