Soldiers of Ice

Forgotten Realms: The Harpers #7

by David Zeb Cook, Fred Fields

An intense, personal story of survival, a departure from the more sweeping "battle against great evil" tales that characterize the rest of the Harpers books. Journeying far north in defiance of her Harper superiors, Martine of Sembia finds herself trapped in the lonely, snowbound valley of Samek. Illustrations.

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

312 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 1, 1993

About the author

David "Zeb" Cook is an American game designer best known for his work at TSR, Inc., where he was employed for over fifteen years. Cook grew up on a farm in Iowa where his father worked as a farmer and a college professor. In junior high school, Cook playing wargames such as Avalon Hill's Blitzkrieg and Afrika Korps. "I was primarily a wargamer, but there wasn't any role-playing available then," although in college, he was introduced to the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game through the University of Iowa gaming club. Cook earned his B.A. in English (with a Theater minor) in 1977. He married his high school sweetheart, Helen, with whom he had one son, Ian. Cook became a high school teacher in Milligan, Nebraska, where his students gave him his nickname of "Zeb"; the name derives from his signature, which is dominated by a stroke resembling a 'Z'.

Reviews

[Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!* · Rating 3 out of 5]

David Cook wrote the excellent Horselords, also in the Forgotten Realms line of novels, which stood out as suprisingly literate, being more of a fantasy anthropological exploration than a typical adventure story. There are elements of this here too, in the main character's experience with a gnoll tribe that presents them as more than merely half-jackal savages. But, overall this remains a standard adventure tale, although a welcome one.

I started reading it with uncertainty; it begins rather generically, with a young Harper-in-training receiving her first grown-up mission, to seal a rift to the elemental plane of ice by placing pre-magicked stones around it. Martine, the main character, lacks any distinctive personality and mostly fails to develop any later on. She remains a generic good-aligned ranger with wilderness survival skills. I was suprised that she reached the point of accomplishing her primary mission by 100 pages in. After that, though, things get complicated. Spoilers aside, let's just say that she inadvertently sparks a local race war. The plot took unexpected turns and the book as a whole turned out medium-solid.

I must say, though, that I have reservations about this whole Harper framework. As a "semi-secret organization preserving good in the Realms", the Harpers are lame, plain and simple. I strongly suspect that it is a pyramid scheme of some sort. Here, Martine's only motivation for going on this mission is "for her career" with the Harpers. I wonder if they have dental? The best books in this line are the ones that barely tangentially reference the group.

ADDENDUM: I just remembered that I wanted to comment on a couple of physical aspects of the book (original paperback edition). One, the cover art is not terrible, for a change in this line of books at this time period. The cover actually represents characters and a scene from the novel, although the spiky-armor guy should be smaller. It is by an artist who has done other covers in this line, so I think we can attribute this to whomever was responsible for the direction to the artist in this case. I think I will make some sub-folders to sort these books by cover artist, for my own interest.

The other thing to mention, is that this book is shorter than most in the same line. Although they all run approximately 310-300 pages, by adjusting font and page margins they fit a variety of word counts into that number of pages. This felt like 60,000-70,000 words rather than the usual 80,000-90,000 words. This is fine; it was just as long as it needed to be.

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Martine is a young ranger who is bored with the typical messenger duties she’s been tasked with as a junior member of the secret organization for good known as The Harpers. But her mentor, the wizard Jazrac, chooses to send her on a mission to the frozen north where she must use magic stones to seal off a gate to a para-elemental plane of ice. It’s a chance for Martine to show her mettle and earn her place as a real Harper so she jumps at the opportunity. Awaiting her is adventure aplenty including ice elementals, a pack of wild dog-like gnolls and an imperiled village of gnomes.

I enjoyed this entry in the open world of The Harpers series. No doubt the nostalgia for my college days playing AD&D aided my enjoyment and it was fun to see the fights play out like a gaming session for fairly low-level D&D adventurers. And there was that one time near the end of the story when Martine definitely needed to role a natural 20 in order to succeed. Wonderful stuff.

I’m awarding 4 stars based on that nostalgia factor. Non-D&D enthusiasts will likely struggle through the fairly straight-forward and trope-filled plot but I was OK with it. The danger level and the casualty count was actually a lot higher than I expected and the growth of Martine from young wannabe hero to successful leader of a large group of unnatural allies was good to see. I'll try to get back to reading more of these Harper novels.

[J]

This is my badger-fighting suit.

[E J · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think the title is a misnomer. I presume the eponymous soldiers were ice fiends like Vreesar, except we never see them. Ever. Surely gnolls and tundra gnomes can't be considered soldiers?

Those gnomes were ridiculous, in a bad way. I had no impression that they were very gnome-like. Cook gave a very superficial exploration of the gnome community, and basically through telling rather than showing. Same went for the gnoll tribe. Krote is undoubtedly the coolest character, but ultimately felt unsatisfying.

Incidentally, this book reminded me of another FR book set in frozen wastes terrain type, Frostfell. That book gives a better, more immersive account of what an ice fiend/devil is like than Soldiers of Ice. But I don't really recommend that book since I found it a claustrophobic and depressing bore. For that matter, I don't recommend this book either. Soldiers of Ice is an on-rails, haphazard, oddly paced adventure lacking anything really interesting.

Again, I have to stop reading books that draw me in because of their cool covers.

[Ida · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a hard one to rate. Looking into the elements of writing the book doesn't present anything that's good enough for four stars. Characters, setting, magic, world building, plot etc. are all mediocre. But they all support each other in a balanced way.

"A different Harper" from the ones in the novels so far, different in a refreshing way, with various growing connections to different people in the world around her.

This one, as well, is to be read more as an adventure than a story book, but it's an adventure with lots of little story threads left here and there. The book doesn't focus on any of those stories, but makes sure the reader knows of their existence. This is another example of elements supporting each other well.

If you're looking for soldiers made of ice, there aren't any, though. There are gnolls and gnomes in frosting landscape instead.

[Kagan Oztarakci · Rating 2 out of 5]

"There is an old story. A fox catches a mouse out gathering acorns. 'Cursed be the oak' moans the mouse beneath the fox's paw. The fox says, 'Foolish mouse, why do you curse the tree? It didn't hurt you.' And the mouse answers, 'If the oak hadn't dropped the acorns, I wouldn't have been gathering them, and you would never have caught me.' Hearing the little mouse complain, the fox laughs and laughs so much that he let's his paw slip and the mouse pulls his tail free. Off runs the mouse, only to be caught in the jaws of a snake. 'Oh, cursed be the fox.' moans the mouse, 'for letting me go, else I would not have been caught.'"

[Summer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bleak, with a bitter aftertaste. This is the grimmer side of 2e - slavery, genocide, and the threat of rape. A lot of that got toned down for later editions.
It's not a fun book. A lot of horrible outdoorsy stuff in the freezing cold, battles against hideous odds that leave the majority of the men in the gnome settlement dead , and at the end of the book most of the adventuring party is dead, and the survivor has a permanent debuff and no more taste for saving the world.
Is it D&D? Yeah, but I don't like this kind of game.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

The great cover gave me hope, but the story and writing fell short. It was okay to be sure and some of the stuff concerning the way of the Gnolls was really good. Worth reading if you are a D&D player.

[Badger Dubhghaill · Rating 2 out of 5]

After charging through the previous six Harper novels I find this last one to be the least favourite. Filled with half page descriptions which weren't needed, several times my mind wandered off. None of the characters were loveable or relatable, the only interesting character was the gnoll shaman.

[Marvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Harper teams up with a fallen paladin and a community of gnomes to repel an evil outsider driving gnolls onto a path of destruction. Fast-paced--just one thing after another, nearly to a fault--and entertaining enough but perhaps not particularly memorable.

[PRJ Greenwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an excellent little surprise this was. Solidly-written and constructed, with characterisations above par for a D&D novel. A better entry to the Harpers canon.

[Olli Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

The gnoll lore is not current.

[Jason Fawkes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent. Gets a bit dark for what initially seems a lightweight tale.

[CJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book felt like I was reading a fantasy version of Ulysses, albeit this book takes place over approximately a few weeks, but still. Overly descriptive in the worse sense, but the battles and fights are far better for it. Pushing through the first couple of chapters was a struggle.

Once you get over the hump, the book does open up. Characters are engaging, and the flow is decently paced. The bad guy is just generic, and could have more subtext for motives, but is serviceable.

Like others have said, this book is grim. The Harpers mission to the north ends with nearly everyone dying. Jazrac's cowardice and hubris causing his death was entertaining.

The break from common FR tropes was nice, but the novel was way too wordy and struggled to hold my attention.

That being said, this is my badger fighting armor.

Overall, 3.1

[Cesare Bartolini · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very, very bad book.

The Harpers line of books has a lot of ups and downs, but this is the worst I've read so far. It's not easy to explain why, it's a wide range of reasons, actually.

