Great book! I have enjoyd reading this book very much.But if you haven't read the previous one (Crypt of the Shadowking) y recommend you to read it, becouse it's as good as this one.

The plot here is placed in time sortly after Crypt of the Shadowmage. The plot is great, and, even when you can see what is happening, you don't know for sure how it is going to end. The Quest for find ...ejem.."something" (I can't say it here, sorry, you'll understand when you read it ;P ) is not long and with some surprise, and maybe you can guess how it will end and maybe. II didn't guess when I readed it but, I was to deep inside the book reading it, that I wasn't thinking of what will happen or how will it end.

The characters are also good. The only dissapoint I have is with Kellen. Ok, he is lovely, but, for my taste, he is a bit perfect, knows everything and is thinking in things a child of his age wouldn't think. He must have been playing instead of saving the world, but even with this, the book is great.

Buy it, and judge yourself, is the best I can say.

Sadly, Wizards of the Coast (or Hasbro, you decide) has become the bastion of corporate, "for-profit" literature at the expense of publishing quality and gaming innovation...

The trend of the 3.5 revision, admittedly largely unecessary and done primarily to renew a revenue stream from gamers willing to be duped into buying it (by some of its own authors!), continues with this weak text.

Short, with minimal additions and *many* only trivial revisions to 3.0 material, this book panders to the 'complete-ist' in many gamers, who will compulsively purchase any new material.

The only useful items (I won't go so far as to say novel) include the Initiate section (2 1/2 pages), the compiled spell list (made your own already?) and the magical item section (7 pages). Out of 191 pages, I will be using these 20 some odd pages.

Additionally, Wizards has failed to understand their own customers... Each new book excitedly proclaims how many new FEATS, PRESTIGE CLASSES and SPELLS that the book contains. At this point, with Dragon, d20 OGL products and WotC material, there are a mind-boggling number of each of these, with only minor and typically insignificant differences between many. While I like choices as much as the next RPG player, the novelty of splicing different class abilities together and calling them a prestige class has become tired.

What we're looking for, if I may be so bold to speak for my fellow gamers, is new contextual material. The "Campaign Journal" section of this book was billed as 'Current Events', but rather than breaking new ground, or exposing new information, it merely regurgitates the plotlines of recent FR novels.

So if you're one of the slavishly devoted purchasers of WotC products, a by-product of the previously quality material that the company *had* been putting out for years...

Stop.

You're encouraging them (with your hard-earned dollars) to publish respun garbage under the guise of NEW and IMPROVED.

Let's band together and vote with our dollars. Support the d20 labels putting out quality literature for discerning gamers (Malhavoc Press), not the tripe that's rolling out of what seems to be the nadir of WotC products.

The Alabaster Staff is about a young street performer whose life is occupied by figuring out where her next meal will come from, where she can spend the next night....and sometimes manages to find a little piece of happiness by entertaining children with her remarkable sleight of hand. She's also an unwilling thief who's sworn never to steal again.

Then she's suddenly drawn into a twisting plot of double-crossings and betrayals. At the center of it all, an artifact of great power - the Alabaster Staff.

This engaging novel is three parts fantasy, one part murder mystery. It's reminiscent of a 'Who-dunnit' thriller, and has you guessing until the end. The characters are believable yet surprising, and the author has made the protagonist not only realistic, but refreshingly moral-minded, a virtuous rogue who struggles with her own reluctant vocation. I found myself identifying with her more than most characters in the Forgotten Realms series. The book breaks down some of the archtypes normally associated with certain character classes, such as priests, warriors, and of course, rogues.

You don't have to be a fan of the Forgotten Realms to enjoy this book, but it certainly helps. Set in the oppressed and occupied nation of Unther (a land previously unexplored in Realms novels, to my knowledge), it's a new landscape with a few familiar goodies tossed in as well. It's a fast read, inspiring, and not to mention full of really cool stuff. Did I not mention the cool stuff? Well...go read it then!

