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The Citadels #1
Neversfall
Monsters and mystery in a remote stronghold - explore the Citadels of the Forgotten Realms(R)!
Neversfall was supposed to be Estagund's stronghold in the wilds of monster-ridden Veldorn, an unassailable citadel to protect the southern lands. Then the regiment holding Neversfall disappeared, leaving no hint of what took them. The replacement forces find themselves attacked from both within and without the fortress's walls. Besieged by monsters and men, a mercenary captain and an elite warrior must work together to discover out who their enemy really is.
Neversfall was supposed to be Estagund's stronghold in the wilds of monster-ridden Veldorn, an unassailable citadel to protect the southern lands. Then the regiment holding Neversfall disappeared, leaving no hint of what took them. The replacement forces find themselves attacked from both within and without the fortress's walls. Besieged by monsters and men, a mercenary captain and an elite warrior must work together to discover out who their enemy really is.
312 pages, Paperback
First published November 27, 2007
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604 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
January 16, 2008
Another Young Dragon. Haven't actually met him but enjoyed his book, short stories, and posts on various websites. Ed's book came out in the same month as mine and got shelved two shelves higher on the "New in Fantasy" section in Barnes & Noble. So Ed was at eye-level, mine was down on the floor. Thought about switching them, but resisted as he really is a good writer and people should see his book :)
April 21, 2008
A fun read, but not great.
While I was reading this book I was reminded of a series of books by Glen Cook called The Black Company. However, those books were much better....
This book had a lot of potential but never quite did it for me. Not very descriptive at times and the fighting was decent but not great.
While I was reading this book I was reminded of a series of books by Glen Cook called The Black Company. However, those books were much better....
This book had a lot of potential but never quite did it for me. Not very descriptive at times and the fighting was decent but not great.
February 14, 2022
Excellent.
First of all, the reasons for why I didn't give it 5 stars. It was mainly because of story telling and mechanical issues, namely injuries and wounds suffered by the characters. At first, they had healing from clerics. But towards the end of the book, characters seemed to have suffered enough damage to take them down to single-digit hit points with no heals, and still they were bursting with energy and drive. Second reason for the less than perfect score was inadequate exploration of the Mulhorand angle and Adeenya's father, especially when so much of the focus was around Taennen.
Now that that's out of the way, the reason why I scored this book so highly was that it's actually a very cerebral and thought provoking exercise. Plus the title is quite poetic considering the themes of personal vs. political conviction, adherance to "the greater good" and personal morals. Principal take away from the author I got was; what does it mean to be of the "Lawful" alignment? So many character tests and examinations Adeenya and Taennan had to endure reminded me of Walter White in Breaking Bad. Tough decisions, soul searching and self-revelations abound as Walter does what he feels he must for his family, turning a mild mannered milquetoast into a ruthless megalomaniac. While we don't see this drastic turn of alignment from the characters in Neversfall, the moral appears to tell us that obeyance to Lawful Neutrality is about as cruel as Chaotic Evil. If upholding the value of the "greater good" results in lives being indiscriminately lost, not to mention loss of humanity, compassion and dignity, then is it really an ideal worth pursuing so single-mindedly?
Taennan believes in the sanctity of his dogma's teachings and his military upbringing - he is in a sense, never falling (Neversfall, geddit?) from his high horse - until events constantly prompt his conscience to question the worth of those teachings. Similarly, if we assume Lawfulness upholds objectivity and equality, then why are the two armies not at equal footing with each other? Adeenya, who is apparently of equivalent rank to Joqho, is consistently shirked and dismissed by the latter. Joqho abuses his self-proclaimed authority to the point where he is blinded by the atrocities he himself is causing amongst his own men under charge. All this is counterpointed by the formian hive mind, itself a form of Lawfulness that totally subverts individuality, yet at the same time is characterised by harmony and a singular purpose. I mean, do we see the formians bickering amongst themselves and killing each other for coin?
So which kind of hierarchy and social structure is better? In either case, none of them are really appealing, and yet, the Shining South still needs to recognise and organise itself against its enemies, i.e. Mulhorand, rival nations, the monsters of Veldorn. Oh, politics sucks and don't we all wish we were like the halflings with their care free ways?
In conclusion, move away from the fucking mediocrity of the Drizzt books and read Neversfall.
First of all, the reasons for why I didn't give it 5 stars. It was mainly because of story telling and mechanical issues, namely injuries and wounds suffered by the characters. At first, they had healing from clerics. But towards the end of the book, characters seemed to have suffered enough damage to take them down to single-digit hit points with no heals, and still they were bursting with energy and drive. Second reason for the less than perfect score was inadequate exploration of the Mulhorand angle and Adeenya's father, especially when so much of the focus was around Taennen.
Now that that's out of the way, the reason why I scored this book so highly was that it's actually a very cerebral and thought provoking exercise. Plus the title is quite poetic considering the themes of personal vs. political conviction, adherance to "the greater good" and personal morals. Principal take away from the author I got was; what does it mean to be of the "Lawful" alignment? So many character tests and examinations Adeenya and Taennan had to endure reminded me of Walter White in Breaking Bad. Tough decisions, soul searching and self-revelations abound as Walter does what he feels he must for his family, turning a mild mannered milquetoast into a ruthless megalomaniac. While we don't see this drastic turn of alignment from the characters in Neversfall, the moral appears to tell us that obeyance to Lawful Neutrality is about as cruel as Chaotic Evil. If upholding the value of the "greater good" results in lives being indiscriminately lost, not to mention loss of humanity, compassion and dignity, then is it really an ideal worth pursuing so single-mindedly?
Taennan believes in the sanctity of his dogma's teachings and his military upbringing - he is in a sense, never falling (Neversfall, geddit?) from his high horse - until events constantly prompt his conscience to question the worth of those teachings. Similarly, if we assume Lawfulness upholds objectivity and equality, then why are the two armies not at equal footing with each other? Adeenya, who is apparently of equivalent rank to Joqho, is consistently shirked and dismissed by the latter. Joqho abuses his self-proclaimed authority to the point where he is blinded by the atrocities he himself is causing amongst his own men under charge. All this is counterpointed by the formian hive mind, itself a form of Lawfulness that totally subverts individuality, yet at the same time is characterised by harmony and a singular purpose. I mean, do we see the formians bickering amongst themselves and killing each other for coin?
So which kind of hierarchy and social structure is better? In either case, none of them are really appealing, and yet, the Shining South still needs to recognise and organise itself against its enemies, i.e. Mulhorand, rival nations, the monsters of Veldorn. Oh, politics sucks and don't we all wish we were like the halflings with their care free ways?
In conclusion, move away from the fucking mediocrity of the Drizzt books and read Neversfall.
August 20, 2025
This was okay.
I've recently read some good Forgotten Realms books, so maybe I am holding this one to too high of a standard, but I just found it to be a bit boring.
I was excited to learn about a region of the Shinning South, as this is a section of Toril that has not been explored by the novels much...spent time in Chult and Haluura, but nothing this far East.
There were aspects of the plot that, while a bit cliche, had me excited to see where the author was going. I don't know if this had to do with page count limits, but the story just never really got going. There was a bit of a mystery, I felt like I knew who the bad guy was very quickly.
And, dare I say it, maybe too much time was spent on fleshing out the culture...but the focus was simply on the military aspect...which seemed to mirror what anyone would imagine around chain-of-command and corruption.
Gentry introduces us to Formians, an ant-centaur-creature that can dominate others. Lot of potential here. But it just never really came to fruition.
Idk, I can't be super specific besides the plot was just too slow.
I've recently read some good Forgotten Realms books, so maybe I am holding this one to too high of a standard, but I just found it to be a bit boring.
I was excited to learn about a region of the Shinning South, as this is a section of Toril that has not been explored by the novels much...spent time in Chult and Haluura, but nothing this far East.
There were aspects of the plot that, while a bit cliche, had me excited to see where the author was going. I don't know if this had to do with page count limits, but the story just never really got going. There was a bit of a mystery, I felt like I knew who the bad guy was very quickly.
And, dare I say it, maybe too much time was spent on fleshing out the culture...but the focus was simply on the military aspect...which seemed to mirror what anyone would imagine around chain-of-command and corruption.
Gentry introduces us to Formians, an ant-centaur-creature that can dominate others. Lot of potential here. But it just never really came to fruition.
Idk, I can't be super specific besides the plot was just too slow.
August 4, 2022
Easy five stars. I'm really enjoying every book I've read in the Forgotten Realms books so far. It's a massive, massive world and there's so much to dive into, but I've no doubt that it will be just as engrossing and fun to read as this was.
Very gripping story with a mystery, set in a fantasy world? Definitely my jam. I was hooked on every page and refused to put it down until I reached the end. Cannot wait to dive into the rest of the series.
Very gripping story with a mystery, set in a fantasy world? Definitely my jam. I was hooked on every page and refused to put it down until I reached the end. Cannot wait to dive into the rest of the series.
