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Forgotten Realms: The Empyrean Odyssey #2
The Fractured Sky
What brings a demon to the gates of heaven?
The half-fiend Kaanyr Vhok finally arrives at the destination he has sacrificed so much to achieve--he is in the heart of Celestia with his lover and consort, the succubus Aliisza. Only to find that the House of the Triad is falling apart, and he is bound by a vengeful Aliisza and a renegade angel into trying to save it--not exactly the goal he had in mind.
The second full-length novel in The Empyrean Odyssey, The Fractured Sky continues to follow War of the Spider Queen favorites Aliisza and Kaanyr Vhok as the pair of fiends struggle to escape the heart of a deeply troubled Celestia while bound to a particularly determined angel.
The half-fiend Kaanyr Vhok finally arrives at the destination he has sacrificed so much to achieve--he is in the heart of Celestia with his lover and consort, the succubus Aliisza. Only to find that the House of the Triad is falling apart, and he is bound by a vengeful Aliisza and a renegade angel into trying to save it--not exactly the goal he had in mind.
The second full-length novel in The Empyrean Odyssey, The Fractured Sky continues to follow War of the Spider Queen favorites Aliisza and Kaanyr Vhok as the pair of fiends struggle to escape the heart of a deeply troubled Celestia while bound to a particularly determined angel.
312 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 4, 2008
10 people are currently reading
407 people want to read
About the author
Thomas M. Reid
54 books59 followersThomas M. Reid grew up in Dallas, Texas as an enthusiastic Dungeons & Dragons player. He performed at Switzerland's Montreux Jazz Festival with his high school jazz band. After obtaining a degree in history at the University of Texas in 1989, he moved to Wisconsin and began working for TSR, Inc., a Dungeons & Dragons publisher, then moved on to be an editor for Dragon, a Dungeons & Dragons magazine. Not long after, he moved back to Texas to be a freelance roleplaying game writer.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
January 2, 2021
He seemed to bear the weight of the world on his shoulders and knew he was on the verge of dropping it.
July 20, 2009
The Empyrean Odyssey continues with The Fractured Sky by Thomas M. Reid. This book continues where the previous one, The Gossamer Plain, left off. The main plot is straight forward. It deals with an unlikely band of companions trying to thwart their enemy’s double dealing. A couple sub plots add a little extra with one characters feelings between a couple others, ones strict duties to uphold the law, another learning more about himself while trying to maintain his way of life, and others I will not describe for spoilers sakes.
Like the last novel, Mr. Reid continues to jump from scene to scene at the appropriate time to heighten suspense and keep the pace of the book moving decently steady. The flow was also pretty smooth and I was able to read through even with being cut off between scenes. I don’t feel this one was as detailed as the first on, but since I felt that first was a bit over detailed, this one was done much better giving just enough to get the authors vision.
The main characters are largely the same as the first book with Aliisza, Kaanyr Vhok, Tauran, Micus, Zasian, and Myshik, with the addition of Kael and Kashada. The characters become much more developed in this book albeit a couple do stay the same and it works perfectly for the story. Most of the characters I could connect with in their aspects. There was a couple supporting characters that were just there for the most part for me. At first Myshik’s role was enjoyable, but then it seemed after he was no longer needed, he just faded into the background. Kael’s character I felt needed more to him considering who he is in the story. I guess I just expected more than what was given.
A couple criticisms:
1. As mentioned previously, I know they are just supporting characters, but I felt a tad more could have been added to their part in the story, especially in Myshik’s case, to keep then interesting. Myshik’s appearances late in the book feel like they were just added to show, “Hey, he’s still here.”
2. At times the story lost its interest to me. There were a couple of hurdles I had to force myself through so I could pick back up and get through the book. Once I was over them though, the story picked up nicely.
Some positives:
1. The main characters were much more interesting this time around. It wasn’t just one character was focused on for development, but most of them. The characters felt more even to me on this one.
2. Once again Mr. Reid continues to add suspense by cutting off the flow at just the right point. Even though it can be frustrating to some, I included, it still makes for an interesting read and makes you want to get back to what was happening with the other set of characters.
3. For those who have not been under a rock, then they know what happens with the onset of the 4E for the FR settings. This book gives a nice insight to the progression of the 4E and details it. Me personally, I like the movement to the 4E and see both the advantages and disadvantages. As long as the authors do not go too crazy, there are many good things that can come from it. This is also coming from a person who is not a gamer but a lover of the realms novels.
Overall, I enjoyed this book more than the first one. I have been hovering around the 3 to 4 star range, and well, even though this one is somewhat above average and I wish that I could give it a 3.5 rating, I feel that I would be more honest to go with the 3 instead of the 4. For those that do not like cliffhanger endings, you can feel relieved that The Crystal Mountain is on sale now. I can not wait to see what Mr. Reid has in store for the conclusion. Fans of the realms may want to continue with this book and see how things unfold. I would recommend this for the hardcore fans of the realms. If you are looking to get in the realms, you may want to try reading other books first to get a better opinion of the realms.
-Dimndbangr
Like the last novel, Mr. Reid continues to jump from scene to scene at the appropriate time to heighten suspense and keep the pace of the book moving decently steady. The flow was also pretty smooth and I was able to read through even with being cut off between scenes. I don’t feel this one was as detailed as the first on, but since I felt that first was a bit over detailed, this one was done much better giving just enough to get the authors vision.
The main characters are largely the same as the first book with Aliisza, Kaanyr Vhok, Tauran, Micus, Zasian, and Myshik, with the addition of Kael and Kashada. The characters become much more developed in this book albeit a couple do stay the same and it works perfectly for the story. Most of the characters I could connect with in their aspects. There was a couple supporting characters that were just there for the most part for me. At first Myshik’s role was enjoyable, but then it seemed after he was no longer needed, he just faded into the background. Kael’s character I felt needed more to him considering who he is in the story. I guess I just expected more than what was given.
A couple criticisms:
1. As mentioned previously, I know they are just supporting characters, but I felt a tad more could have been added to their part in the story, especially in Myshik’s case, to keep then interesting. Myshik’s appearances late in the book feel like they were just added to show, “Hey, he’s still here.”
2. At times the story lost its interest to me. There were a couple of hurdles I had to force myself through so I could pick back up and get through the book. Once I was over them though, the story picked up nicely.
Some positives:
1. The main characters were much more interesting this time around. It wasn’t just one character was focused on for development, but most of them. The characters felt more even to me on this one.
2. Once again Mr. Reid continues to add suspense by cutting off the flow at just the right point. Even though it can be frustrating to some, I included, it still makes for an interesting read and makes you want to get back to what was happening with the other set of characters.
3. For those who have not been under a rock, then they know what happens with the onset of the 4E for the FR settings. This book gives a nice insight to the progression of the 4E and details it. Me personally, I like the movement to the 4E and see both the advantages and disadvantages. As long as the authors do not go too crazy, there are many good things that can come from it. This is also coming from a person who is not a gamer but a lover of the realms novels.
Overall, I enjoyed this book more than the first one. I have been hovering around the 3 to 4 star range, and well, even though this one is somewhat above average and I wish that I could give it a 3.5 rating, I feel that I would be more honest to go with the 3 instead of the 4. For those that do not like cliffhanger endings, you can feel relieved that The Crystal Mountain is on sale now. I can not wait to see what Mr. Reid has in store for the conclusion. Fans of the realms may want to continue with this book and see how things unfold. I would recommend this for the hardcore fans of the realms. If you are looking to get in the realms, you may want to try reading other books first to get a better opinion of the realms.
-Dimndbangr
September 14, 2023
The most interesting parts of this book have to do with the stealing of Azuth's staff for Cyric to kill Mystra and start the Spellplague. It is a very important fact in the world of Forgotten Realms and it should be better advertised (like in the book's title or description). Kashada's secret agenda as a servant of Shar is really intriguing, although the plot is not focused on that, as it should be in my opinion. The rest of the story is quite bland, almost boring.
3/5
3/5
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 20, 2024
Way better than the previous book, even though I enjoyed the “buddy adventure” of Kaanyr and Zasian and didn’t want that to end.
The author had me in the first half, not gonna lie. Everyone was playing into everyone else’s hands, and it could have gone anywhere. Really looking forward to seeing how it all wraps up!
The author had me in the first half, not gonna lie. Everyone was playing into everyone else’s hands, and it could have gone anywhere. Really looking forward to seeing how it all wraps up!
May 26, 2018
6.5/10
November 16, 2022
What a cliffhanger! I can't wait to read the third book in the series
January 21, 2022
The best one in the trilogy.
May 18, 2010
The Fractured Sky by Thomas M. Reid- This is the second book in The Empyrean Odyssey trilogy, the first being The Gossamer Plain. The story follows Kaanyr Vhok, Aliisza, Kael (Aliisza's son), and Tauran in their attempt to stop Zasian Menz. This is my second read through in honor of the last book The Crystal Mountain coming out.
I'll just simply reword what the description says on the back of the book. Kaanyr Vhok finds himself in the heart of heaven, except under circumstances that he does not want to be and bond by an oath to an angel. Aliisza, in being tricked by Vhok, wants to teach him a lesson that it was not a nice thing to be tricked by her lover.
