Rating: 
Summary: More than a good story
Review: Excellent writing, as usual, from these authors. More importantly to D&D fans, however, might be the implications of how future stories will be affected by the new 3rd edition D&D rules by Wizards of the Coast (also available through this online site). This truly is a world-shaking event.
Rating: 
Summary: Why do they let Greenwood keep doing it?
Review: I liked this book, and enjoyed reading it. Which is saying a lot considering Ed Greenwood came anywhere near it, and you can see his handywork all over it. Greenwood has a tendancy for trying to cram too many characters in one scene, and for writting extremely poor dialoge, his battles become repetitive after awhile. However I'm straying from my point here, this was a very good read and I enjoyed it. It was a good finale to Beyond the High Road and it makes me want to read more and more of the Forgotten Realms (I'm a Dragonlance reader who is branching out after reading anything and everything with Drizzt Do'Urden in it.)I would like to add one more thing. After reading Spellfire and Crown of Fire (I never finished Hand of Fire or whatever it was because I was so disgusted), I was afraid to spend my money on any book with Ed Greenwood on the cover. I know many people who won't touch a book that has his name on it. I would encourage those people to take a chance on this one...while Greenwood keeps it from being a great book (his style is so obvious you can tell where he mucked it up)...it is still a book worth reading as it will begin to reshape a very important Kingdom in the Forgotten Realms.
Rating: 
Summary: A new low for Greenwood
Review: I was leary when I started this book- after all, I have never been a big fan of Ed Greenwood's. All his stories are mind-numbing battle after battle with no real characters at plot. I figured this book might be okay, though, since he teamed up with Troy Denning, who is one of my favorite FR authors. I was wrong. There are pretty much two different events that constantly occur throughout the book, and I got quite sick of them after the first 50 pages: 1) Valiant heroes stand against swarms of orcs/goblins, and cut them down despite impossible odds. 2) Valiant heroes stand against fearsome ghazneths, and manage to scare them away, despite the fact that the gazneths are nearly invincible. I got so tired of descriptions like a "blade stained with black blood" and a ghazneth tearing the head of a dragoon, that I began to wish I was that dragoon! A word about the characters: totally flat and uninteresting. Azoun is the wise, heroic king that manages to slay orcs despite being 70. Tanalasta is the stubborn princess who manages to slay gazneths despite being 6 months pregnant. Alusair is really the only character that interested me, though her actions throughout the novel consist of hacking at endless waves of orcs, and rallying her soldiers. I won't give away too much, but the ending was the nail in the coffin of this whole blasted trilogy. The last 500+ pages (going back through High Road) built up a problem of endless waves of orcs, invincible ghazneths, and an equally invincible dragon. And suddenly, out of nowehere, the heroes find a solution to killing everything that is so easy, that you know the authors were just looking for an easy way out. Particularly, the method for retriving Vangerdahast (what's the difference between him and Elminster, again?) came out of the blue, and makes me wonder why the characters are so damn stupid that they couldn't have figured out how to do it sooner. A final word of advice: avoid this and any other Greenwood novel like the plague. For god's sake, read something good like Jordan's the Wheel of Time, Goodkind's The Sword of Truth. I'm not saying all Forgotten Realms is bad- I loved novels like Murder in Halruaa- but this one is!
Rating:
Summary: An important piece of the Forgotten Realms
Review: King Azoun IV and Cormyr have been cornerstones of the Forgotten Realms all the way back to the Empires trilogy so long ago. One of the strengths of this shared world is that time passes and things change. From the beginning of this series I realized that it would mark the passing of Azoun IV. Other reviewers have critisized this series in comparison with sweeping mega-novels of other authors. One of the things I have liked about the Realms series is that I'm not expected to have to plod through multiple 700+ page books to reach the conclusion. Granted the battles seemed never ending with knights killing many orcs/goblins before falling themselves but I think that this was the point. As Ilberd Crownsilver discovered, battle is not glorious, it hurts both body and mind. The only real problem I had with the series was that Vangerdahast seemed to resemble Elminster's more sinister little brother. I think the ideal way to experience this series is to read all three books consecutively which I plan to do again in the near future.
Rating: 
Summary: Now thats a combo!
