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Sembia, Gateway to the Realms #3
The Shattered Mask
When Shamur Uskevren, the matriarch of one of Sembia's oldest and most powerful merchant families, is tricked by an angry wizard into an assassination attempt on her own husband, her family is thrown into turmoil. Once the truth is dicovered, she and her husband must struggle to save their family and stop the sorcerer. But in her anger, she has fogotten one thing: in the world of intrigue and decption, of shadows and lies that is Sembia, nothing is ever what it seems.
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 1, 2001
12 people are currently reading
601 people want to read
About the author
Richard Lee Byers
198 books370 followersA resident of the Tampa Bay area, Richard spends much of his leisure time fencing, playing poker, shooting pool and is a frequent guest at Florida science-fiction conventions. His current projects include new novels set in the Forgotten Realms universe and the eBook post-apocalyptic superhero series The Impostor.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
September 9, 2023
Do you know what this book about the family's matriarch needed? To actually be about her. Shamur is reduced to mere a footnote in her own story.
The plot focuses on her children and battle scenes far more than it does on her. It doesn't help that we learn absolutely nothing new about her after dragging ourselves through 300+ pages of the snails pace plot. Despite having been set up in the first book for it.
Nothing about her past is explained, except one single thing about her niece. Meanwhile, the actual intriguing stuff like the doomed expedition, the necklace, the demon creature, and more info on the man she was in love with?
Nothing. None of that is even brought up except one single time when she told her story on one of six pages she actually showed up on. The author was so opposed to actually giving us her POV that we got the useless dead end POV of the family wizard more often than Shamur's.
The plot focuses on her children and battle scenes far more than it does on her. It doesn't help that we learn absolutely nothing new about her after dragging ourselves through 300+ pages of the snails pace plot. Despite having been set up in the first book for it.
Nothing about her past is explained, except one single thing about her niece. Meanwhile, the actual intriguing stuff like the doomed expedition, the necklace, the demon creature, and more info on the man she was in love with?
Nothing. None of that is even brought up except one single time when she told her story on one of six pages she actually showed up on. The author was so opposed to actually giving us her POV that we got the useless dead end POV of the family wizard more often than Shamur's.
November 16, 2007
I absolutely LOVED this one. The plot was complex, but not overly so, and the descriptions, the dialogue, the prose - all were fantastic!
October 12, 2022
So many secrets and great reveals. The family works together to defeat their foes. The combat was well portrayed.
March 27, 2019
It took a while to read this book only because of March Madness, so don’t read into the length it took me to read it. In the meantime, it was a good book, pretty much linear so I could put it down and not read for days and pick up right where I left off. I thought it was well written, but I have a serious problem with how it ended. If the antagonist were in essence, a lich or similar undead, how is it simply ‘killed’ a second time with virtually mundane weapons. Simply doesn’t work that way in the FR world by D&D rules. Bothered me quite a bit. Also, if the undead returned to life had such amazing spells, one unretired thief would be no match for a spell caster. Oh well, onward!!
March 18, 2020
Takes place in late Hammer, The Year of Wild Magic (1372DR)
Byers uses lots and lots of uncommon vocabulary in place of standard words, every couple of pages even. Words like palfrey and destrier, passé, tercet, mufti, ambuscade, egress, timorous, fracas, attenuate, taverner, scrofulous, venery, lickerish, somnolent, clangor, staid and so on. It’s a little excessive, and my vocabulary is rather decent to begin with
Realms novels, overflowing with characters, are often scene to character death; quick and mercilessly so. The main characters seem a little overpowered and lucky. While focus us on Shamur, a multitude of POV are present.
Exciting, with a pleasant conclusion.
Byers uses lots and lots of uncommon vocabulary in place of standard words, every couple of pages even. Words like palfrey and destrier, passé, tercet, mufti, ambuscade, egress, timorous, fracas, attenuate, taverner, scrofulous, venery, lickerish, somnolent, clangor, staid and so on. It’s a little excessive, and my vocabulary is rather decent to begin with
Realms novels, overflowing with characters, are often scene to character death; quick and mercilessly so. The main characters seem a little overpowered and lucky. While focus us on Shamur, a multitude of POV are present.
Exciting, with a pleasant conclusion.
January 3, 2022
This book started a bit slow for me. There is a lot of story in the book but the action is mixed in good enough to make up for the slower parts. It was a decent book with a lot of fighting thrown in. As with most Forgotten Realms books all the heros survive and there is a happy ending. Let's be honest though, anything less than that and the reader would be shocked and disappointed. Yet too many books in a series that end this way will lose the edge of the hero in danger.
November 8, 2023
A solid third entry in the series. We learn more about Shamur's past and how she ended up as the Uskevren matriarch. The antagonist was somewhat disappointing. In many ways, he's a cardboard villain with a single goal. He is also quite inept, for someone of such power.
Stay away from the Audible edition; the narration is atrocious, and it likely contributed to my diminished enjoyment of this book.
Stay away from the Audible edition; the narration is atrocious, and it likely contributed to my diminished enjoyment of this book.
January 6, 2019
This is my first Forgotten Realms book in years and it left me hungry for more, an entertaining read that kept me interested from start to finish. It is not groundbreaking, but fun to read with likable protagonists - recommended.
The Polish translation has unacceptable numbers of typos and missing words that pull you out of the reading experience.
The Polish translation has unacceptable numbers of typos and missing words that pull you out of the reading experience.
September 10, 2022
A worthy sequel to the first book. The Uskevren family is back with all of its internal (secrets and bickering) and external (vengeful revenant wizard) problems, ready to kick all sorts of magical and mundane butt!
It's not art, sure, but it's great for what it is - an exciting and fun D&D adventure. Can't wait to sink my teeth into the next one.