The first problem with the book is that the plot is based on a bunch of cretins doing a neverending sequence of mistakes - and mostly not acknowledging it. For example, Martine decides to give the stone to Vreesar, but that turns out to be a completely useless idea, because Vreesar just does what it wants and attacks the gnomes. This is mildly pointed out by Jouka toward the end. Worse still, the arrival and lack of escape of Jazrac is a basically useless event, whose only effect turns out to be Jazrac's death, and no one seems to say a word on this. Again, the strenuous defense of the warren is a rather inconsequential event, because in the end the gnomes abandon it, and no one says a word about how big a mistake that was.

Just one less dumb decision now and then, and the plot would sound way less forced than it is.

Plus there are several contradictions and blatant mistakes. For example, Jazrac tells Martine that she has to touch the cinder against each of the five stones, but she actually touches it against the last one, and the rift is closed nonetheless. Or, the gnolls, after leaving, post a guard outside Vil's cabin to ensure that the gnomes don't follow. What's the sense of it? It's clear that the gnomes cannot stay forever in the cabin. And moreover, what would be the difficulty of removing one guard and then going out? That seems to be another idiotic feature to give the story a forced path. And, most of all, why all the fuss when, apparently, storming Vressar together would have been enough to kill it? It seems that most of the time the characters try to avoid a direct confrontation with Vreesar, but in the end it turns out to be the only sensible thing to do.

So, bad plot, a lot of inconsistencies, and yet that would not have been so bad.

The real problem here is that ninety percent of the book is a constant series of skirmishes, useless fights between Martine, Vil and the gnomes one one side, and Vreesar and the gnolls on the other. The fighting is so constant that it makes this book not only boring, but utterly daunting, to the degree of some of the worst books by Salvatore (those where there's just fighting on and on).

So, it took me much more than the average book of this length, just because it was so bad and damn boring to read.

Avoid at all costs.

[P. Aaron Potter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I generally like David Cook's FR novels a good deal more than I did this one.

This one came across as rather ODTAA, which is not particularly a flaw in this type of sword-n-sorcery outing...but the event-driven plot here left little room for character development. That's problematic because the events themselves were the most prosaic type of kill-the-monster, get-the-treasure adventure fare. There's no tie-in to the broad and interesting geopolitics of the Forgotten Realms, so you're left at the end wondering why Cook bothered writing in that setting.

The whole point of the protagonist's story arc is that she's supposed to be a sadder but wiser figure by book's end. Sadder I'll grant, but wisdom is not evident. While setting about accomplishing her goals - sort of - she manages to kill off almost every person around her. This is supposed to be the good guy?

Pass.

[Charlie George · Rating 2 out of 5]

Went back and re-read this book as an experiment. Didn't remember anything about it, or most of the Harpers series, other than I generally enjoyed them. Wanted to see if the writing was any good, now that I'm grown up. The verdict: hit and miss.

I picked this book to re-read because it has a cool cover. Didn't get much out of it the second time through. 2 stars "Just OK". Had a memorable fight against a group of gnolls early on, then not a lot happened. There was some dubious shamanic magic, and a protagonist that wasn't very capable. Would have been 1 star if I didn't like the genre and world setting so much. Stick with Ed Greenwood or Elaine Cunningham within the Harpers sub-series of Forgotten Realms.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this is the third book I've read by Cook. I will say that this one is better than "King Pinch" and on par with "Horselord". Not the greatest author, but the stories are decent.

I was pretty intrigued at first, but the plot quickly desolved into one heart wrentching mistake after another as the main character tries to do things that are way to difficult for her. Don't get me wrong, I like it when heros are challanged, and I even like it when they doubt themselves. But this got old. Also, he killed off characters you wern't investied enough in to care, but they were cool enough to make you say, "Why? I liked him..."

Once again, as I make my way through the "forgotten realms" books, I always find myself entertained enough to pick up the next one.

[Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like fantasy, especially fantasy set in cold environments, this novel just might be for you (but good luck tracking down a copy)! Martine of Sembia and Krote Word-Maker are both wonderful characters, and they both grow a lot as they learn to put aside their mutual animosities and work together. I definitely wish there were more stories written about them. All in all, this book was a pretty fun read.

[Doug Kallies · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like David Cook as an author. This book did a good job of holding my interest. I especially liked the descriptions of gnoll society and the gnome warren. The choice to make Vreesar, an ice para-elemental, the main villain was different. Overall, a good book. I'd recommend it for any fan of the Forgotten Realms.

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mehhhhhh...

[Justin Salisbury · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ehh, not terribly horrible, but not particularly good either.