Sembia series (mild spoilers)

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I've finished reading the whole series and, with no spoilers, have to say that it wasn't anything great. my rating would have to be:

1- Shattered Mask
2- Lord of Stormweather
3- Shadow's Witness
4- Black Wolf
5- Sands of the Soul
6- Heirs Prophecy

IMO the shattered mask was quite easily the best of the bunch. lord of stormweather was a great read but it didn't really go into detail about the creation of the other world. also, it didnt really explain the significance of the wine cellar aside from the fact that it was built on the old stormweather towers. Black wolf was nothing great and sands of the soul was pretty bad. Heirs of prophecy was just too much for me. Has there been a cleric yet serving 2 deities from 2 different pantheons, being granted direct favor by BOTH goddesses simultaneously?

anyway, im ranting because they made a book about the matriarch, the children, the butler and even the maid, but they skipped over the, IMO, most interesting character, the old owl himself. I would really enjoy reading about thamalon's exploits while he was trying to restore the house of uskevren. there are so manny allusions to it.

i've heard that a new sembia novel is coming out called the pride of the lion, does anyone know what this is about?

[ August 20, 2004, 14:16: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

 

@Tal

it's listed in the paperback version of Heirs of Prophecy as being the last book in the sembia series.

Pride of the Lion
by Ed Greenwood
July 2003

just thought that maybe someone had more info on it as it's already a year later... i was hoping that it would be about thamalon, but it'll most likely be some kind of epilogue i guess..


Edit: Never mind Tal, I found this on the Wotc website:

Voronica Whitney-Robinson: Dave, how far along in Lord of Stormweather were you when you found out it was going to wrap up the Sembia series and how did that affect your tale?

Dave Gross: Ah, what a splendid and wholly unexpected question, Voronica! At first, Lord of Stormweather required a little coordination with Phil Athans, Ed, and Paul, because it was meant to lead logically both to the Erevis Cale trilogy and the originally scheduled Pride of the Lion. So Phil and Peter Archer invited me over to a conference call -- I was still working at Wizards at the time, so it was just around the corner -- and we talked some basic ideas. There was no plan for Thamalon to die at that point, but -- back me up on this, Ed -- Ed had planned for Thamalon to die during the events of Pride of the Lion. Once the publishers of the world pushed too many books onto Ed's plate and he realized he didn't have time to write them all, Pride of the Lion came off the schedule, and Phil started writing me "Kill the old man!" emails.

Dammit. Greenwood shorted us on thamalon to write Elminster's Daughter, what a gyp.


also, does anyone have any idea about the time frame of the sembia series?

i know that shadow's witness comes first, bec. in all the books, they refer to Tazi being injured by the demon as "a year ago" or something similar. also, lord of stormweather is obviously the last (for obvious reasons if you read the book). I wanted to know in what order the rest occur, because in each book, allusions are made to things that have happened in the other novels. not really important i know, but for curiousity's sake i wanted to get it clear.

[ August 20, 2004, 20:16: Message edited by: Enagonios ]

 

i wasnt sure if it was the proper order as they keep making references, like in the beginning of black wolf talbot has no idea about shamur's orgin then at the end of the novel he comments about her secret going public. the timeline is kinda skewed methinks. all this was supposed to be taking place at the same time but i think some allusions to other events were made prematurely.

yea, halls of stormweather. didnt really feel like picking it up as itws more of a "feeler book". kinda like a sushi sampler i guess, you get a bit of everything and see what you like. as i intended to get everything anyways (got everything but lord of stormweather on sale) i decided to skip it

 

How fares the series compared too the respectable Drizzt novels? Is it more dialogue-oriented or battle-oriented? I for one found the Drizzt novels to be very good, and have been considering reading Sembia, while basically knowing nothing of the area itself.

 

Hmm.. It's really a matter of preference i think, because while I enjoy the Drizzt novels myself, the only ones I LIKED were Homeland, The Crystal Shard, The thousand Orcs and, most recently, The Lone Drow. Of course, the Drizzt novels can be likened to "action movies", while the Sembia series has more political intrigue. There are a sufficient number of battles, but not so many that they saturate the series (with the exception of maybe Black Wolf). That said, it's a fairly good series and I stand by my personal "rating". Actually, I'm now not sure whether sands of the soul wasn't worse than heirs of prophecy. I just finished the Crimson Gold and let me tell you: I'll never read anything by Voronica Whitney-Robinson again.

if you aren't looking to complete the whole series, I'd stick to shattered mask, shadow's witness and lord of stormweather. the other 3 aren't too good imo