The Night Parade: A Harpers Novel

Forgotten Realms: The Harpers #4

by Scott Ciencin

When a war against the Night Parade proves too much for her,
Myrmeen Lhal, the ruler of Arabel, enlists the aid of the Harpers to
win her battle against this group of creatures who gain sustenance from
human fear. Original.

Genres: Forgotten Realms, Fantasy, Fiction, Dungeons and Dragons, Horror, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction Fantasy

414 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 2, 1992

About the author

Scott Ciencin was a New York Times best-selling novelist of 90+ books. He wrote adult and children's fiction and worked in a variety of mediums including comic books. He created programs for Scholastic Books, designed trading cards, consulted on video games, directed and produced audio programs & TV commercials, and wrote in the medical field about neurosurgery and neurology. He first worked in TV production as a writer, producer and director. He lived in Sarasota, Florida with his wife (and sometimes co-author) Denise.

(Also wrote under the pseudonyms Nick Baron and L.J. Oliver)

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well that was... a lot.

Now that I've finished it I can't help but feel that this story would have worked better as a Gothic Horror Ravenloft novel than straight up Forgotten Realms. Once again the involvement of the Harpers is somewhat tangential to the plot as it's really about kind of a messy rich swordswoman who now finds herself the ruler of a city-state being spurred to seek out a child she had long thought dead in childbirth accompanied by a bunch of generic fantasy RPG character types. The premise of the enemies, these horrific "Night Parade" demons who feed on fear and bad dreams while hiding in plain sight in the warrens of crowded Calimport, was interesting enough but as characters they seemed to get hewn down just as they were becoming interesting.

There's solid themes of found family and the greater good mixed in for good measure but overall I'd say as an attempt to write a coherent novel it was a bit of a mess with major weaknesses in characterization and establishing the setting. Also, I can't help but feel that TSR editorial got involved in not terribly productive ways, such as instructing the author to insert different characters' AD&D classes just to remind the reader of the connection to the gaming modules.

I doubt any of the characters that survived the finale will show up in any future books and no big loss on that account. We go onward.

[Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!* · Rating 1 out of 5]

Scott Ciencin wrote two of my least favorite novels in the Forgotten Realms line to date: Shadowdale and Tantras, in the Avatar series. As a result, I was dreading The Night Parade. Yes, I had to read it, in my ill-conceived quest of reading the Forgotten Realms novels in publication order. There was some hope that this would be a better book; I saw that he had written several other novels in the interim, and here he had freedom to write whatever he wanted, not bound to the dictates of a shared trilogy with a pre-stated outcome (i.e. the changes to Toril that the whole "Time of Troubles" god-changing events required). I was also aware that he died a few years ago, suddenly, in his early 50's, and did not want to think ill of the dead. So there I was, entering this with charitable thoughts, and.... it was not good.

The story was all over the place. Most scenes were highly random. Characterization was awfully weak. The characters were devoid of emotional resonance. The cardinal rule of half-decent writing, "Show, don't tell" was violated all over the place. And I cannot begin to count the number of times that a section or chapter ended with the suggestion that a character died, only to have them suddenly reappear a few pages later, usually first re-seen as the tip of a sword thrust through an enemy just before it slew another character. Taking just one sentence at a time, or sometimes even a whole paragraph, the prose was not bad; Ciencin had some worthy descriptive capacity, but that seems to be the extent of his wordcraft.

It was also weak as a Forgotten Realms-based adventure. "The Harpers" association was used solely as a cheap motivational tool to explain away why the dull adventurers would bother to go after these enemies, when only the main character had any personal stake. The monsters were not even D&D-canonical. Not that they have to be, but one has certain expectations with licensed pulp fantasy fiction. The "Night Parade" of demons concept is taken, I think, from Japanese folklore.

Finally, the cover art by Fred Fields; bizarrely bad depiction of Myrmeen Lhal, with a too-big unattractive head, armor that strangely conforms to her breasts, in a weird pose with her butt sticking out as she looks over her shoulder but not at the pair of monsters also on the cover. Some people think the 80's were tacky, but the early 90's really had little going for them style-wise. One of the portrayed monsters is presumably the big bad, Lord Sixx, who in the novel has eyes all over his body in sets of six (get it?), but appears without any extra eyes. Alternatively it is just a random Djinn-looking dude who does not even appear in the book.

Back on the shelf this goes, never to see the light of day again.

[P. Aaron Potter · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am a cheap date.

I consume an awful lot of cheap fantasy, sci fi, and horror. An author doesn't have to shake my world, bring me flowers, or pay for dinner. I'll take their books to my bed for the price of a mildly engaging plot, a cardboard villain, some stock heroics, and when I reach the unsurprising climax, I'll say "thank you." Literarily, I have round heels.

I'm not saying I have no standards, but my standards are appropriate to the context. If you're trying to write high literary fiction, you'd better do so. But most cheap fantasies aren't hiding their intentions. They're not out to change my paradigm. They're just up for a quickie read and not staying for coffee in the morning.

So it takes some actual effort to really write badly enough to irk me. "The Night Parade" did. The heroine isn't even cardboard, she's stale cheesecake. Her companions are so wooden enough to serve as furniture. Worst is the "villain." You have the whole panoply of the Forgotten Realms to play with, and couldn't come up with a decent villain?

Get out of my house. Don't bother sending flowers.

[Jason Kalinowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ruler of the city of Arabel, decides to shirk her responsibilities and go home to Calimsham (in another country) to seek her lost daughter when she finds out her long lost ex had sold the child off; he happened to end up in her city as a wanted man. She convinces her Harper-friends (an underground network of do-gooders) to join her. So she sneaks off! Now the two cities seem hundreds of miles apart and we end up there rather suddenly. They end up fighting a group of shape-shifting and misshapen humans-now aliens from another plane; the humanoids are so changed that they gain sustenance from human fear and abduct children. It turned out they were the source of her own childhood nightmares. The books is one of the darkest I've read attached to Dungeons and Dragons books as it has children being threatened, abused and kidnapped. If you like a sinister book with frightening antagonists, and some McGuffins thrown about to move the story along, then this is your book.

[PRJ Greenwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A 2.5 out of 5 effort really, but I'll mark it up as it attempts to alter the formula. It tries its hardest to be uncommonly deep for a D&D novel, and I'll admit there's a few concepts here that give it a bit of lustre over some of its peers. But when it's all weighed up, this is still popcorn. No characterisations to speak of, and the writing is only just there. It's the story and the nature of the antagonists that make this effort stand out a little from the masses around it. But not quite.

[Ned Leffingwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up because our current D&D campaign features the Harpers and I was curious about the organization. This book is the most mature D&D novel that I have read in terms of sex and violence. I enjoyed the story. It is a quick read and has plenty of action. My favorite part of the book is the monsters. Rather than having normal D&D fair such as orcs or hobgblins, the monsters are like something out of a Clive Barker novel. In fact, this is a well done horror/D&D crossover.

[Badger Dubhghaill · Rating 3 out of 5]

apart from the unnecessary sexualisation the rest of the content was acceptable

[Brandt Anderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think a lot of the other 1-3 star reviews echo my feelings on the book. It is kind of all over the place. The style and vibe is different from the usual Forgotten Realms books and not in a good way.

[Kyle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Where do I even begin.

This book feels as if the Forgotten Realms title was slapped onto the author's private project that he didn't want anyone to see but needed to turn in something for work. I am going to break it into things I had problems with throughout.

Krystin- We are introduced to this brat who is nasty to everyone and I feel is the root cause for Myrmeen becoming miserable for the rest of the book. She is a FOURTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL and is called a slut, asked how many men she has been with by her possible mother, and is continuously touched by the 19 year old Ord (we will get to Ord soon, don't worry.) Creepy, right? I can't tell you how many time it states that she is holding something close to her breast. SHE IS 14!! (NOT OK) Now you may mention "Well, this can relate to chest for both sexes, breast is just another way to describe it." HOWEVER the author keeps mentioning how most of the women and how her ^ glisten in the moonlight, sexualizing the area. Not to mention that Krystin is an object of male desire (Reminder, she is 14!!) Continuing on, she had a backstory, then it got erased and replaced with her actual history (which is a lot less exciting mind you) and then she gets enchanted by this *non magical locket*

The locket- So Krystin is literally memorized by it causing her to sneak out later at night and buy the locket (why the bank or the saleswoman was awake where everyone else was asleep I have no idea) and then stares into the locket until it is dawn. She is always thinking about the locket and gets wild when it is taken from her. Does this not scream cursed artifact???? Nope! Later we are told it is NOT MAGICAL, HOWEVER it can return people's memories and tell their future? WHAT.

The apparatus and the glove- So I had constant confusion with what the apparatus was. First of all the world literally means a thing used for another thing. ok so is it the glove? it radiates apparatus energy. Nope it is another thing made out of the light that kills the monsters, but wait the monsters need the apparatus to reproduce so they kidnap babies to turn them into monsters. Yet the light power also kills the monsters? They come on boat, through portals, and are millions of them, yet they want to start families and believe that the humans are the real monsters?

