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Shadowdale (1989)

Shadowdale (1989)

Book Info

Author
Genre
Rating
3.62 of 5 Votes: 4
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ISBN
0880387300 (ISBN13: 9780880387309)
Language
English
Publisher
wizards of the coast tsr

About book Shadowdale (1989)

Novelising the move from 1st to 2nd edition Dungeons & Dragons24 March 2012tBack in 1989 it was decided by TSR that it was well and truly time to reinvigorate the AD&D system, and to be honest it was sorely needed. The gave was about 20 years old at this stage and it had been evolving continuously with more complex and complicated rules being forever thrown on top of the pre-existing ones. The original game has come out as what was then known as the basic set, and had then moved onto more advanced rules. In describing these rules as advanced the better description would be complex and incredibly clunky. As such, in their infinite wisdom, TSR decided that a complete rewrite of the rules was needed, and thus out came 2nd edition (and every ten years since they have moved to further upgrade the rules, though I must admit that I am still quite happy with 3rd edition).tHowever, due to the extensive changes and reworking of the rules, the creators decided that they needed to bring in a huge change to the worlds as well, and at this stage the standard AD&D world was The Forgotten Realms. Thus they created a world wide event that would coincide with the new rules, and the result was a series of three novels and a series of three adventures dealing with the period that has come to be known as 'The Time of Troubles'.tThe story is about a couple of the evil gods who decide to steal an artifact which in turn angered the great god Ao. As a result all of the gods were cast out of the heavens and into the Realms as punishment and were to wonder around until the culprit stepped forward (which, being evil gods, they did not). As the gods wondered around the world they, as can be expected, came into conflict with each other, as well as setting themselves up in their favourite spots. Some of them even died, though there was a catch – if a god dies, they die quite spectacularly, and usually in the form of a nuclear explosion.tThis was not going to leave the people of the Realms safe, because not only do they have these gods wondering around, but all of the magic has gone completely haywire, so as it turns out (surprise, surprise) a group of adventurers decide to go off and attempt to solve this problem. In the Realms, if a solution to a problem is needed, then one travels to visit Elminster, which is what the adventurers do, and which is why this story is called Shadowdale (namely because that is where Elminster lives).tI will continue my discussion about the series when I move on to the next book in the series, and will discuss my thoughts on this particular trilogy upon reaching the third one. Needless to say, I will flag at this point that I would not be recommending this trilogy to anybody: it is a simple waste of time and energy and was written purely to provide a bridge between 1st and 2nd edition AD&D. While it may have been fun at the time, currently, as far as I am concerned, 20 years after the event that triggered these novels, they are pretty much obsolete and really only for those die hard Dungeons & Dragons fans who want a bit of nostalgia, and even then there are much better books out there than these ones.

I sort of have mixed feelings about this book.The writing was redundant (seriously, how many times do I have to read blue-white (insert word here) or the same word two or three times in a sentence?) and at times very quick (as if the author got bored with writing so he just wrote some real quick junk to take the place of something that could have been good), the characters...well, there really wasn't any I cared for, and the story, for the most part, wasn't terribly exciting.But.... I enjoyed the book. I was interested and read it fairly quickly (compared to the last book I read). Perhaps I was interested in the book because it is slightly educational for me... I am playing in my first D&D campaign so I was able to gain some gaming knowledge from the book.So, despite my mixed feelings, the book was okay and I'll read the rest. I hope they get a bit more exciting as the story progresses.

Do You like book Shadowdale (1989)?

The Avatar Trilogy is one of the earlier trilogies of the Realms world not only in publication history but also timeline history. The entire story arc covers a time in the Realms when the gods were kicked out of the heavens by their lord and forced to walk the earth in -you guessed it- avatars.So the premise is that two gods: Bane god of strife and Myrkul god of death, conspired to steal some heavy duty magic items called the Tablets of Fate from their own creator Lord Ao. Lord Ao of course got his knickers in a twist and banished all the gods from their homes in the heavens and hells to take human form and learn a little humility. Apparently before this the gods had been acting like spoiled children and pappa Ao had to ground themSo from book 1-3 (I'm assuming at least since I haven't read 2 or 3 yet...) it's all about finding the Tablets and returning them and the gods to the heavens. We meet up with a sorceress named Midnight who is a servant of the goddess of magic Mystra and is given a portion of the goddess magic to hold in trust; a soft hearted thief named Cyric; a priest named Adon who is a servant of Sune, goddess of love and beauty; and a cursed warrior named Kelemvor.These four get caught in a power struggle between three gods and have to travel to Shadowdale and enlist the help of Elminster the Sage to prevent Bane from returning to the heavens and taking over as king. Hence the name of the title.I'm a little disappointed in this. It had been so long since I read any Realms I was hoping going back basically to the beginning would be good for me but Shadowdale was actually pretty blah for me. I like the characters, much of their development in intriguing, but for some reason everything else around them fell rather flat. It was almost like the characters were what the author cared about, not the story if that makes any sense.This won't stop me from continuing the series or from reading more Realms books, I was just hoping for a lot more from it.
—Forgotten Realms Queen

This book tries to be two things at once. Fortunately, it does one of those things very well: it is a fun action romp that gets you interested in the setting and makes you want to play the D&D adventure of the same name (circa 1988). Unfortunately, it does a fairly poor job of being the first installment of an epic fantasy involving world-changing events. The real let-down, however, is that it fails to even be a serviceable fantasy jaunt with believable character development and an unbroken plot. While the author does a good job of making you believe the world is in chaos and gets you hooked into the characters, he just let's the ball roll downhill once it gets going. Character motivations are one dimensional, as are the cardboard cut-out RPG archetype characters. The most developed backstory is that of Kelemvor, and its such a heavy handed element that the author all but asks for forgiveness for making him act in a completely unbelievable manor. We also must suffer through a journey of rapid character development so unwarranted the characters themselves seem confused by their actions. To make this worse what seems like a few days as you read the book ends up being a journey that spans a month! I won't spoil anything, but suffice it to say the ending of this book is nothing more than a set of contrived excuses to top it off with a large amount of action and makes you feel like everything you read before this should have been squeezed into a prologue. For a trilogy that is supposed to cover one of the most ground-breaking events in the history of the Forgotten Realms, Shadowdale feels too much like a junior high D&D game transcript to do the backstory justice.
—Brian

I recently read (OK, listened to) this book for the first time in twenty years. It's amazing how much nostalgia distorts one's memory, making the mediocre seem better than it was.Such was the case with Shadowdale. The story being told, of the gods being banished to the mortal realm and the chaos that ensues, has the potential to be very good. Unfortunately, the story suffers in the execution. One gets the feeling that the author was handed an AD&D adventure module and told to write a novel to go with it. The author makes frequent use of AD&D terminology in this book, to the point that I wonder just how confusing it would be for a non-gamer.As I mentioned previously, the story being told is actually good, and is quite an important one in the history of the Forgotten Realms. Unfortunately, if you know little of the Realms or if you're not a gamer, you probably won't enjoy this book. This is a 2.5 star book. The extra half star is for the gamers and Forgotten Realms junkies who will be willing to wade through the "converted module" prose to get at the story of the Time of Troubles.
—Ron Gastgeb

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