Rating: Summary: A good story, but a little rushed Review: Realistically, this book rates about 3.5 stars, better by far than Emerson's two Grayhawk books, not as good as Paul Kidd's trilogy. The two main characters, the elvish ranger and the fallen paladin, are among the most compelling in the Grayhawk books. Similar to Kidd's Justicar, they deserve to have their own stories written about them outside of the Grayhawk series. Well fleshed out. The rest of the supporting cast is also well-written, and the author allows them plenty of time to get aquainted and to interact, which is vital to make the characters interesting. Unfortunately, as other reviewer have already pointed out, this long lead time allows little time for the actual dungeon adventure, and even though I had never played that particular module, I could tell that lots of things were being left out. But I think that is a common problem in all these Grayhawk books: obviously a page limit (word count) was given and some authors handled it better than others. Keith Strohm rises to the challenge relatively well here, delivering a story with compelling characters in interesting circumstances. The ending feels a bit rushed, but was overall satisfying. I think there is big potential here for a sequel or two here, similar to the works of Paul Kidd. The fate of several foes and at least one companion remains unresolved at the end of the book, lending to its "rushed" feeling.But this is a good read, and former (and current) D&Ders and fantasy fans alike should enjoy its twists and turns. I highly recommend it.
Rating: Summary: Average Read Review: The Tomb of Horrors is a another one of those books with the potential to be a solid novel. But it fails to do so in a number of ways. First, this is a book based upon one of the most popular AD&D modules printed in the 1980's and a rewritten effort called Return to the Tomb of Horrors. Both of the modules were laid out excellently and this was one of the major drawbacks to the actual book. Few times did I ever believe that the author really delved into the feel and tone of the module. The modules were just so darn wicked and deadly. The vile nature of the denizens and traps were so well thought of and explained, it was a let down to read about it with such blandness in the book. Was it just me or was it really upsetting to read the first 200 pages of the book and not actually be inside the Tomb. The author builds up the journey to the Tomb of Horrors and then quickly runs through it like a group of kids trying to finish a AD&D game before their parents get home. The matter of character deaths were also taken with such disregard that it was nearly laughable. Nevermind that you best friend just had a spear thrust through his heart, just as long as we get to the end. This reaches a climax when Kaerion (the protagonist) fails to save Majandra and she is killed. No real emotion of feeling of loss is given, despite the effort to draw these two characters closer throughout the book. But all is not lost, there are some positives out there. The book is not badly written and the last 100 pages did show the promise intended in the effort to write a book based on the modules. Some of the dialog, scenes, and elements were also good. It was just not enough. I would have loved to have seen a 250 page book with 95% of it spent within the tomb. This was one of those modules that did not need 500 pages to convey its meaning. The module Tomb of Horrors was action, action and more action. I wish the book would have just gone with that premise.
Rating: Summary: Ruined By Formulaic Writing Review: This would have been a dynamite book had not the page count been limited to a mere 300 pages. Wizards of The Coast are known for keeping their page count to around 300 pages, and most of their writers do a good job portraying a good story in that word count. Strohm, however, fails in this, as his story seemed to have a lot more life to it before he pulled the plug. The 300 page formula makes him wrap up the climax in a paltry 20 pages, when it should and could have lasted 100 pages alone. The beginning and middle are good enough to merit 3 stars, so I guess its worth reading.
Rating: Summary: Ruined By Formulaic Writing Review: This would have been a dynamite book had not the page count been limited to a mere 300 pages. Wizards of The Coast are known for keeping their page count to around 300 pages, and most of their writers do a good job portraying a good story in that word count. Strohm, however, fails in this, as his story seemed to have a lot more life to it before he pulled the plug. The 300 page formula makes him wrap up the climax in a paltry 20 pages, when it should and could have lasted 100 pages alone. The beginning and middle are good enough to merit 3 stars, so I guess its worth reading.
Rating: Summary: It puts the 'gene' in generic Review: When I first laid eyes on the cover of this book about two years ago I thought "It has to be a great novel" simply because of the cover 'Tomb of Horrors'. Being based off of the actual adventuring model by the late TSR Company, I also believed that this book came into print during that long ago era, however, I was to be sadly mistaken beginning with the fact that this book was written exactly two years ago. To be frank (because only a 1000 words will fit on to this review) this thing (no it's not a book, I refuse to believe so) is g-e-n-e-r-i-c, generic, in every sense of the word. First, the plot is predictable throughout the entire novel. While having the faint ability to keep me interested on some level, the depth of the book is as about as deep as the shallow end of the kitty pool (no its not that deep). Although the basic idea of the books' storyline is good, the author (Strohm) fails to take full advantage of it and instead creates some sort of sorry attempt that a person who is educated in the universe could've made better in their own spare time. Occasionally having a twist or turn, the excitement level of the book still proves to be flatter then the paper it's written on, which left me bored and extremely angered/depressed/sad that something like this actually went through the print shop. Moving on to characters (or the attempt of having characters) with the exception of the main character, Kaerion, who is only one that actually shows a sense of personality and internal conflict, every character in this book is one dimensional and acts, to the very smallest detail, of how the D&D players' handbook describes them in the 'class selection' chapter. Thus, the story can be summarized as this (this is not a spoiler since the back of the book says the same thing): There is generic disgruntled warrior who meets uber-generic elf who decide to work together and earn money the normal, respectable, way that mercenaries do, which is killing stuff. Disgruntled warrior and Legolas soon decide to team up with generic bard, generic noble, generic 'specialized' cleric and generic old mage guy to go rummaging through the generic dungeon for the generic purpose of making money. Along the way, the generic team has generic encounters and Disgruntled Man must make generic decision of trying to redeem himself. Simply put, for those hardcore, die-hard, fantasy lovers out there, who love a great fantasy novel, THIS WOULD BE THE ANTITHESIS OF ONE, and unless you like to have your love of fantasy clubbed over the head like a baby seal, I would advise you (in fact order you) to stay away from this book, and instead stick to authors, who actually can write fantasy like Salvatore, Greenwood, Feist, Friedman, Weis, and Hickman. (And for those of you who think that I haven't 'generic' enough well, generic, generic, generic, generic, generic.)
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