The Forgotten Realms: The Avatar Trilogy: Shadowdale | a Review
originally published on 25/11/2023;
Hello everyone, I am the fantastically magical, epic level goon, G.E.M.Simov, a fella with 3 in every Ability Score, here to tell you about Richard Awlinson (Scott Ciencin)’s book: “The Forgotten Realms: The Avatar Trilogy: Shadowdale”.
Simple review details - I rank books on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it. Now, this book might be part of a series, but that doesn’t mean I can’t judge it as its own thing.
Content
Henceforth, I will refer to the book I’m talking about as “Shadowdale” or just “the book”. Unfortunately, this book features barely anything. There are some concepts that appear and swirl about for a little bit, that maybe pose interesting questions, but then there really isn’t anything substantial, anything truly contemplative in it.
It is, for all intents and purposes, a “Dungeons And Dragons” campaign, which, in turn, is just a number of events strung together by a story-teller who describes the setting of those events and how the events come to be. It’s more reminiscent of a story someone experienced in their life and then is retelling it - like going on a trip and then telling folks what happened to the trip-goer while on the trip. The retelling, or the telling, is simple and ordinary - so much so, in fact, that there’s nothing truly thought-provoking in the story that is told.
This book is, essentially, just that. A story about a number of events, which events occur at a rapid enough pace to not allow the characters engaging in them time to contemplate things, or, rather, the way the book is written, it does not allow itself to allow time for its characters to contemplate things.
There’s a moment that was a fantastic opportunity for contemplation - a character experiences a change that alters their entire world - but instead of actually getting the reader through the thoughts of the character, the reader is only told that the character is deep in thought, lost in thought, thinking. That’s… That’s not cool.
The one thing that did wind up considered, or pondered, was the Gods, and the Gods’ relationship with mortals, and the relationship of mortals with the Gods. Now, that could be three separate things, but I’d say it is one thing in the context of this book.
I say that they wound up considered - they barely did. There were semblances of questions - how can one be faithful if their God has abandoned them, how can one be faithful if so and so, but they were not examined in depth. There is no answer as to why that one character is still faithful, that character keeps telling people that he is faithful and that they, too, need to be faithful. Through the statements of that character, one can glean a bit of information, find an answer, but it is rudimentary and unsatisfying.
The same applies to everything else in this book. It’s there conceptually, vaguely mentioned, but then it isn’t truly examined. There’s a very short ontological delve into Godhood, and what makes a God different from a mortal being, but then that’s over and done with very, very quickly.
This book is just an adventure. That’s not bad, but it’s not good enough. 1/3
Richness of Expression
This book suffers… I want to say dreadfully. I really do. But maybe that’s not the correct way of saying it. Maybe it’d be best to say that this book could have been a lot better, and that goodness would have come from more clarity to what was being said. Or, perhaps, it would have come from a removal of certain needless words.
I will start with the latter. This book seems to have some brainfarts in it. There are sentences that feature too many uses of the word ‘and’, in situations where the word only takes away from the meaning of the sentence, used in such a manner that it’s simply baffling, where it seems to simply be thrown in.
Then there are moments when it appears as though words are simply wrongly spelled, without being purposefully done so - which would be when used in the conveyed speech of a character. These problems seem to be very minor, but they’re far more than anyone can want in relation to being ripped away from the book they are reading, especially in regards to both immersion and suspension of disbelief.
Unfortunately, when a word is simply not written right, the reader stops and tells themselves: “This can’t be right!”
That’s not the only issue of this book. When I mentioned clarity, I really did mean that. It could come as a conjunction with the so-called brainfarts, as there were some moments when I was definitely certain character names were swapped, but the issue mainly affected direct speech. Sometimes, there’s no indication who says something. Sometimes, the indication is that someone else said something, but in reality it’s not the indicated character, but, rather, another character.
There’s also something else that bothered me greatly about this book’s manner of expression. There seemed to be a profound appreciation for repetition, or perhaps reiteration, of the malignant variety. There were sentences that piled on, one after another, each containing the same word over and over again, which sentences were just descriptions, not conveyances of a character’s mental state or great revelations.
Then there were also points when certain words were used - words that left me befuddled. As an example, a character meets another bunch of characters. A day later, that character, who is depicted as being mistrustful of the other characters and even slightly scorned by them, is written as referring to the other characters as ‘friends’ - and not in speech, but, rather, in thought. That’s very weird, especially when the word ‘companions’ could have been used far more efficiently.