Crypt of the Moaning Diamond by Rosemary Jones in the forth and final book in a series of stand alone novels collectively called The Dungeons. The books in this series are; Depths of Madness: The Dungeons by Erik Scott de Bie, The Howling Delve: The Dungeons (Forgotten Realms)by Jaleigh Johnson, and Stardeep: The Dungeons by Bruce Cordell. This is Ms. Jones' first novel for Wizards of the Coast, though she has published short stories in the past. I have said in past reviews, I really appreciate Wizards of the Coast publishing these stand alone novels to give new authors a chance to hone their craft. I also appreciate that by reading stand alone novels, I do not have to have a wide base of previously read books to understand these novels. That is especially true with this book.

The plot of this book is somewhat linear. In that a group, the Siegebreakers, are hired to bring down a wall of a town to allow it to be retaken. A turn of events find the group in a long forgotten dungeon. The majority of the novel follows he group as they make their way though the dungeon and what they encounter in that dungeon. As one would expect, they encounter a variety of monsters, and situations. There is a little depth to the story, but for the most part this novel reads like a gaming session put on paper. For the most part, that works for the novel, however, at the same time it feels a little forced. I think the way the book started I was expecting a little deeper plot, but once I finished the plot was mostly surface plot lines and, quite honestly, a plot that when all is said and done feels recycled. However, that does not mean I was not entertained by this novel, just that it felt as though I have read this plot line before. I was hoping for something fresher and more innovative.

The characters in this novel do a great deal to carry the book. Characters such as Ivy, Mumchance, and Saval really add a great deal to the overall feel of the book. Ivy seems to be a very well developed character and I would be very interested to read further books, or short stories about her. The character of Kid, didn't really connect with me. I won't spoil who, or what he is, but his parts in the story did not seem right to me. I just had a hard time when he was a featured part of the scene. There are really two villains in this novel, one gets considerably more `face-time' than the other. Archlis is one of the two main villains and is written very well. He has just enough arrogance/power to make him a threat, but some of his actions speak to other things. I enjoyed his character quite a bit. I think the characters that stole scenes, at least in my opinion, were a pair of bugbears. Just an interesting view of bugbears and added something different to the story. As I said earlier, I think the characters in this book kept the novel from becoming lackluster. For the most part the characters kept me interested in what was going to happen, and I can easily see myself picking up another book if I knew Ivy would be in it.

I do have a couple criticisms with this book though. One, which I already talked about, was the plot seeming to be recycled - like I have read it before. The plot itself didn't leave me wanting more. It was simply average. The second main criticism is that there are several times in this book that Ms. Jones writes humorous scenes. However, then those scenes appear, they seem to drag on and on. In a book such as this I think humor should be used very sparingly and in short spurts - maybe one liners or something. Yet, the humor in this book seemed forced and placed wrong. One humorous scene was more than enough, but there are several in this book.

As I said above, the characters are very good. I enjoyed reading about the vast majority of them. I appreciated Ms. Jones giving each character a unique voice. It made them stand out more to me as individuals. Ms. Jones' prose is very easy to read, it is not overly flowery. She shows the reader what she wants and moves on. While there are a few places I would have liked just a little more description, I understand this is her first novel and I see a lot of good things in her future. She obviously has talent as a writer and I for one am looking forward to reading more books by her.

Overall, this is a hard book for me to rate. If I could, I would rate is a 3.5 - however, since that's not an option I will rate it at a 3. Not because it's a bad book, that is certainly not the case. I just don't think it quite measures up to what I believe a 4 Star book should be. Fans of the Forgotten Realms will certainly find enjoyable elements in this book and I would recommend it to them for sure. Fans of the fantasy genre looking for a nice paced read should think about picking this novel up as well. While this is an average Forgotten Realms book, I think it is still worth the read and will be suggesting it to a few people for sure.

