The Sorcerer

Rating:
Summary: Best of the Trilogy
Review: Finally, just before it is ending, Denning decides to actually use all of the characters and shows us the point of view of a phaerimm, the points of view of Vala and other characters (still not Aris, though!) etc. This book is by far the best of the three, and it was nice to see Galaeron finally stop whining about his shadow and what he did ot Evereska and all of Faerun.

The book's characterization was better than the rest of them too. The characters were more believable and had more individuality. The novel, in general, seemed better edited, less hasty, and more sure. The ending was not all that I'd hoped for, but I am interested in seeing what will finally become of Malik, after he gueststars in two different series.

Better than the other two, but is it worth reading all three? I would say no, unless you have a couple of days and twenty dollars to kill. A good book, though.
Harkius

Rating:
Summary: A good finale
Review: I really liked this series, and though I do think some of the characters were a bit too unbeatable, overall I enjoyed them all, and the somewhat unusual ending to the book. I look forward to the future encounters with the Shadovar, and am glad to see them a force to stay!

Rating:
Summary: dissapointment
Review: The Summoning and The Seige were both enjoyable, but despite a decent first half, the last 200 or so pages of the sorcerer were more or less unreadable. Shame, because this was otherwise a pretty good series.

Rating:
Summary: OMG!
Review: This is one if the worst books I have ever read, no kidding. The plot is boring, the characters are the epitome of un-pleasant and dis-likeable, I rooted for the vilians to win (giant uber-nasty magic space bug thingies). Oh, and the whole world, no universe, no creation, NO MAGIC IT SELF is threatened! (Gasp) If you are masochistic, this books for you!

Rating:
Summary: By far the best of the trilogy!!!
Review: What a great epic story! I had problems even putting it down. The characters our well defined and fleshed out which gives you a real sense of empathy for them. The battles and the awesome magic used was the most detailed I have read in a while. One thing I thought was a new twist was when the Chosen were shrunk down and swallowed by Aris the giant and Galaeron in order to be smuggled into the city of Shade. Overall an outstanding book by Troy Denning, one of my favorite authors.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting characters, but a loss of originality and focus.
Review: While the first book in this series was quite excellent the last two lag. This is the fantasy equivilant of a big budget summer movie without a good deal of rational plot or interesting settings.

Most of the book is chaotic battles that are rife with super human characters that cannot possibly die. While in the first book the enemies were built up to be incredibly formadible, the heroes seem to slash and blast their way without very much difficulty here.

Perhaps hurting the Forgotten Realms setting more than anything is the resurgance of the LOTR, with the new movies. The copies of that work are showing their shallowness. Elves are threatened and the magic must be restored in order to save the world. The climax comes down to an against all odds defense of a single city. How many times has this been done before and far better? The Elfstones of Shanara do this story better justice.

The neat things about this series were the Shadovar and the potential threat they posed to the Realms. That would have invigorated the tired setting a bit, but instead that threat is rendered all but impotent at the conclusion of this novel.

Even worse is the sitcom soap opera that is so sterotyptical it's hard not to skip pages.

While the book admirably tries to make Galaeron interesting, his transformation into Shadow Wizard is still a pale likeness of Raistlin. Without giving a way too much, the tidy ending was wholely unsatisfying.

Unfortunately, much like the Cormyrian Trilogy, this one falls apart with the last two books after an excellent first book. I recently reread the excellent "Crusade" as proof that the Forgotten Realms can still be a viable setting of excellent fantasy. Unfortunately, more of the current novels lose the focus of the story and fail to stay as tight as the Hoard Saga. It would have been a far more interesting saga if Azoun had been able to form his Alliance and fought the Shadovar in an epic war. But alas, we are left with superhuman divine intervention instead of realistic and mortal heroes.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting characters, but a loss of originality and focus.
Review: While the first book in this series was quite excellent the last two lag. This is the fantasy equivilant of a big budget summer movie without a good deal of rational plot or interesting settings.

Most of the book is chaotic battles that are rife with super human characters that cannot possibly die. While in the first book the enemies were built up to be incredibly formadible, the heroes seem to slash and blast their way without very much difficulty here.

Perhaps hurting the Forgotten Realms setting more than anything is the resurgance of the LOTR, with the new movies. The copies of that work are showing their shallowness. Elves are threatened and the magic must be restored in order to save the world. The climax comes down to an against all odds defense of a single city. How many times has this been done before and far better? The Elfstones of Shanara do this story better justice.

The neat things about this series were the Shadovar and the potential threat they posed to the Realms. That would have invigorated the tired setting a bit, but instead that threat is rendered all but impotent at the conclusion of this novel.

Even worse is the sitcom soap opera that is so sterotyptical it's hard not to skip pages.

While the book admirably tries to make Galaeron interesting, his transformation into Shadow Wizard is still a pale likeness of Raistlin. Without giving a way too much, the tidy ending was wholely unsatisfying.

Unfortunately, much like the Cormyrian Trilogy, this one falls apart with the last two books after an excellent first book. I recently reread the excellent "Crusade" as proof that the Forgotten Realms can still be a viable setting of excellent fantasy. Unfortunately, more of the current novels lose the focus of the story and fail to stay as tight as the Hoard Saga. It would have been a far more interesting saga if Azoun had been able to form his Alliance and fought the Shadovar in an epic war. But alas, we are left with superhuman divine intervention instead of realistic and mortal heroes.