Karanlık Ruhlar Gobleni

Ravenloft #5

by Elaine Bergstrom

Bir yetim, yetiştiği manastırın dışındaki dünyayı, keşişlerin her düşüncesini ve davranışlarını yönlendiren goblenden korkmayan bir dünyayı öğrenmek ister.

Ancak gerçek kimliğini keşfettiğinde, en çok değer verdiği şeyleri yok etmekten kendini alabilecek midir?

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Fiction, Dungeons and Dragons, Dark Fantasy, Forgotten Realms, Science Fiction Fantasy

283 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1993

About the author

Elaine Bergstrom is a Milwaukee-based novelist whose writing melds vampire, romance, mystery and, always, suspense.

Her first published piece of fiction was her first novel, Shattered Glass (1989). It introduced the character of the immortal Stephen Austra and artist Helen Wells, a victim of polio, along with Stephen's family of vampires who are “born not created and have an abhorrance for coffins, particulary their own.” The novel was a critical success, a consistent favorite with readers of adult-oriented vampire fiction. Bergstrom has written six novels in the Austra series, including Daughter of the Night, which featured Elizabeth Bathory as a half-breed Austra vampire. Beyond Sundown, the newest book in the Austra series, released early in 2011. The Violin, a novella, in 2012. Most are in print. All are available on Amazon kindle or through the author's website www.elainebergstrom.com

Using her grandmother's name, Marie Kiraly, Bergstrom wrote a sequel to Dracula called Mina ... The Dracula Story Continues, and its sequel, Blood to Blood ... The Dracula Story Continues, which both look at Mina Harker as a woman changed by her experience in Transylvania, struggling to find her way in the repressive Victorian society. Both were featured in the Science Fiction Book Club and Doubleday Book Club.

For the novel Madeline ... After the Fall of Usher, she adopted Poe’s journalistic style to tell a story in which the details of the last few months of Poe’s life are correct, with her own fictional story overlaid on them.


J. Gordon Melton (The Vampire Encyclopedia) notes that Shattered Glass contains "one of the most horrific scenes in vampire literature." (less)

Reviews

[Ανδρέας Μιχαηλίδης · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is very telling that it took me around 6 months to finish a book of around 300 pages. It wasn't the only one I was reading, but still.

First off, it is quite uneven on many levels. The first part, the testament of Leith, is about what you'd expect from a Ravenloft novel: eerie and interestingly tragic (although there are inconsistencies here as well, such as how a knife sharpener overpowered a former assassin twice his size, whose fighting prowess is extolled in the second half of the book, never mind the reality of bleeding from a cut throat). The second part, Jonathan's tale, is a mess. Characterization is all over the place and inconsistent, scenes change confusingly or at times defying all logic. From a point on, there is no rhyme or reason to the characters' actions - at least, none that is ever described, let alone their inner turmoil that might be at the root of the matter. Furthermore, for having been introduced as such involved creatures, the Three Hags of Tepest remain stunningly neutral throughout most of the events. Finally, Morgoth? Really? The main villain (an evil, sort of vampiric wizard) is ripped-off right from Tolkien?

On the other hand, the book serves the reason why I started reading it perfectly: it provided ample background for the town of Linde, Tepestani culture, the relations between the locals and the people of dreaded Gundarak, the concept of migration etc. I got a dozen ideas for my campaign just from the parts describing everyday life and the seasonal festivals.

I have said before that D&D novels are not any form of high literature, but this one is a truly shoddy patchwork, although I will disagree with those who have criticized it for gratuitous atrocities and having people easily succumb to evil. I would remind the potential reader that this is Ravenloft, whose very essence is darkness, but our actual Dark Ages were not terribly different.

If you are looking for a good story, chances are you will not find it here. If you are looking for background and setting, it's definitely there.

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 2 out of 5]

Della mia insana passione per Ravenloft ho già parlato più che abbondantemente in un'altra recensione quindi non mi dilungherò oltre.
Diciamo solo che questo non è decisamente il più avvincente romanzo ispirato all'ambientazione horror-gotica di Dungeons & Dragons... e che chiamare il villain principale MORGOTH denota decisamente una mancanza di originalità da parte dell'autrice.
Magari mi sbaglierò e voleva solo essere un omaggio a Tolkien... meh :/

[Mpauli · Rating 3 out of 5]

With the release of the new Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft D&D supplement as well as the fantastic YT series by The Black Dice Society set in the gothic horror setting of Ravenloft, I was craving a novel set in one of the Dark Domains.

