City of Fire

Rating:
Summary: Barbaric fallback
Review: City of Fire is very reminiscent of the first book, The Savage Caves in many respects. I suspect it was written by the same "T.H. Lain".

Regdar and Naull, the fighter and wizard from The Savage Caves return. They are joined by Krusk, an half-orc barbarian and Alhandra, a snow-white paladin of Hieroneous. Regdar and Naull again display a lack of sense in exploring, twice running into dungeons without planning. Once due to the plot, but during their introduction in this tale due to stupidity. They have learned nothing since The Savage Caves, and despite the second book their characters have not developed either.

Krusk and Alhandra don't get developed either. In fact, as in The Savage Caves, the cannon fodder enemies get better exposition and development. I really actually felt for the gnolls and their doglike pack bonding.

This gets 3 stars instead of the 2 the Savage Caves received only because the ending allows a continuation with a villain who can return to further torment our heroes.

After the last two much better works, this one is a grave disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: Barbaric fallback
Review: City of Fire is very reminiscent of the first book, The Savage Caves in many respects. I suspect it was written by the same "T.H. Lain".

Regdar and Naull, the fighter and wizard from The Savage Caves return. They are joined by Krusk, an half-orc barbarian and Alhandra, a snow-white paladin of Hieroneous. Regdar and Naull again display a lack of sense in exploring, twice running into dungeons without planning. Once due to the plot, but during their introduction in this tale due to stupidity. They have learned nothing since The Savage Caves, and despite the second book their characters have not developed either.

Krusk and Alhandra don't get developed either. In fact, as in The Savage Caves, the cannon fodder enemies get better exposition and development. I really actually felt for the gnolls and their doglike pack bonding.

This gets 3 stars instead of the 2 the Savage Caves received only because the ending allows a continuation with a villain who can return to further torment our heroes.

After the last two much better works, this one is a grave disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: Barbaric fallback
Review: City of Fire is very reminiscent of the first book, The Savage Caves in many respects. I suspect it was written by the same "T.H. Lain".

Regdar and Naull, the fighter and wizard from The Savage Caves return. They are joined by Krusk, an half-orc barbarian and Alhandra, a snow-white paladin of Hieroneous. Regdar and Naull again display a lack of sense in exploring, twice running into dungeons without planning. Once due to the plot, but during their introduction in this tale due to stupidity. They have learned nothing since The Savage Caves, and despite the second book their characters have not developed either.

Krusk and Alhandra don't get developed either. In fact, as in The Savage Caves, the cannon fodder enemies get better exposition and development. I really actually felt for the gnolls and their doglike pack bonding.

This gets 3 stars instead of the 2 the Savage Caves received only because the ending allows a continuation with a villain who can return to further torment our heroes.

After the last two much better works, this one is a grave disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: A suprising ending for this D&D book from Lain...
Review: The fourth of the T.H. Lain series "starring" the various "Iconic" characters from the 3rd Edition of Dungeons and Dragons, this is a very quick read as most of them are, and yet has a lot more character depth to it than the last ones.

It begins as quite a fun, quick, laugh-riot read, but man, what a dark ending - when a Paladin asks Naull, Regdar and Krusk for help, the four do everything in their power to help her defeat a dark evil warrior, before she uses a scalding fiery power to lay true waste to a large part of the world. Methinks Lain is getting more towards a "series" than episodic writing, cuz I think the plot line introduced for Naull and Regdar is comin' back... I hope.

As always, the story is pretty straightfoward hack-n-slash, with character completion actually rising a bit in this one. I found getting inside Krusk's head a bit of fun, more than I'd imagined I would have, and Alhondra wasn't one-dimensional, as most paladins tend to be in literature.

'Nathan

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Darn good for a light read
Review: This is a very quick read (less than 200 pages), but it is quite enjoyable. I have read the previous books in this series (and would advise others to do so as well), and it meshes nicely. Here's the bottom line--quick melee action, decent story lines, noticeable character development. I'll definitely pick up the next one (Bloody Eye). You don't have to play D&D to enjoy these books, but it definitely helps. This one outlines a barbarian (Krusk) a fighter (Regdar) a wizard (Naull) and a paladin (Alhandra). Enjoy!