| Title | : | Darkwell (Forgotten Realms: The Moonshae Trilogy, #3) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0786935669 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780786935666 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Mass Market Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 334 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1988 |
Newly crowned king of the Ffolk of the Moonshae Isles, Tristan Kendrick must unite the many peoples of his realms for one final battle against the evil that threatens them. Meanwhile, Robyn the druid faces a sinister power that has infested the very land itself.
With enemies on all sides and danger lurking in every shadow, Robyn and Tristan must decide if their paths forward are one—or if their powers and alliances will divide them. Time is running out, and the future of the beloved Moonshae Isles depend on Robyn and Tristan. Will they come together to rule as king and queen, or will they separate as bitter enemies?
Darkwell (Forgotten Realms: The Moonshae Trilogy, #3) Reviews
-
A basically satisfactory conclusion to the original Moonshae trilogy. Tristan & Robyn & Daryth & Newt & a few others, old & new, face off against the true evil (pssst ... it's Bhaal ...) behind the corruption enveloping the Moonshaes; oh, yes, and there's this massive army of sahuagin and soggy sea-bottom-walking zombies coming out of the surf ...
As with all of these books, it's a bit unfortunate that they didn't start coming out about five years earlier, or that I wasn't about five years younger when they hit the shelves -- junior high-aged me would've eaten them like candy back in the day. -
Tristan Kendrick, the recently crowned High King of the Ffolk, must face his greatest challenge yet. The God of Murder himself, Bhaal, is threatening to cross into the mortal realm by means of a corrupted Moonwell. If he succeeds, the Moonshae Isles are surely doomed. As the last remaining druid of the Isles, Robyn must work with Tristan in countering this terrible threat, despite her own hurt at the betrayal he has dealt her.
The final volume in The Moonshae Trilogy is by and large a solid conclusion to the series. There's a lot of narrative to get through here, and Niles does an admirable job of guiding to the story along at a brisk pace without it feeling rushed. Even more so than in the previous two novels, this is a book heavy in D&D lore, very much written with the underpinning mechanics guiding the action. Witness the following, pleasingly meta, nod to the obvious:
'Grimly Hobarth shook off these doubts. He had cast his die, and he would live-or perhaps perish-with the roll.'
Indeed.
Cleverly - and perhaps - bravely - the otherwise predictable plot is given a good shake up early on, with our hero Tristan betraying the love of his virginal future bride-to-be with a minion of Bhaal's, who is disguised as a sultry redhead. Initially there is a suggestion of foul magic at play - but in a somewhat surprising turn, it is revealed he was simply drunk and gave in to temptation. The "will they, won't they" dynamic between Tristan and Robyn adds some spice to what is an otherwise straightforward story of good versus evil.
Another pleasing aspect of Darkwell lies in the author's willingness to be ruthless when necessary. Aside from Tristan's infidelity, the evil characters don't hesitate to rape, murder and pillage. The gross, corpulent High Priest of Bhaal, Hobarth, wastes no time in taking full advantage of the former High Druid of the Moonshae Isles - in every imaginable way. The brutal death of one of the primary antagonists, following a cat-and-mouse chase with a displacer beast, is surprisingly effective. After the unfocused Black Wizards, this is a welcome return to the kind of storytelling that made Darkwalker on Moonshae such a success.
There are problems. Some of the story beats are rather similar to those earlier in the series. In one instance - the birthing of Bhaal's Children - this works in the book's favour. In others, it merely feels like we're treading old ground, except this time we're getting an abbreviated version due to the book's relatively short running time. One or two plot points feel contrived: a vital alliance occurs due to a fortuitous meeting on the open sea. The final battle is frankly not particularly believable. Once again, Canthus the moorhound is in fine form, surviving all manner of brutal encounters and saving the day like the Moonshaes' very own Lassie. Not content with taking down a werewolf in the first book, Darkwell ups the ante for this mightiest of mortal dogs.
Though a slightly uneven book, Darkwell succeeds in recapturing the magic of the opening novel in the trilogy. While the characters won't leave much of an impression, several inspired scenes ultimately ensure its position among the pantheon of more memorable Forgotten Realms novels. -
Metagaming 101
'Grimly Hobarth shook off these doubts. He had cast his die, and he would live-or perhaps perish-with the roll.'
