Farthest Reach

Forgotten Realms: The Last Mythal #2

by Richard Baker

The fires of hatred, vengeance, lies, and ambition burn in Cormanthor.

Sarya Dlardrageth has gone to ground in the ruins of Myth Drannor, seething with hatred for the elves she thought would be easier to defeat.

Malkizid has been summoned from the Outer Planes to serve House Dlardrageth, but this servant won’t rest until he’s become the master.

Myth Drannor is a symbol of the elves' greatest failure, but can it one day rise again as their greatest victory?

Genres: Forgotten Realms, Fantasy, Fiction, Dungeons and Dragons, High Fantasy, Collections, Ebooks

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 28, 2005

About the author

A best-selling author and award-winning game designer, Richard Baker is known for his novels in the Forgotten Realms setting and his work on the Dungeons & Dragons game. His Realms novels include Condemnation (book 3 of the War of the Spider Queen), the Last Mythal trilogy, and the Blades of the Moonsea trilogy. He is currently working on a new military-themed science fiction series centered on the character Sikander North; Valiant Dust, the first book in the new series, debuts in November 2017 from Tor Books.

A native of Ocean City, New Jersey, Rich graduated from Virginia Tech in 1988 and went on to serve as a surface warfare officer in the United States Navy. When he's not writing fantasy or science fiction, he works in game publishing. He's the founder of Sasquatch Game Studio, a small game company based in Auburn, Washington.

Rich currently resides in the Seattle area with his wife, Kim, and their daughters Alex and Hannah. His interests include gaming (naturally), history, hiking, racquetball, and the Philadelphia Phillies.

Reviews

[Catnap · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Sotiris Kosmas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid sequel in The Last Mythal trilogy although the series would have fared better if it wasn't part of the DnD world. The action never ceases for long and, if you don't scrutinize things too much, it is a highly enjoyable fantasy adventure.

[E J · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was like eating at an all you can eat buffet with the appetite of a compulsive eater. Like gorging on pizza, pasta, burgers, curly fries and sides of chocolate cake, cheesecake and icecream. I mean, you have demons AND devils colluding with each other. That's just not supposed to be, but in the telling rather than the showing, that's what Sarya somehow finagled. The last 100 or so pages were an exhausting melange of martial engagements and magic battles that I skim read and let it wash over me. I say exhausting because it felt like it kept going on and on and this is a complaint I've had with Baker's contribution in the War of the Spider Queen. Superlatives are repetitive and the action so drenched in 'KAPOW' AND 'WHAMMO' again and again that you just feel numb after a while.

Look, Baker's got child-like enthusiasm and the encyclopedic knowledge of the Realms to write a grand story. I would hope so considering he's one of the bulwarks of game design of FR. At the very least, his stories are fast, straightforward reads with good momentum. But here, and I'm pretty sure in all of his novels and not just The Last Mythal trilogy, I just don't get the impression that he can write something compelling for a slightly mature mindset. The kind of pull and fascination I've encountered from say Jaleigh Johnson, Richard Lee Byers or Lisa Smedman, authors capable of varied language, characters and dialogue. Farthest Reach is a book that doesn't really breathe, either because the scope of the story is too big for Baker to handle given the constraints of the story he HAS to tell, or in a manner of speaking, his eyes are bigger than his stomach.

[Brett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great followup to the first book. I really enjoy the writing style of Richard Baker, the stories flow well and even changes between characters flow seamlessly.

I especially love the somewhat traditional D&D party setup with the main characters which does feel forced or contrived for the most part. The character development as in the first novel is great and the visualizations of the environment created by the author is also fantastic.

I will be reading the third book soon.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Farthest Reach by Richard Baker

Farthest Reach is the second book in The Last Mythal trilogy. The first book is titled Forsaken House and the final book is Final Gate. The Last Mythal trilogy is set in the Forgotten Realms setting of Dungeons and Dragons. Richard Baker has written a number of books, most of which are set in the Forgotten Realms. His Forgotten Realms work includes; the eighth book in the Double Diamond Triangle saga titled Easy Betrayals, a stand-alone book titled The Shadow Stone, a book in The Cities series titled The City of Ravens, the third book in R. A. Salvatore's War of the Spider Queen series titled Condemnation, and the Blades of the Moonsea trilogy which includes Swordmage, Corsair, and Avenger. He has written another book outside the Forgotten Realms for the Star*Drive series of novels titled Zero Point. Farthest Reach was released in July 2005 and was published by Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

Araevin Teshurr is trying to understand his new-found magical knowledge, granted to him by the mysterious Nightstar. After declining to stay at Tower Reilloch and learning high magic, Araevin decides that he has learned everything he could from the mages there and sets off to discover more about the mysterious Nightstar. His journey for knowledge leads him to the city of Silverymoon and its store of arcane knowledge. There he meets up with his betrothed Ilsevele and his two companions, the genasi Maresa and an elf cleric Filsaelene, and goes to work searching for answers. Hundreds of miles away, the daemonfey queen Sarya Dlardrageth is fuming over her defeat by the elves of Evermeet. She and her army find themselves in the ruins of an ancient elven city named Myth Drannor, where the elves of Faerûn last met with failure and were forced to Retreat to Evermeet. There she waits for the elven army to come, knowing that they won't succeed in defeating her this time, thanks to the help of a demon prince. At the site of Sarya's old base of operations, Seiveril Miritar is searching for the daemonfey, hoping to rid the world of their evil once and for all. After finally finding their location, thanks to the help of Araevin, Lord Miritar moves his army to the forest of Cormanthor and prepares to take back Myth Drannor and put an end to the daemonfey forever.

Criticisms:
1) Characters. Farthest Reach, like the previous book, has major problems with its characters. There are too many and almost no one has any real personalities or grow during the novel. Unlike Forsaken House, Farthest Reach does have less characters, but there are still enough of them to become confusing. The characters seem to be little more than stick figures, being almost transparent. The main characters only show maybe two different emotions without the story. The first is anger and the other emotion is generic sadness. There are shades of other emotions, but they are fleeting and barely show long enough to warrant mentioning. Another major issue with the characters is that it seems a lot of characters are quickly forgotten. After being rescued by Araevin in the previous book, Filsaelene is only there for two chapters before melting into the background. Another character who appears late in the novel, Jorin Kell Harthan. He helps the main characters in their quest to find the knowledge that Araevin is seeking. However, during most of the action scenes he is in, it seems like he is totally forgotten. We learn where everyone else is and what they are doing, but I don't remember ever seeing anything talking about what he is doing or where he was positioning himself. Finally, we have a side story about a tracker named Curnil. He gets quite a few scenes throughout the novel, but there seemed to be no real point of him being featured. If he wasn't there, we could have had more time devoted to character development of the main characters. Overall, the characters in Farthest Reach were extremely disappointing and are easily forgettable.
2) Lore. Farthest Reach relies heavily on Forgotten Realms lore. It really seems like you need a heavy background in events and knowledge of the surrounding world. This does cause some issues while reading. It causes the average reader to not really understand what is going on. If you don't know anything about the area, the people, or the history around the Cormanthor forest, you would probably be extremely lost. Also, it slows the story down. If you do some research, then the lore isn't that bad and it is bearable. However, there is a lot that is mentioned that you may need some extra background. Overall, the massive amounts of references really does make reading Farthest Reach hard to follow and understand at times.

Praises:
1) Story. If you can get past the character flaws and the lore, Farthest Reach is a very exciting and interesting story. It continues the feeling of being epic and important, much like Forsaken House did. This time, the adventuring part of the novel seems to be the main focus. It's an exciting adventure, that's not in the norm for a typical Forgotten Realms novel. Most adventures are action focused, but with this one is more knowledge and learning focused. Farthest Reach takes more time in setting up the adventuring aspect more than relying on action to carry it along. Most of the adventure focuses on Araevin finding information about the origin of the Nightstar and other things about concerning it. Amazingly this is exciting. Mostly because it is vastly different from the norm and words carry more meaning than swordplay. Farthest Reach still does have action, but it seemed secondary to everything else. It's just different, and that makes the story all the more interesting.
2) Maresa. Once again, the genasi is the only entertaining character. She does have a smaller role in this story, but she still makes the most of it. She steals a lot of the scenes she's in. Her personality is undeniable and gives a lot to these scenes. She's the only one that has a real personality. She's a loudmouth, smart mouth character who effortlessly grabs your attention and holds it. She's just likeable. If more scenes revolved around her, the other character's flaws wouldn't be as noticeable. I just wish she had more to give the story.
3) Political Warfare. I mentioned that Farthest Reach isn't like the normal Forgotten Realms novel and that it relies mostly on words instead of swords. Even with a warlike atmosphere, the treaties, promises, and interactions between the characters seemed to have most of the focus. Basically, the political aspects are more important than anything else in the story. The intrigue and backstabbing the protagonists and antagonist do is really compelling and interesting. The backstabbing that happens with the antagonists of Farthest Reach is the best part. It was interesting to see how the these antagonists try to out do one another. It was almost like a chess game. The antagonists tried to get things in their favor with stepping on the backs of everyone else. All the backstabbing was just interesting and gave the story something more.

Side Notes:
1) Star Elves. It's not often that star elves are brought up in the novels and it's a shame. I think that they need to be in the spotlight more often, because they do seem like an interesting race with a lot of lore and history.
2) Eladrin. It's nice to see an eladrin before they became more prominent in the Realms, but what did it do to Araevin? I don't quite understood what happened to him.
3) Cover Art. The cover art for Farthest Reach has the same problem as Forsaken House, but it's leaps and bounds better. You still are more focused on the white borders than anything else. Aside from that rehashed complaint, the actually artwork isn't that bad. Sarya and the skeleton, I think it's the demon prince Malkizid, look great. Although, Sarya's skin-tone should be a reddish hue and not tan. The flash of green in the background really does catch your eye and distracts you from the awful border. It's eye catching and interesting. It's also the best cover for The Last Mythal trilogy.

Final Thoughts: 4/5
Final Thoughts:
Farthest Reach is a great sequel, with a problem that continues to hamper the trilogy. The characters are bland and have almost no personalities. It's amazing that this book still is really good, even with horrible characters that harm the overall experience. They just aren't memorable or interesting enough for me to care about the majority of them. Another issue, and a smaller on at that, is that Farthest Reach is full of Forgotten Realms lore and if you don't know anything about Myth Drannor or the lands around the Cormanthor forest, you'll be lost. You can still get by it, but it wouldn't be as enjoyable. However, the story is great. It's exciting and keeps you interested. It doesn't rely on action scenes to carry the story along. Instead, the dialogue and wordplay really keeps you interested. That's surprising for a fantasy novel. Once again, the only interesting character is Maresa. She continues to steal the show, mostly because of her personality. You can't help but to like her. She's just great. Finally, all the backstabbing that happens with the antagonists was interesting and adds something different to the story. Farthest Reach is a hard recommendation. If you're a new reader to the Forgotten Realms line of novels, I would say skip it. Otherwise, if you have knowledge of the Realms and enjoyed the first book, pick this one up.

[Phillip Krzeminski · Rating 2 out of 5]

One improvement on the first book is that the main character actually has some personality in this one and his relationship struggles and the “career vs. relationship struggle” of him and his betrothed bring some depth and reality to a otherwise highest of high fantasy novel. The rest of it is pretty much a slog, though. Lots of repetitive battles, the “action” is actually the most boring aspect of the book. The villain isn’t really interesting at all and there are too many side characters to develop any of them- the story relies on tropes to fill in the blanks. The plot of the first one seemed tighter and better paced.

[Ben Sherman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Farthest Reach is a fair sequel, and though I think it's slightly lesser than its predecessor, it hits you with some great action and descriptions. The first half of the book is somewhat slow, but it build up to make a killer second half of the book. As you might have guessed, our heroes are sent to a far off realm of fey wonder, though it's a shorter part of the novel than I would have expected. I also fanboyed a bit seeing the Zhentarim being included. Nice read, overall!

