This first book in the Moonshae trilogy holds the great distinction of being the very firstDungeons & Dragonsnovel ever localize in theForgotten Realms . It also holds the note of have the series ’ raddest , most resonant title of respect . regrettably , the story itself does n’t raise much of anything — which , turn over that it ’s about a supernatural beast trying to dispatch an entire archipelago full of people and its god , is almost kind of impressive .
I must have say Darkwalker on Moonshae — by Douglas Niles — when I was a kid . I must have found thebook’stitle as incredibly badass then as I do now . Plus , as the former Forgotten Realms novel , it would have been usable after I was voraciously devouring them but before so many Realms Book flooded the grocery that my hebdomadal allowance could no longer keep up . But I remembered nothing about Darkwalker , so I was excitedly to reread it .
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Original cover art by Keith Parkinson.Image: Wizards of the Coast
It rick out there ’s a reason I do n’t commemorate the Quran , beyond the 30 - plus yr separation between my two read ( and my terrible memory ) . In fact , I finished Darkwalker on Moonshae a few Clarence Day before writing this , and I ’m already hard - urge to remember some of the detail . It ’s left because in some way it ’s well write than eitherThe Crystal ShardorAzure Bonds — but it ’s comfortably indite in a technical common sense only , not in a storytelling mother wit . The plot is generic phantasy , which does n’t bug me at all ; it ’s an early Forgotten Realms novel , after all . The biggest problems are the character , who range somewhere between two - dimensional and one - dimensional .
The sub of the tale is Tristan , prince of Caer Corwell . Tell me if you ’ve heard this one before : He ’s supposed to be a veridical medieval bro , all about laziness , hedonism , and brush aside his responsibility a prince . However , the tarradiddle begins during a festival when everyone is supposed to be partying , and he shows no sign of this sloth later . In fact , no one ever seems to tell him what his royal duties are , so there ’s no setting for his purpose personality . It ’s all narrate and no showing and his translation from a purportedly shitty prince into a non - stinking prince is n’t in reality established . Amusingly , the most unique thing about Tristan is that his father , King Byron , seems to truly hate his son for the vast legal age of the story — even as the king is spite , forcing Tristan to chair Corwell ’s forces , protect its civilian , and economise the day .
The only other thing Tristan has run on is how he falls in love with his adopted sister Robyn over the course of the script . By that I mean about a third of the way in Tristan starts looking longingly at her instead of gently leeringly , and then after another third , Robyn sound out she ’s making love with Tristan , too . It is very technically the relationship educate over time , but again , it ’s telling , not show — there ’s no evidence in the text that explain why their love affair is of a sudden blooming . It just is .
A map of the Moonshae Isles. Caer Corwell is in Gwynneth, directly above the “G.”Image: Wizards of the Coast
Part of the trouble is that Robyn does n’t have a personality , she ’s a trope . Like oh so many distaff illusion characters , Robyn starts as a nag , unendingly berating Tristan for his unripe ways that we never get to see , but that ebbs away middling quickly once their adventure outset in solemn . Then Robyn ’s reference exists for two purposes alone : 1 ) as a recipient role of Tristan ’s male regard and 2 ) an periodic deus ex machina , as it turns out she ’s the daughter of a very sinewy druid who was given to the king of Corwell as a sister . Naturally , King Byron has refused to recount Robyn about her legacy — for “ auspices , ” on the face of it , although until the titular Darkwalker showed up there ’s no clue who or what Robyn need to be protect from — until the game deems it most dramatic . Still , this means Robyn has a few aspect in which she has different emotion , which make her far more fleshed out than the rest of the account book ’s adventuring party .
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There ’s Pawldo the halfling , who mostly complains and does n’t want to fight down but now and again really wants to fight and complains if you guess he did n’t . Keren the bard seems to have some profoundness to him in the style he inspires Tristan ’s various soldiers with music during the battle and wants to write an epical ballad about the warfare , but then you retrieve that ’s what all bards do and it suppose nothing about Keren himself . But both Palwdo and Keren count fascinating compared to Daryth , a thief who is introduced find fault Tristan ’s pocket , gets caught , is somehow immediately made Corwell ’s chief dog flight simulator , then most disappears from the book . Oh , he ’s technically in there — he ’s fight alongside Tristan and the others the entire time — but he never say or does anything memorable . I could not give you a individual adjective to describe his personality .
Reprint cover by J.P. Targate.Image: Wizards of the Coast
The rest of the casting — which is surprisingly gravid — are about on par . I could complain about this one at a prison term , but it would be as ho-hum for you to read as it was for me . Instead , let ’s get into the plot : The titular Darkwalker ( who is never referred to as the Darkwalker in the book of account ) Kazgoroth , a.k.a . the Beast , turn out from the Darkwell , a debased translation of the Moonwells that hold up the Moonshae Isles ’ local nature immortal , the Earthmother . We drop a lot of time follow the Beast ’s emanation to office , which is ab initio based on his ability to change shape .
He transmute into a aphrodisiacal lady so he can prick a random Corwell guard and flex him into a wolfman ( this does n’t matter ) . He turns into a aphrodisiacal dryad peeress to tainted one of the Isles ’ many Druid ( which matter only in that he sets up the sequels ) . He also shortly twist into a moo-cow ( do n’t worry about it ) . But the Beast ’s plan really kicks off when he kill and impersonates the leader of the Isles ’ Northmen , King Thelgaar , and convinces them to predate their normal maraud and instead conquer all of the Isles and massacre all the Ffolk living there — and no , Ffolk is not a typo , this is precisely how the citizenry of the Moonshae Isles are referred to , and it never gets less distracting to see the unneeded duple - farad show up on the Sir Frederick Handley Page .
As the book progresses , we continually check in to see what he and his ground forces are up to , which sire to be a fiddling rote since the answers are always “ vicious ” or “ train to do evilness , ” but does it does aid build up prevision for the final battle . But Darkwalker on Moonshae also spend an excessive amount of time following other characters who just do n’t matter . The most egregious representative is Grennach the Red . He ’s one of the small northerly lords who gets increasingly put off by his feudatory ’s large - than - normal bloodlust , the extreme difficulty of waging a massive state of war instead of uncomplicated raids , and the fact that Thelgaar seems to have turned Grennach ’s elite cavalry into stemma - imbibition skeleton colossus . But Grennach does nothing about any of this . We just get to say about him getting weirded out and feeling shitty , over and over again , and when the terminal battle end he takes his trouble and farewell , having affected the plot in no direction whatsoever . And there ’s so much of this .
Here’s future king Tristan and future queen Robyn from Clyde Caldwell’s cover of The Coral Kingdom, part of Niles’ Druidhome trilogy.Image: Wizards of the Coast
Leviathan sink a thousand of the Beast ’s ship , but the Beast has like 10,000 ships , so it ’s basically meaningless to the report and Leviathan dies having accomplished nothing . The Pack , which is a bad - fanny crew of wolves , is even less effective give that the werewolf the Beast made eventually overcome the alpha of these supernatural , divine wolves and takes control of them . But before the lycanthrope - controlled Pack accomplishes anything , Canthus , a swelled cool moorland dog Tristan gets at the offset of the novel , kills the werewolf , takes ascendence of the Pack , and achieves something by killing a million of the Beast ’s minion and deliver the sidereal day . If I were a nature goddess , I ’d try out to make certain my children had the wherewithal to not swear out my greatest enemy , irrespective of wolf agitate club protocol .
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I do n’t want to sound entirely down on Darkwalker on Moonshae . Again , as the first Forgotten Realms novel , it merit some falling off . I jazz a lot of masses know it back in the Clarence Day , include myself , belike . Niles delineate setting and legal action very well , which is no small effort . The novel ’s 2d act , where Tristan and his gang examine to deliver Keren the bard from a Firbolg fastness , is pure actual - D&D - seance - turned - into - prose , complete with a treasure way ( which just so fall out to contain the sword needed to vote down the primary adversary , a la The Crystal Shard ) , and it ’s decent fun , even if the characters are n’t exciting . If nothing else , Darkwalker on Moonshae is still a wonderful name for a D&D playscript or a nerdcore striation ( or at least a Ffffolk - rock banding ) . All that said , interpret this account book was a slog , especially when I had to finish and attempt to remember who was who , which was a mess . In retrospect , I in all probability should n’t have nettle because I do n’t think it peculiarly mattered .
Hopefully they ’ll be more memorable things in the sequels because the only affair I will remember about Moonshae three weeks from now is the introduction ( from the novel ’s reprint ) by Dungeons & Dragons novel superstarR.A. Salvatore . In it , he says as an aspiring novelist , he was told he could posit a novel set in TSR ’s Modern Forgotten Realms set and was given a cookhouse of Darkwalker on Moonshae to see what it was all about . This preview copy of the book was the only source of information on the Forgotten Realms at the time , since the biz set had n’t even come out yet . Salvatore jumped to the conclusion — not unreasonably , I think — that the Moonshae Isles made up the entirety of the Forgotten Realms , and he ’d involve to include some of Darkwalker ’s character to limit up his own account .
His editor in chief quickly give notice him otherwise , and his book was moved to the Realms ’ far north in Icewind Dale , and Salvatore replace Tristan and his fauna associate Canthus with new , original characters who becameDrizzt Do’Urdenand his witching panther Guenhwyvar . That ’s a great storey ; unfortunately , it ’s the most interesting report in Darkwalker on Moonshae by far . And that ’s all , Ffffffffffffffffffffffolks !
Assorted Musings:
There are a raft of bantam , almost entirely inconsequential role in this story I did n’t mention and will continue not to refer . The idea of describing them here made me so sad and tired and I could n’t put myself through that . I desire you understand .
Okay , I will name one : Flit the faerie tartar , who serve as the Orko / ultra - annoying “ mirthful easing ” character . He ’s not great .
A white sawbuck burst out of nowhere , and Tristan basically suppose cool , gratuitous horse , and get on . Five minutes later a grouping of elven knights show up out of nowhere , suppose they ’re aver to obey any mortal of royal blood who rides the entire .
Tristan at the festival that unfold the book : “ He would have been uncoerced to watch more of the alien dance , but he get himself annoyed that Robyn so boldly unite the men in watching the suggestive moment . ” Cool . Cool nerveless cool .
If you noticed the mention of Firbolgs , it ’s probably because you ’re a auditor of the McElroy brothers ’ very good RPG podcastThe Adventure Zone . In the podcast ’s current report , title “ Graduation , ” Justin McElroy fiddle a Firbolg , who ’s presented as a good - natured , nature - loving giant and not the malevolent , ugly , trolling - like monsters they are in the novel . Even the D&D second version Monster Manual confirm Firbolgs are neutral commodity , so it ’s Darkwalker on Moonshae that got ‘ em wrong .
Next meter : Courtesy of my pal Temporal Sword , the original Spellfire by Ed Greenwood !
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