It's not art, sure, but it's great for what it is - an exciting and fun D&D adventure. Can't wait to sink my teeth into the next one.
October 24, 2022
First of all, I appreciated the originality and diversity of the characters' fates in the book. Secondly, I really liked how the book relates to the collection of short stories 'The Halls of Stormweather'. Drawbacks include an overabundance of action scenes and some obvious blunders that villains usually make.
July 28, 2018
"You should never let fairness stand in the way of a good hate."
December 12, 2020
Book 3 of Sembia. I like the series but the shattered mask wasn't as good as books 1 and 2.
May 15, 2010
The Shattered Mask by Richard Lee Byers is the third book in the Sembia: Gateway to the Realms. The story centers around Shamar Uskevren, the matriarch of House Uskevren. The story follows closely with Richard Lee Byers short story in The Halls of Stormweather, called Song of Chaos.
I’ll just simply reword what the description says on the back of the book. It follows Shamar as she learns who poisoned her niece causing her to take her identity and marry Thamalon Uskevren. Lo and behold, she finds that the murderer was none other than Thamalon himself! But revenge clouds her thoughts and she forgets the enemies that Uskevren has made over the years…
Negatives:
1) The pacing. It read slightly slow. I don’t know why it is, maybe just after reading Shadow’s Witness by Paul S. Kemp and knowing that story was fast paced, that this one seemed a little slow building.
2) All the ‘close calls.’ Generally, I know most stories have the main characters barely being missed by either a spear or an arrow, but it seemed like every time something was happening, an action was always a close call. It doesn’t bother me to much, but just reading how close the sword got or how so and so felt the wind of a pebble just got a little annoying.
3) Age Limitations? From what I understand, Shamar is about 50 and Thamalon is near 60. Yet, they can take down a lot of people without really showing their ages? I don’t know about that. However, afterword they were really tired and exhausted, but in reality, they should have been near death.
Positives:
1) The whole plot in general. I liked how the poisoning thing was well done and thought out. It seemed like no stone was left unturned in the cover-up and blame placing.
2) Bad Guys that Monologue. I found it funny that when the ‘bad guy’ started to monologue, Shamar or Thamalon made him pay in one way or another. Then the Man in the Moon, finally picked up on it.
3) Shamar and Thamalon. I really liked how Mr. Byers portrayed them. I felt myself liking Thamalon more and more than what I read about him in the short stories. I liked Shamar in the short story, and I liked her in this more and more. Also, I liked how their relationship felt genuine and real.
Overall: 4/5
I’ll just simply reword what the description says on the back of the book. It follows Shamar as she learns who poisoned her niece causing her to take her identity and marry Thamalon Uskevren. Lo and behold, she finds that the murderer was none other than Thamalon himself! But revenge clouds her thoughts and she forgets the enemies that Uskevren has made over the years…
Negatives:
1) The pacing. It read slightly slow. I don’t know why it is, maybe just after reading Shadow’s Witness by Paul S. Kemp and knowing that story was fast paced, that this one seemed a little slow building.
2) All the ‘close calls.’ Generally, I know most stories have the main characters barely being missed by either a spear or an arrow, but it seemed like every time something was happening, an action was always a close call. It doesn’t bother me to much, but just reading how close the sword got or how so and so felt the wind of a pebble just got a little annoying.
3) Age Limitations? From what I understand, Shamar is about 50 and Thamalon is near 60. Yet, they can take down a lot of people without really showing their ages? I don’t know about that. However, afterword they were really tired and exhausted, but in reality, they should have been near death.
Positives:
1) The whole plot in general. I liked how the poisoning thing was well done and thought out. It seemed like no stone was left unturned in the cover-up and blame placing.
2) Bad Guys that Monologue. I found it funny that when the ‘bad guy’ started to monologue, Shamar or Thamalon made him pay in one way or another. Then the Man in the Moon, finally picked up on it.
3) Shamar and Thamalon. I really liked how Mr. Byers portrayed them. I felt myself liking Thamalon more and more than what I read about him in the short stories. I liked Shamar in the short story, and I liked her in this more and more. Also, I liked how their relationship felt genuine and real.
Overall: 4/5
June 2, 2015
This is a quick, enjoyable read. Some good fights, some interesting backstory. I liked the bad guy, you don't see too many wizards that summon monsters to do all their fighting for them. It made the battles more epic without the reader wondering why gnolls and ettercaps would be fighting along side one another.
I also enjoyed the fleshing out of the Uskevren children; it made me eager to read the rest of the series that I've been putting off.
The marriage plot between matriarch and patriarch seemed fairly thin...but there was enough other stuff going on to make it fun.
I also enjoyed the fleshing out of the Uskevren children; it made me eager to read the rest of the series that I've been putting off.
The marriage plot between matriarch and patriarch seemed fairly thin...but there was enough other stuff going on to make it fun.
January 7, 2023
3.5 stars. I would've liked more pages with Shamur as the focus, though I'm not complaining about the inclusion of the entire Uskevren family throughout the story. There were too many battles for my liking. I say that because reading battle action scenes is dull and quite pointless if there's still 281 pages left. If combat doesn't carry a sense of imminent death, then what's the point? It's just filler and I'd rather have conversation and dialogue.
sold
February 23, 2012Sold to Lewis White on eBay on 7-Jun-11:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI....
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI....
January 9, 2013
see book 1
November 30, 2013
Richard Lee Byers has such a rich vocab and great manner of storytelling. Plus, I love Shamur and the ending is awesome. on to the next!
February 10, 2017
Byers did a god job telling the story of Shamur Uskevren. And seeing more of the Uskevren children galavanting through Sembia was fun, all around.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews