Stone of Tymora: Forgotten Realms

Stone of Tymora #1-3 omnibus

by R.A. Salvatore, Geno Salvatore

Praise for Stone of Tymora :
 “This fast-paced fantasy . . . is a perfect pick for . . . readers seeking powerful characterization and complex, fast-changing stories.”— Midwest Book Review
“[T]he lucidly described action and swift pace will keep the pages turning and anticipation of further adventures simmering.” —Booklist
“The pace never falters, the cast is positively festooned with pirates and menacing magical creatures (such characters from parallel stories as Drizzt Do'Urden the Dark Elf also put in appearances) and Maimun's narrative ends on a cliffhanger that will leave readers slavering for the next episode.” — Kirkus
 

Meet Maimun—an orphan who couldn’t imagine how unfortunate it would be to discover a stone that makes him forever lucky. Fleeing a powerful demon named Asbeel, Maimun stows away aboard the ship Sea Sprite , where he encounters a cast of characters well-known to Salvatore Captain Deudermont, Drizzt Do’Urden, Wulfgar, Catti-brie, and the dwarf Bruenor. Drizzt becomes a mentor to Maimun and aboard Deudermont’s ship, they sail the treacherous seas of the Forgotten Realms. Hunted by a demon, haunted by a mysterious spellcaster, and chased by a pirate, Maimun, with Drizzt’s help, must unravel the secrets of the Stone of Tymora before his luck runs out!
 
Read
If you are looking for more about Drizzt, search for “Homeland” by R.A. Salvatore, the first book in the epic Legend of Drizzt.
If you are looking for more epic fantasy series featuring young heroes, look for “The God Catcher” by Erin M. Evans, about a young thief and a woman who may be a dragon—or who may just be criminally insane.
If you are looking for more adventure fantasy, search for “The Shard Axe” by Marshiela Rockwell, a chilling mystery set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons Online.
If you are looking for more stories set in the Forgotten Realms, search for “Twilight Falling” by Paul Kemp, about Erevis Cale, an assassin with a conscience.
If you are looking for more sword and sorcery, search for “Shadowbane” by Erik Scott de Bie, featuring a vigilante hero in the tradition of Batman and V for Vendetta.
For more about R.A. Salvatore and Geno Salvatore, go to DungeonsandDragons.com

Genres: Forgotten Realms, Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Young Adult, Audiobook, Novels

448 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

As one of the fantasy genre’s most successful authors, R.A. Salvatore enjoys an ever-expanding and tremendously loyal following. His books regularly appear on The New York Times best-seller lists and have sold more than 10,000,000 copies. Salvatore’s original hardcover, The Two Swords, Book III of The Hunter’s Blade Trilogy (October 2004) debuted at # 1 on The Wall Street Journal best-seller list and at # 4 on The New York Times best-seller list. His books have been translated into numerous foreign languages including German, Italian, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Turkish, Croatian, Bulgarian, Yiddish, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Portuguese, Czech, and French.

Salvatore’s first published novel, The Crystal Shard from TSR in 1988, became the first volume of the acclaimed Icewind Dale Trilogy and introduced an enormously popular character, the dark elf Drizzt Do’Urden. Since that time, Salvatore has published numerous novels for each of his signature multi-volume series including The Dark Elf Trilogy, Paths of Darkness, The Hunter’s Blades Trilogy, and The Cleric Quintet.

His love affair with fantasy, and with literature in general, began during his sophomore year of college when he was given a copy of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings as a Christmas gift. He promptly changed his major from computerscience to journalism. He received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Communications from Fitchburg State College in 1981, then returned for the degree he always cherished, the Bachelor of Arts in English. He began writing seriously in 1982, penning the manuscript that would become Echoes of the Fourth Magic. Salvatore held many jobs during those first years as a writer, finally settling in (much to our delight) to write full time in 1990.

The R.A. Salvatore Collection has been established at his alma mater, Fitchburg State College in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, containing the writer’s letters, manuscripts, and other professional papers. He is in good company, as The Salvatore Collection is situated alongside The Robert Cormier Library, which celebrates the writing career of the co-alum and esteemed author of young adult books.

