Rise of the Blade by Charles Moffat

Rise of the Blade Reviews

• 
  Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!*

  UPDATE 7/1/2020: I received a message from the author disavowing this book:
  "Hello! I want to apologize for you reading my book "Rise of the Blade" (RotB). Actually I would like RotB removed from the internet entirely. I would also like people to stop sharing unfinished and unauthorized PDF copies of it that were full of typos and mistakes. I wrote the book in question 23 years ago in Winter 1997/98 and at one point (years after it became clear it would never be published) I posted it on a website for free. Then someone copy/pasted the individual chapters and put them in a PDF without asking my permission + started distributing the PDF, again without asking my opinion on the subject. I apologize to you and anyone else who has read it. It is definitely not my best work. The PDF version that is available on the internet is a first draft abomination."
  
  Please feel free to consider the following a review of a "first draft abomination" but don't hold it against the author! He is a good sport about the whole thing and is trying to get the title removed from GR. The book's current synopsis now reflects the book's unauthorized status. But, since the material is still available online, I am going to leave up this review of it. I will check out some of Mr. Moffat's later fully-endorsed work in the near future, so watch for more reviews.
  
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  I don't read self-published work or fan fiction as a general rule, and I would never have come across this had it not been included on Goodreads in the list of Forgotten Realms: The Harpers novels. I have no idea how it ended up included there, but this is in no way a recognized Forgotten Realms book. For one thing, I don't think TSR took open submissions; virtually all of their Forgotten Realms authors were drawn from in-house (for better or for ill, as some of their game designers and editors who attempted the transition to author were not the greatest) and/or were established cross-property authors, e.g. with the Dragonlance or Ravenloft publishing lines. For another, even if they did, any initial reviewer would only have to read the second paragraph to dismiss this manuscript:

  As simple and sharp as a saber's blade, as he stood and drew Spitzer from its sheath. He advanced confidentally [sic] on the ship, spotting the guard before the guard spotted him.

  That is the entire paragraph. "Confidentally" is joined later by "expellment", "apprentise" and "twinket" as pseudo-words, those last two used in several places.
  
  The book (draft) is chock-full of spelling, grammatical and punctuation errors, not to mention simply awkward sentences. This one was perhaps my favorite:

  Pierce hadn't found much of great value other than gold a wide assortment of magical twinkets.

  Another favorite:

  Normally, in a city one could never see the stars that shone overhead due to the constant lights and sounds.

  I hate it when I can't see the stars because of all the noise.
  
  Mary Sue abounds, in more than one character. My hackles were first raised with this early sentence:

  He had learned in the past that Pierce enjoyed exercising a superior knowledge of practically everything.

  Before long, regarding the same character:

  The good doctor, not only an incredible fighter and having earned the title of a doctorate of combat, making him possibly the greatest fighter in all the realms, was also blessed with foresight.

  He can also read minds. And has the most powerful swords. And has repeatedly turned down offers to be one of the Lords of Waterdeep. Oh, and,

  They also knew that Pierce was rumoured to have slayed the tarrasque, a monster so great and vicious that even dragons feared it.

  This legendary feat is confirmed later on. His friend too:

  Pierce reminded himself that Martinez had once been the greater warrior, a man awed by all as one of the best, if not the best of the best.

  And his buddy mage, a magically disguised half-drow who constantly chomps cigars because he needs them for his favorite spell (which we never see) is the best crafter of spells ever:

  It is perhaps one of the most powerful spells ever created. Not even a genie wish could get through it. You can't teleport past it. Astral travel is hazardous and you'll come out the other side with body parts and valuable insides missing. Negative energy would cause a rift in reality and we'd be sucked into another dimension.

  Fortunately, the prime antagonist is equally skilled, so when he and Pierce fight,

  No where [sic] else in the realms had anyone ever before witnessed such battle prowess in a pair of individuals.

  During this fight, Chev (the enemy) calls Pierce old, and Pierce literally cries about this, so I guess he isn't perfect after all. Still, when their rivalry comes to a head, multiple gods show up to watch the undeniable epicness, even the overlord of the gods makes an appearance, and one of the fighters ascends to godhood himself. So, you know, a small scale story.
  
  Other stuff is just weird and random, like Pierce taking a woman on a date to an interplanar restaurant, where one of the planes must have been Canada because they got drunk on Screech. Then Pierce kicks a young thug almost to death but it's okay because Marque Draque takes the boy on as a protege for no clear reason. And of course, nothing makes tracks in dirt easier to follow then covering them with fresh snowfall. There are plenty of odd conversations between characters that don't go anywhere ("Why won't these eggs fry?"), an awful lot of groin kicks (like, a lot), and multiple events that permanently deafen large swaths of Waterdeep's population.
  
  Despite all of this, the book (draft) isn't entirely terrible. I actually disliked it less than at least one real published Forgotten Realms/Harper novel (
  Red Magic by Jean Rabe comes unfortunately to mind). Even though Rise of the Blade would need extensive editing and re-writes to even approach publishability, there is a little something there. The author is clearly having fun. The character concepts are not necessarily bad. There is a plot there, even if it meanders greatly and has many inconsequential asides (such as, why bother with giving Pierce an ornery stallion, let alone a random love interest, half-way through the book when neither serve any substantial function?) The final fight sequence is actually okay and more bearable than some of R.A. Salvatore's endless play-by-play fight descriptions. There are no glaring loose ends. I have read worse prose, although not worse poetry. Seriously, the poetry is very bad. Rise of the Blade was written over 20 years ago now and the author has continued to write fantasy, hopefully honing his fiction skills over that time.
  
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  UPDATE (11/28/2019):
  I have been trying to convince the Goodreads Powers That Be to remove this from the list of Forgotten Realms: Harpers novels because it clearly does not belong there, but so far they have chosen to give weight to the introductory statement that it was "intended for publication"; clearly no one has bothered to read even half a page of the book. I found a post by
  Elaine Cunningham, an ACTUAL AUTHOR OF FORGOTTEN REALMS BOOKS, about this:
  
  Link:
  http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=16831
  
  Text:

  The wording on Mr. Moffat's site is ambiguous and somewhat misleading. He states that he wrote this story in 1998, and says "it was intended to be published 1999-2000." Please note that he does not state that TSR intended to publish this book.
  
  A lot of people intend to write a book for the Realms. The fact that Mr. Moffat did, and the fact that it was not published, does not make it an "unpublished Realms novel"--at least, not in the sense that it was ever TSR/WotC intention to publish it.
  
  He states that the book was not published as part of the Harper series because WotC discontinued this series. That is true, as far as it goes. But again, the ambiguous wording gives the impression that the book was contracted and then cancelled. I do not know for a fact that this is NOT the case, but from what I do know, it seems unlikely.
  
  Here's why.
  Mary Kirchoff, who was managing editor at the time, told me that she has no recollection of any project by Charles Moffat.
  
  TSR intended Thornhold to be the last Harper book. I wrote it in 1997, and it was published in 1998. This strongly suggests that they never planned to publish a book #17.
  
  Mr. Moffet wrote his story in 1998, after the Harper line was discontinued.
  
  Thornhold was intended to be a pivot book, which introduced two new characters (Bronwyn and Ebenezer Stoneshaft) who would become shared-author characters. The plan was to move from the Harper series into a longer story arc that would be covered in several novels and game products. The editorial direction changed and this story arc was dropped. But if Mr. Moffet HAD been in discussions with TSR about writing a post-Thornhold book, he would have written about Bronwyn and Ebenezer. He did not.
  
  His book is only 152 pages long, less than half the length of most Forgotten Realms novels. The story is not formatted in Forgotten Realms fashion. There are no chapter breaks, only short windows.
  
  I suspect that Mr. Moffat wrote this story hoping, perhaps intending, that it would become a Harpers novel, but I doubt anyone shared this intention.
  Edited by - ElaineCunningham on 14 Aug 2012 21:03:29

  
  So there you have it folks.