The City of Ravens

The Cities #1

by Richard Baker

Ravens Bluff

The City of Ravens

For the first time, Jack Ravenwild's designs exceed his talents. His ambitions plunge him into the middle of a plot to destroy the city, a noble quest to find a lost hoard, and a conspiracy to seize the reins of power through the nobility's Game of Masks. Worse yet, Jack must choose between a life of freedom and saving the city he doesn't even know he loves.

The Cities

A new series of stand-alone novels, each set in one of the mighty cities of Faerûn.

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

324 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 2000

About the author

A best-selling author and award-winning game designer, Richard Baker is known for his novels in the Forgotten Realms setting and his work on the Dungeons & Dragons game. His Realms novels include Condemnation (book 3 of the War of the Spider Queen), the Last Mythal trilogy, and the Blades of the Moonsea trilogy. He is currently working on a new military-themed science fiction series centered on the character Sikander North; Valiant Dust, the first book in the new series, debuts in November 2017 from Tor Books.

A native of Ocean City, New Jersey, Rich graduated from Virginia Tech in 1988 and went on to serve as a surface warfare officer in the United States Navy. When he's not writing fantasy or science fiction, he works in game publishing. He's the founder of Sasquatch Game Studio, a small game company based in Auburn, Washington.

Rich currently resides in the Seattle area with his wife, Kim, and their daughters Alex and Hannah. His interests include gaming (naturally), history, hiking, racquetball, and the Philadelphia Phillies.

Reviews

[Dirk Grobbelaar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skullduggery and dark doings, he thought. A dangerous prize and a lovely lady!

Great fun, this.

It is shared world fiction (one of my occasional guilty pleasures), so my expectations were aligned accordingly. However, this one still managed to surprise.

It was an ominous-looking thing, with a silver skull embossed in the center and dire runes inscribed at each hasp. The title was stamped out in silver chasing: The Sarkonagael, or Secrets of the Shadewrights.

When written right, the Forgotten Realms setting still offers a formidable helping of atmosphere. I suppose if you’ve never dabbled in D&D at least a bit, the appeal could potentially allude you, but this story is crafted competently enough for even casual fantasy readers to enjoy.

The night's work demanded clothes that fit like a shadow over a grave.

I found Jack Ravenwild to be an endearing protagonist, despite (or perhaps because of) his ambiguous nature. He is a rogue and a thief and a scoundrel, but he is pretty entertaining, and his Dread Delgath personality is nothing short of hilarious.

"Come out, come out, little thief," the demon hissed. Its voice was thick oil poured over a hot stove.

As you would expect from a Forgotten Realms novel, there is more than enough action. It’s presented quite well too.

I especially enjoyed the portrayal of fighting sequences involving magic (the magic use in this novel is excellent throughout, Jack is pretty adept for a rogue class character, which may annoy purists. It is, of course, explained towards the end of the story.)

Jack picked himself up and launched a deadly magical attack of his own, a pair of streaking force globes that hammered into the shadow and detonated with brutal force.

Keeping track of the clues in the Game of Masks is quite a feat, but it adds another layer to the story. To be clear: there’s quite a lot going on in this book (Baker packs a lot of story into just a little more than 300 pages) and not everything is clearly connected other than the fact that the protagonist is involved in some way or the other.

The wind screamed like something flayed alive as they dropped into the darkness.

In conclusion: I found the story involving and very well paced, mostly because of the lively fashion in which the protagonist is portrayed. As a Forgotten Realms novel it succeeds in spades, but it can also be read in isolation. The weakest bit is the grand finale, where things inevitably get a bit OTT.

4 stars... because it was so much fun to read and because I still have a soft spot for the Forgotten Realms setting.

"Dungeon delving is an occupation for those unfortunate souls who have demonstrated that they are too stupid, ill-tempered, or incompetently noble to hold down any honest job."

Amen, brother.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have to say that this is probably one of my favorite Forgotten-Realms books. Baker did a great job with Jack Ravenwild, and even though Jack was an unsavory character I found myself hoping for his success.

