The Queen of Death

The Lost Mark #3

by Matt Forbeck

They've been hunted across the Mournland, captured in Karrnath, and attacked in a dragon's mountain lair. One band of adventurers has had enough. Time to take the battle to the enemy. Time to fight back. One young woman will have to decide to give in or embrace her destiny as . . .
The Queen of Death.

Genres: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, Fiction, High Fantasy, Role Playing Games

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 10, 2006

About the author

I'm an award-winning, New York Times-bestselling author and game designer and happily married father of five, including a set of quadruplets. For more on my work, see Forbeck.com.

Reviews

[Marvin · Rating 1 out of 5]

The chase changes directions. To Argonnessen!

The good: Argonnessen!

The bad: a near total waste of Argonnessen! Frustratingly aimless plot that just kind of peters out.

[Harrison Delahunty · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Queen of Death is a solid ending to a solid trilogy of novels. Fast-paced and decently-written, it is fittingly a good bit of brand-fantasy with the rest of its trio.

The Queen of Death follows the concluding adventures of Kandler and his band of fellow airship-riders. His daughter, Espre, is still the subject of Eberron-wide intrigue thanks to her dragonmark, the eponymous 'lost mark'. Kandler and his party journey towards Argonnessen, where the dragons reside. Along the way they stop in Aerenal, the elves' domain, and are waylaid during a supply stop by flying lizardmen later on. All in all, it's a swashbuckling good time. The real highlight is Argonnessen itself, as Forbeck does a great job with the description of this tropical locale.

The small spate of negatives is that this novel seems quite a bit less well-edited than its two priors, and the conclusion may be hit-or-miss depending on your tastes.

Regardless, if you like cheesy brand-fantasy, the entirety of the Lost Mark trilogy may just be for you.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another book that I've reread and is a lot better than what my memory said.

That said, the book does have a lot of typos in the way of dropped words or "that" instead of "than". There's also a few scenes that feel like filler when getting supplies that could have been left out.

It also feels that if Xalt is an Artificer, we should have seen him use his abilities and infusions. And the big dragon fight, the group feels very underpowered, way too underpowered that they should have all died with some of the swipes they got from ancient dragons like those. For such big stakes, it comes across as very underwhelming.

Xalt could have powered people's weapons and armor going in. Made some magic items, even if minor, there's been more than enough downtime with the airship travel to do so. If Burch is a Ranger, there's more he should have done, same with Sallah as a Paladin.

If it's going to be a novel based on a game system/setting, it should feel like we're seeing more of "mechanics" being used for abilities. Especially the resident artificer.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully bittersweet finale to a rocky trilogy. It's served as a great introduction to Eberron's novels, and as a greater font of inspiration. I've been hooked into the claws of such a wide range of fun characters, and now it's over I'm left wondering who else will catch that attention in such a manner.

[Conor · Rating 3 out of 5]

All in all enjoyable. I did find that some of the internal thoughts were unnecessarily repeated. There's only so many times I can read that someone's inner dialogue describes their motivation to spite someone.

[Chip Hunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finishing off one of the two original Eberron trilogies, THE QUEEN OF DEATH does a fine job of wrapping up to story of Kandler, Espre, Burch, Sallah, Te'oma, and Xalt. The first half of the book is actually rather plain, with the heroes facing enemies that seem wholey nonthreatening to the hardened group. And, I thought it was a bit of a stretch to get Espre's father into the story so late in the game. In any case, the last part of the book picks up with an excellent climax that takes up about a quarter of the total book and is highly exciting. The way the book ends is very satisfying and, while I didn't see it coming, seemed rather predictable in hindsight. Very pleased with the ending.

The Lost Mark trilogy would be a good place to start reading Eberron books, as it does take you all across the land and introduces you to many of the inhabitants of the world. History, geography, and the unique magic of the world is given a very good overview in the trilogy. Its also a good story.

While I have enjoyed the six Eberron books I've read, I just don't see myself coming back (at least for a while) to Keith Baker's creation. Too many good fantasy books out there to get tied up with the never-ending WoTC library.

[Doug · Rating 2 out of 5]

This trilogy was a mixed experience for me. On the one hand, as my first dip into reading any stories set in Eberron, it was fun to learn about a lot of details of the world I had only a passing knowledge of. On the other hand, this series is badly in need of an editing pass. There are tons of grammatical mistakes, misspellings, and characters words and action suddenly not making a lick of sense from one moment to the next. I will say, though, that this material still would have made a vastly superior official Dungeons & Dragons movie.

[Argyrios · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nice Trilogy of books.Easy to read - Great introduction in the world of Eberron.Sometimes gets boring because of the hide & seek - hunting stuff, but in general has good action and dialogues that keeps the book running

[Mark Schebel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The conclusion to a decent Eberron series.

[~Cyanide Latte~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

[REVIEW TO COME LATER UPON RE-READ.]