Red Magic

Forgotten Realms: The Harpers #3

by Jean Rabe

The third novel of the Harpers series. The Red Wizards rule Thay, perhaps the most wicked land in all the Forgotten Realms. And one of the most powerful Red Wizards wants to control more than his share of the country. The Harpers, dedicated to restoring Good, send to Thay a magic-wielding council member to help infiltrate the malevolent land. Chapter heading illustrations.

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

313 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 3, 1991

About the author

When I am not writing, I toss tennis balls to my cadre of dogs. My house is filled with books and dogs, you can smell both when you walk in the front door. It's a good smell.

I have 36 published novels and am currently writing in the mystery genre. My latest mystery, The Dead of Winter, was a finalist for the Claymore Award and is the first in the Piper Blackwell series.

I live in a tiny town in the middle of Illinois that has a Dollar General, a pizza place with exceedingly slow service, a veterinarian (good thing, eh?), and train tracks...lots of train tracks.

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better than I’d expected, even if the lead heroic protagonist, a Druid named Galvin, does come off as a bit of a one-dimensional crunchy granola jerk. I’m just glad Brenna the magic user doesn’t wind up stuck with him living in some dank bog and eating wild chestnuts.


Behold his Malevolence, Thayvian Zultir of Necromancy Szass Tam!

As is often the case the villains of the piece were the more interesting characters and I’m glad the character of the lichlord Szass Tam has been introduced to the world via the recent Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves film. 💀 🔮 🔥

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

Not the worst first outing for a new author, but it was lacking in many ways. I am glad that Jean Rabe has gone on to author many other works, because I could see potential here, but in many ways it cried out for a strong editor and/or some solid writing classes. I have the distinct sense that, at least in the early days of TSR book publishing in the Forgotten Realms line, they would give a book to any staff member who expressed an interest. This worked out well at times (for example, the writing couple Jeff Grubb and Kate Novak), maybe not so great at others.

The characters are one-dimensional, especially the villains. Unfortunately they are the most interesting of the bunch. The three heroes are lacking in personality, show only banal character growth, and lack any meaningful agency in the narrative. They are merely carried along, to ultimately place them in the villains' way at the end. Their driving 'mission' from the Harpers is pretty weaksauce.

Some scenes and events were utterly superfluous. For example, some slaves are purchased, engage in some minor highjinks, fail to have any dialogue, and then are released into the night, never to appear again. One character suffers severe memory loss from an attack, but then recovers before the next serious conflict, which rendered the event inconsequential and begs the question of why it was included at all. A certain class of undead are put forward as a vicious, barely-restrained threat to the heroes but then disappear from the narrative. Either something was missing, edited out, or not well-plotted in the first place.

Where this book succeeded to some degree was to present Thay in novelization; the only previous mention in published Forgotten Realms novels was at the end of Dragonwall in the Crusades trilogy, when Red Wizards approached the army in that series with a proposal. Here, we get a decent portrayal of the rivalry and constant vying between the Red Wizards of Thay and a taste of the social and economic organization of that nation.

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started this series WAAAAAAY back in my college days many, many moons ago. Recently, I decided to dust off the ol' collection of paperbacks and re-read these books. The Forgotten Realms Harper series was a favorite of mine and I wanted to see if the books stood the test of time. The stories are part of the Forgotten Realms universe from the Dungeons & Dragons game. This particular series is a collection of independent stories of the Harpers, a semi-secret organization that battles corruption and evil in the different lands of Faerun. So here is Book #3, 'Red Magic'.

This one was quite lackluster, to say the least. The characters were so wooden and bland. The author had some great ideas, but just failed in the execution. Galvin, our druid hero, seemed like an ass at times and was unlikeable, in my opinion. Wynter, Galvin's centaur buddy, had GREAT potential, but settles into the cliche' sidekick role. By the middle of the story, Wynter becomes completely useless and the reader wonders "why is he here?" Then there is Brenna, the councilwoman/sorceress who tags along only for the sole purpose of batting her eyes at Galvin and swooning. All were just cardboard cut-outs of any over-used fantasy character.