[Kagan Oztarakci · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes I can walk. But I think we ought to run.

The measure of a general does not lie in victory...it lies in defeat.

It's harder than you might think to pick your wars. The ones you least wish are the ones you often have to fight.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

An improvement on the first book.

[Skuli Saeland · Rating 2 out of 5]

Afsprengi ættkvíslar álfa, Dlardrageth, sem hafa eignast afkvæmi með djöflum er laus úr prísund og heldur áfram baráttunni til að ná völdum í Forgotten Realms eftir óvænt áföll í fyrri bókinni. Flest virðist ganga þeim í haginn og þeir fá liðsauka frá Hillsfar, Zembiu og Zentarim. Á móti þeim er fámennt lið manna og álfa auk þess sem hetjurnar úr síðustu bók halda í neyðarför eftir týndum galdrafróðleik til að geta ráðist gegn mythal sem er uppspretta krafta Dlardrageth.
Fyrirsjáanleg saga og nokkuð hefðbundin.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the first book in this series, but this one is an improvement still. "Forsaken House" had moments where it dragged, in part because Baker was throwing a lot of characters at us at once. (If you're anal-retentive like I am, the pronunciation guide in the back of the book didn't help, since I was constantly struggling to pronounce the various elven names correctly in my head.) Baker narrows down the cast of characters significantly here; we're thankfully no longer meeting every elven lady or lord in Evermeet. It allows Baker to keep his focus on the main characters; as a result, the pace of the book moves at a better clip. Moreover, his characterization gets complicated, in a good way. He allows his characters to make decisions they'll clearly come to regret. One of the main problems with D&D books is that characters often gain incredible powers to defeat a great evil without any sort of countervailing sacrifice. (A good example of this phenomenon is "Heirs of Prophecy" in the Sembia Series.) But, Baker makes it clear both Araevin and Saeveril are going to pay prices for their hubris here. It's hard to see how Saeveril is going to manage to dislodge Sarya from Myth Drannor without suffering significant losses, given how successful her army was in dealing damage to the Crusade as it withdrew from Shadowdale. Moreover, Araevin gives hardly a thought to sacrificing his soul for power, and Raistlin has made it pretty clear how badly that decision goes for a guy. All in all, I have to say I'm excited by the fact I'm not 100% sure how the story is going to end. Sure, I'm pretty sure the good guys are going to win. But, Baker makes it clear it's not going to be without cost, and I'm legitimately intrigued to see how that all manifests itself.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best part of this book - for personal preferences - was its setting being in the Dalelands/Cormanthor of the Forgotten Realms… the first setting I ever played D&D in. It was something a homecoming.
But seriously, the book was okay. Being the second installment of a trilogy, it faces the normal challenges of maintaining momentum. The final chapters of the book, however, set up proper stakes for what promises to be a good final book of the series.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know if the Forgotten Realms are running out of storylines or what, but every story now has world changing stuff happening and people with ridiculously powerful abilities. That being said, that kind of stuff is cool to read about. Good transition book which still introduces some stuff along the way.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

A typical middle book in a trilogy. The heroes face increasing difficulties after meeting with initial success, setbacks are enountered, the struggle becomes more difficult, etc. Not a bad book, but it's role is to set up the climax in the final book.

[Umang · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I got used to Richard Baker's style of writing, and enjoyed this book a little bit more than the first one of the series. It's really a part 1 of 2 book, didn't seem that it was a complete story on its own and requires part 3 of the series to complete it.

[Jaydeb Mukherjee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun if you're geeky enough to enjoy Forgotten Realms books, but not so detail-oriented to be like, "Wait, what sort of template is that? What level adjustment does this have? What's her caster level?"

[Adam Balshan · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars [Fantasy]
(W 4.24, P 4.33, O 4.38)
Exact rating: 4.32
#13 of 118 in genre

[Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing

[Steve Brooker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Enjoyable but not as good as book 1. Reads like middle book but sets things up nicely for a grand finale.