Waterdeep - The Avatar Trilogy Book III
Written: Jul 22 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: A fitting end to the trilogy, more action and magic use
Cons: Needs more monsters and character races
The Bottom Line: A fitting end to a good fantasy trilogy.
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| phungus's Full Review: Waterdeep Books |
Waterdeep is the third and final novel in the Avatar Trilogy, set in the Dungeons and Dragons world of Forgotten Realms. The Avatar Trilogy was a big project for publisher TSR and consisted of these novels as well as accompanying D&D game modules. This book is credited to author Richard Awlinson, which in this case is the pseudonym for Troy Denning.
This is my favorite novel of the trilogy and brings a fitting end to the series. It has much better character development and more detailed action sequences than the other novels. I had to push myself through parts of the first two books, but this one was a much more entertaining and fluid read. Author Troy Denning has a rather large collection of novles in his resume, including many Star Wars and D&D books. I think he added the kick in the pants needed to bring a great end to this trilogy.
Waterdeep begins right where the last novel, Tantras, ended. Midnight the mage is realizing that something has instilled within her great powers that she must learn to control. Elminster, who was thought to be dead, comes back into play, but I’m sure you knew this was already coming. He first appears as an odd character who keeps showing up, and the connection is all too obvious. Through much of this story Midnight and her love, the warrior Kelemvor, are separated. Each member of their group gets to have their own side story until it all winds up in the city of Waterdeep where the evil gods are finally confronted and the ongoing strife is put to an end.
The main villain in this and the previous novel is Cyric the thief. He was originally one of the group’s companions and actually helped to break two of them out of prison in the beginning of Tantras. However, his own greed and desire for power has corrupted him into a murderer willing to turn on the own people he had helped just weeks before. It doesn’t help that he carries a cursed sword that feeds off the lifeforce of its victims. The sword will take on the form of a sickly little girl and beg to be ‘fed’ when Cyric goes too long without killing someone.
The Avatar Trilogy all comes to a pretty quick ending and there are a few surprises. I thought the ending was almost too abrupt in how they were all fighting and the bad guy narrowly escapes, then the book ends literally ten pages later. Some characters died that should have lived and vice versa. Other characters took on new roles that were unexpected. All in all, I enjoyed this trilogy of stories and think this book was the best of the bunch. There’s definitely some potential to continue this story using some of the same characters.
For players of D&D, especially those fond of magic users, you will enjoy the use of magic in this book. As Midnight gains more power, she is able to cast some of the higher level spells that you rarely get to see or use in the game, so that was cool to read. There are almost no monster encounters, save for a town of friendly specters, and most of the fighting is between humans. There is a halfling character that plays a supporting role, though. I most enjoy these D&D books when they have a nice balance of magic, monsters, and different races of people. For that reason, I think the Avatar trilogy could have used a lot more diversity, especially when you consider the source material.
The Avatar Trilogy was meant to be read as a whole, and Waterdeep is the best of them all. I picked up these three books for a cheap price on Ebay and have very much enjoyed reading them. I still prefer the works of R.A. Salvatore when it comes to D&D novels, but this turned out to be an entertaining diversion and a quick read.
The Avatar Trilogy:
Shadowdale - Book I review: http://www.epinions.com/content_186717212292
Tantras - Book II review: http://www.epinions.com/content_189147680388
Recommended:
Yes
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phungus
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