Tapestry of Dark Souls was initially released in 1993 and I think would might have been edited differently, if it had come out today.
This is not a good or bad thing per se, as it offers a very interesting structure.
The first third of the book is told in first person by Leith, a woman who comes to the lands of Tepest with her husband and gets involved with the story of the Tapestry of Dark Souls, a mysterious piece of cloth guarded by an ancient order of monks.

After the first third the main protagonist pov shifts to her son Jonathan. With the switch in character, we also switch to a third person narrative.
But spread throughout the book, we also get some glimpses into povs of side characters, mainly to reveal their tragic back stories.

So, from one point of view this makes the novel very unique and "fresh", but on the other hand it's also rather messy and sometimes held me back from being completely immersed in the tale.
It also doesn't help to bond with the main character, when he is only introduced at the 40% mark.

Nonetheless there is fun to be had with the novel. Ancient spells, lycanthropes, nasty goblins and some emotional highlights are all to be found inside the 320 pages.
I was also very fond of the rather creative idea of the tapestry itself.

So, overall, if you're looking for an old-school fantasy horror novel or some atmospherical inspiration for your own tabletop campaign Tapestry of the Dark Soul does its job.
If you're looking for a hidden gem from the last millenium, you might want to set your sights on other targets.

Solid 3 stars for me.

[Joel · Rating 2 out of 5]

While this has some great ideas in it, particularly the titular Tapestry and its guardians, it just didn't demand my attention in the same way that the other Ravenloft novels I've read have managed to do, at least not until the later chapters. For me, this one just doesn't come together well.

[Beth M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lazy and contrived. Could have really benefited from an editor, both for grammar and continuity. It would have benefited even more from having a completely different author who has a basic grasp of characterization. Characters switched their moods, alliances, and goals at the drop of a hat without any explanation. I was never sure who to root for, who to empathize with, or who to hate except for the “Silver Lord” and even he showed aspects of humanity sometimes.

Entire portions of this story made no sense and at times contradicted itself, which had me constantly backtracking to see if I’d misremembered something or if the author had.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the dialogue was stilted. No one had a consistent voice except for Maeve, who was the only interesting person in this entire story, and Sondra, who despite her best attempts and my wishes, would not die.

In the end we never got confirmation of either woman's fate, which is hardly a surprise because the entire story’s conclusion was at best vague and at worst, malformed.

I was also genuinely surprised at the lack of depth in this novel. This being a D&D based book off of the Ravenloft setting (more accurately this is based off of the Shadowlands, as Barovia is never mentioned) means that much of the heavy lifting around worldbuilding is already done for the author. Yet as a person with slightly more than a passing knowledge of the lore of these lands, I found the book bereft of the culture and mystery of the people who dwell there which left this story a flaccid representation of the sheer depth these worlds offer. I know this was published in 2007, but older editions of player guides and splash books based on Ravenloft existed even then. So what happened here? I guess we'll never know.

It’s surprising to me that this author has written other books because at the most basic level this is, at best, of the same quality as fanfiction written by a middle schooler.

Nit pick: continued use of the term “beasties” was incredibly annoying. Just say beasts. Or monsters. Or goblins, since that’s the only thing this was ever referring to.

Two stars only because it started out promising, but flopped and landed on its ass quickly.

[Sugarpop · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is separated into 3 parts, each dedicated to another character.
It might as well have been two. Despite what the parts tell you, the second starred Jonathan more than it did the Silverlord.
The first part was brilliant. It was innovative, it was well written, it was beautiful. Leith was a charimsatic protagonist and her story was intriguing. Her connection with Maeve was fascinating to read about and it felt very sapphic for a story written in the early 1990s.
Then everything the first part did is destroyed by shifting to a 3rd person narrative and focusing on her bore of a son. There could not be a more conventional protagonist. Jonathan was a bore and felt so lackluster, I would have rather read Twilight than his side of the story.
I wished for the book to end with each chapter that passed and after he freed his father, the book became even worse. The story also feels very misogynistic starting with the second part.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

At least this one actually had my attention

[Jason Panella · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are a couple of surprisingly good spots, but for the most part this novel is a hodge-podge of half-formed ideas and obligatory fantasy tropes. Those few good spots were enough to make it worth a read, though.

[Roger Senra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tiene buen comienzo, pero luego la narrativa deja mucho que desear. La autora es descriptiva en ciertos momentos y muy escueta en otros, especialmente los que tiene que ver con Magia o cuestiones sobrenaturales. Fue entretenido, pero pudo haber sido mejor.

[Gem · Rating 1 out of 5]

boring

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tapestry of Dark Souls by Elaine Bergstrom This is the fifth book released in the Ravenloft line of novels that is based of the Ravenloft setting of the pen and paper role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons. It was also released in 2007 under the Ravenloft: The Covenant line of novels. This is also a stand-alone novel and can be read without any prior knowledge of the setting or events. Elaine Bergstrom has written one other Ravenloft novel which is titled Baroness of Blood. She wrote the Austra Family series (Shattered Glass, Blood Alone, Blood Rites, Daughter of the Night, and Nocturne), two books that continue the Dracula story titled Mina and Blood to Blood, and wrote a novel titled The Door Through Washington Square. She wrote two novels under the name Marie Kiraly titled Leanna: Possession of a Woman and Madeline: After the Fall of User. She also contributed a few short stories to various anthologies. Tapestry of Dark Souls was originally released in March 1993 and published by TSR, Inc. it was re-released in June 2007 and published then by Wizards of the Coast LLC. However, this book is hard to find and you'll likely need to pick it up used.

An order of monks are tasked to keep safe an object of unspeakable evil. The object, a tapestry, lures those of evil intentions to its threads, absorbing them. The order of monks, The Guardians, are the only line of defense against the tapestry's power. However, when a couple mysteriously arrive in the land known as Markovia they are drawn to the tapestry. After successfully stealing the tapestry, the couple make their way to the neighboring country of Tepest. Upon arriving the wife, Leith, finds out that her husband, Vhar, stole the tapestry. She becomes possessed by it, almost killing her husband and escapes to try to return the tapestry, but not before it consumes Vhar. As she makes her way back, she encounters a wolf which bites her. Even with the bite, she manages to make it back, but the tapestry has other plans for her. With the help of the Guardians, she recovers. She returns to Tepest and discovers she is pregnant. After a horrific experience, she runs to the safety of the Guardians and after having her child, she vanishes. The child, Jonathan, may be the Guardians only chance of controlling and stopping the tapestry. However, he may be the one to release its evil into the world.

Criticisms:
1) Slow. The biggest issue with Tapestry of Dark Souls is how slowly everything progresses. It wasn't until the last fifty or so pages that the book became hard to set down for too long. For the most part, the novel took it's time to build up the atmosphere and the setting. However, because of this, even during the most action heavy, faster paced scenes seemed to go on for far longer than they should have. Even with a story that was really interesting, and at times engaging, it felt as though nothing was happening. There were even times that when something important was about to happen, it felt like it was drawn out for pages. There were times when I felt as though the novel would never end. With the pacing being this slow, it was hard to get the motivation to read.
2) Father's Parts. This is a minor complaint but it did annoy me after the first use. The book is split into three sections, which tells the tale of the person the section was named after. For the first section it focuses on Leith and the second section focuses on Jonathan. It's in the second section that before each chapter, a little italicize paragraph is written from the view of Jonathan's father. At first, these were clever and built up the father's character. However, they soon became rambling affairs of the same thing being re-said over and over. It became annoying and quickly took away from the overall feel the chapter and story were trying to convey. There were times when it would spoil some future events. These sections of text become annoying and boring quickly.

Praises:
1) Characters. The characters were all very interesting, to say the least. Each character had their own motivations and they never really seemed to be generic creations (with a few exceptions). Each character seemed to be a new person with their own agendas and plans. Also, each character played an important part of the overall story. For example, Leith showed us how powerful and seductive the tapestry can be. She also seemed to go through the most change. She started off as a 'good wife', doing as her husband asked but we quickly see her change, due mostly to the tapestry. Then after that ordeal, she goes to live with a bard by the name of Maeve and we start to see another side of Leith. While Leith goes through the most change, the others are no less unique. With the main character, Jonathan we see his loyalties switch from those who raised him to his father, his struggle with power and the consequences of that power, and how he treats those he loves. With the rest of the cast of characters, they all felt like they belonged there and played an important role in the story.
2) Story. The story was very interesting. I didn't know what to expect before reading Tapestry of Dark Souls nor could I guess at the things to come. The first part of the story that focused on Leith never really felt straightforward, and kept me guessing on what is going to happen from chapter to chapter and scene to scene. With the second part, focusing on Jonathan, it felt like an almost different story. We see how he grows and develops into a power spell-caster with an uncertain future. With the third part, the stories merge and everything comes to a head. The three parts all seem to progress naturally, with nothing seeming to be forced in to help move the plot along.
3) Atmosphere. Tapestry of Dark Souls had an atmosphere that was very unlike previous Ravenloft novels. This is the darkest, most depressing book in the Ravenloft line to this point. While it still had the Gothic horror feel, there was a darker, more sinister ring to the story. The things that occur in this book, along with what some of the characters do, are really disturbing and frightening. All these things create a setting so vile, so wrong that it felt right. After reading the first four books in the Ravenloft series, nothing really seemed to be all that terrifying. There were times in those books that were, but with Tapestry of Dark Souls everything seems terrifying. You start to worry about villagers that go out into the woods, knowing that they probably will never return. Everything helps build the setting as something terrifying, and that no one is truly untouched by evil.


Side Notes:
1) Mature Subjects. This book does contain some very disturbing and mature subjects. TO be more specific, there is rape and infanticide.
2) Were-creatures. I didn't know that if your father was a werewolf and your mother was another kind of were-creature that you would have the ability to transform into either form.
3) Cover Art. The original cover art is pretty bland. You have one of the Guardians holding up the tapestry and that's about it. The Guardian and the tapestry do look nice, but in a generic way. The background is what bothers me the most. It's just a window, and I feel like there should have been something in the skyline. However, I do like the subtle faces that you see in the tapestry, those are a nice touch. As for the re-release cover it's bad. It's bland. There's too much white in the background and the figure in the center (is it Jonathan?) looks plain stupid. The tapestry's still there but it looks so bland and boring. Overall, the original cover art is better by a long shot, but it's still generic.

Overall: 4/5
Final Thoughts:
Tapestry of Dark Souls is good, yet disturbing. The way the plot progresses is way too slow and at times I did become bored with an otherwise interesting story. If the pacing would have been a little faster, it would have been a very enjoyable read. The characters were all very interesting. They all fit their roles and they were all unique from one another. The story was very enjoyable as well. It kept me guessing at what is going to happen and everything tied together nicely. However, the Father's view in Jonathan's scenes quickly became boring and annoying. Even with the few spoilers that were given from those scenes, the story still held my attention. Also, this story didn't feel like the previous Ravenloft stories. Instead this seemed more evil, more like a horror novel. All in all, would I recommend you picking this story up? It depends. If you can get past some of the more mature themes, and like horror than yes, otherwise it's best to avoid Tapestry of Dark Souls.

[Mikaël · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is generic but interesting enough, and takes place over the span of two generations, which is bonus points in my book so by all means this should have been a pretty enjoyable watch, but there's one problem.. there's not a single likeable character in the entire book

Who am I supposed to root for? A bunch of secretive old men who doom the land to evil with their superficial worship? A village of hard workers who seem nice and welcoming at first, but turn out to be a bunch of ritualistic cannibals? The main protag who's just a typical horny teenager on a power trip? The BBEG who's evil by nature and is forced to commit genocide just from existing, but who's able of respecting his underlings and granting their requests if they're reasonable, and whose main goal is simply to free his homies who have been imprisoned for decades? Close, but there's one more character

The Beast Lord, who's never shown and is only mentioned by name once in the entire story, and whose only goal in life seems to be creating furries in the background and not bother anyone or affect the story in any way. There's the only even remotely likeable character in the book, and he's technically not even in it

[I.D. · Rating 2 out of 5]

A woman comes to a small town with her husband, gets knocked up by a spirit trapped in a tapestry, gives birth, then allows herself to be absorbed into the same cloth. Then her son gets trained by the guardian monks, grows up, learns magic, gets engaged, then lets his ghost dad out of the cloth. Ghost dad is evil and starts killing everyone until there’s a big climax involving zombies and lightning magic.
This book was scattered, unfocused, with wild character changes, too much going on, and some really corny bits (everyone calling monsters beasties). It kept changing who was driving the narrative and ultimately was barely about the titular tapestry. Instead of being about monks guarding an evil cloth it instead has were foxes, hags, ritual sacrifice, wine making, small town romances, brushed over lesbian undertones, goblin infestations, zombies, wizards, ghost dads, Dr Moreau style hybrid people, fireball magic, and pregnancy issues. For all that stuff crammed inside, it still managed to be boring and about barely anything at all. You never got a sense of how this even fit in Ravenloft. Overall definitely the worst of the books in the series so far despite a cool premise.

[Meg · Rating 2 out of 5]

nnnnNnah



Was interested in reading some d&d books. Was interested in the Ravenloft setting. This one supposedly has "the first lesbian couple in d&d". WHERE?? This book was written in the 1990s, not the 1890s, "friends" does not a lesbian couple make. That's not even my main gripe though. When the narrative switched in the second and third parts, the pacing and style fell apart.

10/10 would not recommend reading past the first part. Or any of it.

[Steven Wendell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty good dark tale. Reminded me of a folk story in some ways.

Starts with a good origin story and jumps right into the main storyline after that. This story has a lot of The Brothers Grimm vibes going on. A fortress with a reclusive Order guarding a dark secret, a colorful village on the edge of a dangerous forest, WERE creatures, etc. It's a good read and the characters are pretty well thought out and interact well together in the story.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the book while it isn't about any main character in Ravenloft I think it was a good read worth my time. The tapestry was a very interesting artifact/magic item. Though it does read in 3 parts from 3 different characters perspectives it's still a good read. Morgoth is a very different vampire compared to Strahd.

[Jasher Drake · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who doesn’t love a tragic little gothic horror?

Really dug the three-part layout of this story with the focus on different characters each time, but it did seem to lose its momentum a little bit in the middle.

Great conclusion though, and Morgoth was a super memorable villain (even if his name was directly stolen from Lord of the Rings haha).

[Sarah Ehinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like that pretty much all of the characters are flawed in the recent series. The dark world often makes the characters seem more real. This offering seemed to have story gaps for me, but was still enjoyable.

[Dubzor · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

This was much better than it should have been. It's definitely a gothic horror novel, bleak, dour, and full of death. It loses points for sexual assault though, which is never acceptable as a plot device in my opinion. Other than that, good stuff. It was hard to put down.

[Nuno · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars, somewhere between "it was ok" and "I liked it". There were several interesting characters but the downside of that is that they just weren't as internally developed as I would have liked them to be. The tapestry itself is a cool idea.

[Michael T Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Elaine's writing isn't terrible, but I just can't find myself caring about an evil tapestry. I gave it the college try, but even after like 40 pages it just feels silly and the POV character is dull as hell.

[Scott Hibberson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this one, but just found the central characters too one dimensional and difficult to like. The plot is interesting and Maeve is a good portrayal, but I found myself wanting to finish this one and move on to the next (and hopefully better) read.

[hotsake (André Troesch) · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75/5

The story was a decent one, but the writing was lacking. Almost nothing was shown to be happening; everything was explained. If this were a movie, this would've been an example of a tell, not show story.

[Kas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The BEST ONE yet, also better than like any horror book I've read in the last five years 🙃🎉

[Angelo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yuck

[Scott McCloskey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've heard that this book is considered by some to be too filled with random acts of depravity to actually be considered a readable novel. Not really seeing that. It has a definitive plot like any other novel of a similar genre. There are certainly a few evil acts throughout, but...it's a Ravenloft novel. There's at least one or two scenes where it is inferred that children were killed, but...all of these scenes are only inferences -- no actual details of the act. In a zombie apocalypse novel, we have to assume that people in all walks of life have been brutally killed, but we don't hear about it. It's just inferred. At any rate, the story covers two generations of the same family which I feel gives the book an epic feel.

[Tristan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Next to Vampire of the Mists, Knight of the Black Rose and I, Strahd, this is my favorite book in the Ravenloft series.
I liked the idea of the Tapestry that contained evil souls. The main character Leith, starting out as a peasant who is not adept at fighting, the fact that nobody really is trustworthy, all that makes Tapestry of Dark Souls really stand out. What Tapestry does better than any other Ravenloft book, including the ones I highlighted is the atmosphere: Tepest really feels like an eerie place that doesn't just have cheap jump scares to convey that.
It also is by far the darkest of the Ravenloft series: a high bodycount that doesn't even shy away from infanticide albeit not in a cheap, overly gory way.

[Jeff Waltersdorf · Rating 2 out of 5]

The next novel in the old Ravenloft game fiction line, which I'm reading as background information for the game I'm running.

The titular MacGuffin is a cloth that imprisons people, sort of a DnD-equivalent to the Phantom Zone. An order of monks guard it, some folks try to steal it, and something nasty inside wants out.

Previous novels in the line stumbled around, but generally came to life when the Ravenloft Dark Lords popped in. No such luck here. Characters are somewhere on an axis of "uninteresting" to "repugnant", and everybody seems to be magic users, werecritters, or victims (or some combination of the three).

Not too much to mine here for gaming purposes.

[PRJ Greenwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fast paced and fun but I'm still not sure what I read just now. I know it involved a vampiric cloth, a bunch of monks, a lot of lovelorn young people, hags and -- wait for it -- a villain named Morgoth. Morgoth? OK, whatever...but as I said, it was brain candy and fun. I'm just not sure what kind of fun this book actually provided.

[Necropenguin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dull at times, but not bad. A little too cliche in some aspects.

An easy read, for the most part. No complicated fantasy names, which is odd.

Basically, don't go out of your way to read this, unless you're a Ravenloft completist.