November 5, 2021
This is a great book but the synopsis was a little misleading or at least it wasn't what I had hoped when you have a story about an abandoned fortress with no sign of the previous inhabitants.
That being said it was a good read with interesting characters and a good plot.
That being said it was a good read with interesting characters and a good plot.
July 5, 2018
An adequately entertaining tale about trade and military life in the Shining South of Faerun
January 3, 2020
Plain story, very predictable plot. Not a good one.
August 10, 2016
Neversfall is the first book in the Citadel series, a set on stand alone novels set in the Forgotten Realms (but does not require any previous knowledge of the Realms). The story begins with two groups of soldiers from different countries coming together to investigate the disappearance of a regiment of soldiers from a shared fortress in the wilderness. Things begin to go wrong even before they arrive at the empty fortress to find no trace of what has happened there. In addition to the determining the fate of the lost regiment these two groups will have to overcome their mistrust of each other in order to survive.
This book has something for everyone: Action/adventure, mystery, and even a little bit of political intrigue. The plot and story are very interesting and well written, but, for me, what really made this book great were the characters. The author writes characters that you can't help but have strong opinions on. The character of Taennen, especially, showed great growth over the course of the story and to me that was one of the more interesting parts of the book.
Even the secondary characters were quite memorable.
Another of my favourite aspects of the book was it's exploration of the concept of duty and the conflict that can arise between doing your duty and doing what you believe is correct, when the two courses of action may not be the same. This theme gives rise o several interesting issues and conflicts in the story and further add to the feeling of tension I mentioned above.
The author also does an excellent job of conveying to the reader the reader the spookiness of the fortress and the tension if the situation. The story is full of surprises and the mystery of just want is going on kept me guessing for most of the book.
This book has something for everyone: Action/adventure, mystery, and even a little bit of political intrigue. The plot and story are very interesting and well written, but, for me, what really made this book great were the characters. The author writes characters that you can't help but have strong opinions on. The character of Taennen, especially, showed great growth over the course of the story and to me that was one of the more interesting parts of the book.
Even the secondary characters were quite memorable.
Another of my favourite aspects of the book was it's exploration of the concept of duty and the conflict that can arise between doing your duty and doing what you believe is correct, when the two courses of action may not be the same. This theme gives rise o several interesting issues and conflicts in the story and further add to the feeling of tension I mentioned above.
The author also does an excellent job of conveying to the reader the reader the spookiness of the fortress and the tension if the situation. The story is full of surprises and the mystery of just want is going on kept me guessing for most of the book.
July 7, 2011
This is a different take on the usual fantasy storyline in two ways. First, it takes place in a single small location; second, it's as much a mystery or suspense novel as it is fantasy. This by no means makes it a bad book, as it's a pretty well-written whodunnit. Only when the motives are revealed at the end did I kind of frown as they aren't that plausible. However, the storyline leading up to it is an interesting and quick read.
June 27, 2017
This was a fun book. I enjoyed it quited a bit, though it did take me a bit to get into Neversfall. To me the characters were kinda blah in the first quarter of the book, but as it rolled along that improved. Plotline was fun and kept me guessing, my first guess on who the "Bad guy" was correct, but it had me doubting myself a lot. Also, some nice twists in there.
All-in-all, definitely worth a read!
All-in-all, definitely worth a read!
March 15, 2016
While the Citadels series are a pretty good read overall, Neversfall is unique amongst the series (and the Forgotten Realms in particular)for its atmosphere. This book actually creeped me out, and that has not happened since I read Richard A Knaks' The Kingdom of Shadow! Definitely the high point in the Citadels series.
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July 15, 2012I am not writing what the book is about as that can be found on Wikipedia. The story is fast paced in the beginning, but then drags a bit. A good one time read for the fantasy fiction lovers.
I was a bit dissapointed with the finish.
December 7, 2010
I hate to say it, but this book just didn't do it for me. There was way too much dialogue, simplified plot, and the twists and turns were more like a ride down the little kids slide.
Read
August 2, 2011Chapter Nineteen is spelled incorrectly "Ninteen". (mmp)
November 14, 2012
Took a little bit to get into, but was a quick read overall, and the story did pick up eventually. Overall, not bad.
January 9, 2017
I enjoyed this book and it's characters there were many twists that I thought were cleverly done while giving a story to an area of the realms not often explored.
March 28, 2017
The writer is no hack, but, the story and characters just didn't grab my attention.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews