Blackstaff

The Wizards #1

by Steven Schend

Khelben Arunsun, Chosen of Mystra, Archmage of Waterdeep, is as close to a demigod as you're likely to meet on the streets of Faerûn's mightiest city. But when the skies rain lightning and a long-forgotten city arises from the earth, he can seem like just another wizard.

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

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 11, 2006

Reviews

[Christian Boustead · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book from the first few pages and could hardly put it down. I have always been a fan of Forgotten realms and seeing how Steve transforms statted spells and monsters into parts of the world and then paint them with colour in the story is brilliant. I particularly love the different staffs and the wolf axe. When it comes to the characters they are well drawn and have the right amounts of complications and depths. The relationship between SSeara and her familiar is beautifully drawn and I love that too. I would recommend it to anyone even those who are not fans of D&D and forgotten realms. Though it does help if you have some knowledge of the realms history such as Myth Drannor. All in all a great book that I know I will read again and again. thanks Steeve.

[Travis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Blackstaff by Steven E. Schend- This is the first book in a stand-alone series called The Wizards. The second book is Bloodwalk by James P. Davis, the third is Darkvision by Bruce R. Cordell, and the final book is Frostfell by Mark Sehestedt. With this series, each book is a separate entity and the only theme to mention is that each novel revolves around wizards and magic. Blackstaff is set in the Forgotten Realms universe of the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons. This is Steven E. Schend's first full length novel. His second novel is titled Blackstaff Tower and is part of the Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep series of stand-alone novels. Steven E. Schend has written a number of short stories and articles in various anthologies and magazines. Blackstaff was released in 2006 and published by Wizards of the Coast.

Khelben “Blackstaff” Arunsun has lived for centuries due to being one of Mystra's (the goddess of magic) Chosen and is one of Faerun's most powerful mages to ever walk the world. He's the archmage of the coastal city of Waterdeep and has protected it for countless centuries. All that's about to change. After an experimental spell goes awry, Khelben finds himself linked with two of his apprentices. His one apprentice's body is destroyed due to the spell while the other can't go to far from Khelben else she dies. What's worse is that this apprentice, Tsarra, gets flashes of Khelben's past, which is something better left alone. As the duo try to find a way to stop this from happening and to save Tsarra's life, an old rival of Khelben's appears and causes havoc that could destroy the Sword Coast. Can Khelben and Tsarra separate their minds and stop the rival from killing thousands, if not millions?

Criticisms:
1) Characters. There are quite a few major problems with the characters in this book. First off, there are just too many of them. It seemed like every other page a new person was introduced who was either never mentioned again or comes back late in the story. There are a few problems with this. The first is that we don't know who these people are. Sure you may recognize a few people here and there, but new readers (who I think would be the target of a stand-alone novel) would be totally lost. Heck, even people familiar with the Realms would be hard pressed to know who is who. The other problem with this is that you don't know who is who. There are so many people with similar looking names that you can easily switch up people. It really ruins the immersion factor. Another problem with the characters is that they are just plain wooden and shallow. There is really only one person that has depth to them and everyone else is just lifeless and boring. Tsarra's only characteristic is her sudden mood changes and that does get old really fast. Raegar, a rogue who is Tsarra's love interest, has times were he is an interesting character but is ruined by the whole love interest aspect, which I'll get into more detail later. Nameless, Tsarra's familiar (wizardly companion), could have been one of the better main characters of the group, other than Khelben. However, that's not saying much. He's a flying cat and is really a one trick pony. I'm not even going to bother with the side characters or the main villain because they were all forgettable and almost pointless. The villain never did feel menacing and he didn't even have a presence. The side characters were just background noise most of the time. All in all, I think the characters are one of the two things that really ruin this story.
2) Plot. The other thing that ruins it is the plot. This book as the distinct honor (or dishonor) of having not enough plot but at the same time having too much of it. What I mean is, there isn't a solid plot and everything just didn't make any sense. First off we have the whole Tsarra and Khelben link issue which I thought would have made a great story, but it seemed like it was mostly forgotten. It was mostly forgotten because of the other main plot about the destruction of the Sword Coast, which really ruined everything that the story had going for it. This plot felt like it was added because someone realized that the whole Khelben/ Tsarra storyline wasn't going to last for a full book. So they decided to add a boring, confusing mess to an already boring and confusing mess. Honestly, I still don't know if I summarized the story correctly from the above summary, and I don't even know what exactly the whole point of the story was. To make matters worse, nothing is explained. Khelben has this lovely habit of not telling anyone what is going on, leaving the story's characters and the reader in the dark about pretty much everything. There was no real chance of using logic to figure out what was going to happen because it was so vague. I can't even accurately describe what I'm trying to get across because the story was just a mess, a very bad mess.
3) Love Interest. I will give the story this little credit before I get into the horrible love interest, Khelben and Laeral (his true love , wife, and a fellow Chosen) had a touching and deeply personal relationship that I did enjoy reading about. That being said, the Tsarra/ Raegar interest was awful. At no time did I sense a connection between these characters, other than lust. But the story and the comments characters were making seemed to make them out to be soul mates. At first, I didn't have a major problem with this. But when the book hit the point where Tsarra or Raegar was looking at each other with love in their eyes (or whatever it was) and I just wanted to throw this book into a fire and just let it burn. It was grating and painful to read. It may have been different if the duo knew each other for more than maybe half a day, but that's as long as they knew one another. Honestly, I would rather read a Twilight novel for a better romance story then have to deal with this pointless “romance”.
4) Tears. This is a more personal annoyance I had with the book. Everyone cries at the drop of a pin for almost no reason. The worst example of this is late in the book when someone (I don't know who) looks across and sees someone else and just bursts into tears. Really? Why? They weren't dying or injured (as far as I could tell). Did an epiphany suddenly hit them? Or did this just realize they were in a horrid novel? I'm leaning towards the latter. It was just annoying seeing on almost every third page someone having tears in their eyes. This is what broke me. After this point in the book, I just didn't care and I knew that this book was a huge waste of time.

Praises:
1) Khelben. He was the only character I liked. His relationship with Laeral was just beautiful and you can sense the love between them. He's the only character that went through any sort of real development, yet he didn't let his emotions overcome him too much (like the insipid and overly emotional Tsarra). When we saw some of Khelben's past through visions that Tsarra was given, we got a good look at who Khelben is and how he came to be. Honestly, this book should have centered more around him and his past, while allowing the books real ending to still happen. I just enjoyed Khelben immensely.

Side Notes:
1) Lore. This book was full of Realms lore and terms, but with absolutely no explanation or real clues to what half of these things are or meant. It almost felt like I was reading a guidebook to Dungeons and Dragons.
2) Magic. I have to say that when there was a magical fight it was handled pretty well and was semi exciting. The only problem is that everything felt overpowered and unstoppable. I don't like that.
3) Cover Art. I really like it. You have Khelben doing an awesome and heroic pose that takes up the cover and you see the nice outline of the Sword Coast and Waterdeep in the background. It's a really interesting and good cover.

Overall: 1/5
Final Thoughts:
Blackstaff can be summed up in three words: boring and confusing. The plot is so confusing and it never seems like it knows where it's going. The characters are boring and almost lifeless and the love interest between Tsarra and Raegar was awful. I still don't understand how someone could tear up for no real reason. Too many references with no explanation is a bad, terrible thing. Not even the Blackstaff, himself, could save this book from being down right terrible. It's one of the worst Forgotten Realms books I've ever read and one of the worst books I've ever wasted my time on. The worst part is, this is my second read through. The first took me about a month and this took about a week and a half. It's just boring. So do I recommend this? What do you think? No. I don't. At all. But if you're interested in Khelben or a huge Forgotten Realms database of knowledge by all means, waste a good day or so of your life on this. If you're not one of those people, stay as far away from this abomination as humanly possible. This sure is a great way to start a series...

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steven E. Schend knows the Forgotten Realms and it shows in this novel that features famous Waterdeep mage Khelben Arunson and his half-elf student Tsarra as they travel far and wide solving a mystery amidst their own spell induced accident involving many colorful and fascinating players and characters throughout the rich tapestry of the highly detailed and involved setting of the Dungeons & Dragons based world.
Nameless the winged cat familiar is one among many characters that always put a smile on my face. The author devotes plenty of space to the fleshing out of both major and minor characters and the book kept my attention.
Well done indeed!

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots and lots of lore. Magic galore. Fantasy for those who like it stuffed full of detail!

[Blair Christensen · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you aren't fully immersed in the Forgotten Realms lore don't bother reading this. The author doesn't provide enough backstory in the plot, leaving massive holes that never get overcome. Though the endgame is imaginative, the lack of descriptive language just doesn't provide the imagery I normally associate with a really satisfying fantasy novel. This would be a lot better if it had another 100 pages to help flesh things out, and maybe that was a limitation of the editor the author had to contend with.

[Christine Hair · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a little biased, because my cousin wrote the novel ! I probably would understand it more if I knew more of the back story, but it was still a very fun read. Recommended to anyone who enjoys Forgotten Realms, D&D, or sci-fi/fantasy novels.

[Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must admit that I avoided reading this book for a long time. Imagine my surprise when I started this book and found I could not put it down. The characters are fun and serious. If you are a fan of the Forgotten Realms this book adds to the history of this wonderful world.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Upon re-reading ... thank you Steven for reminding me why I love researching everything I read

[Thain · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book on an interseting and complex character in a fascinating city.

[Austin Alander · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is completely incomprehensible without prior knowledge of the lore. It felt like every sentence had a new name or word for something that had never been mentioned before and would never be mentioned again with no explanation as to what it is.

There's like a hundred characters and most of them are INTRODUCED IN THE CLIMAX. I don't understand the logic of this book. I was completely lost the whole way through and it only got worse the longer it went.

Sorry, rant over. For those that know all about D&D lore you may still like it. The 3 or so characters that do get any development are done well and I imagine the plot might be fun if you know anything about what's going on.

[Jared McCrackin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting to see inside to the blackstaffs life with all the flash backs and visions in the book also there is alot of lore in the book can be kinda hard to follow at times but the ending is really good and kinda sad at the same time but there is really know other way to end it

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

All about Khelben Arunson

This is an excellent read for anyone even remotely curious about the former Archmage of Waterdeep known as the Blackstaff. Appearances by all of the most prominent magic users in the Forgotten Realms of Faerun make this a truly wonderful book.

[Revolted · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Bradley Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book for lore of the world. However it was a little hard to follow at the end.

In my book on page 267 the same paragraph was printed twice haha. Love that.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first book in "the Wizards" series... and it's quite bad. I've read the second book already, Bloodwalk, and that's much better than this one.

This book tells the story of Khelben, and a "next-generation" mage, Tsarra, who is one of his apprentices. It follows Khelben as he romps around Waterdeep and the High Moor, unraveling a conspiracy and a prophecy at the same time, of which he himself was the source of the conspiracy and also being a key element in the prophecy, and manipulating various powerful forces in order to bring the conspiracy to fruition in order to fulfill said prophecy.

Confused? Yeah, that's basically what reading the book feels like.

I think the main problem with the plot is that it's way too convoluted. And we're seeing it unfold from the point of view of Tsarra, who is basically carried along, pushed along, and dragged along by Khelben at various points - just because (i.e. prophecy, conspiracy, and all that). So essentially, the reader is just as confused and frustrated Tsarra is. It doesn't help Tsarra's character at all, as the early bits basically focus on her frustrations and her temper. She ends up being rather bland. There was an attempt at creating a mysterious backstory for her, but that subplot went nowhere beyond a couple of paragraphs.

So as one reads, the reader is also basically just getting carried along and watching Khelben's plans unfold. There's no possibility of predicting what's going to happen because Khelben himself noted that things are meant to be convoluted and obfuscated, to create misdirection and fake leads and throw out false information.

The whole plot ends up being boring because there's never any sense of danger or urgency, since most of the time, you don't really know what's happening - it's just something that's happening. The whole gathering of arcane energy for that finale event was probably meant to be impressive and touching, but it's quite difficult for the reader to become invested. Khelben was not a sympathetic character, and Tsarra is difficult to empathise with due to how she's, well, not really in any danger (and I find her mildly annoying).

And that leads to the other characters in the book - they're all pretty bland. The reason being... there's way, way, too many named characters in one novel. Just the prologue and opening chapter would name more than a dozen apprentices who end up completely forgotten later on. Several antagonists in the middle also disappear after they show up. And finally, the gathering of "big names" of the Realms at the end that's meant to be impressive ended up with the complete opposite effect. Unless you're a hardcore Forgotten Realms lore buff, you're unlikely to even recognise half of those dozens of names thrown at you. It's like reading some stranger's wedding invitation list with a bit of commentary on what they look like.

I've ranted enough about things I don't like about it. Oh, one more. The seemingly mandatory "love" relationship that Tsarra has feels so very forced. There was zero chemistry and zero reason why there would even be any chemistry between them.

The things that I did like were the much smaller-scaled fights. These are nice wizard-centric fights that involve spells and counterspells. Too bad there's not very many of them. I think I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if it was from Khelben's point of view instead, as opposed to how Tsarra was looking at or through Khelben. I kind of get why this story needed to be told (major event in the history of Realms at the end), but watching it unfold from the eyes of a person who just gets swept along, has no idea what's happening, and has basically no input whatsoever is something I found to be not a good read at all.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was fun and interesting in learning more about Waterdeep and Blackstaff Tower. Although Khelben was mysterious most of the time, following the viewpoint of Tsarra had all of my questions answered. The book had me laughing out loud at times and although I was curious where Khelben was leading the reader, I also appreciated that Tsarra was as confused as I was.

I gave it four out of 5 stars because the book kept informing the reader of how powerful Khelben was, but every time they got into a fight he got his butt kicked. There was a lot of namedropping of character's, places, and lore I was not familiar with but it was nothing a quick Wiki search couldn't fix. The last few chapters were a bit much and hard to get through, but the book was still worth the read and a great addition to my Forgotten Realms knowledge. There were also some typos from spelling to a whole repeated paragraph, but did not mislead from the plot.

[Chris Chaffin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have not read many of the forgotten realms books but I generally like fantasy so I gave this a try. Many sections are well written and pull the reader along on the adventure. However, there a lot of minor characters that briefly come into the story and leave again. Perhaps these are fun Easter eggs for readers more familiar with the series, but it felt like dozens of named characters with little differentiation between them. Another problem, for me at least, is that this is a tale of cosmic world breaking annihilation narrowly averted. I tend to identify with stories where the problems are a bit more relatable.

[Daniel Willis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started off all right but felt the threat to be forced and the resolution to be unsatisfying. Then again there are not many challenges for a demigod wizard I suppose. Also at the end there were literally a hundred other characters from previous books thrown in for the climax. Despite reading quite a few Forgotten Realms books I did not recognize or remember most of them, so the effect of "so-and-so just showed up!" was lost on me. In other words, do not read this if this is your first foray into the series.

[Horia Mut · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to read about the archwizards of Faerûn, and picked up the series.

The book does not disappoint in the adventure it tells, but you do need to lookup some information regarding the world, it's inhabitants and when the events told actually take place.
There are times where you ask yourself how such an old character as Blackstaff can be so dense and dumb, but do try to get over it and continue.
The book does not describe the limitations these wizards have and makes them sound like omnipotent beings, which they are not.

Overall an interesting read and adventure.

[Daniel Stylianou · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to rate this higher - and to like the book - because Khelben Blackstaff is one of my favourite characters. But this book was confusing, incoherent and poorly written. It jumps around and acts as though we should know all of the myriad characters who appear throughout. The author does little to properly explain anything and creates a plot so convoluted that it is almost unintelligible. Poor in all.

[Shannon · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't finish it. I don't want to write bad things about an author's work. Nothing about this appealed to me personally in any form. I was bored by the dialogue, the story, the trope/characters, the plot fillers.

[Kagan Oztarakci · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've learned it's best not to worry about what you can't control.

Never get into a game if you don't know all the players.

Fear is the true source of hate.

[Breann · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at abut 30%. The characters didn't grip me and I wasn't immersed in the story.

[Darin D Erickson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Completely incoherent

Choppy and way to much going on. To many character introductions. Impossible to follow the plot. Total waste of money.

[Jon Palmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was a bit confusing and therefore boring.

[Ben Wand · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to reading this book. I enjoyed Khelben in Elaine's books, as his gruff, mysterious nature was a stark contrast to Danilo. However, the author of Blackstaff fails miserably to add or really delve into who the man behind the gruffness and mystery is. All we get is flat dialog and visions into his background.

After a good prologue, The book starts off introducing a whole slew of apprentice mages, which is an unfortunate waste of space since most of these characters basically disappear. Then an event happens, out of nowhere and written without much flow, that thrusts Khelben and one of his apprentices together and they must save Waterdeep.

Through the rest of the book, Khelben runs around Waterdeep talking to other mages, the other main character has visions (which are the best parts of the book, providing the only good action), meanwhile the supposed danger to Waterdeep never really feels that "dangerous". Khelben often says "we have very little time" yet why they have no time is never explained or shown.

Also, the interaction between Khelben and his wife is irritating. Supposedly Waterdeep is in grave danger yet his wife is giggling and making sarcastic comments. The author portrays her as an idiotic teenage girl, yet she's supposedly one of the most powerful mages in Waterdeep.

Khelben's interactions with his students, and the other main character, is also annoying. While Waterdeep's safety supposedly hangs in the balance, he conducts an in-depth research session with his student. The scene was painful and reminiscent of the TV show "House", where the smug Doctor really knows the answer but instead forces his underlings to come up with it just to prove a point.

Overall the author tried to do too much with this book. There are flashbacks that show Khelben's past, descriptions of mundane activities (like the taste of ale) that add nothing to the plot, and a whole host of characters are introduced briefly (with great description) but then disappear. In such a short book, the author wastes valuable space describing things and people who have no role whatsoever in the plot instead of giving us more story, action, and plot elements.

I don't recommend this book unless you are a hardcore FR fan. Even then, there are much better FR books to read.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Schend does a great job of keeping you engaged throughout this novel. Pacing is often a challenge with "Forgotten Realms" novels, as the standard of 300-320 page format leaves some authors vamping to hit their mark. Schend doesn't suffer from that here, as each chapter builds upon the previous one and advances the story. He also makes the wise decision not to give us Blackstaff's entire life story. We get snippets of his life -- incidents that show us who he is and what he's faced over his long life -- but he remains largely an enigma. But, Schend manages to connect us emotionally to that enigma, making sure we feel invested in him and his allies. We might not understand what he's doing, but we do understand why it's important to him. He's a much more fully drawn character here than I remember him being in other novels.

However, despite the excellent characterization and crafting, I'm "only" giving the novel three stars, because I don't really know if I buy the central conceit. Schend makes it clear Blackstaff has been planning for centuries to resurrect Faer'tel'miir. But, Schend doesn't tell us why it's so important for Faer'tel'miir to return or why it had to return now. After all, Blackstaff not only sacrifices his life to resurrect it, but he also assembles almost every significant mage on Faerûn to do so. It's obviously important; I just don't know why. After all, why didn't he assemble that crowd to stop the Dragon Flight from almost devastating the continent? In the The Last Mythal, it took the crusade from Evermeet and its allies in the Dales three novels to wrestle back Myth Drannor. But, here, Blackstaff and his allies resurrect this city in a day. Despite how challenging the ritual obviously is, it still felt like an overly convenient plot device because Schend never really made it clear what the stakes were. OK, Faer'tel'miir is resurrected. So what?

If you're really into Khelben or high-magic stories in the Realms, I don't think you'd be disappointed with this one (even if you're left scratching your head a bit). Otherwise, I think you have better options in the Realms.

[Michael Smith]

The writing style took a bit getting used to. Starting several sentences in a row with Khelben said, Tsarra said, or Laeral said is quite annoying. It came across as like a bunch of schoolgirls talking. At least, that's how it seemed to me. But once you get passed that, the characters are quite nice and rememberable.



Some of the writing didn't seem edited. At times, reading this book was like walking through thick mud, it trudged along with half-thoughtout sentences and once an entire paragraph was duplicated. And no, it certainly wasn't on purpose even though the paragraph was about hearing something again.



The story was okay. I liked it, but felt let down along the way. Characters who were built up had small endings or dull outcomes. I never got the feel for why anyone would want to sacrifice themselves for this return of old magic. For something that's been gone for 12 centuries, I wasn't impressed with the results of its return. You could say it's just part of the mysteries of Mystra, but come on we're not actually in Faerun. Give me a story to remember and wish I was there. Ah well.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it, but felt it was a bit covoluted. I am an avid reader of "forgotten realms", and I was often confused with all the side adventures and nonliner stuff going on. I told myself that I should read it again, maybe I'll get more out of it the second time. I will say that I'm writing this review a year after i actually read the book, and for some reason I gave it 4 stars, so I must have enjoyed it on some level at the time. If (when) I read it again, I will be sure to edit this...

[Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this novel, Khelben Blackstaff, one of Faerun's greatest mages, is about to fulfill a prophecy four centuries in the making. With him is his wife, Laeral, and apprentice Tsarra. After the Blackstaff Tower is attacked by rogue with an enchanted sword, Khelben's mind is magically with Tsarra and the Dreamer, a dead apprentice of Khelben's. Though both are know linked, they rush to fullfill Mystra's will admist a deadly horde of enemies.