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Forgotten Realms: The Priests #3
Maiden of Pain
Fourth in a new series of standalone adventures about the clerics of the Forgotten Realms world.
Maiden of Pain is the fourth title in a new Forgotten Realms novel series focusing specifically on priests, the popular D&D ® game iconic class also known as clerics. Each title will chronicle priests loyal to a different deity in the Forgotten Realms
pantheon. Like the preceding series The Rogues, each novel in The Priests series
is written as a stand-alone adventure, allowing new readers an easy entry point into the Forgotten Realms world.
AUTHOR KAMERON FRANKLIN was picked to write this novel as a result of an open call for proposals that resulted in 500 submissions. Franklin’s was determined to be the best submission, and he was offered a contract for the novel. This is his first novel.
Maiden of Pain is the fourth title in a new Forgotten Realms novel series focusing specifically on priests, the popular D&D ® game iconic class also known as clerics. Each title will chronicle priests loyal to a different deity in the Forgotten Realms
pantheon. Like the preceding series The Rogues, each novel in The Priests series
is written as a stand-alone adventure, allowing new readers an easy entry point into the Forgotten Realms world.
AUTHOR KAMERON FRANKLIN was picked to write this novel as a result of an open call for proposals that resulted in 500 submissions. Franklin’s was determined to be the best submission, and he was offered a contract for the novel. This is his first novel.
307 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 1, 2005
4 people are currently reading
350 people want to read
About the author
Kameron M. Franklin
7 books9 followersBorn in the Pacific Northwest in 1973, Kameron M. Franklin has been back and forth across the United States several times over the course of moves and vacations. During one of those trips, his father bought him his first comic book: a Superman and Plastic-man team-up. It was Kameron’s first step into the world of the fantastic, and he hasn’t looked back since.
Kameron began writing stories at an early age, sharing them with his class during Show & Tell. His first exposure to fantasy fiction was C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia. Other early influences include Lloyd Alexander, David Eddings, Terry Brooks and J.R.R. Tolkien. It wasn't until his senior year in high school that Kameron took his first serious steps as a writer. He took a creative writing class and entered a short story in a statewide competition. His story didn't win, but that didn't stop him from dreaming about a career as a writer. Kameron currently lives in the Pacific Northwest with his family, pursuing that dream.
Kameron began writing stories at an early age, sharing them with his class during Show & Tell. His first exposure to fantasy fiction was C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia. Other early influences include Lloyd Alexander, David Eddings, Terry Brooks and J.R.R. Tolkien. It wasn't until his senior year in high school that Kameron took his first serious steps as a writer. He took a creative writing class and entered a short story in a statewide competition. His story didn't win, but that didn't stop him from dreaming about a career as a writer. Kameron currently lives in the Pacific Northwest with his family, pursuing that dream.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 11, 2023
hmm.
like, my honest first thought is “this coulda been kinkier.” like, way kinkier. i mean. i get that it’s likely limited by being part of a larger licensed property universe, but still. i will remind you that this is a novel about a cleric of a literal bdsm goddess. like, she’s literally the goddess of pain, which is explicitly specified to include torture, sadism, and masochism.
i get that this wasn’t going to be literal bdsm erotica, but i still would’ve liked it to be slightly more kinky than the baseline for forgotten realms novels. (though, admittedly, i’ve been pretty pleasantly surprised by how kinky the average forgotten realms novel is since i started reading them.)
like, there are a few decently kinky scenes, especially in the flashbacks to the protagonist’s training, and her getting revenge on that one asshole who did a bad job of torturing her earlier in the book. (which, y’know, torture she coulda dealt with, but inept torture is just inexcusable.)
having that asshole end up getting turned into a vampire by his little sister seemed like a fitting ending until the book went out of its way to show us that he still gets on her nerves as a vampire? and like, he isn’t even her thrall or anything? bleh.
