Prince of Lies

Forgotten Realms: Avatar #4

by James Lowder

An all-new version of one of the key titles in the entire Forgotten Realms novel line.

This title is the fourth in a series of recovers of the popular Avatar series. At the time of its original release, this series presented key events that impacted the entire Forgotten Realms world, and the effects of those events are still felt in current novels. This re-released series features a cohesive cover design and all-new art.

Revenge of a God

The Time of Troubles is at an end, and the gods have been restored to their rightful places.

The soul of Kelemvor Lyonsbane, former lover of the goddess of magic, remains hidden from the mad god Cyric.

The will of one such as Cyric, when bent on revenge, is not so easily thwarted.

Genres: Fantasy, Forgotten Realms, Fiction, Dungeons and Dragons, Science Fiction Fantasy, Ebooks, High Fantasy

384 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 27, 1993

About the author

aka Richard Awlinson, J D Lowder, Jim Lowder

James Lowder has worked extensively in fantasy and horror fiction on both sides of the editorial blotter. He's authored several best-selling dark fantasy novels, including Prince of Lies and Knight of the Black Rose, and has had short fiction appear in such anthologies as Shadows Over Baker Street and Genius Loci. He's penned comic book scripts for several companies and the city of Boston. His book and film reviews, feature articles, and role-playing game design work can be found in such diverse publications as Amazing Stories, Milwaukee Magazine, and The New England Journal of History. As an editor, he's directed lines or series for TSR, Green Knight Publishing, Chaosium, and CDS Books. He's helmed more than twenty anthologies, including Hobby Games: The 100 Best and Curse of the Full Moon. In the media, he is a regular contributor to the Public Radio show "Lake Effect" in Milwaukee, provided werewolf lore on the TV show Weird or What? and tabletop game industry lore for the documentary The Dreams in Gary's Basement, and served as a puppeteer on the indie film Misfit Heights.

Reviews

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my opinion one of the best Forgotten Realms books ever. Though from the original printing it wasn't immediately apparent it is the fourth book in the Avatar series. Later printings made that clearer. I loved the original series and was glad to be able to revisit the characters after their ascension. The godly politics and behind the scene's perspective is probably what i liked best about this book. One of the things that i think fantasy has generally overlooked is that when gods conflict in fantasy books. The story is mostly told through the eyes of their mortal followers and pawns. Whereas very few books take the story to the gods themselves as it were. This story has kind of a refreshingly different take on god versus god conflict, in that the gods themselves are characters in it. Much of the book is written from the perspective of the gods involved. Both politically and at times in direct combat with one another. All in all a good read and good follow up to the Avatar series.

[Chmurka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listen, I did not expect this book to be this good. I came here for my easily digestible fantasy slop and instead found myself eating a five course gourmet meal. Like, why’s there an actual philosophical/theological debate in my mass produced paperback with a pretty lady on the cover? Why did it make me rethink everything I thought I knew about gods in the Forgotten Realms setting? SERIOUSLY, WHY DID THIS SLAP???
Prince of Lies takes place a decade after Cyric and Midnight ascended to godhood at the end of Waterdeep. During those ten years, Cyric - who’s now the Lord of All Things Evil - killed another god with Godsbane and now wants to usurp even more power. Midnight, now known as Mystra, the goddess of magic, tries to stop him from doing that. Shenanigans ensue.
The plot was all over the place, and yet it somehow worked. There were so many side characters, especially for such a short book, and still everyone got their time to shine and have a satisfying conclusion to their story.
The prose was so much better than in the previous books - I even decided to bring out the big guns (colorful highlighters), so l could fully appreciate it.
As for the side characters: NO ELMINSTER THIS TIME MY GUYS. That alone gives this book an extra star (I hate that self-insert all-powerful Tom-Bombadil-wannabe so much and I want to drown him in a well).

Characters (this will be a long list):

Mystra/Midnight - to be honest, I was never too fond of her. In the previous books, she was very bland and naive (especially during Waterdeep). But this Mystra? Easily one of my favorite characters. She’s competent, determined and compassionate, yet still has enough flaws to balance it out. In conclusion: her and Cyric - both at the same time. Just her and me works too.

Kelemvor - uhh, I don’t know how to say this. To all my long time readers - I am so so sorry. I know you expected me to write about how I’d like to boil Kelemvor in hot oil or skin him alive, but… I actually liked him in this book. Crazy, right? Trust me, no one’s more surprised than me. Let this be a lesson to us all - anyone can change for the better, provided they are imprisoned in a white cube for a decade. If I had known sensory deprivation would do such wonders to his personality, I would’ve blindfolded him myself ages ago (I promised myself this paragraph won’t get too freaky - well, too bad).

Adon was barely in this book, but I liked his little subplot. I’m just really happy I got to see my favorite girlfailure cleric again. I want to put him inside my pocket and take him on a picnic.

Gwydion is a new addition to the series, and serves as one of the novel’s main protagonists. He’s just an unfortunate fella who died before his time, and now has to navigate the afterlife. I found him to be a very relatable guy, because I too had to acquaint myself with literal hell (my campus) and survive literal torture (fluid mechanics classes). He was a bit underdeveloped in the beginning, but by the end of the book I’ve come to really enjoy his character.

Rinda is another new character introduced in this book. She’s a scribe tasked with writing the Cyrinishad, a holy book that makes you convert against your will, which is very funny considering that: a) Rinda doesn’t worship any god b) she’s the most lawful good person to ever lawful good.
I have to admit my girl Rinda is so much stronger than me, because if Cyric called me “my dear”, fed me strawberries and held my hand while showing me around my new office, I would’ve folded instantly. Thankfully, no one ever asked me to write the bookish equivalent of a nuclear bomb, and for the sake of humanity I hope that no one ever does.

Cyric - what can I say, he makes for an excellent villain. He’s intelligent, charismatic and intimidating, though he would be even more intimidating if I didn’t think ’would’ every time he opened his mouth. Despite having a tragic backstory, he’s still very much an irredeemable evil bastard, which is refreshing to see in a main character. I really liked his interactions with Jergal, his overworked and underappreciated assistant, and Godsbane, his sentient bloodthirsty sword that totally isn’t using him.

Unfortunately, the conspiracy against me and Cyric is still going strong. James Lowder is trying very hard to convince me that I shouldn’t like or root for him. Well, if the author really thinks making Cyric a cartoonishly evil supernatural being is going to stop me from writing my favorite parts of these reviews, he’s sorely mistaken. Anyways: Raw, next question. He can slam me against the Wall of the Faithless and I would thank him. Fluctuatingly, exponentially, parabolically. Until the bed breaks. Call me Godsbane the way I want to lay in his lap. I need to make him scream. This book should’ve had an epilepsy warning, because my legs were shaking and spreading.

[Soph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wiesz że uczelnia daje ci w kość kiedy zaczynasz czytać męską fantastykę

[Kevin Zuech · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first books I read in the Forgotten Realms was at the time the Avatar Trilogy. I was hooked. When Prince of Lies came out to increase the Avatar series I read it almost immediately. Fast forward close to 30 years later as I re-read these books, the initial trilogy wasn't quite as captivating as I remember but still solid. Prince of Lies, however, was better than I thought. Cyric plotting to destroy his old friend Midnight along with the rest of the gods while trying to find Kelemvor's soul really should be the next movie if they do anymore. The twist with Godsbane being the protector followed by the twist with Mask was genius. I could read this again and again but on to the next one. This is definitely one of my favorite books. I have never read the final book in the series so hopefully it will live up to my expectations.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was ok. The writing was ok. The story and even the characters were quite ok!

I find it much more frustrating to read an ok book rather than an outright bad book. At least with a bad book you can kvetch and complain and marvel at the horror of what you are, for some reason, reading.

With an ok book, I just feel stuck in a monotonous hell that slowly deadens the soul.

To add to the experience, I had to write this little review 3 times as it kept disappearing. A perfect ending to this book-reading experience!

Ok.

[Nenad Pavlović · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, what a jump in quality of the series this novel was! This is not only the best book in the series, but also the best D&D novel by far, and even one of the better fantasy novels I've read in my life.

From the seemingly irrelevant intro episode with the mercenary and the ice giant (which turns out to be indeed important), over Cyric's crusade, propaganda war, the harrowing description of the world of the dead, to the epic dual-dimension revolution, the book is a roller-coaster of imaginative scenes and set-pieces.

It's still no high art, but hey that's ok!

[Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!* · Rating 4 out of 5]

TSR went all out for this sequel to the Avatar trilogy, loading it with several firsts: a full-color cardstock map, interior illustrations, and about 60 more pages than any of the paperback Forgotten Realms novels published up to that point (roughly 20,000 words longer). With all of that added effort and expense, I am surprised that it was not advertised in the back of their other books published shortly prior; maybe their publishing schedule changed too quickly for this.

Fortunately, the content was of sufficient quality to support this effort. Even more fortunately, it was not written by either of the authors who wrote the truly awful original Avatar trilogy (Scott Ciencin and Troy Denning under the pen name of Richard Awlinson). James Lowder has proven himself capable of spinning an entertaining yarn in his prior Forgotten Realms novels. In the introduction to Prince of Lies, Lowder reveals that he was a first-time editor for the Avatar trilogy, which goes some way to explain how terrible those books were. Presumably he has a more experienced editor working on his own books.

Prince of Lies takes place ten years after the events of the Avatar trilogy, which detailed how changes in the pantheon of gods of Faerun took place, with the mortal protagonists ultimately taking on godhood. Now, Cyric, new god of strife, murder, and the dead (and maybe illusion also at the time of the story?), plots to usurp even more power, opposed most directly by the new goddess of magic, Mystra-formerly-known-as-Midnight. Other deities are involved, as well as mortals and the dead. The plot is all over the place, but somehow it works amazingly well. It details a shift of godly powers in a vastly more engaging and entertaining way in a single book than the Avatar trilogy did in three.

The gods, as portrayed here, are very, well, human. They are moody, conniving, usually take human form, and are in fact quite limited in power. Here, this allows them to remain interesting characters. It is quite in keeping with the concept of the gods in your typical D&D tabletop game; beings that mortals could potentially interact with directly and be influenced by mortal actions. However this portrayal is not consistent across other Forgotten Realms novels. In particular, Douglas Niles' books set in the Moonshae Isles use a much more nebulous concept of the gods, who exist more as amorphous entities acting from a distant cosmic realm. Both are perfectly fine and fit with the different story lines, and in D&D play the gods could just be a bunch of cats batting planets around if that's how you want to have it, but my point is that some consistency in this publishing line could have been a welcome editorial choice.

[Dana Larose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably the most fun of the D&D novels I read in June. Instead of being angsty adventurers, most of the main characters are the deities of the Forgotten Realms. Cyric, main god of evil is up to, well, evil and Mystra (the goddess of magic) is opposing him. I think at times the book is trying to be satire but the writing isn't strong enough to really pull it off.

[PRJ Greenwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Firmly in the "not bad" camp. It reads a bit easier than the three before it, essentially as this novel's author doesn't lay on the endless fantasy tropes. While it's a solid read, it never rises above good and in the end, it's forgettable.

[Fco. Salvador · Rating 1 out of 5]

Antes de escribir una reseña, me gusta leer lo que han escrito otros. Esta vez me siento muy confuso. ¡La media de este libro es de casi 4 estrellas! Eso no es lo que he leído yo...

Me ha costado horrores terminarlo, lo cual resulta paradójico dada la falta de complejidad del volumen. Como en la anterior entrega de esta misma serie, se debe a que lo dejé abandonado durante meses.

Ha cambiado el autor, han transcurrido diez años en la ambientación (aunque esto no importa, y el libro podría estar situado al día siguiente de acabado el anterior) y los personajes principales de los anteriores volúmenes ahora son dioses. Pero son igual de insulsos y siguen teniendo unas miras muy reducidas.
Si bien hemos dejado de lado esos viajes tan sosos de "Tantras" y "Aguasprofundas", ahora aparecen unos nuevos personajes, tan planos como los que aparecían allí, cuyas historias están centradas en el conflicto entre Cyric y Medianoche. Uno que ha multiplicado por mil sus ansias de poder y otra que parece decidida a reducir toda su divinidad a frenarlo.
El resto de dioses son retratados como tontos e interesados. Otros personajes tienen sus intervenciones reducidas a una o dos líneas. Así sucede con Adon, que ahora es el patriarca de la iglesia de Medianoche (eso es nepotismo y no lo de la Ilustración).
La narración transcurre en parte en la ciudad de Zhentil Keep, que está pobremente descrita, y en la Ciudad de Huesos y otros lugares celestiales o infernales.

En definitiva, para mí un libro aburrido en una serie desastrosa. Escasa narración, personajes planos, nula importancia dentro del mundo en el que se inscribe... Le pongo una estrella porque no le puedo poner menos.

[Vernon Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quote from this book 'Cyric ran a slender finger across her lips. "A skeptic, but wise enough to fear me, too. Better and better." from page 98. The book name Prince of Lies doesn't give the books main protagonist Cyric, enough Justice or should I say Injustice. The main character Cyric, better known as Prince of Lies is a true villain cunning, intelligent, masterful in strategies against all those whom would oppose him and there are a great many deal of them. Set in a fantasy world with gods, demi-god, mythical creatures and all of the above this book inspires those whom would want to grow up to be Voldemort.