Review: Other reviews of this book say that you should read Cormyr: a novel and Beyond the high road before reading this book. I say you should read every FR novel bfore this one if you really want to get everything out of this book. This book has a huge impact on the realms as a whole. I was so wraped up in this climatic book that I didn't do any homework the whole time I was reading it. If you are a long time realms fan this book is gong to have a great deal of meaning to you, if you are a casual fantasy reader this book is going to be a hack and slash book with minor other characteristics. Me being a long time FR fan found this book to be very emotional. It shows the horrors of war and the casualties.... It is noce to see author collaborations such as this, because Denning and Greenwood have played such a big part in making the realms come alive in the past, it only seemed fitting that two authors such as this would take on such a task. Anyways read this book if you enjoy FR novels. If you don't read them, you may be dissapointed.
Rating:
Summary: Read the first two before reading this
Review: read it, finished it, and.... received both emotions: sadness and contentment pros: some snappy dialouge, plot twists, and some butt-kicking actions! cons: plot holes (Troy and Ed should REALLY work together, not write the tales and get together to see if they matched), plot for Vangerdahast's escape, lots of hack/slash/kill, and a sad ending.... (get your kleenex nearby folks) orcs, ghazneths, dragon oh my! grant you, I was indulged by the Rowan's difficulties, was saddened by Talaslanta's choice, and Vangerdahast's difficult choice (fiesty old guy, he's the only one I look forward in reading this book). I find... forgive me...Talaslanta quite boring (pining away for Rowan too much).... Alusair was the most interesting between the two princesses. I would recommend for you to read the first two AGAIN!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: The most realistic look at war and rulership that can be found in any Forgotten Realms book. If you're looking for lighthearted fare where all the good guys live, look elsewhere. If you're looking for an excellent story with characters you can care about, look here. I've read entire stories where an author has failed to do what Greenwood and Denning manage to do in only a few sentences: Make an individual character, even a short lived one, come alive. And that makes their ends all the more tragic. The soldiers dying in the field aren't generic redshirted security officers being beamed down to die like fodder. They're good hearted, often humorous lads, who you hate to see go. So good. One of the best FR books I've read. A must read.
Rating:
Summary: Mediocrely done, Ed and Troy
Review: This book is the result of a collaboration between two authors, one an experienced, artful writer of fantasy fiction, and the other, Ed Greenwood. They seem to have divided the chore up by setting the novel's four characters in different areas within the realm of Cormyr, with Troy Denning handling the action with Talaslanta and Vangerdahast, and Ed Greenwod handling the war in the north featuring Alusair and Azoun. As a result, half of the novel is competently done. It is pretty easy to figure out which author did which section, because Denning's half completes the story he started in "Beyond the High Road" and is written in fairly engaging prose. Greenwood, on the other hand, writes as though English literature reached its apotheosis in the lesser works of Sir Walter Scott. Consequently, his sections are peppered with snappy dialogue such as the following: "Sir Messenger, rest your horse. We shall tarry here for a time, while the Princess Alusair essays an attack, planned yestereve, on those who harry us." Bad prose and worse dialogue were not a problem in the first book of this series, "Cormyr: A Novel," which was also a collaboration with Ed Greenwood. The first book had as a coauthor Jeff Grubb, one of Greenwood's fellow game designers at TSR/Wizards of the Coast. My theory-- and this is just a guess-- is that due to his greater prestige at TSR Grubb had either the confidence or the clout to tell Greenwood what to do with his dialogue. (I could make a few suggestions along that line myself.) The story is good, with only two plot holes, and Denning's half is easily worth reading. But if you want a combination of story and unleavened writing ability set in a world that looks suspiciously like Cormyr, read Simon R Green's "Blue Moon" series. An additional note about the series. This is the third book in a trilogy. If you do choose to read this book (not an altogether bad idea-- I've read much, much worse books, like one of Greenwood's solo efforts, for example), I would suggest reading "Beyond the High Road" first, as it does set up much of the plot of "Death of the Dragon," and I rather suspect that someone who read the latter book without reading the former would find "Dragon" confusing. Additionally, volume 1, "Cormyr: A Novel" is genuinely quite good in its own right, beyond what it adds to the understanding of volumes 2 and 3. I'd advise picking that one up whether or not you have any plans to read the last two novels.
Rating:
Summary: Well done Ed & Troy!
