The Orb of Xoriat

Eberron: War-Torn #2

by Edward Bolme

The second book in a trilogy set in the exciting new world of Eberron!

The Orb of Xoriat continues the story line in the Eberron series that focuses on war-torn souls who have known nothing but a world in chaos. This is the second book in the War-Torn series, following The Crimson Talisman. In the aftermath of the Last War, Teron, a monk trained for war, is the last of his Order. Now he is on a quest to find a powerful weapon that might set the world at war again.

Genres: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, Fiction, Collections, Role Playing Games

312 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2005

Reviews

[Lorewarden]

I enjoyed this novel. It's not a story of a group of adventurers coming together to fight a big bad, as the (excellent) cover art suggests. It's a story about various factions all vying to gain control of a magical superweapon, and Bolme does a good job exploring the differing backgrounds of the groups fighting over it. I do think the ending was a bit truncated, especially when it came to a couple of the main characters, but that's to be expected in these 300 page books where so much has to happen in one short novel. An excellent addition to the Eberron universe.

[Andries van Wyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable book! Very well written.

[Marvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was a better story hidden away in the possibilities of this book, following a veteran monk on a chase to recover an ancient artifact of immense and deadly power, but we didn't quite get it.

[Steven Wilber · Rating 5 out of 5]

The world of Eberron is fast becoming one of my favorites.

While the novel has all the action and adventure one would expect from an RPG-related novel what really sets this novel apart is the characters.

The main characters in the story are all multidimentional and interesting. For much of the book you couldn't really tell if any given character was 'good' or 'evil'. The 'bad guy' seemed to have a nobel purpose in mind for what she did while the 'good guys' had dark pasts that made you wonder about their motivations. I thought this added a bit of realism to the story.

The author also does an excellent job of giving just enough backstory for the characters to make the characters interesting without telling us too much. He allows the story to 'show' us what type of people these are. As the story progresses you really start to care about wht happens to some of these characters.

I also enjoyed the 'feel' of the novel. The introduction of technology-like elements into the storyline really changed the feel of the setting and set this book apart from other fantasy novels.

Add this to a well thought out and interesting plot what you get is a really good story that is well-written and fun to read.

I would definately recommend this novel to fans of Eberron, roll-playing games, and any other fan of fantasy fiction looking for a good read.

Note: Although the novel takes place in the Eberron world, you really don't need any prior knowledge about the setting

[Hyann · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you didn't have previously read book in the Eberron universe, you won't like this one very much, it didn't explain the universe to much like previous I read.

Does that make it better... a little. I enjoy the first part, the simple plot and the dynamic between characters (warrior monk, gnome with his half-orc servant and the mysterious Shadow Fox) make a light reading. Nothing complicated, an artifact is stole, the hunt to recover it, betrayal and final battle. Nothing new.

I got two problems with this book.
First, characters fight in the middle of the city with fire elementals, with living statue guarding the great library with no consequence with the authority. They used flying boats (lightning rail) a lot in the boat but one guy dropped from a bird on it, fight and even got some throwing overboard and nobody seem to care. It's like the world is living for the characters instead the characters in the world.

Secondly, Shadow Fox was a main character in the first part and the author simply dropped it before the end. The gnome Praxle suddenly gain magic to become a worthy villain. The author create a super dragonmark warforge warrior monk who beats anybody in few second but always find some excuses to miss when needed (Like fightning tired after 1000 repetitions).

So Eberron fan could enjoy this book... even if it's not a bad book, you won't miss nothing if you skip it.

[Dustin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fantastic book! It fast paced without feeling rushed and the author did a great job with the fight scenes, vivid descriptions without being unnecessarily gory. I liked the main character, he was a little flat at first but the author developed him well. The book does a good job of explaining only as much as the reader would need without getting bogged down in setting details, but there is alot here for an Eberron fan to make this feel like it couldn't have taken place in another setting. It was a fun action/adventure and I would gladly recommend it.

[~Cyanide Latte~ · Rating 2 out of 5]

[REVIEW TO COME LATER UPON RE-READ.]