There are also moments when the characters are called heroes in the text - the heroes - when being referred to by the author, not another character, not another character’s thoughts, which feels unnatural. And the weirdest thing is that the word ‘adventurers’ is used to describe them, but only in direct character speech, rather than by the author, which, I repeat, is incredibly strange.
Overall, though, I found this book to not be a big mess. There were some words I quite enjoyed reading, and there was a richness to the author’s lexicon that I found pleasant. The book went along well enough, and there were no moments when I was forced to pause and reread a passage more than once, often due to losing focus as a result of outside activities.
The issues I mentioned were all bothersome, making me wonder, making me thing, shoving me outside of the wondrous story, but, in truth, it wasn’t that bad. On top of that, it’s very interesting that this book - based on a game (Dungeons And Dragons) - can not be discerned as being based on a game, not from its text. That’s a good thing.
Thus, overall? Decent. 2/3
Story
The story is the strongest aspect of this book, and that’s to be expected. As anything related to DnD, this book manages to draw upon an obtuse wealth of information and pre-written things that are monstrously useful when writing a book. Especially when that book is an adventure book set in a fantastical world, for, after all, a lot of the hard work that comes with writing such a book is the devising of the world.
The context is also relatively interesting - the Gods are made mortal. Well, they do remain very powerful, but they do wind up being mortal… Yet the story does not focus on them, even if they do take part in the story and have an impact, it swerves around them, almost, and chooses to zero in on a bunch of ordinary goons.
Now, in truth, the Gods play a major part in the story. They are both the driving force behind the events that take place, not just overall, but also in regards to the characters. In addition to that, they also act as antagonists and allies, whilst fulfilling a plethora of other roles on the way.
Yet it felt as though the story purposefully swerved away from them. Much like why I am not satisfied by the content, I feel as though the Gods were not as well utilized.
Regardless, they are present and do their thing. The most interesting thing, for me, is the growth the characters are experiencing - or that appears to be hinted at being experienced. In turn, that growth is interesting, due to the fact that said characters share names with a number of God's in the current pantheon of DnD - whereas the pantheon of DnD, back when the book was written, differed.
I have this sneaking suspicion that the characters in this book are going to wind up becoming Gods by the end of the third book, and so their development is incredibly interesting to me, and also important. However, as mentioned in the Content section, I was left with the suspicion that there was no great delving into the characters themselves, even if there were some very peculiar opportunities.
No, I should not say this. I should be making it clear that there are moments that lead into character development, or that, at least, suggest character development, but the growth the characters go through is either unnoticeable, due to its gradual nature, which gradual-ity is far more gradual than I'd say is needed to reach a realistic set of conditions for one's shift in personality. The other option is that the growth is not unnoticeable, it's not there.
Even so, this adventure is very much a great deal of joy. Unlikely allies assemble to set off on a rescue mission, which winds up a success that becomes a failure, at which point the heroes, shaken by the situation, set off in search of answers, following a crumb that could help them. Through dark and deadly forests they ride, through mountains, and to the titular Shadowdale they go, wherein they find more questions than answers.
I have to say that this book is more of a set-up for the remainder of the books in the Avatar Trilogy, and it sets up a number of Characters far more adequately than others, though all those who do need to be set up are set up - namely the main characters, though the one with the greatest potential for development, and the one who is most interesting to me, would have to be Adon.
With that said, there are things I simply cannot look past, things I find dissatisfying. In the context of a trilogy, this book works, but outside of it it is definitely lacking. There is no localized story that is particular to just this book, which resolves itself within it. Everything in this story leads into something else that comes after it and is beyond it, which bothered me far more than I would say is appropriate. Thus, 2/3
Legendary Point
Does this book get the legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time? On the one hand, I’d like to give it the point, because it is a decently competent Dungeons and Dragons book. I like those. It expands upon a setting I find quite interesting.
On the other hand, I was not left all that impressed. I suppose it was too busy building up a base for the next books in the series, but it failed at capturing my imagination as well as I would have wanted it to. So, in the end, the NO wins out. 0/1
Conclusion
5/10. I'll say that it is a perfectly average book. Good for fans of fantasy and perfect for fans of DnD, but not a worthwhile read for many others.
In the bag of mediocrity it goes. I wonder if its sequels will follow it there?