Dark Knight of Karameikos

First Quest #6

by Timothy B. Brown

In a kingdom dominated by Thyatian overlords, Sir Grygory is an anamoly: a Traldaran knight serving a Traldaran lord. An uneasy coexistence grips the land, except where some Traldarans have established a wilderness barony beyond the reach of the Thyatians.

But evil has descended upon the barony.

Sir Grygory must confront the black-armored knight, who, with his orb of deadly power, is ravaging the Traldaran villages. Is the Dark Knight a specter from Sir Grygory's troubled past? Can he hope to defeat the powerful orb and an army of orc savages? Perhaps, but not without becoming, for a time, the very enemy he set out to defeat.

Genres: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, Fiction

316 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1, 1995

About the author

Timothy B. Brown is a writer and game designer, primarily of role-playing games. He has worked at TSR, Game Designers' Workshop, and Challenge magazine. While serving as the director of product development at TSR, Brown oversaw the creation of the company's enduringly popular Ravenloft and Planescape game lines. He also co-created the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dark Sun setting with Troy Denning, Mary Kirchoff, and the artist Brom.

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of those books where my star rating doesn't necessarily reflect my enjoyment of the story. I had fun reading Dark Knight of Karameikos, but I can't really rate it higher from a technical perspective.

I probably got this book when I was about 12 and last read it about 25 years ago. It's been sitting on my bookshelf ever since. Unknown to me at the time, Dark Knight of Karameikos was published by TSR and takes place in the Dungeons & Dragons Mystara setting. Four novels were released in the Mystara line before it was retired around the year 2000. Dark Knight of Karameikos is the only stand-alone story in the series.

Although Timothy B. Brown is a competent storyteller -- likely from his experience as a game development director at TSR and as a longtime roleplaying game enthusiast -- there isn't much backstory given for those outside of the D&D fandom. For example, we're shown repeatedly that there's friction between the Traldarans and Thyatians but never told why. For all intents and purposes, these two cultures are just words without meaning. We likewise don't get much history on Karameikos itself or the types of magic that exist there.

Much like Wizards of the Coast today, which owns the D&D property, attitudes toward tie-in quality control at TSR were equally lax in the 90s. Dark Knight of Karameikos is littered with grammatical errors that should have been caught well before publication.

So why did I enjoy the book in spite of these flaws? Likely because my 12-year-old self did. This is the kind of perfect entry level "adult" fantasy that would have spoke to me at the time, full of characters that are little more than archetypes and lots of canned lines. Dark Knight of Karameikos isn't a masterpiece by any means, but it was just the thing to spark the imagination of a reader who didn't know much better.

One last note: The book's excellent cover was done by Jennell Jaquays, who is married to Rebecca "Burger" Heineman. Together, these two women had a massive impact on the early days of video games and tabletop roleplaying.

[kashiichan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wish there had been more information about the world/campaign setting, because without it this is a fairly generic fantasy adventure: kid with a tragic backstory ends up a knight, goes up against a Big Bad Enemy, and eventually triumphs. The quality of the writing is decent — the battle tactics in particular were fairly easy to follow, which is not always the case in TSR books — but there are numerous spelling and grammar errors throughout. A plot twist near the end could have led to a potentially interesting sequel, but it was resolved within the next chapter. The art on the front is very good, but unfortunately doesn't actually match up with the events of the story inside. Possibly a good recommendation for teens, keeping in mind that there are some (non-explicit) sexual things mentioned and fairly realistic descriptions of fantasy battles.

[Mikaël · Rating 2 out of 5]

A novel written by one of TSR's main guys, it is naturally.. extremely bland and uncreative. The plot and characters are as generic as can get : war orphan grows up to be a perfect knight with no flaws, easily builds up an army on his way to beat a big bad, and beats the big bad with no trouble. There is a plot twist at the very good enough to warrant a sequel but instead, it's half-assedly solved within a single chapter, making it completely pointless