The Best of the Realms III: The Stories of Elaine Cunningham by Elaine Cunningham

Anthology of short stories by Cunningham, The short stories are taken from the previous Forgotten Realms Anthologies, Dragon Magazine and Three new stories.

The stories are:

The Bargain from Realms of Valor, A story of Danilo and Arilyn travelling to Tethyr set shortly after Elfshadow.

The More things Change from Realms of Infamy, Elaith Craulnober before he left Evermeet.

The Direct Approach from Realms of Magic, Lirial in Scullport set between Daughter of the Drow and Tangled Webs.

Secrets of the Blood Spirits of the Sea from Realms of the Arcane, The story of a Wemic and his Elf Captors.

Speaking with the Dead from Realms of Mystery, A story about Danilo, Arilyn and Elaith.

Fire is Fire from Realms of the Deep, About a young Wizard and a Sahuagin invader who meet in the battle in Waterdeep.

A Little Knowledge from Realms of Shadows, About the experimentation to create the Jordaini of Halruaa.

The Great Hunt from Dragon #246, About a band of Malar worshipers attack Elaith and Arilyn.

Stolen Dreams from Dragon #259, A retelling of Speaking with the Dead from Sophie’s point of view.

Possessions from Dragon #282, About a minor character in the Counselors & Kings Trilogy Farah Noor.

Games of Chance from #335, A story about Elaith Craulnober.

The Knights of Samular New, Set after Thornhold featuring Danilo.

Elminster’s Jest New, A song Danilo sang in Elfsong revealed in full.

Tribute New, An ancient story about Waterdeep when it was the small town of Deep Water.

Answered Prayers New, A story about Liriel, Thorn and Sharlarra set after Windwalker

A book of some great stories by one the Realms best. I loved all the new stories especially Answered Prayers as it was a new story about Liriel. As the majority of the stories were about Danilo, Arilyn and Elaith It made for an entertaining few hours of reading. This is a great book especially if you are like me and do not get Dragon Magazine so miss out on some of these great short stories.

The Bonehunters (Malazan Book of the Fallen Book 6) By Steven Erikson

Sha’ik is dead and the Fourteenth army is chasing Leoman of the Flails and the last of the rebellion’s army. The rebellion might be all but over but the empire is in greater trouble as a cancer is spreading in the halls of power. The wars of the gods is advancing and they are making their moves. Shadowthrone seems to have his fingers in all the pies. Ganoes Paran has travelled to the seven cities to counter an evil released by the Nameless Ones. Karsa Orlong has set his sights on killing the Tiste Edur Emperor. Cutter is leading his group trying to get Heboric to Otataral Island before his Jade hands cause a disaster.

I really enjoyed this book my favourite stories were the Fourteenth army. Karsa Orlong and Ganoes Paran. I was not really interested in Cutters story as it seemed to drag on and Herboric’s conversations with the people in jade bored me. Icariums story just irritated me but he ha never been one of my favourite character. But the three stories the Fourteenth army. Karsa Orlong and Ganoes Paran made the book. They were so well balanced between humour and action filled with great characters.

Master and Fool (The Book of Words Book 3) by J.V. Jones

Melli is in hiding after Tawl rescued her from the assassination of the Duke. Pregnant with Dukes child Melli aims to set herself up as a rallying point to oppose Kylock and Baralis. Jack hearing that Melli has married the Duke of Bren and on the run from the Halcus hunting him finally arrives in Bren. When he meets up with Tawl and Melli and he hears the prophecy Jack realises what he must do. So Jack and Tawl set out to destroy the island of Larn, though willing to try it seems an impossible task for a Renegade knight, a bakers boy, and a pickpocket to destroy an island of powerful priests, and then kill a mad king and his sorcerous chamberlain to bring peace back to the lands.

This book was entertaining but will never be one of my first choices to reread. Once again the outstanding character in the book was Tavalisk sitting there pulling the strands of his web and abusing Gamil. Nabber was amusing in this book especially when he is abandoned in Rorn. I thought the story was pretty well balanced between the main characters and had a pretty good resolution. It is not one of the best books out there and I will not be rushing out to buy more books by her.

A Man Betrayed (The Book of Words Book 2) by J.V. Jones

Kylock free of interference kills the king dethrones the queen and takes power for himself proceeding to with Halcus. Melli and Jack are separated she is sold to a flesh trader and he convinced she is dead lets himself be trained to assassinate the man he thinks raped and murdered her. Tawl is trying to lose himself in debauchery and kill himself in the fighting pits and Nabber sees it as his responsibility to get him back on his quest.

This book was ok the story came off as a bit stalled. For a book of 600 pages nothing really happened to advance the plot until the last 200ish pages. Kylock’s point of view is something this book could have done without he just came off as a pathetic loser completely lacking in intelligence. The book is not great but Melli in Bren and Tavalisk make the book interesting and after reading “The Baker's Boy” I want to know how the trilogy ends.

The Baker's Boy (The Book of Words Book1) by J.V Jones

Melliandra daughter of the wealthiest most powerful lord of the kingdoms Lord Maybor has no desire to marry the cruel Prince Kylock so she runs away. While she is running away the bakers apprentice Jack has found that he can wield sorcery fearing for his life he flees the castle. Meeting up when Jack rescues Melliandra they decide to make their escapes together. The Kings Chancellor Lord Baralis has his own plans about who Prince Kylock should marry and wanting to know about Jacks power sends mercenaries out after them. Meanwhile the Wiseman Bevlin after seeing a portent in the sky and researching a dark prophesy sends a young Knight Tawl out the find the boy who with be able to save the Known lands from their dark future.

I was not really looking forward to this book after reading the Barbed Coil but really enjoyed it there were very few characters who I did not like and find interesting. The major problem with the book was the constant failure of Jack and Melliandra to avoid capture. There constantly getting captured and escaping got repetitive. I must say that Baralis is a really entertaining villain as is Archbishop Tavalisk. I think Tavalisk is one of my favourite villains of any book the way he sits like a spider in its web manipulating events from the background.

The Barbed Coil by J.V. Jones

Tessa McCamfrey has sufferer with Tinnitus all her life. When driving she suffers a severe attack and ends up in a cleared glade where she finds a gold ring and when she puts the ring on she ends up in another world. This world is just entering a war as the newly crowned king of Garizon Izgard aims to match the glory of the previous Garizon king by re-conquering the land Garizon lose fifty years ago. His conquest is almost assured by his use of sorcery empowered by the Garizon crown the Barbed Coil. And it is up to Tessa to find a way to remove the Barbed Coil.

I was not a big fan of this book. First of all I did not realise that it was going to be another story of someone travelling from this world to another. The characters did not grab my interest and even though I found the magic of the world interesting the descriptions of the creation of the patterns bored me and I ended up skipping a lot of those sections. The character of Angeline’s five year olds mentality extremely annoying and was soon dreading turning the page and seeing her name. I did enjoy reading the change in Camron and the relationship between Ravis and Tessa.