Review: This is a well written story by authors Ed Greenwood and Troy Denning. As the third installment of stories beginning with "Cormyr: A novel" and "Beyond the High Road" this book takes us through the long expected end of the reign of the Forgotten Realms longest and most stable monarchy. That's not really a spoiler since it is implied in the synopsis above and on the cover (as well as fan mailing lists for the last 9 months). In the FR shared world time goes on, people die, and governments change, which is to be expected. It's the fact that the FR setting changes with time that makes it so great - as long as the changes are within reason and don't force us out of our willing suspension of disbelief. The writing of Greenwood and Denning is excellent, and the difficulty of author's working together on a story is transparent, the storyline nearly seamless. Even longtime fans of both writers will be hard pressed at times to tell which author wrote what portion. Either Ed & Troy work well together or the editor is to be commended - probably both. Action, dialogue and the story itself are well constructed. A kingdom at war with a giant dragon (book cover) and other beasties has to have lots of action to it and for fans this story has plenty. War IS hell, and the writing takes you through both the hack & slash attitude common in this genre as well as the gripping reality of war in all it's horrible consequences. It's not gory in the descriptiveness though, so if you can handle watching ER you're more than prepared for this book. This is one of the great features of these authors in that they can show the horror of combat without resorting to the common day 'fill it with gore and it will sell' phenomenon. Oh, it has that, but it is well done and is not overmuch. Action alone is often not enough and this story both fills the reader with pride at the marching armies and tugs at heartstrings during some very well written emotional moments. The story itself is compelling (you'll not want to put the book down until you're finished). At certain portions in the story, if you don't find yourself welling up with emotion or wiping your eyes, you're a hard heart indeed. Very few FR novels can have this said of them, and by far this story makes it one of the best (if not THE best) stories to be born from this setting created by author Greenwood. *Helpful Hints* "Cormyr: A Novel" is not a required read, but a recommended one. The historical details of this book do come into play in the third volume. They are well explained n "Death of the Dragon" but the details are in the first book and definitely round out the story as a whole. "Beyond the High Road" is almost an absolute requirement. Without having read this book you'll have little understanding of what Alaundo's prophecy is (See back cover of Death of the Dragon); who and what the creatures mentioned are; and the "why" of it all. You'll also need this book to be able to identify many of the characters & their place in the grand scheme of things. It *is* possible to read "Death of the Dragon" as a stand alone book, but without at least book II of the series the reader will be full of questions at the end as well as be confused throughout most of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Well done Ed & Troy!
Review: This is a well written story by authors Ed Greenwood and Troy Denning. As the third installment of stories beginning with "Cormyr: A novel" and "Beyond the High Road" this book takes us through the long expected end of the reign of the Forgotten Realms longest and most stable monarchy. That's not really a spoiler since it is implied in the synopsis above and on the cover (as well as fan mailing lists for the last 9 months). In the FR shared world time goes on, people die, and governments change, which is to be expected. It's the fact that the FR setting changes with time that makes it so great - as long as the changes are within reason and don't force us out of our willing suspension of disbelief. The writing of Greenwood and Denning is excellent, and the difficulty of author's working together on a story is transparent, the storyline nearly seamless. Even longtime fans of both writers will be hard pressed at times to tell which author wrote what portion. Either Ed & Troy work well together or the editor is to be commended - probably both. Action, dialogue and the story itself are well constructed. A kingdom at war with a giant dragon (book cover) and other beasties has to have lots of action to it and for fans this story has plenty. War IS hell, and the writing takes you through both the hack & slash attitude common in this genre as well as the gripping reality of war in all it's horrible consequences. It's not gory in the descriptiveness though, so if you can handle watching ER you're more than prepared for this book. This is one of the great features of these authors in that they can show the horror of combat without resorting to the common day 'fill it with gore and it will sell' phenomenon. Oh, it has that, but it is well done and is not overmuch. Action alone is often not enough and this story both fills the reader with pride at the marching armies and tugs at heartstrings during some very well written emotional moments. The story itself is compelling (you'll not want to put the book down until you're finished). At certain portions in the story, if you don't find yourself welling up with emotion or wiping your eyes, you're a hard heart indeed. Very few FR novels can have this said of them, and by far this story makes it one of the best (if not THE best) stories to be born from this setting created by author Greenwood. *Helpful Hints* "Cormyr: A Novel" is not a required read, but a recommended one. The historical details of this book do come into play in the third volume. They are well explained n "Death of the Dragon" but the details are in the first book and definitely round out the story as a whole. "Beyond the High Road" is almost an absolute requirement. Without having read this book you'll have little understanding of what Alaundo's prophecy is (See back cover of Death of the Dragon); who and what the creatures mentioned are; and the "why" of it all. You'll also need this book to be able to identify many of the characters & their place in the grand scheme of things. It *is* possible to read "Death of the Dragon" as a stand alone book, but without at least book II of the series the reader will be full of questions at the end as well as be confused throughout most of the book.
| 