Negatives:
1) Micus and the Angels. The whole "holier than thou" thing just really grated on my nerves. With Micus, it just seemed like he was constantly blind by the laws he swore to uphold. Then you have all the other angels, which have to, let me repeat that, have to follow everything by law. Yes, it's their 'job' to, but use some common sense! However, I do have to give props to Thomas M. Reid. He made you hate the "holy beings" and he really made them into the villains in this part of the trilogy.
2) Secondary Characters. I didn't like how Zasian, Myshik and Kashada seemed to become not important enough to write about. Around the middle, you suddenly stop hearing about any of them, not counting the little two paragraph snippets you get here and there. Now I didn't like Myshik, and still don't so it didn't bother me to much to not read about him. Zasian I can't help but like and was honestly disappointed that he suddenly disappeared halfway through. Kashada, however, was a good idea and just didn't get enough limelight.
3) Getting out of trouble. It seemed like no matter the trouble the group gets into, they always escaped it. Now, that isn't a bad thing necessary, but when it is obvious that they shouldn't have been able to make it, they do. The good thing about this is that, what they did to escape was actually logical and simple. Simple enough to be believable, but at the same time, simple enough to not believe it.
Positives:
1) Tauran. Now I strongly disliked him in The Gossamer Plain. However, here he seemed to really develop into an interesting character. He had more facets than sad and happy, and just became more complex and broken down. Just a great improvement.
2) Vhok and Aliisza. I still like these characters, even though some people may not agree. Vhok was good just because he was just plain bull-headed most of the story. It worked, amazingly. You could really tell that he despised helping Tauran and Kael in their quest. It didn't help with a divine oath. And yet, you can see Vhok gain a little more depth with Aliisza, and his feelings towards her. Aliisza on the other hand was great because of how she was slowly changing. She appeared to want to be a mother, a friend, and a lover all at the same time and her actions towards each member of the group really reflected a clash of different feelings.
3) The events. There are two major events in this book. Both are "realms shattering" and would go on to change the Forgotten Realms forever. Now I may not like what happened to the Realms, but the way Thomas M. Reid wrote them made me feel very comfortable with what happened. I've already read about one major event in another story and it was horribly done. The way that it was written made it understandable and welcome.
Overall: 3.5/5
*The problem was Micus and the angels, with their "we must follow protocol" attitude grated on my nerves. But along with that, the drop-off from the "villain" segment just was the real killer.*
I'll just simply reword what the description says on the back of the book. Kaanyr Vhok finds himself in the heart of heaven, except under circumstances that he does not want to be and bond by an oath to an angel. Aliisza, in being tricked by Vhok, wants to teach him a lesson that it was not a nice thing to be tricked by her lover.
Negatives:
1) Micus and the Angels. The whole "holier than thou" thing just really grated on my nerves. With Micus, it just seemed like he was constantly blind by the laws he swore to uphold. Then you have all the other angels, which have to, let me repeat that, have to follow everything by law. Yes, it's their 'job' to, but use some common sense! However, I do have to give props to Thomas M. Reid. He made you hate the "holy beings" and he really made them into the villains in this part of the trilogy.
2) Secondary Characters. I didn't like how Zasian, Myshik and Kashada seemed to become not important enough to write about. Around the middle, you suddenly stop hearing about any of them, not counting the little two paragraph snippets you get here and there. Now I didn't like Myshik, and still don't so it didn't bother me to much to not read about him. Zasian I can't help but like and was honestly disappointed that he suddenly disappeared halfway through. Kashada, however, was a good idea and just didn't get enough limelight.
3) Getting out of trouble. It seemed like no matter the trouble the group gets into, they always escaped it. Now, that isn't a bad thing necessary, but when it is obvious that they shouldn't have been able to make it, they do. The good thing about this is that, what they did to escape was actually logical and simple. Simple enough to be believable, but at the same time, simple enough to not believe it.
Positives:
1) Tauran. Now I strongly disliked him in The Gossamer Plain. However, here he seemed to really develop into an interesting character. He had more facets than sad and happy, and just became more complex and broken down. Just a great improvement.
2) Vhok and Aliisza. I still like these characters, even though some people may not agree. Vhok was good just because he was just plain bull-headed most of the story. It worked, amazingly. You could really tell that he despised helping Tauran and Kael in their quest. It didn't help with a divine oath. And yet, you can see Vhok gain a little more depth with Aliisza, and his feelings towards her. Aliisza on the other hand was great because of how she was slowly changing. She appeared to want to be a mother, a friend, and a lover all at the same time and her actions towards each member of the group really reflected a clash of different feelings.
3) The events. There are two major events in this book. Both are "realms shattering" and would go on to change the Forgotten Realms forever. Now I may not like what happened to the Realms, but the way Thomas M. Reid wrote them made me feel very comfortable with what happened. I've already read about one major event in another story and it was horribly done. The way that it was written made it understandable and welcome.