The villains, on the other hand, gave some well-needed 'juice' to the story. Maligor was the standard bad-guy-that-you-love-to-hate, and quite sinister throughout the book. His lead henchman (or henchwoman) was a Spirit Naga, a half woman(head and upper torso) / half snake (waist down). Again, A LOT of potential for this character that gets wasted in the end. She was so strong and ruthless at the beginning, but then becomes this incompetent weakling by the end of the story. THAT was a shame! And of course, we get a little of Szass Tam, one of THE best Super Villains in the Forgotten Realms. Who doesn't love an Undead Necromancer with the largest army of Skeletons, zombies, wraiths, and more? But alas, his part is also a bit subdued. BUMMER!

The story starts out strong, and the 'mystery' part keeps the intrigue at a decent level as the main characters investigate the rumors of a powerful mage looking to 'make a move' on a fellow Red Mage or possibly the neighboring countries. Then after a good set-up, the story starts to read like a Dungeon Master's script written by a novice DM. Little 'side encounters' are thrown in for filler sake, and some of the interactions really seem out of character for our heroes. The author ALSO needs to give her readers a tad-bit of credit. We don't need EVERY weapon and garment described in such minutia. I could Google the things I didn't know and read a better summary anyway. This really detracted from the movement of the story and bogs down the limited action.

There were parts of this story that read well and were fun for the reader. As I stated earlier, the villains were some BAD DUDES and added much excitement to the book. But other parts just left the reader wanting more or simply scratching their head in confusion. There is a solid build up to the "final battle" between the good guys and bad guys, but the resolution in the end was lame. It happened so quickly and was unsatisfying for the reader. That sucked, actually.

I gave the book 2.5 stars (generously) and rounded up because it was Jean Rabe's first Forgotten Realms novel (she tried). Good story with possibilities, but poorly executed with too many missed opportunities. Overall, the book is a HUGE 'MEH'. Just my two cents.

[Ralph Pulner · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Spoilers*
I hope you like the word citrus. 🍊🍋🍊🍋
This was a little rough, more of a slow burn fantasy story with more than a few faults that kept it from being memorable. The protagonists are more caricatures than characters, and the avenues that could have fleshed then out were never explored. What was the deal with the plant zombie again? Who taught Galvin to be a Druid? Why didn't Wynter confront his family when he was back in Thay? Why would Brenna fall in love with an antisocial misogynist? If Wynter was a pacifist, why was he straight up killing fools? Where did the wights disappear to, anyway? The dwarves? The slaves?
There are good things, too. It is always a pleasure to explore Thay. The Red Wizards and slave state of Thay have always captured my imagination. Maligor is a great antagonist, until he isn't. Liches are my favorite villain trope, so I'm on board with any Szass Tam representation.

[J · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sometimes one may find that they have cracked open a book with the intention of chewing through something casual with little care or investment required as a break from their deeper interests.

Sometimes one may find that a book they have begun to read is so dull and poorly presented that they lose their interest in reading altogether for a while and simply have to take a break from all literature.

Red Magic is a chore to read. Unfortunately the author didn't give enough credit to her readers. Granted this was her first published novel, it was poorly presented enough that one could truly be surprised it wasn't the last as well. The presentation comes off as if the author felt they were storytelling to little children.

A high fantasy work doesn't need every historical weapon described down to it's form and length. A bardiche is a bardiche. If the reader is unaware, they can find a dictionary, encyclopedia, or google to catch up a bit.
Every piece of clothing doesn't need a full half page description. When the reader begins to feel like they are in a shopping catalog as they are introduced to several new characters at once, they lose interest quickly.
Everything suffers from over description in weighty block format. Not dripped out to you over time in a way you wouldn't notice but dropped on your plate unceremoniously like a whole side of beef followed by another and another.

There are many transgressions. Perhaps too many to list. Perspective bounces from character to character in mid page with no indication of shift.
The plot meanders from empty set point to meaningless ending and doesn't resolve any points in a satisfactory fashion.

It's dull, boring, and quite possibly a waste of time.
Recommend leaving it lay.

[Remy Verhoeve · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this to get a "direct look" into the mysterious land of the Red Wizards, Thay. Apparently it has two escarpments and a lot of citrus trees. A lot!
This was a struggle to read. Characterization, plotting, descriptions, motivations, it was all off. It reads like a D&D game master's / dungeon master's campaign journal, and it was probably a lot of fun playing Galvin, Wynter and Brenna, but as a narrative it didn't elicit much more than groans. I hope there are better Forgotten Realms novels out there.
Maligor was probably the most interesting character in the story, in a depraved sort of way.