[Wayland Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

The God of the Dead isn't content with being that, and is doing everything he can to amass more power. The Goddess of Magic is one of the few willing to act against him, trying to stir the other gods into action. But most of them are condemned to their own narrow points of view, and won't take action unless their particular sphere of influence is threatened.

In the mortal world, the followers of Cyric are causing all manner of problems, as machinations and plotting are happening everywhere as different forces are aligned and facing growing threats.

It's a decent fantasy story, it just didn't really grab me.

[Karmakosmik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prince Of Lies racconta gli eventi successivi alla fine del bando imposto da Ao agli dei di Faerun, con Cyric, nuovo dio degli inferi, pronto a tramare per diventare il più potente di tutti, e Midnight\Mystra ad opporsi alle sue macchinazioni. A mio avviso è il miglior libro della serie, estremamente diverso dai volumi precedenti, e maggiormente votato all'intrigo ed ai patti segreti fra gli dei. La scrittura di Lowder è decisamente migliore rispetto a quella di Awlinson, e di questo il libro ne risulta giovare parecchio. Un ottimo sequel in definitiva.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

After one of the most worryingly lame prologue this book quickly gets really good. This is an excellent follow on from Waterdeep and it's description and exposition of the spiritual nature's of the gods makes it quite unique as a fantasy novel.

Lowder is a pretty solid D&D author - This whole series is let down by Scott Ciencin, who is awful. Lowder and Denning are both really good.

Looking forward to the final part.

[Gerard Van Der Waal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is what I’m looking for in a Forgotten Realms novel. Despite some plotholes, it was well written and left the setting in another place than where it set off. Both a good read as a novel and inspiring for a DM running their game in the Forgotten Realms. In many places, it reminded me of the best writing in Baldur’s Gate II and it got me excited to get started with Baldur’s Gate III later this year when it’s ultimately released.

[Hailey Snider · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed it mostly because I'm hyped for Baldur's Gate 3 TBH. This book is different from other Forgotten Realm titles since it deals with the Pantheon of Faerun rather than its inhabitants. The gods are interesting, but the concept of "balance" is used to move the plot along too often at times when it makes absolutely no sense

Anyway if you want to do some research on how your DnD Character may interact with their god of worship you should read this book

[Zoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this. Seeing the perspective of the gods was one of my favourite parts of the main trilogy, and this expands upon that greatly. We get to learn not only random bits of lore about them, but also their perspectives and how they actually perceive the world. Seeing Cyric descend into madness was interesting, and he definitely became very evil. The start of his downfall here was entertaining, and I can't wait to see him fully fall in the fifth and final book.

[Seth Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book moves the series almost entirely into the realm of the supernatural and has some really solid scenes. Thought the ending was a touch confusing though, a few too many surprises that strained credulity even within the fantastical setting.

[Eric Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent addition to The Avatar series. James Lowder spins a tale of intrigue, deception, and fantastic battles. You may figure out some of the twists in advance, but others will happily surprise you!

[Kevin Pimbblet · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a readable entry in the on-going series. It is almost entirely plot-driven by Cyric going slightly crazy and wanting more power, but being opposed by the magic deity. Its solid fantasy even if it didn't quite hit the mark for me personally.

[Ronald Wilcox · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sequel to the Avatar trilogy. Okay writing and story for 3/4 of the book but the climax was interesting.

[Kagan Oztarakci · Rating 4 out of 5]

"never trust a man who says he can be trusted"
"where there are dreams, there is always nightmares"

[DavK · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the book that got me into the Avatar Trilogy, I read this and then found out the trilogy took place before this story so reading that as well was quite fantastic.

[Judi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cyric is driven mad by his godhood. The story hinges on attempts to unseat him. Not my favorite story from the Realms; but, the ending is satisfying. On to the last book in this series!

[P.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was another from my stash. It's been waiting a while and would still be waiting if I could get to a store.

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than the first 3.

[Joe Pickard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this novel very much. I read all of the novels in the Avatar series, and most of the Forgotten Realms novel!

[Benjamin Hesdorf · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend Lowder's work. This is definitely a worthy addendum to the Avatar series. I surely enjoyed the ride and all the places it took me to.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic book, not just by D&D standards but in general. Bravo. By far the best entry in the series so far and my favorite Forgotten Realms novel yet.

[Mouhamed Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is the best in the series so far.