Review of Thornhold

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"I still trust you, Khelben, but I fear that goodly men can no longer put their trust in your Harpers." The open Lord of Waterdeep, Thornhold.

With out giving too much away, the above sentence is the last in the book, as well as the last in the Harpers series of Forgotten Realms novels.

Written on 03-25-2000 -- nearly two years after the publication of the novel in question -- this book review is rather belated. The novel's story ends essentially up beat; however, it poses a number of interesting questions about the future of the Harpers in the Forgotten Realms.

"Do not pass judgement on that which you do not understand." Khelben, Thornhold.

The novel relates the story of a Harper woman named Bronwyn. Unbeknownst to her, she is the child of a paladin. Her father, the paladin Hronulf, believes his children have been dead for years.

However, things never stay this simple. Bronwyn has a brother, Dag Zoreth, who has raised by the Zhentarium and is now a priest of Cyric. He returns to claim his families' magical legacy for the Zhentarium and to confront his father and seize Hronulf's castle -- Thornhold from the title of the novel.

Bronwyn is a likeable character who one hopes to read about again -- and she does make a brief reappearance in the novel "Dream Spheres." Zoreth is a truly wretched and evil individual who will probably make a blood-bath reappearance eventually.

Along the way, Bronwyn befriends a dwarf named Ebenezer, who is trying to rescue his family from the Zhentarium slavers and a young paladin named Algorind who is both dangerously naive and painfully intent. Ebenezer is one of those characters that illustrates dwarves can be every bit as interesting as elves, if given the opportunity.

All of them run foul of Khelben, who has his reasons for keeping the magical legacy out of the hands of everyone involved, which includes an order an paladins who were founded by Bronwyn's ancestor.

Along the way our heroes combat duergar dwarves, wax philosophical about the rightness of genocide against orcs, gain a favor from a lich, run around underground, frequently interact with Danilo Thann, and generally cause a lot of trouble.

It is worth noting that the plots of the Harper novels became more tangled as the series progress.

"Speaking of trouble, I still have this ring, you know." "That ought to do it." Bronwyn and Ebenezer, Thornhold.

It is also worth noting that the stories in the Harper novels became better as the series progressed.

Some of the most intriguing elements of "Thornhold" were not the battles and butchery, or even intrigue snaking around. They were Algorind and all the trouble he got himself into through his naivete. It was also in scenes where a half elf wondered about the rightness of indiscriminate killing of orcs. It was also in Khelben's cold and callused use of all the Harpers against even themselves. The lord magi of Waterdeep orders Danillo to seduce and betray his friend Bronwyn and has Harpers break their word and surreptitiously spy on her. He also actively tries to keep Bronwyn from reuniting with her father. The notion that this is for every ones own good is, at best, a cold comfort, and that is if it even truly is for everyone's own good.

This is not to say the book is without flaws. While Algorind has believable flaws, so is also so naive as to verge into stupidity. The notion that all paladins are equally blind and foolish is hard to believe, given their dangerous life style. Simply put, he is too stupid to live. Likewise, it is hard to believe that in 20 some odd years, no other paladin has noticed that Sir Gareth is not a paladin but a complete evil bastard.

In addition, Khelben is becoming uneven -- it seems illogical for him to continue to resort to intimidation tactics with everyone around him, especially considering it does not work very well and only alienates others, like Danillo and Bronwyn. It is illogical for to keep operating this way when he could use some sort of mind altering magic to make the people around him more complacent and cooperative. Considering how duplicitous, manipulative, and underhanded he already is, he cannot have any logical or ethical problems with mind control. In addition, at one point Danillo strikes Khelben. In the context, it seemed out of character for Khelben not to respond with some sort of punishment or retaliation.

Another involves a scene where Danilo essentially identifies the casting of a lich spell from a single gesture illustrated on a painting. This is a bit much disbelief to suspend.

"Was this, then, what Harpers must become? As time went on would he, like Khelben, so manipulate his oldest friends and twist the truth to serve the Balance." Danilo's thoughts, Thornhold.

All stories involve conflict. The genre is insignificant; drama, horror, tragedy, comedy, etc, without conflict there is no story. The nature of the stories in the Harper series managed to move from simplistic good and evil tales to something somewhat murkier. In this, they spread the conflict around. This in turn allowed for more interesting stories, books that were more likely to gain and keep a readers attention and their-for mean a reader would purchase another book.

According to official statements, however, none of this had anything to do with the ending of the Harper line of books. That was a decision handed down due in part to a number of reasons -- not the least of which was that the high numbers were turning people away from the line.

The book was to be part of an arch of stories relating a crisis with in the Harpers. Due to a number of elements -- such as the return of Gary Gygax, the shift from the Forgotten Realms to Grayhawk as the flagship and the eventual take over of Wizards of the Coast by Hasbro -- this plot was more or less dropped. However, now it appears it will be continued in some form at least, by the forthcoming "Cloak and Dagger," due out in June of 2000. This book should tie up some of the loose ends, while allowing other to be dealt with by players and dungeon masters.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)