Hobarth the Cleric of Bhaal page 204
There's going to be some spoilers, people.
The conclusion of this trilogy was uneven at best.
The Good
-Chapter 6: Shantu. The only reason I elevated my score to three stars.
Daryth is hunted by a magical beast created by Bhaal and meets a grisly end. If this chapter were a stand alone short story it would remain a classic of the genre. If you must read Darkwell, read only this.
-Hobarth having his way with a possessed Druid is visceral and vicious, because Douglas Niles strengths is in writing evil acts and creating complex villains.
- All kinds of new creatures for the Moonshaes setting. Perytons, owlbear, displacer beast. The realm of Faerie. Guardian trolls, blink dogs, sprites, pixies, dryad, satyrs, fairies and leprechauns. Ogre zombies and water zombies. Also, scrolls, medallions, magical glasses and big fat diamonds.
-In this book, as well as Black Wizards, I enjoyed the use and descriptions of spells.
Verbal or magic infused words.
Somatic or hand gestures.
Material or using components.
Sometimes a combination of all three.
The Bad and The Ugly
-Everyone who's read the book knows the scene. If you haven't, oh you will!
Tristan cheated on Robyn. He slept with a monster in the guise of a large chested redhead. It's emphasised often enough. The whole book becomes bogged down because of the repetitive internal/external agonizing due to the nature of this act. I spent hours, literally hours, trying to justify this as a valid plot point. I can't. I think ultimately it comes down to bad plotting and a stroke of middling writing.
-There are just too many unmemorable protagonists to mention. It's really sad when I know just as much of a character as I did when I first met them three books ago. Everyone is relegated to caricature status and it shows.
-Spelling shenanigans. Page 215. Kamerynn's last stand. The displacer beast takes a chunk out of his heck.
It's over. It's done.
Oh wait, there is a second trilogy of the Moonshaes by Douglas Niles?
Noooooooooo!!
-
This was going to be 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3. But I got so mad at how they did Robyn dirty that it gets bumped down to 2.
This book is the Greatest Hits of all the problems in the first two Moonshae books. Weird sexism/sexual assault, constantly hopping from different character perspectives even if it's just a couple paragraphs, a plot all over the place, and TONS of coincidences.
We're following Tristan and Robyn again because this Moonwell just can't stay un-corrupted. Tristian is king of the Moonshaes now because... reasons. He doesn't like and skips out of town as soon as he and no one... cares?
There are so many parts of this book where characters just happen to overhear the right thing or be in the right place or meet the right person. Once or twice is understandable, but it's every other chapter that people get a lucky break.
Some Complaints in No Particular Order:
What was the point of Yak the furbolg? You could have replaced him with just about any other character we already knew.
I hated how the show up just in time to save the party and then conveniently (there it is again) get got.
Daryth's
How the Crown is
Why was Pontswain
We are told over and over that
This ending to the trilogy is NOT worth getting through the first two books. Niles learned nothing from writing Moonshaes 1 and 2 and the ending itself feels pretty rushed and lackluster. -
"Had the woman in Caer Corwell bewitched [Tristan]? Or was his love so frail that he could be drawn from Robyn by a simple flirtation? [Robyn] desperately hoped that the former explanation represented the truth, but even if it did, she wondered if she would ever be able to forgive him... Tristan reached an arm out to Robyn, but she turned harshly away. The rejection struck through all the layers of his soul, knifing into his heart. In this, her moment of greatest despair, he was powerless to comfort her. He himself had destroyed the bond of trust that had drawn the two together."
The Dragonlance line of novels first launched (then) TSR's foray into the paperback novel market and its success assured the follow-up of numerous other titles bringing to life the various campaign settings and characters of the game.
Forgotten Realms has enjoyed an extremely successful line of novels and continues to do so, but it was The Moonshae Trilogy that began it all in the late 1980's. The Moonshae Trilogy (Darkwalker on Moonshae and Black Wizards being the first and second novels) written by Douglas Niles have been out of print for several years but are enjoying a revival with this reprint.
Author Douglas Niles should be no stranger to fans of Dungeons & Dragons - he has worked extensively on many gaming products from the Dragonlance Campaign Setting (2nd Edition) to the Rod of Seven Parts and has written Dungeons & Dragons novels and short stories too numerous to list.