The book starts out with Jack running around accepting as many quests as can come his way. The author makes each one fun and exciting, with a mixture of investigation and intrigue. Soon most all of them go a-rye in some way and soon Jack is left to pick up the pieces and reap the rouge's dues. What appears at the beginning to be small plots turns out to be a city-wide coupe and only Jack and his unlikely friends are able to deal with the problem.

City of Ravens is a great first read for anyone interested in delving into the world of the Forgotten-Realms. It has fun, mystery, and adventure. All the makings of a good fantasy.

[Jason Koivu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this because I'm DMing a campaign set in and around the city of Ravens Bluff in Faerun, which is where this book is set. I learned a little bit about the city, which was the aim. The adventure was pretty good. Some of the phrasing was problematic. Actually, one thing in particular made me laugh every time it happened. Jack, the main character, asks a lot of questions. The book is third person, past tense...Hearing "Jack asked" over and over just really cracked me up.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good one. I have liked Bakers work in the past, and I thought this one was well done as well.

This had tons of characters and a lot of moving parts (as a mystery rightly should). The main character, Jack Ravenwild, is a classic trope on the dashing, fast tongued, sharp wit, charming rogue. These characteristics get him out of trouble as often as they get him into trouble. There is a sub-plot where Jack and one of his more trustworthy companions attend a traditional “mystery party” that goes on for several weeks. Baker does a good job using this to give the reader more insight about the politics and main lords and ladies of the city. I thought it was an interesting and fun way to move the story along. There were enough potential catalysts, I did not know who the main culprit was until the end.

Baker does a great job with his characters. There were so many good ones in this tale, even the baddies were well fleshed out and entertaining.

The main plot is a bit convoluted, and by the end I did feel like we could have used some more pages to tie up some of the loose ends, but for a one-off Forgotten Realms novel I think Baker did a pretty impressive job. As always, one of my favorite parts about reading these books is getting to learn about a new place in the realms. “The City of Ravens” did not fail to deliver!

[D · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book more, but there are a number of reasons why I just couldn't do it. Unlike most of my other reviews which go through structure, pacing, worldbuilding and the like, I am going to focus on what worked and what didn't work for me:

What worked:

- Strong nod to classic sword n'sorcery... I couldn't help but draw ties to Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser with Anders and Jack (and I love Leiber's Lankhmar series).
- Excellent Realmslore and detail - made me consult my Grand History of the Realms and Faerun map more than once,
- Could almost hear the dice rolling when certain things happened in the book (ie., action sequences, spells, searching for traps, deception) - if you aren't a fan of the "pen and paper" RPG side of things, this might not have I'm not sure this would have moved the needle for you.

What didn't work:

- This was big for me: Jack's "clunky" dialogue, and to some degree, Anders' and a few other minor characters. I'm aware that Jack is meant to be a dashing and cunning rogue, but c'mon, phrases like "I will surly apprehend that villainous duplicate, that duplicitous villain..." and "I conceived tonight's adventure, and I reconnoitered our means of ingress..." did nothing to make me really warm up to him.
- Three circuitous, and crossing, story arcs are not easy to juggle... as an author I can certainly respect what Baker was trying to do here. It felt awkward and almost forced at times. Especially with The Game of Masks; an over-engineered segment, in my opinion (made me want to almost take out a notebook and start making decision tree diagrams); could've been simplified.
- In addition to clunky dialogue and inability to get close to some of the major characters, there were a few instances of peculiar diction for a Realms novel (ie, the use of the word "cash" came up on more than one occasion and didn't feel like it worked at all).
- There were of a few instance of more "telling" going on than "showing" (ie, explanation of the history of Sarbreen, and the situation 'underneath' - no spoilers).
- Jack found himself in a few unfortunate - and almost uncanny - circumstances (especially the night of the multiple 'hooded' kidnappings or the number of times he was accosted/found (eating beef/flirting with a barmaid) at a particular tavern) which, to my mind, coloured the plot point with more of a comedic tone rather than advancing it forward the way I think it was intended to.

My rating: 3.5 stars, rounded down.

[Jared Foster · Rating 1 out of 5]

I won't avoid spoilers because this book isn't worth reading.

CW: Language, used better than in this book.

TL;DR : The characters are flat, the 3.5 plots should have been combined, and the main character is such a raging jackass that I was wishing for his grisly death scene since the first chapter. The environment was kind of cool.

I'll go over what worked first. Raven's Bluff is your typical D&D city. Full stop. The wizard's guild, rowdy bars, a town guard, built on a previous city built on a previous city, yadda yadda yadda. If you're looking for an ok D&D-flavored book, you might like this one enough to give it three stars. If you're looking for a good book, just put it back. If you already bought it, put it on amazon for a penny and hope someone wants it enough to pay shipping.


Richard Baker packed too much plot into 300 pages. There is an introductory plot, and three main plots. We open up on Jack being an asshole to Anders. They want to steal five rubies from rich nobles. Cool. They fail and only get one. The nobles are mad for the rest of the book, but really do nothing important.

Next, Jack is commissioned by Alana (who turns out later to be a mysterious warlord that wants to take over the city) to find a book. He is instantly horny for Alana. He finds the book. Alana uses it to create shadow-clones. The shadow clones help take out the nobility and also mess with Jack for not joining the warlord (instead of outright killing him like it should have).

The next plot is the Game of Masks, which could have been a cool story, but (as I get into later) it really means nothing. Jack pretends to be a noble, works with Illyth to figure out a puzzle, they run into people that are plotting murder, Illyth solves the puzzle with much of Jack's help, and her victory means nothing because the nobles are murdered. If only someone, perhaps someone with full control over this fictional world, could have made this game mean something.

The third plot is concerned with finding an old dwarven treasure hoard. Jack harasses Zandria multiple times, works with the drunk sage to find clues, and they find the treasure. Whatever. It's boring. I feel like Richard Baker liked this plot the least because it feels the least inspired.

All these plots could have been easily combined, making the 300 pages Baker was presumably restricted to much more impactful. Alana, the warlord, is known for sneaking around disguised and no one finding out. Hmm. I wonder if there was space in the book for a part where people were disguised, say, with masks? And Jack could have interacted with Alana during the game to characterize both of them, while also fleshing out the world and hinting at Alana's plans? Hmmm. Maybe the book should have been about Jack, Tharzon, Anders, and Illyth working together to with the Game of Masks and split the prize evenly, but finding out about the plot to overthrow the city by killing off the nobility and taking the source of the city's magic? Actually, where's Mr. Richard Baker's professional email address?

The characters are flat. Zandria is a rage-blind wizard that hates Jack (completely justified since he's just a horny creep that wants to get a cut of whatever comes his way). Tharzon is a stereotypical dwarf with a love of history that never gets to be shown. Anders is a barbarian that doesn't want to deal with Jack. Marcus is a violent cop. Ontrodes is a drunk sage. And Jack is an asshole. That's it. That's all these characters are. They boil down to a simple description and show no real personality, and I believe it's because of Richard Baker's awful choice of a main character.

Though the book is written in third-person, we see the world through Jack's eyes. Everyone's a threat or someone to cheat or someone to bone. Zandria has great potential as a character, as do the others, but because Richard Baker put such an unlikable asshole at the head of his story she is reduced to the Angry Woman stereotype. There's no way for her to deal with someone who constantly harasses her (and faces no real consequences) that would bring good character interaction and growth. Anything she does is met with Jack thinking "but what if I cheat her this way!"

Almost all of the characters are stuck in this trap. Illyth, the best character in this book, is not. Illyth is a naive noble woman that believes that Jack is a nobleman. This is the best dynamic in the book, and it brings the best interaction, however it is kneecapped by being attached to the least important plot thread. Jack wants Illyth to continue believing that he is a nobleman, so he has to be creative in his fuckery. During the Game of Masks, he has to avoid stealing hints to the logic puzzle (which I won't explain, it's not really important to the book even if it does eat up so many pages) because he'll be banned along with Illyth and spoil her fun. This only stops him during the beginning of the games. Richard must've forgot about the restriction or got bored of it because Jack pickpockets 4 people and gets his ass whooped when he's caught.

Getting caught didn't matter. He got his ass whooped and he went back to the games the next party. No consequences. This could have been a great way to force Jack to deal with getting himself banned and letting his friend down, but no. Richard Baker lets it slide.

And that's my main issue with this book. Jack makes so many mistakes, so many blunders, and he faces no consequences. Sure, he gets beat up a couple times and suffers some head wounds and spends like a week in prison, but did any of it matter? Did he lose something other than his comfort or some of his time? No! He gets away with everything! I can't think of any explanation why he would since everyone he knows in Raven's Bluff wants him dead. His struggles can't develop his character because he has no real struggles. Either Jack is Richard Baker's self-insert that he uses to fulfill his power fantasies, or Richard Baker never learned how to write a compelling character and substituted depth for narcissistic myopia and false intelligence.

[Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is possibly most well written book in the Forgotten Realms 'verse, save only for Richard Baker's novels that came after. This novel can stand alone, separate from the usual swill that comes out of that company, as a wonderful story about a thief and a riddle. The characters are fully developed, the world is fully explored, and the reality in which it takes it brought down to Earth, to make it nearly believable. I recommend this book on the highest level that is populated only by LORD OF THE RINGS, THE LAST UNICORN, and TAMSIN.

[Daniel Winegar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly loved reading this book. The character is a skulduggerous scoundrel, and as such, only has work associates, that don't even completely trust him. As per his attitude and personality, he trusts nobody but himself. He gets involved in several stories and adventures at the same time. I feel the protagonist consistently followed his, albeit eccentric, personality. Altogether an enjoyable read full of danger, laughs, realistic consequences, and intrigue.

[Michael G · Rating 5 out of 5]

A light, fun fantasy novel that captures the feel of the Forgotten Realms setting well. The main character is a rogue in the purest sense, but you feel sympathy for him anyway. I loved this book and think it's a real shame Richard Baker didn't get the opportunity to write more to follow. One of my favorite light fantasy novels.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been reading and playing D and D/RPG games/books since 1978. I have played all 4 versions of D and D. This is hands down the best book written in the fantasy fiction arena. Bar none.
D

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

No one is more astonished than me that I enjoyed this--a Forgotten Realms book.
This is not a criticism of Baker, but rather of the series. Maybe it's that I'm coming fresh off Jack Vance's Cugel stories, but the protagonist here, one Jack Ravenwild, felt a lot like a contemporary version of Cugel. Spoke to himself a lot, spoke with a rich and supremely loquacious vocabulary. And, of course, a rogue and a scoundrel.
Unfortunately, my praise ends here, because a little over halfway through the book, the energy and verve sort of peters out. By the end, we've fallen into a run-of-the-mill desperate action sequence where the hero faces of against the villain. Spoiler alert--it ends how you'd expect.
Even so, I definitely enjoyed it. Should you read it? Hm. Only if you're looking for a palette cleanser from whatever you've been reading for a while. That's why I chose this title, and it's worked out fairly well.

[Stuart Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great way to start the year off with a book like this one. Very fun to read, love the various subplots that Jack seems to draw to him and it’s truly cool following him from party to party solve the riddle (as a criticism, would it not be fun for the reader to join in the riddle solving? I know it would be complex and take many more pages to unravel the riddle, but wtf, why not?!). We even get a guest appearance from Mystra (or one of her Avatars anyway) at the end to wrap the novel up with a bow tie. I hope the other Cities novels live up to the standard set in this one.

[Kagan Oztarakci · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It’s good to want things that you can’t have,” she replied. “It keeps your ambition sharp."
“An impossibly rich prize is, by its nature, impossible to obtain, so therefore the prize that is almost impossibly rich is therefore almost impossibly difficult. And if something is almost impossible, well that means that it is really possible but simply damned hard. Let us not turn away from a wondrous prize until we are certain that it is truly impossible to attain."

[Julian Meynell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun little Dungeons and Dragons novel. The plot concerns a dashing scoundrel type rogue with sorcerous powers and a larcenous nature. The novel is quite complex in its plotting weaving a number of disparate threads together. In many ways it is quite sophisticated by the standards of a D&D novel. I do not want to over hype it but it is certainly more sophisticated than most novels and the hero, while a stereotype, is a well done one. It is also very much a city and social story.

[BRANDON · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was delicious. The various puzzles and mysteries felt well constructed and beyond my imagination. The conclusion was truly surprising and the character of Jack was refreshing. The story isn't overly long and that's sometimes a blessing when it comes to fantasy, sometimes Epics drag on and on. This was a short, self contained, mile a minute adventure. As a side note it was also nice to see that even though Jack was highly motivated by sex, he never got any!

[Victor Sanchez · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another tabletop based novel, another dissapointment.

I cannot believe how utterly charmless the protagonist is, how boring are his quests, how smarmy he comes from the text alone and my god, how can you pack so much sexism in like 100 pages...

It was just a terrible novel. Downright atrocious.

[Filippos Farmakis · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun easy read this is! It's one of the best stand-alone fantasy books I've read, especially appealing if you are well-versed in the D&D logic of quests, quirky characters, and very high odds dependent on the actions of a likable scoundrel.

The ending could be better/more exciting, I admit, but overall it was a very pleasant read.

[Jayna Rubich · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book so badly, however, the pacing was very slow for the first half and a hook wasn't presented early either. While I did enjoy the book I was a bit disappointed, especially since I like Richard Baker.

[Matt Patton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good read with interesting characters and alot of action and intrigue. You get drawn to the main character right from the get go. Highly recommend this one. Richard Baker is continuing to be one of my favorite writers for the genre.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an absolute blast and a breath of fresh air from most fantasy stories.

A slimy fast talking asshole cons everyone and pays the consequences.

Endlessly readable, extremely funny, and a solid ending make this an easy recommend.

[Iain · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun outing with a fast-talking, heart of gold rogue. I enjoyed his cadre of friends quite a bit as well.
The storyline got a bit weird towards the end, but it literally made me laugh out loud elsewhere so it earns the stars.

Recommended for fans of Forgotten Realms.

[Ethan Mckenzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, but not Richard Baker’s best. I very much enjoyed his Last Mythal series, but this one was a bit awkward with the dialogue and it was odd to see a neutral/good Red Wizard character. Still, fun novel in a region not often touched in the Lore.

[Trevor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful tale of a true rakish rogue.

[Travis Yocum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad. Sequel is hard to find will be interesting to see if I can find it.

[Nathan Woll · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent DnD novel. Some fun scenes and actions. It felt like a little too much going on though.

[Kreg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charismatic thief/sorcerer gets into and out of schemes and plots before being snared into a final showdown.

[Pierre van Rooden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only recently finished City of Ravens, and now Richard Baker has revealed he is working on a new book with Jack Ravenwild. Which prompts me to write down a review of the first book.

City of Ravens is a bit of a chaotic story, in that there are several unrelated stories runnign at once. These come together at the end, in a fashion, but mostly they stand on their own. In a way, it shows the chaotic life of a multi-talented rogue, but on the other, one often expects a coherent story, and in that the mission-rich novel does not entirely deliver.
It is not that there is too much happening - it is all fairly easy to fllow - it is just that they do not really tie together. The whole plot around the Game of Masks does not actually add much besides cast more suspicion on Jack. If there is a way in which it actually ties to the main plot (incolving Jelena) that wasn't clear. The same about the plot around the Guilders Vault. A good story, but it's only task in the whole seems to be to provide Jack with a wizard ally-of-a-sorts.
Looking at the novel as a series of intertwined short stories is a better way. It still feels a bit awkward, as I (being a fanatic plotter) keep searching for the great grand plan.

Anyway, the stories and characters.
Jack is a callous but good-hearted rogue. A charming, slightly foppish, cheat. Likeable even though you would whack him on the head several times a day if you were one of his friends.
His allies-for the moment have their own charms. Even if some walk the fine line between protaganist and anatagonist, you do not wish them to come to too much harm. I'd like to see more of Anders, Zandria, or the liquor-sage (forgot his name).
A few NPCs were a bit unsophisticated, even annoying - the Knights of the Hawk where nowhere how I pictured them. They acted more like brutish thugs than knights-in-shadows. I would have expected less beating-up-people-at-random and more subtlety and reconnessance.
The Game of Masks was well portrayed, though I found the background assassination plot a bit blunt. There was not much sophistication there, and the political motives were unclear. If these had been tied to Jelena's call for power, it would have made a bit more sense (maybe they were, but the story doesn't make that clear).
Sabreen and the Guilders Vault was a good story. Puzzles, monsters, and intrigue. As noted above, I liked trigger-happy Zandria as the plot motivator. I had imahgined that the globe she ahd found was of interest to Jelena and would play a role in the end game, but it didnt. So now we still don't know what it really does.
Jelena's tale was the main plot and I liked it the elast. The initial search for a book was a fine thing, but it went a bit overboard with the mythal. It felt a bit heavy-handed, but that may be because it had not been alluded to before. Jack's sorcerous powers did not strike me as out of place, so tying it to the mythal came as a bit of a surprise.
I grant it gave a climactic ending, fitting for the novel, though I could have done without the epilogue (really not my thing).

The writing style was engaging. I found it hard to put down. The numerous plots work in advantage in that way to move the story along, as Jack hops from one plot to the other and back again. I would advise less 'musing aloud' though, and it occasionally became obvious that Rich wanted to show off his geographic knowledge of the town (we get several tours).

In short: enjoyable stories, which does show off parts of the city and its features. Fast paced, but needs a bit more coherence.
It makes me curious about the next novel.

[Summer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like King Pinch, The City of Ravens feels like an experienced gamer and setting creator writing the kind of solo adventure he's always wished his rogue character could go on. Baker was lavish with the plot hooks for his protagonist Jack Ravenwild - a beautiful and deadly woman wants to hire him to find a mysterious book, a beautiful and angry woman wants him to stop eavesdropping on her attempts to solve a mysterious riddle and go on a lucrative dungeon crawl, and a beautiful and clever woman wants him to attend a series of puzzle-themed noble galas with her in order to win a lucrative prize. Then there's all the people dragging Jack into dark alleys to talk to him about crimes he may or may not have committed, the angry necromancer out for his blood, the troubling conspiracy he overheard at the gala, and all the people in Raven's Bluff who aren't what they appear to be. Jack is playing a dangerous game, but a thrilling one!

So, is this built like D&D? Yes, but most of it is a solo adventure, with a lot of the kind of roleplay and stealth that rogues love, punctuated by battles Jack tries his best to weasel out of. For the most part Jack works alone, but sometimes he scrounges up a small crew. Jack is a 3e rogue/sorcerer, by the way, and he put a lot of points into disguise and bluff, and not enough into pick pockets and spot. He's the kind of character who is built to cunningly avoid danger and exploit loopholes, and he gets absolutely bodyslammed in most of his combats.

Does this feel like a D&D game? Absolutely. This book is a very persuasive argument to play D&D with Richard Baker. A lot of the dialogue feels like pitch perfect tabletop banter between players and the DM, and intra-party arguments about dividing risks and rewards. It's a very fun novel.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of a 3.5 than a 4 but no half ratings.

My first attempt at a D&D book since the mid 90s.

I found it surprisingly enjoyable.

Couldn't hear the dice rolling like Salvatore or Weiss and Hickman.

Also, being a stand alone Baker was able to tell a concise story despite dealing with many divergent plot lines.

Jack was an amusing, if not likable Rogue. He was fairly standard to the archetype as were all the characters but Baker put together the story threads in such a manner that, even though none of the characters were particularly spectacular they all worked well together.

I wanted to get through the book to see what would happen next. All the standard things happened but still, it was an enjoyable ride getting there which made it superior to the Cleric Quintet which is the series that finally put me off D&D books back in the 90s.

[Frank Mikes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a surprisingly good book and I'm going to look through and see if I can find any more by Richard Baker. He has managed to neatly thread the needle with a character who is confident without being arrogant, a charming rogue who doesn't appear smarmy or ingenuine. The secondary characters are all well drawn and three dimensional.

He then brings these characters together and weaves several plot-lines together into a suitable climax and resolution. I say well done, this is not your standard D&D book.