[Kyle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm really debating giving this "book" a 1 star rating but I will leave it as 2 for now because I did enjoy the first half. This review will contain spoilers as most of what I have a problem with will be mentioned.

To enjoy this book, please open the book to approximately the center, and tear it in half. Keep the beginning, as that is the new book with a cliff hanger ending. You can now imagine our heroes continuing down their part of finding out information about if their home country is in danger. Will our Druid (not knight), become friendlier? Will Wynter, our most grounded character and could definitely use the most character development become more interesting? In our imagination he can! What about Brenna, our council woman and sorcerous, will she have two life long friends?

Now for the 2nd half, throw away that rough draft as you won't be needing it. If you frown upon destroying any kind of literature as any civilized person would, I would recommend only reading the Maligor villain parts, as he is the most interesting character (besides our beloved Szass Tam).

Firstly, can we talk about how the main characters treated the slaves as SLAVES? They never actually freed any. "But Kyle" you may say "they bought the dwarves, and the pleasure women in the castle..." oh ho ho no I don't think so my friend, after leaving the dwarves in the cold and eating a warm meal, they threw the dwarves a bag of fruit and made their ropes a little less uncomfortable. The dwarves freed themselves. Now the women in the castle? After our "heroes" locked them in a room and later unlocked it, they all left within the night by themselves, not before we have Galvin bossing them around telling them to wake him up on time and telling a slave girl (she doesn't get a name in this book" to lead them around the castle, so still treating them like slaves. Also, to make matters worse, we are often told that the slaves are looting and stealing, giving the reader a sense that the slaves "deserved" it as they were criminals, which was not the case, most being taken from their families. The miners were not freed either, they just ran out when the mountain was going to collapse.

Now for the plot. So the "heroes" get kidnaped and are forced to work for Szass Tam, ok, kind of random but whatever, so their goal changes from "Find information about an incoming attack on our home country" to "Put a dent in Maligor's forces to ruin his plains and then leave the country with the information we have since our home country isn't in danger." Again whatever, so they are walking with the undead and Wynter just books it and almost dies from a plant? So the druid, the DRUID, the nature priest, starts slashing at the plant, and yay they save Wynter, but oh no, he now has severe brain damage, to which Galvin WISHES HIS FRIEND DIED INSTEAD OF HAVING THE MIND OF A CHILD. I am not making this up, he says it twice. So, may of you might not know this, but I worked in the disability field, and I can assure you most people would rather be alive than dead, fun fact. Ok so Galvin has his ego, and "well in nature the strong survive.." So Wynter isn't good enough to survive because Galvin, the main character, says so? ok George Milton I guess we are going to take Lennie, I mean Wynter, out back. Seriously??

So after the wraiths tell everyone how mean they are and what they do (evil ghosts that just peace out randomly even though they make their presence continuously known), we find out where the gnoll army is headed. Ok, so the next plan would be to go after the gnolls, survive, then leave Thay, right? NOPE. Hey let's explore the castle because why not. Oh look we found a map on the floor of a random jail cell to where Maligor MIGHT be located. So that's a big assumption, so instead of just leaving Galvin realizes Maligor kills animals and now it is his sole mission to defeat Maligor. They made their mission 10 times harder. Is this why Wynter was given a brain injury for this part (one that he quickly recovers from btw) so that he can't logically reason with any of them? After mostly feeling like a dungeon and dragons campaign of a random frog monster (One that bleeds acid, so naturally instead of Brenna using projectile magic Galvan the man fights it close up to protect the women) we find out that not only is Galvin a druid with animal mastery, but he can speak to ROCKS. So now Galvin is talking to the floor for half an hour, no exaggeration, it says so, he learns from the floor about Maligor's evil plans. Yada yada yada Brenna doesn't fight using her spells against Asp but throws herself at her, bunch of rocks, No qualm about killing human miners because I'm not sure, and then Galvin turns into a demon bat, is telepathic, and talks to the rocks again to help him in the final battle, all heroes go their separate ways.

Characters: Galvin is unlikable. He is self centered, has an ego, is kind of mean and rude to Brenna, and really doesn't care about Wynter. He was a normal druid until the second half, where he becomes a master swords fighter and a super druid that can change into ANY living creature, can earth bend, telepathically communicate with far away creatures, knows every animal language, and can literally speak with rocks. Such great qualities huh, well Brenna thinks so! She gets rid of all her self respect when she says the big ILY to Galvin, the best part is that he just ignored her saying that and just wants to sleep with her in the next few pages. Like WHAT. He was awful to her this entire time, showing her the minimal amount of kindness possible on the journey so far and she says she loves him and tries to kiss him?! WHAT. It's like the author was like "aw crap I knew the boss told me I had to force romance into my book some how." No. That is some patriarchal BS where the female main character has to be in love with the male main character. NO.

Wynter, although not practically interesting, becomes useless in the second half. He is always hurt, gets brain damage, and we are constantly reminded how the castle and mines are not fit for his hooves. Like why bother making him a centaur if he can't go to half the places in the adventure. Ohhh to avoid Brenna falling for him? Honestly if she got with Wynter I would have been happy, they had some great chemistry. Yes, it would have been odd, but you know what it would have been better than loving Galvin the misogynist.

Maligor is his true self the entire time and I loved it, he knew who he was and never changed. Was he evil just for the sake of being evil? Sure, but that's a classic villain for ya. Asp is interesting in her own right until she is in the mines, and Szass Tam was fun to learn about.

I really, really, wanted to prove that the reviews for this book were wrong. "I'm more than 100 pages into this book and really liking this, how could it go wrong?" Oh how I was so naïve.

If you are reading this for the Harpers series as I was, it can be an easy skip as you learn nothing new about the Harpers and Galvin and Wynter are not worth it. If you want to learn more about Thay and the Red Wizards, skip the hero parts, it's just not worth your time. The book needs to be rewritten in order to get a passing grade. The 2nd half was either lazy or rushed, and definitely forced.

[Gargamel · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a lot of potential here, the story isn't necessarily bad and the characters are interesting enough. It's just as if the author doesn't really know how to write a book.

The book reads more like a D&D campaign summary than a novel. There's a few contrived scenes that end up going nowhere and serve no purpose to the story that it almost feels like I'm reading a D&D player's inputs on the story that the DM then squashes in the next scene to railroad back to where they want it.

If you wanted to set a D&D campaign in any of the Harpers books this one would certainly be the easiest to follow, unfortunately it makes the actual book not that good.

[Geoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as gripping as some of the others in the series, but still good.

[Wayne Warren · Rating 5 out of 5]

First novel I ever read and it's what got me into reading

[Steve King · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am creating the "Red Magic Drinking Game."

Here's what you'll need:
A shot glass
A 5th of your favorite liquor
A person you trust to take care of you once you pass out.

Directions:
Start reading the book.
Every time citrus (the major export of Thay, where this book takes place) is mentioned, or when a specific citrus fruit is mentioned, take a shot.
You won't make it through the first 100 pages, and you're trading the headache of a hangover for the headache of reading this pile of pages.

I've jumped around in The Harpers series and it's been a mixed bag but Red Magic is definitely near the bottom of the pile. As a veteran gamer in the Realms, I don't require novelizations of Dungeons and Dragons books to be technically precise, but I do prefer they stay somewhat within the bounds of actual game play. It seems as if Jean Rabe has never cracked open a Dungeons and Dragons rule book and has littler understanding of character mechanics. That may not be important to a non-gamer who picks up this book, but I think it is to most people who do play the game.

That's just the beginning of quite a few flaws in this book. There are minor issues, like the fact that we're told that one of the main characters, Wynter the centaur, is a pacifist who detests violence only to watch that character go around doing just as much fighting and killing as anyone else. There are substantial plot issues, where seemingly major friends or foes are introduced who seem like they will have an affect on the story, only to disappear and never be heard from again. There's the fact that while the story covers potentially interesting ground, that interesting ground is all but ignored because the author is forcing wooden protagonists into a unnecessary love story (seriously, can we have a fantasy story with a male and female character who remain platonic, respectful friends?) and throwing in unnecessary side plots, only to give no wrap up to many of them.

Red Magic is also filled with inconsistencies, so much so that I wonder if more than one person wrote this book. For example, after our three protagonists are captured by the evil lich Szass Tam and forced to ally with him against their will, they are provided with an army of skeletons, zombies and very powerful wraiths. Those wraiths create some serious problems for the good guys during the later half of the book, being quite uncooperative allies (due to the fact they try to kill practically anything living they come across). Then, in the climactic, epic last battle...the wraiths aren't there. The rest of the undead army is there, but not the wraiths. Where did they go? Poof. Gone. Never mentioned again.

There is some upside though. Rabe creates an excellent villain in the Red Wizard, Maligor. Maligor is truly a detestable bad guy (even if he is of the "let me tell everyone my big, bad, evil, plot sort) and I definitely wanted bad things to happen to him. There are some solid combat segments, and even some well integrated plotting - like when Wynter, who hates slavery, frees slaves when given a chance even if it is detrimental to the overall goals of the good guys. Still though, not enough to save this book.

Overall, unless you're a completest when it comes to reading fantasy series (and I am), you can comfortably skip this entry into The Harpers series (but if you want to get raging drunk, give it a try and play my drinking game!)

[Cesare Bartolini · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a long-term fan and Dungeon Master of the Forgotten Realms, so I try to learn lore by reading novels, even when I am quite aware that I should not expect anything big.

The reviews with this book were quite terrible. Furthermore, this book is possibly the only Forgotten Realms novel that cannot be found in e-book format (apart from an illegal version that can be found at no way I'm going to say that), and that says a good deal about the expected quality. Because of this, I was forced to obtain a paperback copy of the book from the US.

So when I started reading this I expected a very poor quality. I was somewhat pleasantly surprised at what I found.

I won't say this is a great book, but it's quite decent at least. The story is fine, the writing is quite ut not overly descriptive, the characters are consistent (even though a bit flat and stereotyped), and the description of the Thayvian society is enjoyable. Plus, Maligor is a good villain, although his assistant Asp is quite ridiculous at times. So far, so good.

It goes like this for the first 240 pages. Then exactly on page 241, things suddenly go dumb. Things start being decided that had been discarded a moment earlier, other things spring out of the blue. For example, at a point Brenna tells Galvin to only step on green and blue tiles, because the others are trapped. The first question is, where the heck are those tiles, since they were not mentioned earlier? Second, how did Brenna have any clue that green and blue tiles were not trapped?

The last part has plenty of these inconsistencies. It really makes me think that at some point Jean Rabe was hardly pressed with the deadline, and either she wrote it in a hurry without a hint of revision, or she gave the last part to someone else to write.

So, even if it not a great book, it would be worth more than what most reviews say, but the last part ruins it quite a bit. And there's the ever-present citrus tree to spoil it even a bit more. Seems like most of Thay must be covered with citrus trees.

Anyway, this is still way better than most of R.A. Salvatore's rubbish.

[Kevin Zuech · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is more like a 3.5 star but rounded up since that isn't an option. I'll start with the good. The book takes place in Thay and gives more of a detailed look into this area. Reading the books in chronological order Thay has only briefly been written about so it was nice to read more about this slave trading nation and to get a feel for the rivalries and economics of the nation. Next the storyline itself wasn't bad. It had a lot of potential but seemed to fall short. That brings us to the bad. The main heroes and villains for that matter were ok. Szass Tam was probably the only one that was above that level. Brenna was maybe slightly better too. The author had a lot of details added that had good possibilities that were never explored like Wynter's family. Numerous scenes were thrown in there but then had no relevance whatsoever like when Wynter was attacked by a zombie plant. The author took multiple chapters talking about the wraiths and they just up and vanished during the main combat. What is up with that? The main battle reminded me of the last season of Game of Thrones. The author spent all that time building up the storyline and then the main battle seemed rushed. The first two Harper's books were way better. I see why I read this many years ago and didn't remember one part of it. This is the only book I read by her so far and it sounds like she works out the flaws that she had in her debut so I do actually look forward to reading another of her novels.

