Winter Haul: New Books and Old

Out of the chill and frost comes green grass and warming rays of sunshine. Winter is ending and Spring is nigh, and I want to quickly go over my recent Forgotten Realms acquisitions. I collected very little in 2022, but with the reboot of this blog I have some more things to share.

First up are Dragon magazine issues 242, 245, 255. I already reviewed the story in issue 245, and the one in 242 is associated with The Simbul's Gift will follow soon.

I recently became acquainted with Christopher Rowe on the Whetstone Tavern S&S Discord, and while chatting I realized he had written a Realms novel I did not have. Sandstorm is one of those fourth edition standalone novels not connected to any loose series. This one deals with genasi and Calimshan, and my review will probably come out in a couple months.

Realms of the Deep is the accompanying anthology of stories connected to the Threat from the Sea trilogy. I have also read those books but not yet reviewed them. I will read this anthology along side the short story in Dragon 255, which also ties-in with the trilogy.

Mistress of the Night is a fun standalone that is part of the Priests series. It takes place in Sembia, and acts as a sequel to Black Wolf and a prequel to the Twilight War trilogy. It is very fun.

Also I found a few random books in my used bookstore browsing, and so I decided to pick up The Sorcerer, book 3 in the Return of the Archwizards trilogy by Denning; and The Spectral Blaze, book 3 in the difficult to find Brotherhood of the Griffon pentalogy by Richard Lee Byers.

My reviews are already up, since the movie will drop soon, but I also acquired the two movie novels, The Druid's Call and The Road to Neverwinter.

And finally I found some coloring pages associated with Dungeons & Dragons, many of them being related to the Forgotten Realms, such as the recruiting poster for the Flaming Fist that I have poorly colored for the Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus game I am playing in. It also comes with a oddly proportioned poster with art originally used for Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle, a D&D Next (proto-5e) adventure.

--

You can track my current progress here.

Summer Haul: Forgotten Realms and Other Settings

A sweet evening breeze cools the Flamerule heat lingering from the day's shining. Eldath blessed serenity fills a grove home to an ancient storyteller, wrinkled with age and wisdom. She shares tales of times long past, of worlds now forgotten. She invites you to sit with her and get lost in the timeless fables.

Oloré! Since I have not done a haul since February I thought I would share some of my recent acquisitions pertaining to Dungeons & Dragons fiction.

Pertatining to my recent review of Elminseter: The Making of a Mage, I was able to get my hand on The Annotated Elminster which is an omnibus of the first three novels in the series with added with sections about the writing of the story and specific Realms Lore pertinent to each story after the respective section. I believe the paperback Elminster Ascending has the same content, but I am not 100% sure as I don't yet have a copy.

After finishing the first book in the Elminster series I got my hands on The Best of the Realms II, an anthology of stories by Ed Greenwood. One story in particular is from the point of view of a young Elminster before the events of the first book. I'm hoping to get to this one soonish.

 

Untold Adventures is an anthology I originally thought was available digitally only. I have reviewed all stories found in it from the Forgotten Realms, but there more stories from other D&D settings. This copy is in pristine shape.

This next book is not completely a Forgotten Realms novel, but it is close. Into the Void, while a Spelljammer novel, takes place on the mysterious island of Nimbral. Because of this, it even has the Forgotten Realms logo on the back.

As you may have noticed, I recently read the first of the Dragonlance Chronicles, Dragons of Autumn Twilight (thoughts here). I found the sequel, Dragons of Winter Night, at my local bookstore and grabbed it for a measly $2.

My first Eberron novels are Storm Dragon and Dragon Forge, respectively the first and second books in the Draconic Prophecies trilogy. I grabbed both in a bundle for $4 on eBay. I heard these are good, and I'm interested to explore the world of Eberron for the first time.

Similarly, the Penhaligon Trilogy is the first series to be released for the campaign setting of Mystara, which was the default setting for Basic D&D back in the 80s and 90s. These mass market paperbacks are surprisingly really nice, with colored illustrations and maps in all three.

Dark Sun has been a setting I have been fascinated with for a couple years, in fact a good portion of my homebrew world is heavily inspired by it. That being said, while I have some official game supplements, I have never played in it or read anything in it. I will change that with the first book in the Prism Pentad, The Verdant Passage. I found it at my local Goodwill.

As published a few days ago, I recently read the first book in the Gord the Rogue series. Along with the first book, I also purchased the six sequels. You may notice that only two have the Greyhawk Adventures logo, this is because Gary Gygax left TSR in 1986 and was able to retain the rights to Gord while losing the rights to the World of Greyhawk. The later stories are essentially in the same world, just proper nouns are changed for legal reasons.

To accompany the above series, Gord appears in two short stories in Dragon Magazine issues 100 and 344, the former being the first ever piece of fiction featuring the thief from Greyhawk, while the latter being the last new piece of fiction before Gygax's passing in 2008.

Have you received anything of interest late, be it game supplements, magazines, novels, or other ttrpg material? Thanks for reading, amarast, and until next time!

--

You can track my current progress here.

February Haul: Magazines and More

Oloré readers and adventurers! This month's book haul is a little different than the last one, in fact it hardly contains books. I recently acquired some more Forgotten Realms related magazines. Also, my first piece of fan mail, as it were, came from Niko over at Niko's Book Reviews!

So as you could probably tell from many recent reviews, I enjoy Dragon Magazine, mostly for the Forgotten Realms short stories found therein. I recently acquired issues 283, 299, and 304. These all have fiction pieces relating to the Sembia book series, such as the recently reviewed Another Name For Dawn, Shamur's Wager, plus And All the Sinners, Saints.

I also got issues 74 and 94 of Polyhedron, another old TSR magazine. While these do not have fiction they do have Realms related content. I mostly acquired them for the column The Everwinking Eye, which is about Elminster's various tours of the Vast, the Border Kingdoms, etc.

Last, but not least, I received The Spine of the World (book 2 of Paths of Darkness, sequel series to Legacy of the Drow) and Servant of the Shard (book 3, and also the first book of The Sellwswords) by R.A. Salvatore. Niko knew about my quest to read all Forgotten Realms novels and decided to help me out. I actually currently had book one of the series, The Silent Blade, so this worked out perfectly! 

Have you gotten any Realms material of late? Thanks for reading!

--

You can track my current progress here.

November Book Haul: Another Round of Books, Please

    Some adventurers often find themselves in a taproom, ordering zzar or evermead and enjoying the burn as the warming beverage washes down their gullet as they listen to the hustle and cacophony of wassailing and resounding clatter of drinks hitting wood, and patrons calling out to peers. Drink, after drink, chatting and celebrating with their crew. Maybe they've just raided a Netherese ruin, or cleaned out the local goblin den. Maybe they're looking for glory and a quest to call their own, or are otherwise lost in numb thought. 

You call for another round of drinks, and spend the night in bleary torpor.

    Others, those who seek after knowledge of Mystra and Azuth, Oghma and Deneir, may not frequent the tavern though. They sit in a quiet, quaint hall or library; scholars may shuffle nearby; a candle may provide wan light. The occasional sneeze shouts out as centuries of dust and silence is disturbed by the study of curious minds. The questions of what can be discovered next, what understanding can be gleaned from the parchment, sits on their minds.

You find yourself searching for another set of tomes to satisfy your hungry mind, spending the night in cognitive vigor.

-- 

Alae! It's been awhile since I called for another round of Forgotten Realms novels. This month I gathered 24 more books to my collection. I am about half way to having each Forgotten Realms novel as I approach the 15% mark on reading them all.

This time around I got a good variety. I will just briefly go over them.

The Nobles, a series of 6 loosly connected stores. I picked up 4 in a bundle and the last two separate on eBay.  I am presently waiting for book 6 to arrive, which is The Simbul's Gift.

The Twilight War Trilogy + the Realms of War anthology. This is the sequel series to Erevis Cale, which I finished at the 1st of this month.

The Druidhome Trilogy, sequel to the Moonshae Trilogy. I got them bundled at a cheap price on eBay.

The Threat from the Sea trilogy, also has Realms of the Deep anthology that I have yet to get.

Twilight Giants is a trilogy by Troy Denning, I got a deal on the reprints.

The Last Mythal is a trilogy accompanied by the Realms of the Elves anthology that I have not yet gotten.

The Empyrean Odyssey, a trilogy of novels following a character from the War of the Spider Queen series. 

Along with this batch I also received an extra book from one of the vendors. I am not sure if I will give it away to a personal friend or run another giveaway like I did earlier this year. Regardless, whenever I do another one of these hauls it will likely be for Dragon magazines that have Forgotten Realms short stories in them.

Have you read any of these books? Did you read the physical thing or an ebook? What are your thoughts? Amarast!

--

You can track my current progress here.

March Book Haul: The Harpers

This post is specifically for those interested in the physical aspect involved with reading every book in the Forgotten Realms. I may do these every so often as I gain a decent amount of books.

I recently received a package with 16 books: the entirety of The Harpers series.
I bought the series in one purchase on eBay. I have found that eBay generally has the best deals for online shopping when it comes to Forgotten Realms novels.
Breaking it down I paid about $4.38 for each book, almost $2 cheaper per book than every other option.

Sadly, most eBay sellers use USPS Media Mail, which is not the best, but if well-packaged it's perfectly fine. Make sure you look at the quality, and if they have a picture of the actual item, look closely. You can also ask questions of the seller, and this can be really useful. I once had someone tell me a book was in very good condition just because every word was readable, though it had looked like a rather mistreated copy, something I would consider acceptable. So the ratings aren't always consistent; if there isn't a picture offered you run the risks of getting a book of lower quality than you desire.

Thankfully these were well packaged.

In this case most books were also in really good condition, with a couple being okay or acceptable.

While it will probably be a good while before I get through all of them, I am really excited to dive into the series about one of my favorite organizations in The Realms.

--

You can track my current progress here.