The new edition of Darkwell is 6 pages shorter than the original book but this is due only to the use of a much smaller (and tidier-looking) font and not the result of any loss of content. The interior of the book looks much more attractive than the original, not only due to the font change but also due to a non-intrusive header and footer art border which encompasses the page numbers and the title. The cover art is a faithful rendition of the original, showing the same dramatic scene of Bhaal rising from the Darkwell amidst the petrified druids.
Darkwell is of course the climax to a trilogy of novels and readers of the previous two books should not be disappointed with the building drama and growth of the main characters. In particular Tristan is now the High King of Ffolk and Robyn is the sole remaining druid - Niles' keeps his focus strongly upon these two for it is with them that the fate of the Moonshae Isles hangs.
This central thread is well-explored as the two must combat not only the evils that rage across (and indeed within) the lands threatening to bring everything crashing down around their ears, but also they must solve the conflict within their own relationship. This is definitely a novel of high epic fantasy, with Gods as personified characters but this simple tale of romance and love helps to anchor the reader in a real identifiable drama against the lofty realms of adventure that the book will reach.
This is a very attractive mass market paperback that should hopefully encourage readers to rediscover the very beginnings of the Forgotten Realms' line. Trolls and owlbears, gods and heroes, displacer beasts and the undead all conspire to elevate Darkwell to highest reaches of epic fantasy but the down-to-earth romance between Tristan and Robyn counter-balance the scales along with Niles' braver moments when the reader is left in no doubt that things do not always go in the favor of the good guys.
This is a reprint of a classic book, it contains no new material which perhaps shouldn't be expected but the opportunity to have included a new introduction by Niles was unfortunately not taken. Although the front cover by JP Targete is a good rendition of the original Jeff Easley painting it is not an improvement upon the stunning first edition cover.
A faithful reprint of a classic Forgotten Realms novel, fans of the old have little reason to buy this edition if they own the original but hopefully this re-release will introduce new readers to the romantic high-fantasy of the Moonshae Isles.
Buy this book if you (a) enjoyed the first two books in the trilogy, (b) are a fan of the Forgotten Realms novels line.
Final Grade: C+ -
Un poco repetitivo, sobre todo si las entradas anteriores se han leído poco antes. La trama continúa la segunda entrega, aunque no está bien hilvanada. Los personajes sufren menos desarrollo, pero han alcanzado una forma bastante aceptable. Si tengo que elegir, prefiero el primero, que al menos es original.
Copia aquí la reseña que hice para
El Pozo de las Tinieblas, pues en realidad sirve para toda la serie:
La serie nos sitúa en unas islas con claro trasfondo céltico (nombres, aspecto, cultura), donde los aspectos mágicos y clericales típicos de D&D parecen no haberse desarrollado, siendo en cierta forma amalgamados en una religión druídica de veneración a la Madre Tierra. Todo eso está destinado a cambiar a lo largo de la serie de novelas, aunque la trama central se aleja de ello para mostrarnos los avances de un noble de una de las islas y de una aprendiz de druida, junto con un bardo y algunos secundarios. Y precisamente son los personajes, a mi parecer, lo más flojo de las novelas: son excesivamente planos, y los conflictos entre ellos están manidos y son tratados de forma muy superficial.
Sin embargo, creo que la ambientación está muy bien tratada, la oscuridad que se va extendiendo por la isla aparece reflejada de una forma muy coherente, y la trama avanza con gran agilidad, mediante una sucesión de puntos de vista que luego ha llegado a ser la norma en la narración. La trilogía de las Moonshaes no cuenta nada del otro mundo, pero tiene puntos de originalidad y rasgos que la convierten en una serie de la parte de arriba del montón.
Y no sabía por qué motivo, eso me extrañaba: para ser novela de franquicia, era bastante buena (a pesar de sus defectos, muy normales si sumamos la inexperiencia de Niles con su velocidad de escritura). Entonces, al finalizar la tercera novela, pude leer esto en la parte de agradecimientos: "(...) debo dar las gracias a un equipo de diseñadores británicos de juegos (...). Aunque el trabajo en que colaboramos nunca llegó a hacerse realidad, algunos de sus ingredientes sirvieron para concebir el Pozo de las Tinieblas. Doy las gracias también a Jeff Grubb y Ed Greenwood, que encontraron un lugar para mis islas en los Reinos Olvidados (...)". Resumiendo, que la trama y la ambientación ya estaban en buena parte en la cabeza de Niles, y no son enteramente un trabajo de franquicia. Eso ya me cuadra más. -
This is a reprint of the original publication, of which the first two books I own came from. The first and second actually contained good endings in and of themselves, if you discount the little plot hook epilogue (that I remember).
I don't remember much of the first two series, except bits and pieces here and there. I guess they weren't memorable enough to stick. Granted, it was years ago, but great books tend to stick around in my head. I think this series should've been a duology instead of a trilogy. I do remember liking the final war in the second book.
The closing of this trilogy was somewhat... dull. The whole thing feels stretched to its limits in plot content and character development. Characters die before I've had a chance to recall who they were, repetitive guilt trips and "reflections" that tended to invoke annoyance than empathy, poor encounter management, and little character development.
It felt like I was watching a roleplaying session. There are several D&D books that feel this way and each one of them was boring. Encounter one, overcome it. Encounter two, overcome it. It feels very planned out and rigid. The whole plot felt almost like a rehash of the formula in book 2, except the characters and the details have changed. At least, it managed to answer my question on who was the Earthmother from the first two books and why she wasn't listed in the Forgotten Realms source books that I have.
Still, the pacing of the book was all right, a little meandering near the start, faster towards the end. The way faith and Bhaal was handled felt like it was breaking some 2nd edition rules, but I'm not so familiar with them anymore to comment specifics.
It was an ok read, nothing spectacular, but it's not exactly boring either; just somewhat predictable and repetitive. -
better by far than the other books in the series. characters are fuller and more interesting (perhaps because niles doesn't bother much about the secondary and tertiary characters and just leaves them in the background). i find the menace to be mostly less interesting here, less immediate, but the internal conflicts are more solid.
overall not a series i think i need to revisit in the future. -
It is unusual where one can pick up the third book in a trilogy and find oneself completely satisfied with the quick summaries of what has gone before, and the nature of the characters which other readers would know but to whom you are just now being introduced. Darkwell by Douglas Niles is that kind of book. Darkwell is the third volume in The Moonshae Trilogy, set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons. Yet, even if one knows and plays D&D, one never “hears” the dice rolling in this story. The only time I pictured portions of the game in my mind was when Niles introduced two familiar monsters from the Monster Manual, the owl-bear and the peryton. The two monsters are mash-ups of powerful animals, but Niles gives the reader an origin story that perfectly explains how the mash-up occurred. And, at least one portion of that origin story will get readers right in the heart.
Indeed, much about Darkwell’s story hits one in the heart for much of the story is about betrayal. It is the story of a victorious king and a promising young druid who find that their victory, their future, and even their own power and abilities was not what they had thought. One of the “good guys” betrays another by following animal desires. One of the icons of “good” suffers metamorphosis into a diabolical opponent of the “good.” A minor character puts kingdom and castle at risk through untampered ambition. And, in essence, the eponymous Darkwell is a corruption of the Moonwell where the Earthmother’s power enlivened and empowered the druid grove and its druidic circle within the Moonshae Islands. Even when you can see the betrayals and corruption coming, Niles deftly makes every false move count.
Of course, when people we care about betray people we care about, we often hope for reconciliation and redemption. Niles could have flipped the switch on a deus ex machina to bring about a happily ever after, but his characters are too real for that. As in real life, redemption has a high price and authentic love (not just romantic love) pays the cost. I choked up more than once while reading Darkwell. Not everything worked out like I wanted, but it finished with integrity. I loved it. -
The conclusion to the ok, but frankly underwhelming Moonshae trilogy, particularly when compared to other Forgotten Realms series coming out at the same time, like the Icewind Dale trilogy which introduced us to Drizzt or even the Azure Bonds and Spellfire first volumes that had already come out, this is another Forgotten Realms book centred about the threat to the Moonshae Islands posed by the dark god Bhaal.
It suffers from a lot of the problems of badly planned out conclusions to series, particularly trying to do too much and tying everything up with a convenient bow, without it feeling really earned. Lot's of good and bad guys to kill off in quick successions, intercalated with long battle sequences which are often dull.
The upside of that convenient plot fixing is that at least by the end of the book we have the story done and dusted, the evil guys are banished and the good guys get married and live happily ever after (or do they?). There will be eventual continuations to this story, obviously, but can't say I'm looking forward to them. As a final note, if you read this, I strongly advise you stay away from the Audiobook, worst narrator ever, can't pronounce half the words, not only the fantasy ones but even regular English words like gas (pronounces "gazze" and "gazzes") or brethren (pronounces "breath ren"). This is a professional reader on Audible, just read the book, if you must, dump the audio version. -
I cannot believe how satisfying this book was to me. I almost cannot fathom how wonderful this author is!
Page 204, paragraph 3, line 1
"Grimly hobarth shook off these doubts. He had cast his die and would live - or perhaps perish- with the roll."
It is so amazing to me how this author can use a simple line to tie this novel directly to the beloved RPG. Douglas Niles creativity and language has the wonderful power of being able to so gracefully paint a mental image of a setting in the Forgotten Realms whilst also creating a whimsical connection to one of my all time favorite RPGs. For those who may not know, the Forgotten Realms novels were written to give lore and background to the Forgotten Realms setting of Dungeons and Dragons. Douglas Niles nearly perfectly accomplished this with witty remarks, detailed encounters, and realistic characters. As a close to the first trilogy for the Forgotten Realms, I dont feel there could have been a better ending. After all, they defeated a god and got to live happily ever after. Isnt that what everyone wants? -
Darkwell is perhaps a 1.5 star book, but since I gave 2 stars to the first two books in the trilogy, and these was definitely the weakest of the three, it gets 1 star. This was a case of not having much of any new story material to cover, but everything has to be a trilogy, so this was a rather weak attempt to squeeze one more book out of the source material.
In Darkwell we basically have a case of something has corrupted the moonwell and is poisoning the forest. Our small band of companions decide to investigate, and hopefully restore the forest to its normal state. The entire book is a drawn out telling of this journey. Dangers ensue and conflicts within the group are manufactured in order for the book to reach its requisite length.
In this one we have the high king of Moonshae on this dangerous quest without any real protection. Why is this a thing in so many fantasy books? It is completely unrealistic. Why not have this character be a captain of the guard or a respected warrior who is close to the king? Problem solved. -
Emotional character development
The finale of the trilogy, while not as strong in the plot, had some excellent character development. They face their greatest foe, but first have to overcome their own issues. The first two books were more driven by the story but the characters felt a little flat. Here the characters seemed all too human. Book 1 is still my favorite but I'm glad to see the character drama and the trilogy wrap up the way it did. Looking forward to the next. -
A great ending to a great tale of high fantasy. The Moonshae Trilogy delivered. Forgotten Realms rarely disappoints. This has been my first time reading any of Douglas Niles contributions to Faerun and I throughly enjoyed it. Looking forward to reading his continuation of the story of the Moonshae Isles in the Druidhome Trilogy. Highly recommended for those looking for a nice easy read and an escape into a world of sword and sorcery.
-
A thoroughly enjoyable and fitting end to a Trilogy that has gradually improved through its run. The characters have built excellent depth on top of their diversity and the clunkiness of the first book is well past by the time the third book was written.
-
I enjoyed this book. Did feel a bit piled on with evil. There was so many baddies and evil characters. It seemed like there was not much going well for the good forces.
Thats where the ending came together quite well and seemed a bit rushed to finish. Like the author had run out of pages. -
So where did Bhaal wander off to after playing roller bones? An overweight necromancer who can magically create a feast of food anytime he wants! Very interesting villain!
-
I really enjoyed parts of this trilogy. I am really not into narratives of turning friends/parties against each other. Specifically, I was not feeling the temptress/ cheating storyline.
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Great Ending To This Series. All questions were answered and everything was pulled together for a great ending to a fun series. I highly recommend.
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A bittersweet conclusion to the Moonshae trilogy.
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Good finish to a great adventure. Wanted a little more war story, but the characters finished right where you wanted then to. Sad to see a few go, but it gave the story more weight.
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Niles, good author. The last of the trilogy was his best if the trilogy. Didn't want to put the book down.
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(3.5 stars)
Excellent moments of suspense and some interesting character developments made this novel an enjoyable read.
Overall, a good conclusion to the trilogy.
