The Best of the Realms Book I
Published by Wizards of the Coast
www.wiszards.com
335 pages
$6.99
The Best of the Realms Book I, collects numerous short stories from various anthologies that have been printed under the Forgotten Realms banner. This includes books like Realms of Magic, Infamy, Valor, and Arcane among others. Amazingly enough, it’s a collection with material that reaches through a decade of time to collect the stories. Yes, we’ve been getting anthologies from Wizards of the Coast’s Forgotten Realm series for many a year.
The one place I think WoTC could’ve made a better decision in judgment is in pricing. It’s not that this book is too expensive. Indeed, it’s actually less expensive than other paperbacks on the market that have reached $7.99 mark these days.
However, as all but one of these stories have been told before, and this could act as a great introduction to the Forgotten Realms line of fiction, by pricing it at the standard price as opposed to an introductory price, perhaps they’ve limited the appeal of the book. My own limited experience is that there are generally two types of people who buy Forgotten Realms fiction. There are those who buy everything and will not want to pay full price for this book for the one story, but will do it anyway, and there are those with a casual interest, who this book is perfect for.
I think that if it was an introduction book with a $4.99 price, that perhaps they could expand the core crowd as many of these short stories take place in a larger tapestry. That’s not a problem with the book itself though, just my own two cents on the pricing.
In terms of stories, I am a little puzzled by the inclusion of two stories here. The first is the new piece by R. A. Salvatore, Empty Joys. How can a piece commissioned for a book of the best, actually fit in? It’s not that the take is missing the signature fighting style and telling of R. A. Salvatore, but that it’s an unproven story. Still, as it’s not a tale about Drizzt, but rather of Artemis and Jarlaxle, it’s not as stereotypical Salvatore as some may fear.
The second story that puzzles me is the inclusion of “Elminster at the Magefair” by Ed Greenwood. It’s not a radical departure from Ed’s normal writing style, as Elminster is at his typical stance and style here, but rather, since there is a whole book devoted to the Ed Greenwood’s short stories, why not use that space to add authors that readers might not be getting exposed to?
In terms of quality, I’d say that indeed, most of the material here is the best. The anthology starts off strong with a story by Elaine Cunningham pulled from the Realms of the Underdark. Her tale, “Rite of Blood”, is almost a novella weighing in at fifty five pages, but it never feels heavy and helps long term readers of Elaine’s drow novels get a good grip on her hero’s personality or introduces those new to Elaine Cunningham’s writing, to Liriel, a female drow spellcaster who has some ties to Menzoberranzan, but is different from Drizzt, the other famous drow.
A minor problem is the vastness of the setting and the events going on may prove to be distracting. Some of these stories are taking place during other events, often portrayed in trilogies, and have to cram the overall story into the book in a limited field of time.
In some instances this is a good thing as it makes me want to read the other books in the series. Take “And the Dark Tide Rises” by Keith Francis Strohm. This is a fairly low powered tale of one individual act of heroism during the start of what looks to be a huge event.
Others like “Assassin’s Shadow”, suffer a little too much from the “fantasy” terminology. “I want you to assassinate Shadow. He’s a shadow master who studies shadow magic.” If this were a comic from the 70’s, that name might be appropriate to put with those schools of magic, or if the character were a thief or assassin as opposed to being a wizard studying shadow magic.
Overall though, the material does a great job of capturing the feel of the Realms. For me, that’s a feeling of high fantasy easy reading. I don’t feel the need to reread and study the material. I’m not getting into arguments about the characterization of heroes and villains. Instead, I’m enjoying what some good fantasy tales.
One of those told in an interesting fashion, is Monte Cook’s “Rose Window.” I was a little surprised that I enjoyed it, as I read “Glass Prison”, a full novel in the Forgotten Realms line, by Monte, and thought it tepid at best. This one uses an almost second person point of view in telling its tale, which is unusual as that’s the “you” as the reader is involved in the story.
Others hit old friends who haven’t seen a lot of publicity like the vampire, Jander Sunstar, who first appeared in “Vampire of the Mists” and is now in the Forgotten Realms setting as opposed to the Ravenloft one. It’s a nice quick tale of Jander being hunted by a vampire slayer whose methods of hunting are more cruel than the monsters she hunts.
Overall, the Best of the Realms provides a quick look at a campaign setting whose anthologies alone have been going strong for ten years and is worth a look if you’re interesting in fantasy.
Review Summary