Overall: 3.5/5
*The problem was Micus and the angels, with their "we must follow protocol" attitude grated on my nerves. But along with that, the drop-off from the "villain" segment just was the real killer.*
October 16, 2015
Well, two Realms-shattering events occurred in this book 2, one near the start, another at the end. And the end is exactly like book 1 - it ends with a cliffhanger and nothing got resolved. It's quite similar to book 1 in its pacing too - sluggish at times then it speeds up towards the end.
As for the characters, they get more fleshed out here, giving a glimpse of each of their perspectives of things. I enjoyed the fact Tauran and Aliisza are "growing", but I found Kael to a little bland. And as with book 1, I still don't quite like the portrayal of Kaanyr, although his bullheadedness and hostility were done rather well.
The villains were more interesting, but Zasian and Kashada didn't get much limelight unfortunately. It would've been really nice to get to see more things from Zasian's point of view, but the villains sort of all went into the background towards the middle. Micus got his share of the limelight too, and it was rather well done the way Micus represented the absolute Lawful side of the alignment system.
I guess one of the reasons I found the pacing sluggish at times is because I'm basically just tagging along with Tauran and his band of misfits, who are, like the reader, not quite sure what's going on. The plot flows smoothly but their encounters felt a little weak and convenient. They seemed to lack something, like I'm not quite picking up the excitement and suspense.
So while it does clear up some of the mysteries and loose ends in book 1, it has its own share of loose ends for book 3 to clear up. I'm just not quite feeling the excitement to quickly pick up the last book in the trilogy.
As for the characters, they get more fleshed out here, giving a glimpse of each of their perspectives of things. I enjoyed the fact Tauran and Aliisza are "growing", but I found Kael to a little bland. And as with book 1, I still don't quite like the portrayal of Kaanyr, although his bullheadedness and hostility were done rather well.
The villains were more interesting, but Zasian and Kashada didn't get much limelight unfortunately. It would've been really nice to get to see more things from Zasian's point of view, but the villains sort of all went into the background towards the middle. Micus got his share of the limelight too, and it was rather well done the way Micus represented the absolute Lawful side of the alignment system.
I guess one of the reasons I found the pacing sluggish at times is because I'm basically just tagging along with Tauran and his band of misfits, who are, like the reader, not quite sure what's going on. The plot flows smoothly but their encounters felt a little weak and convenient. They seemed to lack something, like I'm not quite picking up the excitement and suspense.
So while it does clear up some of the mysteries and loose ends in book 1, it has its own share of loose ends for book 3 to clear up. I'm just not quite feeling the excitement to quickly pick up the last book in the trilogy.
April 13, 2013
Aliizsa, Kael, Kaanyr and Tauron are back and this time they must stop the evil priest Zasian from reigning chaos and destruction on the land.
Like the last book the writing is fluid, there are some grammatical errors in the Kindle version but nothing so bad. The characters are well rounded, and I like how Aliizsa and even Kaanyr are learning to accept little by little their human sides.
The action is steady, though there are not that many fight scenes in this book as the last or other books in the forgotten realms world of novels the book is still enjoyable as a whole. The magic and mystery and twists are wonderful and I especially loved the character of Kashada, she was great, even if she was evil.
If you have read the first book then youll know what to expect, if you have not then pick it up. If you are new to the Forgotten Realms world you may be a bit confused but it is explained well enough that you can figure things out easily.
Like the last book the writing is fluid, there are some grammatical errors in the Kindle version but nothing so bad. The characters are well rounded, and I like how Aliizsa and even Kaanyr are learning to accept little by little their human sides.
The action is steady, though there are not that many fight scenes in this book as the last or other books in the forgotten realms world of novels the book is still enjoyable as a whole. The magic and mystery and twists are wonderful and I especially loved the character of Kashada, she was great, even if she was evil.
If you have read the first book then youll know what to expect, if you have not then pick it up. If you are new to the Forgotten Realms world you may be a bit confused but it is explained well enough that you can figure things out easily.
February 28, 2015
Inner conflicts and outward friction haunt our unlikely team of angels and demons as they chase a dark priest of deceit through Dweomerheart - the fantastical realm of the Goddess of Magic. The cliffhanger at the end is a steep one, but the descriptions of the plane of magic were both informative and imaginative.
March 13, 2009
Loved it
March 14, 2010
Waiting for entire series before review
Read
July 28, 2011Not as good as the first in the series but set up the third book really well. Excited to read the last in the trilogy.
September 20, 2012
Duude, couldn't stop halfway through, had to finish it! I gotsta have the finale!
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews