Forged

by Thomas M. Reid

by Thomas M. Reid For visitors to the Forge, arriving has always been far easier than returning home. But the moment Lyrien Ves tiral is ripped unwillingly from his homeland from the woman he has pledged to protect and deposited in this strange, rich tapestry of a world, he intends to escape. The only problem is, someone in the Forge has other plans for him. Seeking both a means of escape and the identity of those who would prevent it, Lyrien quickly finds himself a pawn in the plots of some of the Forge s most conniving schemers. As he struggles to disentangle himself from their subtle games, Ves tiral becomes torn between a need to fulfill his duty back home and a growing bond with the mysterious, effusive world that is reshaping his very being, tempering him for a role that just might transform the land itself. Forged is the first novel for the Oathbound setting, unveiling a tableau of the domains of the Forge that is rich as well as vast. Discover this unique setting and its enigmatic inhabitants through the eyes of a traveler struggling to find both himself and his way home and being forever changed by it.

Genres: Fantasy

320 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2003

About the author

Thomas M. Reid grew up in Dallas, Texas as an enthusiastic Dungeons & Dragons player. He performed at Switzerland's Montreux Jazz Festival with his high school jazz band. After obtaining a degree in history at the University of Texas in 1989, he moved to Wisconsin and began working for TSR, Inc., a Dungeons & Dragons publisher, then moved on to be an editor for Dragon, a Dungeons & Dragons magazine. Not long after, he moved back to Texas to be a freelance roleplaying game writer.

Reviews

[Trevor · Rating 4 out of 5]

With the new Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition rules came a lot of new faces to the DnD industry. One of those new faces is Bastion Press with there campaign setting Oathbound. I have heard several good things about the Oathbound setting but didn't feel it warranted the $40 purchase for the main book, especially if I found out that it wasn't to my liking. Then Bastion decided to publish an independent novel that takes place in this new campaign setting. This is that novel. And actually this is only the first of a trilogy, which will be published one book per year for the next two years. I couldn't justify the $40 but perhaps a $10 novel would satisfy my curiosity enough to help me decide if the new campaign setting would work for me or my gaming club.

After 40 or so pages into the book I was mortified by the fact that several of the pages in the first part of the book had separated from the cover! And considering how carefully I read mass market paperbacks (you'll never see a crease in the spine of a book that has only been read by me) this was most unacceptable.

However, the quality of the story and the writing easily kept me going enough to finish this book (praying all the while that the bindings would last).

The book follows the basic premise of a standard campaign in Oathbound. The character is magically drawn from their native home/plane and end up on a world called Forge. The character has to adapt to several new concepts (i.e. heightened senses and emotions, magic, magical creatures, people of exotic races, and the world itself). Along the way the character interacts with several other characters and has to accept his new 'way of life.'

The author has a good grasp on storytelling skills and pacing. His story was rather graphic, but nothing that any other fantasy novel hasn't already covered. Actually his forthright nature was very appealing, mostly due to the rarity of such a style in today’s day and age, everyone seems preoccupied with symbolism or some such, as opposed to just stated what they mean.

I don't wish to give any of the concepts of the book away so as to avoid spoiling the freshness of the new campaign setting for someone like myself, who wanted to see what Oathbound was all about. I am fairly certain that for those of you that know Oathbound, the book will be a fair representation of the world.

All in all I would heartily recommend this book to any gamer and would also argue that any good reader of fantasy would be appreciative of this novel. Now to see if the other two books in this trilogy make for a good read as well.