[Jason Ray Carney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second in the Harpers Series I have read. It is a fun D&D novel set in Thay, the land of the evil Red Wizards. You learn a lot about how the society is organized. It is based on slavery, skullduggery, and sorcery. The various Red Wizards plot against eachother, and they are clandestinely contained by the forces of good. The villains are quite intriguing: Maligor, Zulkir of Alteration, and his lieutenant, Asp, the Naga Warrior. You also get to learn about the Lich Lord, Szass Tam. The protagonist party is fun: the druid Galvin, the centaur Wynter, and the sorceress Brenna (all three are Harpers, secret agents for the good powers). One issue I had with this novel is the reader never gets a clear sense of Galvin, Wynter, and Brenna's motivation and their missions' stakes. Why are they in Thay spying? What are they afraid will happen if Maligor's plots go unchecked? The larger problem, the superificiality originating from the fact that they are pure "good guys" who oppose pure "baddies," isn't part of this book specifically but larger issue, perhaps associated with the Forgotten Realms, the D&D alignment system, or D&D fiction generally.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you've seen Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, this is a great entry into the Forgotten Realms series!
3 Harper Agents infiltrate Thay to investigate a Red Wizard who is building up a monstrous army of magical beasts.

Fun fun fun! I love a Forgotten Realms novel that spends time creating a well developed villain in addition to the heroes. It is satisfying to see him have a real personality, instead of just being a faceless bad guy. Thay is an exciting, creepy setting, and very different from the rest of the Realms. Rabe does an excellent job explaining and developing the setting without info dumping too much.
Szass Tam coming in as an even eviler, spookier bad guy is a fun touch. The Harper trio being so clearly over their head creates a super readable dynamic.

Despite being written by a woman, this book does not pass the Harem Test. (my own personal qualifier for a Forgotten Realms novel: Is there a mind wiped sex slave or harem that does whatever the bad guy wishes, or is used to tempt the hero.)

[Jacob Brewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book three of the Harper series. This book deals with Thay and the dreaded Red Wizards of Thay. I usually find most books dealing with Thay to be interesting and this book was. The first two thirds of the book the pace was moving great, with action thrown in here and there to add some spice. The last third of the book the pace slowed down. There was some action thrown in here and there in the last hundred pages but not enough to keep the momentum going. As is common with Harper books the book just seems to end after the action without resolving all the problems. Another pointless plot point was another romance thrown in for no reason other than you have a main male and female proteaginous that spend alot of time together throughout the book.

[Michael Butturini · Rating 1 out of 5]

Worst Forgotten Realms book I have ever read. Jean Rabe was supposedly the President of the RPGA when she wrote this book. If that is true then she never took the time to pick us a D&D book before she wrote this. The book itself was badly written. Her style is a vapid, her characters flat, and her story line was hard to follow with plot holes so big you could ride a great wyrm red dragon through them. Now add in the fact she did not take the time to research the people or creatures she was writing about. I mean she had a necromancer casting illusion spells... If you never played D&D its a bad book. If you play or have played D&D its a horrible book. Don't waste your time.

[PRJ Greenwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

While this was a fun and easy read, it possessed all the negative qualities that many associate with heroic fantasy fiction. The characters weren't memorable, the bad guys stereotypical, the resolution of the story was too swift and unsatisfying, in fact as one character remarks: "It's too easy". It was too easy in the end for our heroes to vanquish the bad old Red Wizard and win the day.

To this book's credit though, it was never boring, and the prose style was easy on the eye. Good fun, but look for profundities elsewhere.

[Grim · Rating 1 out of 5]

Once I start a book, I never put it down until I'm done, but man I wished I stopped reading this one. Just not a good book at all. Mediocre setting, poor characterization, and a cardboard plot.

Even if you're a hardcore fan of Dungeons Dragons(and Forgotten realms/Wizards in particular) I doubt this would be enjoyable.

Avoid.

[BRANDON · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled with this one a little. I love druids, but for some reason the Forgotten Realms staring them haven't been quite as engaging. At least this one had plenty of shapeshifting and general druidry. There was a minor plot hole near the end. I may have missed something, but what happened to the wraiths? It might drive some people crazy, but I was able to ignore it and finish the book.

[Ida · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a very solid adventure story, with the Red Wizards and their allies being bad without any other characteristics and the heroes being good with a little characteristic to set them apart.
Setting and plot were done neatly, nothing great but good enough, and let me warn you about the forced romance that made absolutely no impact at all in the story or even the characters for that matter.

[Matt Littrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm giving this a 3.5. I wasn't too fond of our heroes, they were kind of flat and boring. But the villains were interesting, and I love the overall story Jean Rabe told. I'd recommend it for fans, but it isn't as good as the first 2 in the Harpers series.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Red Magic is the third book in the stand alone Harper's series. Its protagonists are sent into the land of Thay, known for its evil and necromantic ways, to investigate the growing power of one of the Red Wizards, Zulkir Maligor. Maligor is building an army of Gnolls, Hyena headed savages, but his purpose is unknown. Is the army going to attack a neighboring kingdom, a rival Red Wizard, or for some other nefarious purpose? To investigate, the Harpers send Galvin the Druid, Wynter the Centaur, and Brenna the Sorceress. Complicating their investigation is lich lord Szass Tam, the most powerful of the Red Wizards!

This book really shines when it explores the political machinations of the Red Wizards. The motivations of Maligor slowly unfold over brief chapters where he interacts with Asp, his spirit naga apprentice, and others in his household. When Szass Tam becomes involved the political landscape of Thay becomes even more fleshed out.

Where the book struggles is in the character development of Galvin and Brenna and their budding 'love' for one another. In some places, the two act like infatuated 12 year olds who insult each other and make each other miserable almost to the detriment of their missions. In others, that act like experienced adventurers who have been together for years.

[CJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Galvin and Wynter, two Harpers meet Brenna, a politician, and converge as they plot to enter Thay, a miserable land run by treacherous Red Wizards who control everything within the borders through brutal cunning, wicked magic, or sheer malice.

As a first outing for Author, Red Magic is not bad, but also not great. The structure for a great story exists, but an editor would have significantly aided. Multiple times in the first half of the book, you will find the names of character being repeated in every sentence, giving little credit to the reader to keep track of the characters. The heroes lack any real development, outside of an awkwardly placed/timed romance between two of them that ultimately, and rightfully goes no where. The villains are one dimensional, and more often than not, are evil for the sake of being evil or just hoarding power because they want it, which is most Red Wizards from what I gathered. Some background into the politics, history, etc. could have helped flesh out the villains. I did appreciate that the elder Red Wizards seem to be a very cunning group, striking only at the perfect time.

The end of the book is rushed with multiple plot lines seemingly dropped, hoping the reader will just casually forget. Dwarves and slaves being freed. The gnoll army marching on the young Red Wizard. No follow up from Szass Tam post conclusion.

Overall 2.4

[Keith Vai · Rating 2 out of 5]

The DnD movie inspired me to read these old Forgotten Realms books in order.

This book was out of print but easy to find as a used paperback. After reading it, I can see why it was out of print, and altogether skippable.

The biggest problem with this story is the focus on an "evil" Red Wizard. Its very hard to describe true evil and this villain was hard to relate to. Oddly the 2nd red wizard, a liche, was much more entertaining.

The other problem with the book was the actual heroes.

Only one female character and she is a hapless princess type who falls in love after a week together? I was pretty turned off by this depiction, and preferred the Elf Shadow books much more.

The 2nd hero is a druid who hates people. This character seemed novel to me but then turned into a sword-wielding killing machine and love interest. Didnt do much more me.

And the third hero did even less. A bland Centaur. He is a former slave owner who ran away. He gets a pick axe in his leg and shrugs it off.

This probably could have been a better review but Im moving on to book 4.

[Marvin · Rating 1 out of 5]

An unfortunate mix of convoluted mad wizards' scheming and hapless agents' bumbling about in defense of good. The main characters of the novel were so flat and unlikable I nearly found myself rooting for the villain at times. Just not enough here to pull it out. The action is dull and the insight into Thay, an interesting part of the Forgotten Realms setting, not quite deep enough. A bit of a struggle to finish.

[Badger Dubhghaill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the storyline. the druid wasn't that likeable, the centaur could have been much more, the sorceress was difficult to decipher. the lich wizard could be a great anti hero. annoyed with the 'I love you' line which was completely pointless.

[Daniel Willis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not one of the better Forgotten Realms books. Heroes were uninspiring, and the tension between them felt forced and then too quickly resolved. Ending fight with villain is unspectacular.

[M.A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Classic pulp fantasy that hits all the notes: armed conflict, intrigue, evil wizards, an heroic quest. Great introduction to the country of Thay; although a bit plain as a narrative.

[Michael]

This is so bad I can't read it. Talk about leaden writing.