i would’ve appreciated more lingering on stuff like bondage and power exchange in this book about (i’m sorry to keep harping on this but) a literal bdsm goddess. like, there was a decent amount of bondage but it was honestly pretty comparable to the average forgotten realms novel i’ve read so far? (which, again, i fucking love that that’s the case lmao, but still.) and there was basically no consensual power exchange depicted, which just feels fucking weird given the subject matter?
like, i mostly enjoyed the book, i know i probably sound like i hated it but i super didn’t. it was just… fine? like, i genuinely enjoyed reading it, i just think it shoulda been even better considering everything it had to work with.
like, my honest first thought is “this coulda been kinkier.” like, way kinkier. i mean. i get that it’s likely limited by being part of a larger licensed property universe, but still. i will remind you that this is a novel about a cleric of a literal bdsm goddess. like, she’s literally the goddess of pain, which is explicitly specified to include torture, sadism, and masochism.
i get that this wasn’t going to be literal bdsm erotica, but i still would’ve liked it to be slightly more kinky than the baseline for forgotten realms novels. (though, admittedly, i’ve been pretty pleasantly surprised by how kinky the average forgotten realms novel is since i started reading them.)
like, there are a few decently kinky scenes, especially in the flashbacks to the protagonist’s training, and her getting revenge on that one asshole who did a bad job of torturing her earlier in the book. (which, y’know, torture she coulda dealt with, but inept torture is just inexcusable.)
having that asshole end up getting turned into a vampire by his little sister seemed like a fitting ending until the book went out of its way to show us that he still gets on her nerves as a vampire? and like, he isn’t even her thrall or anything? bleh.
i would’ve appreciated more lingering on stuff like bondage and power exchange in this book about (i’m sorry to keep harping on this but) a literal bdsm goddess. like, there was a decent amount of bondage but it was honestly pretty comparable to the average forgotten realms novel i’ve read so far? (which, again, i fucking love that that’s the case lmao, but still.) and there was basically no consensual power exchange depicted, which just feels fucking weird given the subject matter?
like, i mostly enjoyed the book, i know i probably sound like i hated it but i super didn’t. it was just… fine? like, i genuinely enjoyed reading it, i just think it shoulda been even better considering everything it had to work with.
January 16, 2008
Kameron won the Maiden of Pain contest. He definitely counts as a Young Dragon. In case you are wondering about the difference between his entry and mine: well, his works well in the mythology of the Realms. Mine was a romantic comedy, not exactly what they were looking for. But the editors kindly said "it is different and we like the characters' motivations."
December 5, 2022
I picked this up specifically because I'm playing a cleric of Loviatar in a D&D campaign set in Forgotten Realms. So I slogged through the whole book mainly to get an idea of how such characters are treated in canon. Anywho, this is probably the worst Forgotten Realms book I've ever read.
The idea of Ythnel being more of a neutral, morally-gray character was interesting. I liked the nuance of the approach to a book about a cleric to an "evil" deity. And that's pretty much where my praise for the book ends.
I found the overall execution of the book clunky. I did a lot of skimming, if I'm being honest. And while I normally like many POV characters, I think the story bounces around a little too much in places or show a scene from the wrong POV. Saestra, for example, was a completely pointless character and I have no idea why ANYTHING was told from her POV. And on that note... what was the point of the vampires? They did nothing for the plot that I could see. Padding to hit a minimum word count?
On the bright side, I did find some interesting tidbits for my D&D character, so it wasn't a total waste. I just regret buying it and instead of checking the library first.
The idea of Ythnel being more of a neutral, morally-gray character was interesting. I liked the nuance of the approach to a book about a cleric to an "evil" deity. And that's pretty much where my praise for the book ends.
I found the overall execution of the book clunky. I did a lot of skimming, if I'm being honest. And while I normally like many POV characters, I think the story bounces around a little too much in places or show a scene from the wrong POV. Saestra, for example, was a completely pointless character and I have no idea why ANYTHING was told from her POV. And on that note... what was the point of the vampires? They did nothing for the plot that I could see. Padding to hit a minimum word count?
On the bright side, I did find some interesting tidbits for my D&D character, so it wasn't a total waste. I just regret buying it and instead of checking the library first.
September 2, 2018
Good D&D book and a pretty quick read too. My biggest complaint was the author using the term “French doors.” Throwing in a real-world word like that was jarring from the fantasy.
November 16, 2023
If I could give it half a star, I would. Not only does the author’s prose utterly die of starvation on the page, not only is the narrative completely incoherent due to constantly shifting POVs and jumping into flashbacks without warning or even necessity, not only does it reek of the author’s misogyny and racism, not only are its characters flat and frequently stupid, it commits the most cardinal sin of a tie in novel to me, which is having utterly no understanding of the source material. None of the characters are really written in a way that genuinely demonstrates it, and none of their motivations make any sense—why hire a Loviatan governess for a child if corporal punishment is off the table?!—but given Ythnel is the central figure (sort of?), she’s by far the worst offender. The author’s misogyny and inability to set his culturally Christian biases aside to get into this woman’s head would be hilarious if it wasn’t so infuriating. An early scene had her expressing embarrassment, unable to look her male employer in the eye. Meanwhile in the immediately preceding scene, taking place in the temple she was raised in all her life, showed a mixed gender rite where everyone was naked, a ritual performed every 12 days. Why on earth would she be bashful around men, having been reared in this kind of environment? This book is rife with this kind of contradiction stemming from projecting real world mores onto a fantasy setting.
Wanting insight for a Loviatan tabletop character in your campaign? Exploration of the transcendent ecstasy of pain from the perspective of a priest devoted to it? You won’t find any of that here. There isn’t even any “so bad it’s good” camp value to be found, because it was such an utter slog.
Just read Kushiel’s Legacy, folks. Despite taking place in an entirely different fantasy setting with an entirely different deity it does more to show what an actual Loviatan practice would look like in action. It’s informed my own work as Realmsian fic writer for ages.
The biggest takeaway I got from this book was that a million people on AO3 can do this better. Hell, Larian did it in one scene in Baldur’s Gate 3. Father Abdirak did more to elucidate Loviatan beliefs and praxis than this guy did in an entire novel, and with the style and panache one would expect of the Maiden of Pain’s priests.
Wanting insight for a Loviatan tabletop character in your campaign? Exploration of the transcendent ecstasy of pain from the perspective of a priest devoted to it? You won’t find any of that here. There isn’t even any “so bad it’s good” camp value to be found, because it was such an utter slog.
Just read Kushiel’s Legacy, folks. Despite taking place in an entirely different fantasy setting with an entirely different deity it does more to show what an actual Loviatan practice would look like in action. It’s informed my own work as Realmsian fic writer for ages.
The biggest takeaway I got from this book was that a million people on AO3 can do this better. Hell, Larian did it in one scene in Baldur’s Gate 3. Father Abdirak did more to elucidate Loviatan beliefs and praxis than this guy did in an entire novel, and with the style and panache one would expect of the Maiden of Pain’s priests.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 10, 2018
"...pain purified the soul, and shielding others from suffering only made them weak and unprepared for the tortures the world would subject them to."
"Of course, the most unlikely people always wound up where you least expected them."
"...some people think that if they don't talk about something, it's not really happening."
"Of course, the most unlikely people always wound up where you least expected them."
"...some people think that if they don't talk about something, it's not really happening."
September 29, 2019
The other books in this series felt like they had more oomph. This one just felt meh.
September 10, 2023
This was alright. The plot was a bit cliched, but it was a decent run through an area of the Forgotten Realms that I was not very familiar with, which is the reason I often read these books...to discover a little piece of this world that is now fleshed out more than it had been.
Additionally, they gave us a peak at the workings of the clerics of Loviatar, the evil goddess of agony. We are introduced to a novice in the church who is being offered as a governess to a rich merchant who "can't run his business with his young daughter under his feet." The churches tenets are more along the lines of withstanding pain and understanding pain in order to inflict it to better purpose. There is a hint of sensuality, but it seems more about individual priests than something influenced by the religion. There is a sub-plot that indicates that torture for pleasure is not something Loviatar would be impressed with.
We are introduced to the politics of Luthcheq, and learn that the city's ruling family are worshipers of entropy, and have banned any kind of arcane magic within the city. There are also descriptions of the salt marsh outside of the city and the lycanthropic denizens of the swamp. There are secret societies and double crosses.
It has been a while since I visited my favorite fantasy world, so this was fun to spend a little time in Faerun. Overall, a good read.
Additionally, they gave us a peak at the workings of the clerics of Loviatar, the evil goddess of agony. We are introduced to a novice in the church who is being offered as a governess to a rich merchant who "can't run his business with his young daughter under his feet." The churches tenets are more along the lines of withstanding pain and understanding pain in order to inflict it to better purpose. There is a hint of sensuality, but it seems more about individual priests than something influenced by the religion. There is a sub-plot that indicates that torture for pleasure is not something Loviatar would be impressed with.
We are introduced to the politics of Luthcheq, and learn that the city's ruling family are worshipers of entropy, and have banned any kind of arcane magic within the city. There are also descriptions of the salt marsh outside of the city and the lycanthropic denizens of the swamp. There are secret societies and double crosses.
It has been a while since I visited my favorite fantasy world, so this was fun to spend a little time in Faerun. Overall, a good read.
September 17, 2014
I very much wanted to like this book. The pacing is pretty good so it reads well. There were a couple of editing errors though - the most glaring of which there was actually mention of "French" in the epilogue.
What I did like is the rather well-done manner in which the protagonist, Ythnel, was portrayed. Worshippers of Loviatar are typically evil in alignment, but the plot managed to provide a more neutral approach to that faith, painting it in shades of grey.
Too bad that didn't quite extend beyond the surface treatment, especially not for the other characters. The focus of the plot is always on the events happening around the characters, or the actions that the characters undertake. I guess this was perhaps influenced by actual gaming sessions. The book would really have benefited from more introspection and a show of growth for the characters, to read about them rationalising things, facing doubts, self-realisation, etc. rather than just telling the reader what happened and glossing over what should've been rather emotional milestones. So, empathy was a bit lacking for the protagonist and entirely lacking for the supporting characters.
The overall plot and consistency was all right. The first few chapters were a bit awkward and stumbled as it focused on several characters who turned out to be entirely inconsequential. Such as . But I don't really have any problems with the plot itself.
The problems I had were in the details. There were some power level issues where the characters were using powerful spells in one scene, weak spells the next, and then taking on powerful enemies. It's like the author isn't quite sure what level those characters supposed to be - in either case, Ythnel was way too powerful and way too worldly for a young acolyte who grew up mostly secluded in a manor.
Other problems include the poor use of lycanthropes, mostly in their placement and motivation, a rather unrealistic and implausible sequence of events in the concluding chapters, silly/illogical uses of magic, an unsolved plotline involving the , and an unsatisfying conclusion that wrapped things up too hurriedly.
It a quick and easy read, but there's nothing much to recommend about it, except if you're interested in a story set in Chessenta (city of Luthcheq and the Karanoks), or in Loviatar.
What I did like is the rather well-done manner in which the protagonist, Ythnel, was portrayed. Worshippers of Loviatar are typically evil in alignment, but the plot managed to provide a more neutral approach to that faith, painting it in shades of grey.
Too bad that didn't quite extend beyond the surface treatment, especially not for the other characters. The focus of the plot is always on the events happening around the characters, or the actions that the characters undertake. I guess this was perhaps influenced by actual gaming sessions. The book would really have benefited from more introspection and a show of growth for the characters, to read about them rationalising things, facing doubts, self-realisation, etc. rather than just telling the reader what happened and glossing over what should've been rather emotional milestones. So, empathy was a bit lacking for the protagonist and entirely lacking for the supporting characters.
The overall plot and consistency was all right. The first few chapters were a bit awkward and stumbled as it focused on several characters who turned out to be entirely inconsequential. Such as . But I don't really have any problems with the plot itself.
The problems I had were in the details. There were some power level issues where the characters were using powerful spells in one scene, weak spells the next, and then taking on powerful enemies. It's like the author isn't quite sure what level those characters supposed to be - in either case, Ythnel was way too powerful and way too worldly for a young acolyte who grew up mostly secluded in a manor.
Other problems include the poor use of lycanthropes, mostly in their placement and motivation, a rather unrealistic and implausible sequence of events in the concluding chapters, silly/illogical uses of magic, an unsolved plotline involving the , and an unsatisfying conclusion that wrapped things up too hurriedly.
It a quick and easy read, but there's nothing much to recommend about it, except if you're interested in a story set in Chessenta (city of Luthcheq and the Karanoks), or in Loviatar.
July 25, 2014
Standard 'Forgotten Realms' fare, but written by an inexperienced young author and featuring a sado-masochistic priest cult. In short: A trashy fantasy novel.
The Good
- The action is good, the adventure is not bad, the main character is decent and somewhat original. - There is a memorable mage escape scene possibly borrowed from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves which is good fun, as well as a hit and miss revenge quest.
- The author is pretty good at moving the plot along and keeping the action going or tension building.
- Should be enough fantasy candy for some light fantasy sweet tooth needs.
- Bonus points for it being a new, relatively young author who won a write-in contest. Definitely shows promise from that perspective.
The Not-so-Good
- The book suffers from various character inconsistencies for the supporting cast and should have passed through another edit or two.
-Kestus' character in particular makes no sense whatsoever, switching between confident, Gandalf-like mage to 17 year old boy willy-nilly.
-Character development for the main character is decent, pretty crap for the rest, as is to be expected with these books.
- The author includes an incredibly boring section featuring the main character being a nanny to a brat daughter for far too many pages, and also bogs the book down with pointless description in other places (describing the stylish curtains, the grain of the wood cabinets, the amount of feathers on the quill...ha) -- just skip through these parts.
- The plot is typically a mix of random and very predictable.
- The author's choice of 'were-creatures' is questionable.
- The book could stand to be dirtier and sexier.
True Rating: 2.6 Stars
The Good
- The action is good, the adventure is not bad, the main character is decent and somewhat original. - There is a memorable mage escape scene possibly borrowed from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves which is good fun, as well as a hit and miss revenge quest.
- The author is pretty good at moving the plot along and keeping the action going or tension building.
- Should be enough fantasy candy for some light fantasy sweet tooth needs.
- Bonus points for it being a new, relatively young author who won a write-in contest. Definitely shows promise from that perspective.
The Not-so-Good
- The book suffers from various character inconsistencies for the supporting cast and should have passed through another edit or two.
-Kestus' character in particular makes no sense whatsoever, switching between confident, Gandalf-like mage to 17 year old boy willy-nilly.
-Character development for the main character is decent, pretty crap for the rest, as is to be expected with these books.
- The author includes an incredibly boring section featuring the main character being a nanny to a brat daughter for far too many pages, and also bogs the book down with pointless description in other places (describing the stylish curtains, the grain of the wood cabinets, the amount of feathers on the quill...ha) -- just skip through these parts.
- The plot is typically a mix of random and very predictable.
- The author's choice of 'were-creatures' is questionable.
- The book could stand to be dirtier and sexier.
True Rating: 2.6 Stars
April 8, 2010
Interesting novel that gives some insight in the mind of a priestess of Loviatar - even though this priestess may not be entirely typical.
Nice background on Chessenta and Thay. The Karanoks are suitably disturbing in their zealous hunt for arcanists.
Nice background on Chessenta and Thay. The Karanoks are suitably disturbing in their zealous hunt for arcanists.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews