The Threat from the Sea

The Threat from the Sea #1-3

by Mel Odom

A rising tide of adventure!

The sahuagin have brought back an ancient evil to wage war against the surface dwellers. From the murky depths of the Shining Sea rises a prehistoric menace who commands a rising tide of invasion to crash over the shores of Faerun. Iakhovas has plotted for long bitter years to regain the powers that were torn from him by an angry goddess. Oblivious to the growing danger of the undersea civilizations, the surface world is about to awaken to a new horrifying threat from the sea.

Award-winning author Mel Odom's Forgotten Realms (R) trilogy is now repackaged as a stunning trade paperback collector's edition. Exploring an area of the Realms few think to tread--the bottom of the ocean--Threat from the Sea takes readers for a ride that's full of high-seas adventure and monster battles.

Genres: Forgotten Realms, Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons

768 pages, Paperback

First published April 7, 2009

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

aka Jordan Gray

Mel Odom is a bestselling writer for hire for Wizards of the Coast's Forgotten Realms, Gold Eagle's Mack Bolan, and Pocket's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel book lines. His debut SF novel Lethal Interface made the Locus recommended list . The Rover was an Alyx Award winner. He has also written a scientific adventure of the high seas set in the 19th century entitled Hunters of the Dark Sea. He lives in Oklahoma.

Reviews

[S.C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alot of people say that this book just wasn't good enough for them and I admit the start was kind of slow but this is the best fantasy novel I have ever read and I think It was a fantastic series! Mel Odom did a great job when he was writing this book! The plot is very interesting and all of his characters are very detailed and amazing I would definatly recomend reading this book!

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

great collection of stories but when it comes to the conclusion it's too fast maybe have more scenes and less building up to scenes and then poor conclusions.

First Book in series was the sore producer but was entertaining to read => 3/5 stars

Second Book in series was by the best I thought. Different characters show up and tie into the story => 4/5 stars

Third Book in series was good in the beginning but had some sore spots and some scenes didn't really make much sense. => 2/5 stars

In order to finish this book I would say read 1 & 2 then stop read Realms of the Deep Book; story from Mel Odom: pg. 155, "One Who Swims With Sekola" then continue onto book 3 in the series.

The story in Realms of the Deep shows a necessary part that isn't shown in the trilogy, which in part to the trilogy doesn't make much sense to the reader. You will know when and where that story should fit in the trilogy but it doesn't mention it in "The Threat From the Sea"

Overall, good character development but lacks backgrounds for some characters and ending is just flat and dull.

If you want to read about the water scenes in Forgotten Realms I would DEFINITELY read "Realms of the Deep" and then decide on who to read after finishing that book. That's how I picked up this trilogy. Gives you a different aspect to the Forgotten Realms and new characters to delve and explore.

[Milo · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had some cool concepts buried deep inside it but was terribly, terribly executed. I finished this only because I felt duty bound seeing as it was a gift. Take my advice and stay away, this one is a stinker.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty rad when I'm in the mood for it. This book shines above some of its compatriot tomes in the Forgotten Realms series, though I don't mean that as a slight to a well-loved fantasy lineage. I've certainly read my fair share, and this one stands with the best of them.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just finished Mel Odom's Threat from the Sea trilogy... WOW! Great (long) story, great characters, every fantastical creature you ever heard of and more! This book is worth the long haul😃

[Michael Paulini · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give it 3/5 solely on the reason that aquatic fantasy novels are extremely rare, and that the writing itself is quite solid.

My main criticism is that the characters are very one-dimensional and always behave as expected and the plot demands. In addition (which probably ranks as the least important), there are some obvious contradictions to the setting and D&D rules.


Rules Issues:
Sahuagin are in all editions aquatic monsters and not amphibious, which means they can't breath air. Which in turn makes them especially unsuited to man ships or invade settlements on land. Some editions have amphibious Malenti, but the book explicitly describes regular sahuagin.

Laqueel, a sahuagin high priestess, is quite often described as helpless. Considering she got a massive amount of strength more than a human pirate (not counting claws and spells), it is doubtful she would let herself be sexually assaulted by one. Also malenti are supposed to be trained as spies among elven races, so she would most likely have encountered her sexuality like decades ago rather than be suddenly suprised by the developments.

Also Jherek is quite arbitrary in when and how he uses his moral code, so I definitely wouldn't think he could qualify as paladin.

Also I guess everyone reading the novel is aware within the first chapter that the "silent voices" the main characters hear are gods, and they seem to be very badly chosen at that, as a.) they don't actually have any personality furthering their domains and b.) their domains are not even remotely touched by the events. Also Eldath seems to be the most sadistic goddess ever, by naming Laqueel her champion, but not giving her any spell she just lost, so she immediately gets eaten. Also her reasoning doesn't make sense, as J would be killed on sight by most civilisations, whereas she is a veteran of multiple campaigns as sahuagin.

Worst of all, where is Umberlee? The one that would be most involved: her ex-lover goes on a rampage, taking back items that she kept away from him and attacks races under her auspice. Make Jherek her champion (maybe mother, as we don't know who his mother is), leave the rest as is (surely she can send a sea drake and guide him to some of her items) and it would have been a suprising reveal at the end. Then remove the Eldath arc (erm ... paragraph), as that one doesn't contribute anything at all (or if it has to be, make it Umberlee too ... she is the bitch queen, so tricking J into loosing her powers just to delay the big bad one for a second would work).

Giving the plot the classic heroic journey set would also make the main characters way more engaging. Like, let Jhereck try to do X and fail due to character flaw Y before changing and finally winning, let them earn the ending.

Also can we have a proper ending? Like one that is not like: I poke the invincible monster in the eye and he is dead? Also make the enemy monstrous, an epic threat ... as written he is more like roadkill (nothing the baddie does has any effect and he dies because of a weakspot that the hero way too easy exploits). The most tragic/emotional thing of the last chapter is literally Laqueel being eaten ... and even that is retconned like a page afterwards.

[Matthew Dame-Brusie]

You know... I tried to like this book.
I really did
I wanted too, mostly because I liked the idea of the villain. but it lacked something. or several somethings. Like good writing, and a plot. And characters. I kept waiting for the villain to just go wild and show why he was so dangerous, but it was all suspense with no payoff to build up more suspense. I was just disappointed with the whole thing and felt like it was poorly done, almost as if someone wrote the dnd game he had with his five year old into a story and tried to make it work.

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent. 759 page gem.

[Siomi Escobedo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the book... But it's missing a great ending...