The plot- They wasn't really a identified villain throughout the book until the end. At one point I thought Zeal was going to be to big bag guy, but then her answered to Sixx who didn't know what he wanted throughout the book either. Mostly there was random encounters and illogical choices made by the characters that only put them in more danger. Hell, two characters die and then the book says JK and brings them back for BS reasons, cheapening their lives and deaths.

Ord- Calls Krystin a whore and backhands her, knocking her on the ground, After previously she ignores his advances of touching her mouth and rubbing her hands and arms. Myrmeen literally says, meaningfully, not sarcastically, "Your parents would be very proud of you." HE JUST SMACKED A 14 YEAR OLD.

The monsters- So these things are basically unkillable without the magic not apparatus glove. The Shadower is keeping the magic in check in the glove, yet later on it says that the apparatus magic poisons humans and kills them, except him apparently, who dies, lives, almost dies, then is killed. They can look human and fool everyone, there are millions of them, can transform into whatever, and are everywhere. Sooo they are just trying to blend in and hangout and be friends? What? I hated this idea for Calimport as I have read other books with the city in it.

There is a lot more wrong with this book but I don't want to give this book any more time I wasted on it already. At least #4 in the Harper's series can be accounted for and I never have to look at this monstrosity again. There wasn't a single character I liked in this book. I would never recommend this book unless you are torturing yourself to read all of the Harper's books.

[Sunknight · Rating 1 out of 5]

Save yourself some time and skip this one. A convoluted story with cardboard writing. If you think it's boring listening to someone tell you about their dream, then you certainly don't want to read twenty three chapters of descriptions of dreams and nightmares that are supposed to make this a story. Spoiler here, you never find out where the monstrasities come from. I only finished this book because I'm trying to read the Harpers series. This is not entertaining and I could care less what happened to any of the characters.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, it was not what I expected, but none the less good. I've read other forgotten realms books by this author writen under a pseudonym. This one was much better, though swamped with cliches and overdone wordage I still really liked the ideas in this story. It was very Clive Barker-ish, dark and creepy and full of the stuff of nightmars. If your a fan of the realms, deffinitely worth reading.

[Rhonda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not my favorite Harper's book by far.

[Todd R · Rating 1 out of 5]

50 pages in was all I could take. Ciencin is usually mediocre, but this was unbearable. As I'm trying to read the entire Harpers series, hopefully the next few will be better.

[Cesare Bartolini · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh my.

I read a lot of fantasy, both good and bad, but I don't think this one even qualifies for bad. Arguably, this might be the worst fantasy book I've ever read. Saying why is hard, since it has so many issues, but I'll try to break it down a bit, highlighting the most critical ones, and skipping over the rest.

First off, some considerations about the author. I have already read something from Scott Ciencin. In particular, he was the writer of the first two books of the Avatar series (Shadowdale and Tantras), while the third one (Waterdeep) was written by Troy Denning, all three under the pen name Richard Awlinson. Well, the first two books were so terrible that they were almost incomprehensible, the plot was totally confusing, the characters were meaningless. All this, considering that the trilogy was so critical for the Forgotten Realms setting! The third book does a decent job of setting things a bit right, to the extent that it is possible. Now, just the fact that the third book was given to another author seems awfully indicative that TSR already knew that Ciencin had done a terrible job.

That said, this book has all the flaws of Shadowdale and Tantras. The story is confusing, things happen apparently at random. Things that happen are sometimes explained because the author doesn't know how to make the reader understand it in description (which would be fine at the time of Leiber or Howard, but not in the Nineties). The characters are as emotional as paper dolls, even though the story would offer a lot of opportunity for emotional development. Krystin - a street girl, essentially - meets Myrmeen and a few pages later she is hanging under the skirts of the woman she suddenly believes being her mother, with a surprising outburst of trust.

Trying to look from a wider perspective, those above are not the worst problems in this book.

The story is located in Calimport and its roundabouts, but for what it's worth it could be set in Waterdeep. There is none of the Calishite style, which had been already described in FR3 - Empires of the Sands. The city doesn't have anything different from a general city in the Heartlands. Probably it was set in Calimport to justify that there are no Harpers there, but the city of Calimport itself is not actually used as s relevant setting. Most of the fascination of the Forgotten Realms is that every place is quite unique, and this book fails miserably at that.

The Harpers plot as well is totally irrelevant. Apart from the occasional mention of Twilight Hall or Elminster, the connection with the Harpers is extremely loose, and the characters might be any group of goody-goody adventurers. There is no real reason to discomfort the Harpers in this book, other than having it fit into the Harpers series. In other words, seen from a broader perspective, this is not a book on the Harpers set in Calimport; it is a book on a group of adventurers in a large city, where the Harpers affiliation and Calimport were forcibly put in. It makes me think that Scott Ciencin had written most of this book as a separate project, and since it was not published as it was, it was remodeled by throwing it into some scarcely-known (back then, at least) place in the Forgotten Realms, sticking a Harper pin on the characters' breats, and voilà, someone at TSR approved it.

Finally, concerning the genre. This book is more some sort of fantasy-horror story than pure horror. It is probably influenced by They Live and some conspicuous sci-fi literature about "the monsters that mingle with the normal people" (the same line that later became Men in Black). Setting this kind of horror story in the Forgotten Realms, in general, is not a brilliant idea. The Forgotten Realms are more suited for heroic or epic fantasy. However, if the author is very good, such a story might be groundbreaking, a masterpiece of inventive, turning the roots of the Forgotten Realms setting upside down in a captivating story.

Unfortunately, the author of this book is not up to the task.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

"The Night Parade" is the story of former Harper Myrmeen Lhal who lost her child 14 years ago and her quest to find if the child is truly alive and a prisoner of the Night Parade. As the story unfolds, Myrmeen finds a group of harper and non-harper allies who seek to unfold the mystery of the Night Parade and the evil they bring to Calimport and the greater Forgotten Realms.



There is so much about this book that I wanted to like. The Night Parade was a very Lovecraftian set of villains with powers and abilities that were outside the normal D&D setting. The arcane technology added another level of mystery to the Night Parade, causing you to question if they were demons, creatures of chaos, or something different. The author also did a great job of building the relationships between the party of adventurers, with one exception, so that when a character dies or is injured, you actually feel the 'risk' the party is facing.

Where this book breaks down and becomes super frustrating is the inconsistencies in the larger threat the Night Parade and the relationship between Myrmeen and Krystin, a young woman who may or may not be her daughter. From the start, when Myrmeen and Krystin are 'reunited' their relationship vacillates for no apparent reason from chapter to chapter. In one chapter Krystin is pushing her 'mother' away for some perceived slight and in the next she is being rejected by Myrmeen for a completely unrelated reason. While I appreciate the attempt to layer in mistrust between the two (as it does have a role later in the story), the drama comes off more as a spat between dating teenagers and less about the mistrust the Night Parade might be creating.

The other issue is the powers of the Night Parade itself. Through out the first 80% of the story, the Night Parade is positioned as being supremely powerful, lurking in the shadows of Calimport in the same way a large coven of vampires hides in a major city, feasting on its flock without raising the alarm. Multiple times its implied that so many of the Night Parade are in Calimport, that if they were to all act at once the city would fall with minimal resistance. Then, at the climax of the book, where the Night Parade descends upon a magically induced sleeping population, their power seems to vanish. The heroes (or what's left of them) succeeds in waking the city up and the population of mostly non-adventurer types are suddenly strong enough and coordinated enough to overcome the Night Parade. In one specific section, two of the Night Parade are devouring children when the spell is broken, "A swarm of children engulfed them and dragged them down".

The conclusion of the mystery of Myrmeen's daughter is fine but a little convoluted. Ultimately, a lot of the drama through out the entire book is driven by the characters, good and bad, having the inability to actually communicate with one another.

[Kevin Knapp · Rating 2 out of 5]

First 50-60% of this book was atrocious - just terrible. So many characters, author wasn't properly keeping track of everyone. I almost quit several times.
Plot finally, FINALLY, started gaining traction as it approached the end.
So the last 30% was fairly satisfying, but it was hard to get that far. Story really needed a LOT of work to get off the ground.

[Marvin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ex-Harper and now ruler of a northern city heads south to the desert of Calimshan to find the teenage daughter she'd believed stillborn. The occasional good idea buried in a mound of melodrama and angst, and a plot that seems to string the reader along. Surprising amount of horror stuff happening here for the Realms, if that's your bag.

[Keith Vai · Rating 2 out of 5]

Took a while but I finished. This author has written many DnD book and I just dont like his style.

The bad guys are monsters. They are hideous. They do terrible things to kids. I guess that isnt enough for me anymore. I want a little more detail of why.

Oh well, on to the next book. Unlikely to keep reading books by Mr Ciencin. They just arent for me.

[Matt Littrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm actually giving this one a 3.5. I found it very interesting, and it reminded me a lot of the movie The Thing. It's dark, rather gory, and I found it interesting. There were issues, but overall it was an enjoyable read.

[Ida · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ideas that could have made a nice book gone... nowhere? If you handle it more like an outline, taking out the skeleton, the key factors, and some worthy moments of the books, and then reshape it, you could actually get something good.

[Jason Fawkes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Deathly dull FR novel, with attempted dark overtones. Weirdly, it has a character called Lucius and a shapechanging theme, just like the Classical Roman wirk the Golden Ass, which I read immediately beforehand.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not too bad. I read without reading any of the others and wasn't too difficult to follow, like would I miss the background info on characters.

[BRANDON · Rating 3 out of 5]

Night Parade wasn't what I was expecting. It's definitely full of surprises. It's not my favorite Harper's book so far, but it was worth the read.

[Sean Adams · Rating 2 out of 5]

Adequate

Hard to get through. Engaging but stupid villains, protagonists that are one dimensional. Book does not hold up well in 2021.

[Mark OConnell · Rating 1 out of 5]

just bad

bad bad bad really bad. i hate to critique someones hard work like this- but it was bad...so bad, bad.

[Tiago Campany · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very confusing e the payoff is terrible.

[Hugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent read. Myrmeen seems to appear in other Forgotten Realms novels.

[Kevin Zuech · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is probably my least favorite of the Harpers series so far. The characters are ok. The plot is ok but at least unique. Myrmeen Lhal finds out from her ex that her daughter from 14 years earlier wasn't dead but really sold to the Night Parade who is a group of creatures of nightmares that most believe are just something made up to scary kids. Myrmeen and her Harper friends go to check out the claim. They find out it is true and find the girl they believe is her daughter is still alive and eventually find a person that can lead them to her. The rest is pretty predictable and not really exciting. Almost everyone dies and the girl isn't her daughter. I would real give this a 3.5 but I rounded up since you can't.

[Matt]

***A starred rating has been purposefully avoided.***

I'm a stubborn and dedicated reader. I've only put down one other book that I refuse to finish. In both cases the books are about characters I care absolutely nothing about. And worst of all, they are boring.

I tried hard to get into this one. I'm usually a fan of Forgotten Realms books. And I always know going in that the writing is going to be so-so, the character development will most likely be forced, and the love story will feel as authentic as a porno. But I'm a sucker for the fantastical stories set in Faerûn , the make-believe land that Ed Greenwood created to host Advanced Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. His proficiency at world-building has made the Forgotten Realms universe feel as real to me as any other foreign land in our own true world. But unlike most of the books in this series that make me feel transported to another dimension, this book felt, for the lack of a better term, withholding .

I'm not sure who should be blamed for the final product that is The Night Parade. The author doesn't help himself out at all. He frequently uses the passive voice. He often repeats the same word immediately after just writing it above. The reader was not provided with any real sense of the characters' internal motivations. It often feels like important exposition was left out by accident. The antagonist is boring and the reason behind the existence of the Night Parade was never fully explained. At least not during the first half of the book.

I tried to hold on, hoping that it would get better, but life is too short . I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. The only reason I see for reading it is if you have chosen to stubbornly plod through the entire Forgotten Realms series for the sole purpose of being able to say that you have. But seriously, these are Forgotten Realms books. Who exactly do you plan on bragging to about your accomplishment? And the worst part about this book is that it doesn't even feel like a Forgotten Realms story.

Maybe a reason to read a book such as this one is that it really forces you to realize just how difficult writing truly is. The ability to write prose that flows, to write about characters that a reader will care about, to continue to develop those characters throughout the book, to establish motivation for those characters, to maintain a conscientious pace for the action to unfold...These are very difficult things to accomplish!!!

I applaud this author for trying and put much of the blame on his editor and publisher. They should have helped him to smooth out the rough edges of what could have been a fun read. However, they failed him miserably. And everyone involved in allowing this book to be put out in the state it was at the time of publication should've been fired .

[CJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Myrneen, ruler of Arabel is haunted by nightmares of her missing daughter, presumed dead, rallies her former friends and Harpers to help her search for said daughter.

I see a lot of review bashing the book, and some are for good reasons. Gaps do exist in the story and some of the character development is light. However, the entire plot being a horror fantasy, is pretty decent attempt to try in the Forgotten Realms, so I given some grace for trying something different within the setting. The book continues to mess with your mind as it continues the use of messing with memories as a way for the antagonist to push the narrative. There are a lot of characters introduced and overall I think the Author did a decent job keeping track of each. Scott also isn't afraid to kill of characters, which was nice. A better payoff would have been nice, but its an FR book and we've only got 300 pages to use.

3.5 Overall