Salvatore is an active member of his community and is on the board of trustees at the local library in Leominster, Massachusetts. He has participated in several American Library Association regional conferences, giving talks on themes including “Adventure fantasy” and “Why young adults read fantasy.” Salvatore himself enjoys a broad range of literary writers including James Joyce, Mark Twain, Geoffrey Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dante, and Sartre. He counts among his favorite genre literary influences Ian Fleming, Arthur Conan Doyle, Fritz Leiber, and of course, J.R.R. Tolkien.

Born in 1959, Salvatore is a native of Massachusetts and resides there with his wife Diane, and their three children, Bryan, Geno, and Caitlin. The family pets include three Japanese Chins, Oliver, Artemis and Ivan, and four cats including Guenhwyvar.

When he isn't writing, Salvatore chases after his three Japanese Chins, takes long walks, hits the gym, and coaches/plays on a fun-league softball team that includes most of his family. His gaming group still meets on Sundays to play.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/rasalv...

Reviews

[Ayre · Rating 3 out of 5]

So the events of this book run parallel to the events in The Halflings Gem and have some crossover with Drizzt and friends. Drizzt exists in this book only to make Drizzt fans interested in reading this story, not because he contributes anything to the plot.

Unless your a completionist you can skip over this story and not miss anything Drizzt related.

This follows a young man who is blessed (cursed?) by Tymora, the goddess of luck. Its a really cool way to explain all of those convenient "lucky" things that happen to the protagonist. Its cute and fun but not deep or memorable.

The only issue I really had was there is a bit of a romance ... between 13 year old children .. which I didn't need.

[Dominic · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bit of Drizzt and a whole lot more.

It is always nice to read a story with Drizzt but he was but a supporting role to the story. So much adventure, discovery and growth for the main characters.

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh...

[Silas · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a fan of the series of books starring Drizzt Do'Urden, this book was an enjoyable companion piece that I more or less missed when it first came out, largely because I recall it being in the younger readers section and I wasn't sure how it fit in with the main series of books, so I wasn't sure if I had gotten there yet, and then I stopped seeing them. When I saw this deeply-discounted collection of all three novels in audio format, I thought it would be a good way to catch up. Though I have read all of the other Drizzt books, rather than listening to them as audiobooks, that decision seemed to work for this series, since Drizzt does show up and serves an important narrative function, he is not the main focus of the stories, which instead follow Maimun, the bearer of an artifact that makes him extremely lucky. It makes for some interesting plot twists that follow along with some relatively early Drizzt novels (guess I didn't need to wait so long), which helps fans of that series feel like these ones go together, though they are more or less their own thing. This story is enjoyable in audiobook format, since it goes by at a rapid pace (with three books being just over the duration of a single conventional novel) and the narration is very capably done. I do think this will be more enjoyable as a side-trek for fans of Drizzt novels than as an introduction for new readers, which is troublesome, because it is geared towards younger readers, and the first few Drizzt novels are decidedly not. Perhaps my opinion would be changed by reading the book, rather than listening to it, but I don't really see why a new reader would be interested in the cameo appearances if they are not already familiar with the character. Just the same, as a fan of those novels, these were a fun flashback to some older novels.

[Sharon Buxton · Rating 2 out of 5]

C+. fantasy, YA. Although this is the first of a stand-alone series, it wasn't until I was already several chapters into this book that I researched and found that many of the auxiliary characters had appeared in other books by these authors. I think that I would have enjoyed it more if I had been familiar with these earlier works.

[Cyd · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. The way the story was laid out ruined the pace for me. Then the epic drama with Joen. Boring. I read forgotten realms tales for action and adventure, not romance. The epilogue made me roll my eyes.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating 3

An okay read set in the Forgotten Realms world.
Novel told in the protagonist relating their life story style, which can sometimes be good and sometimes not so.
I found this to be not badly written, but it did feel overlong and the pacing was off.

[Adam Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun walk around the Realms major cities of the Western coast that is a good stand alone story; but it doesn't reach the high standards I've come to expect from R.A. Salvatore.

[keith trowbridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good new story

I really enjoyed re a ding this story. I have read everything he has wrote. And I will read book in this series too.

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

fast paced, but not epic in the same sense that most of his other is.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had some good parts, but the main characters wasn’t that likeable.

[Sehlat · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐

[X · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm... not so sure what to say about this one. It mostly just felt like there was nothing noteworthy about it. It wasn't bad. It wasn't boring. But there was nothing that stood out as good, either.

I will say the target audience of this book was younger than Salvatore's other Forgotten Realms books, which may affect a lot of people's rating. The Drizzt books are are aimed at adults, this one could arguably be aimed at teens but felt more like middle-grade than anything. I imagine a lot of preteen fantasy fans would enjoy the book, as it's an easy read with lots of action and predictably fun characters, with an innocent preteen romance thrown in for the shipping fans. But fans of the Drizzt series, who are used to, uh, everything being darker and edgier might fine the kid-friendliness of this one to be a turn-off.

And not that there's anything wrong with kidlit! I like it - when it has depth. But this doesn't. Neither do Salvatore's adult books, but they are outlandish enough to be amusing anyway; this one just gives me the feeling of "I read enough variations on this story when I was IN middle school, and this adds nothing new."

Random thoughts:

- Many reviewers complain about Maimun being self-absorbed. I actually didn't have a problem with this. He is twelve. Most twelve-year-olds are self-absorbed and look to others to take care of them. Unlike Drizzt back in Homeland, Maimun acts like an actual child.

- My only issue with Maimun's character is that he is either stupid or unrealistically perceptive, depending on plot convenience.

- The ending was abrupt AF.

- The entire thing was a frame story. The frame part of the story was as pointless and forced as you might expect.

- In the audiobook version, Drizzt sounded distractingly like Yami in Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged. (This is not meant as a slight to the narrator, I just wasn't expecting it!)

- Speaking of audio and frame stories, it was a bit jarring at first to have this first-person story about a preteen being read by an adult narrator - but, at least the frame story and the fact that he's telling this story a few years after it ends justifies it a bit.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It didn't feel like a book in the Drizzt series, but more like a spin-off, which is what I expected anyway. Characters from that series, both major and minor, are sprinkled throughout this book (which is really a compilation of a YA trilogy of books).

It was well written and entertaining. I enjoyed the first-person perspective, which is not something that's been done in the Drizzt series at all (unless you count the journal entries by Drizzt himself scattered throughout the books).

All in all, I really enjoyed it.

[Svetlana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Giving it a three star right now. I can't seem to get into it; maybe because of the short chapters or why is Part I before Part II.

Update:

It will stay as a three star for three reasons. 1) The short chapters didn't help the pace of the book. 2) Why did Part I become before Part II and 3)the ending part with him telling the story is a bad cliff hanger

I sorry for this review, but I think I'm done with fiction reading or something is just up with me.

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ok- I did it. I actually made it through this book. I was determined- since I’m reading all the books Drizzt is in. The storyline is so unbelievably bad. The main character is a not a good person. In fact, almost all the characters are not good people. Selfish, snobby, backstabbing, two faced... There’s the typical storyline of he’s a kid so adults keep vital information away for years just because. Insert huge eye roll.

[Donald Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series was uniquely told from the first person perspective, the battles were detailed and intense, and it had the sweeping and epic feel of a Salvatore story. It had a clever and satisfying flash forward story woven throughout, and the Companions of the Hall made cameos that didn't overpower the plot. It was an enjoyable read!

[Luingalad · Rating 3 out of 5]

the book is in three part the last part- The Sentinels is the best part, while book 2 The Shadowmask has bits that are interesting. Though book 1 The Stowaway is ok for it is interesting as the first book.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was interesting to realize how this story/book/character crossed paths with Drizzt and his crew in the books I have already read. With a younger character (and younger co-writer), the style is a little different than other RA Salvatore books, but it is still good.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the book to be mildly entertaining. The main character just wasn't that interesting. I liked the interweaving of RA Salvatore's Bread and Butter characters. but I also realize I'm not the target audience for this book

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The short chapters made it a difficult.

[Freerangegeek · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stopped reading, it was just not the gripping read that other Forgotten Realms or Salvatore books usually are.

[Jonathan Z. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the best.

[Janice]

Over an hour into it, more than 13 hours left... I'm just not feeling it.