The Citadels – Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road

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Title: Obsidian Ridge

Series: The Citadels #2, Forgotten Realms

Author: Jess LeBow

Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars

Genre: SFF

Pages: 339

Synopsis:

A King is trying to keep his realm together while merchants are pushing a new drug. The king’s enforcer, The Claw, happens to be in love with the Princess.

Drugs, Enforcer, King and Merchants, all mixed together.

Throw in a rogue Magician who wants the Princess as his next bride, a magician powerful enough to use a flying castle, and you have a Forgotten Realms adventure.

My Thoughts:

I actually enjoyed this novel more than the first Citadels novel, but I had to rate it less because it was just so “pedestrian”. I’m tired of giving “ordinary” a higher rating just because there is so much utter and abysmal trash out there. I am tired of the fact that there IS so much trash out there.

The magician was a complete idiot and for someone who has supposedly lived as long as he has, well, he certainly didn’t spend the time improving his mind. He was a 2 bit villain with a 5bit castle.

Sadly, this is the quality that people think of AND expect when they hear the words “Forgotten Realms”. The Citadels are just in the title unfortunately. It would be nice if they actually played a bigger part of the story.

Title: Neversfall

Series: The Citadels #1

Author: Ed Gentry

Rating: 3 of 5 Stars

Genre: SFF

Pages: 274

Synopsis:

An Elite Military Force and a Mercenary Company investigate why a Fortress in the south has gone silent.

What ensues is a story of greed, betrayal and megalomania.

My Thoughts:

This “series” is linked only by an idea, much like the Rogue series I am also reading in the Forgotten Realms. Standalone novels really, but to be honest, I need that sometimes.

However, this is your atypical “write to pay the electric bill” kind of book. The 2 “main” characters [one from the Elites, one from the Mercenaries] are dumb as dirt, nearly spineless and shrug off near fatal wounds like they are paper cuts. I realize there is magical healing in the FR books, but you do NOT get shot in the thigh with a crossbow bolt and then just go tearing around the top of a fortress running down all the badguys.

I really liked the Fortress itself. Sadly, it falls to the writers ineptness and does not live up to its name of Neversfall. As far as I can tell, it falls to various factions at least 4-5 times.

A lot of complaining; but competently written in the grammar department and with all the indie crap floating in the Literary Toilet these days, that in and of itself sets it high enough. The general bar has been lowered sadly.