Swords of Dragonfire by Ed Greenwood is the second book of the Knights of Myth Drannor trilogy. The first book, Swords of Eveningstar (Forgotten Realms: The Knights of Myth Drannor, Book 1)was released in 2006 and the third and final bok, The Sword Never Sleeps, will be released in August of 2008. This trilogy is intended to be a prequel for the Knights of Myth Drannor, to give them more `face' time and to better explain how they came together and what some of their early motivations are. Most fans of the forgotten Realms will recognize many characters in this novel, which is both a positive and negative, but I'll explain that later in the review.

The plot of this book is rather jumbled at times. This is mostly due to how the book is written and laid out. The main storyline is that the Knights of Myth Drannor are trying to save the royalty of Cormyr (the King, Queen and two princesses, and of course Vangy). Throughout the course of the main plot there are various sub-plots thrown in for good measure. Sub-plots such as internal strife within the Zhents, a love interest between a couple of the main heroes, and trying to discover what really is behind an ancient mystery for a long lost treasure. The plot itself is decent; there really isn't anything new here. It seems all the plot points and `mysteries' in this book have been read countless times before. In fact there were time while I was reading this novel, that the plot felt stale to me. There were moments of it being interesting though. I would say the overall story of this book was better than the first book.

The characters of this book are largely the same as from the previous book. As with the first book, I purchased this largely because one of my favorite characters was present, Florin Falconhand. While he is certainly featured in this book, I still don't feel as though I know much more about him than I did before I started this book, and trilogy for that matter. It almost seems as though Mr. Greenwood does not care entirely too much on the concept of character development in this trilogy, rather he just wants to `tell the story'. I think that is one of the major pitfalls of writing a story, in particular, a trilogy about characters that are already established. The reader already has a very good idea of what will happen, and that certain characters have no chance of being killed - because they are present in books set many years after these events. One of my complaints about the previous book is that some of the characters felt as though they were two dimensional and very clichéd, I am disappointed to say that those feelings are still present in this book as well. The only character I was interested in steadily throughout the book was Florin, but that was largely due to my previous readings about him, not from this book.

The pacing of this novel does not lend itself to easy reading. The scenes jump from one point of view to another several times throughout a chapter. Just when the reader is grasping what the intent is, the book suddenly jumps to something else. This severely hampers the flow of the book and makes it feel like a jumbled, disjointed buffet of stories instead of one continuous tale. The last fifteen to twenty pages are actually the most succinct and concise parts of the story. That is the only part where there is decent flow and continuity other than that it's hit and miss.

It still appears as though Mr. Greenwood has an infinity to use ultra-strong character at points that don't really fit. There is one scene in particular where Vangerdahast is responding to something, suddenly Khelban shows up, then is followed by Elminster showing up. That scene in particular made me feel like Mr. Greenwood was saying, "Oh, I have to get these characters into this book." And then tossed them in one big lump to make sure they were noticed. It felt contrived and useless.

While this book `feels' more like a Forgotten Realms book, it still doesn't measure up to the likes of Paul Kemp and R.A. Salvatore in terms on plot and character development. I am sure `hard core' fans of the Forgotten Realms, those who read all the source books and articles, will find something to appreciate about this novel. However, fans like myself, who merely read the novels, may find this novel lacking in any real depth. It is my belief that novels should be written for a larger fan base and not just the `hard core' gamer. I say that because I can't see myself recommending this book except to the very niche group. This is by no means an introduction to the Realms or to fantasy novels in general.

While this book is slightly better than book one, I am still disappointed in the overall direction this trilogy has gone. As I said before, there is an inherent danger in writing prequels, and Mr. Greenwood, in my opinion, has fallen into that danger. I don't see myself recommending this book to many fellow readers, which is unfortunate.

I read "the Alabaster Staff" before reading "the Black Boughet" (both being from the Forgotten Realms series, "the Rogues," and I must say I am very dissappointed. "the Rogues" had so much potential being as they were focusing on one of the more popular (and in my opinion, more interesting) character classes in the fantasy genre and roleplaying. This book was a let down from top to bottom, with only a few shining moments.

First of all, the main object of every single characters obsession was silly. It was an old book with formulas to make perfume that were "magical" in nature and people wanted to buy this perfume. Therefore the owner of the book would be making perfume and making lots of money - I mean lots of money. It is hard to get attached to the deeds and the desires of the characters when they are after something so silly.

Also, I had a hard time liking the characters. I really didn't care about any of them and had no real reason to hope for their success or their demise. There is one main character and two supporting characters, and then there are a lot of side characters that play what seemed like big roles. It got confusing just because there were so many small characters that kept rising up and showing their power for a chapter or two. Then they would dissappear and resurface later. The book is just frustrating and doesn't give any good reason to like it. The fight scenes and battles aren't really that great either. They don't grab ahold of you in any way.

However, there are a few shining moments, like I mentioned. First of all, like I said with "the Alabaster Staff," it is nice and fun to get a different perspective of different locations around the Realm. The city of Oeble is facinating and I would like to return there on a different adventure. The culture is similar to that of Calimport, mainly known from Enterei the assasin from Salvatore books. The other good thing is that the book is moderately intriging because there are a lot of twists and backstabbings. It is hard to tell who is in what party and what their true intentions are.

In my opinion, this book could be enjoyed by some and not by others - it is truely up to the reader to decide. The previously mentioned items are the only reasons why I gave this book two stars instead of one. It might be worth checking out but don't expect too much.

Adventures is one of the BEST Forgotten Realms accessories ever made, along with Old Empires, Dreams of Red Wizards, and Moonsea! It sheds light on the Heartlands, but also on other areas such as Baldur's Gate, and the independent cities along the coast of the Sea of Fallen Stars to name a few. Each nation's/city state's distinct culture, history, and civilization will win you over for sure!

Ranging from background history, to city and social descriptions, to important people and characters, to the respective gods and pantheons, to adventure hooks and encounter tables, to magical items and maps, to new spells and treasures, this accessory has it all and more.
For other FR references/adventures, I STRONGLY recommend: the Old Empires accessory on Chessenta, Mulhorand, and Unther, Dreams of Red Wizards on Thay, Dwarves Deep, Draconomicon, the Jungles of Chult and Moonsea accessories, the Ruins of Myth Drannor Box Set, and the Ruins of Zhentil Keep Box Set (they are Second Edition AD&D, out of print and it will take a bit of searching, but it's well worth it). For updated editions of events in the Realms, see the Third Edition Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, which even though is quite expensive, is still very useful to all FR fans. Moreover, for a fuller picture both the first and second editions of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting are a "must."

I've been using the FR setting in my games for years now, and I gotta tell ya, this time around the WotC folks have really outdone themselves. The book is a wonderful example of what a fantasy setting can become - a map, a ton of ideas, and a framework to hold them together.

The FRCS gives you the nuts and bolts of running a realms campaign, (geography, weather, races, cultures, calendars, alphabets and languages) and then proceeds to give you a meltdown-inducing amount of adventure ideas. Add to that the Realms sourcebook gives you a host of new rules (what gaming product can resist?) for new magic, new feats (based on a characters origin-nice), new races, new organizations, and my personal favorite: new prestige classes. I'm sorry, but if you can read the description of the Archmage prestige class without salivating, you simply aren't RPG material. The new Archmage is devastatingly stylish, well conceived and (of course) frighteningly powerful. Archmages gain access to extremely powerful abilities called High Arcana in exchange for sacrificing spell slots (nice idea, that). So an Archmage can permanently give up a ninth level spell slot in exchange for the ability to cast any spell they have memorized as an energy bolt doing d6 per spell level + d6 per level of Archmage. (e.g. 4th level Archmage converts a level 4 spell into energy that does 8d6 damage as a ranged touch attack-no save).

Rules to govern the Realms peculiar framework for magic, "the weave," are included. At first, they seem a little over-stylized, but they give the Realms another opportunity for role-playing flair, and provide an "in-game" way to describe magic and its effects. I particularly like the rules for the "shadow weave" as they offer numerous possibilities for villains and adventures.

The new map for the realms has been altered slightly (to maximize the use of the map surface) and the artwork has really been stepped up. It's a marvelous and inspiring map, and I'm hoping that WotC will feel compelled to sell it as a rolled up (fold-free) poster.

The amount of information on locales and personalities comes across like an all out assault on your faculties. There are hundreds upon hundreds of ideas, introductions, and other "mental fertilizer" for DMs of all persuasions. The individual entries are not very long, but you will find working knowledge and pointers on where to take a given setting for practically everything in Faerûn with a name. It is intended to serve as a jumping off point, and in this it succeeds brilliantly.

Non-player characters are placed throughout the sourcebook as examples of members of organizations, new races, or prestige classes. Examples are by far the best way to get this kind of multi-faceted information across quickly. The stats for Drizzt-Do'Urden are presented to illustrate the rules for the Drow as a player race, the new regional feat rules, and to give you an opportunity to use him as an NPC. The Realms setting often takes some heat for having powerful NPCs, and while this incarnation has its share of dangerous characters- the product doesn't suffer because of it. The NPCs exist in the sourcebook as ideas for the DM, and campaigns that would be disrupted by the presence of NPCs like Elminster should simply keep them far away from their gaming table.

Anyone who enjoyed the Realms before will want to have this book as part of their gaming library. Players new to the setting will find a world that is ready for whatever they want to throw at it. For DMs, the amount of information in this book and the amazing level of detail is inspiring (You want to know what the trade patterns are between Thay and its neighbors? Check.) Anything in this book can be used to start an adventure, which of course is the point.

If you're serious about your campaign-settings, buy one from folks who clearly take theirs seriously. The Forgotten Realms was always popular, but this product all but establishes itself as the gold standard of fantasy RPG worlds.

The complete guide for building Forgotten Realms characters!

Welcome to Faerûn, a land of amazing magic, terrifying monsters, ancient ruins, and hidden wonders. The world has changed since the Spellplague, and from this arcane crucible have emerged shining kingdoms, tyrannical empires, mighty heroes, and monster-infested dungeons.

The Forgotten Realms Player's Guide presents this changed world from the point of view of the adventurers exploring it. This product includes everything a player needs to create his character for a D&D campaign in the Forgotten Realms setting, including new feats, new character powers, new paragon paths and epic destinies, and even a brand-new character class never before seen in D&D: the swordmage!

Dark perils and great deeds await!

Welcome to Faerûn, a land of amazing magic, terrifying monsters, ancient ruins, and hidden wonders. The world has changed since the Spellplague, and from this arcane crucible have emerged shining kingdoms, tyrannical empires, mighty heroes, and monster-infested dungeons. The Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide presents a world of untold adventure; a land of a thousand stories shaped by the deeds of adventurers the likes of which Faerûn has never seen before.

This book includes everything a Dungeon Master needs to run a D&D campaign in the Forgotten Realms setting, as well as elements that DMs can incorporate into their own D&D campaigns. The book provides background information on the lands of Faerûn, a fully detailed town in which to start a campaign, adventure seeds, new monsters, ready-to-play non-player characters, and a full-color poster map of Faerûn.

About the Author
RICHARD BAKER is a senior game designer at Wizards of the Coast as well as a New York Times best-selling author of the Forgotten Realms novel Condemnation.

BRUCE R. CORDELL is an Origins award-winning game designer for Wizards of the Coast, Inc. He has also written several Forgotten Realms novels.

ED GREENWOOD is the creator of the Forgotten Realms setting, as well as the author of numerous Forgotten Realms novels and roleplaying game products.

CHRIS SIMS is a game designer for Wizards of the Coast, Inc. and has worked on numerous 3rd-Edition game supplements and adventures.