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Join the revolution with The New York Times best-selling author Richard Baker! In Avenger, the final volume in the epic adventures of the Blades of the Moonsea, Geran violates his exile to stalk the streets of his former home, hunting down the one who hurt his family and rallying the oppressed people of Hulburg. But Geran’s enemies are as numerous as the laws he breaks seeking revenge, and each and every one of them is determined to see him dead. Blades of the Moonsea is the first series written entirely in the new edition of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, penned by one of its primary creators. Award-winning designer and New York Times best-selling author Richard Baker’s Avenger goes to a place and time no Forgotten Realms series has gone before.From the Hardcover edition.
352 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2010
23 people are currently reading
605 people want to read
About the author
Richard Baker
84 books226 followersA 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
May 18, 2010
Avenger by Richard Baker- This is the last book in the Blades of the Moonsea trilogy. The first being Swordmage and the second book is called Corsair. This trilogy is set in the Forgotten Realm universe. Richard Baker has written numerous novels for the Forgotten Realms and others. Some of his notable works in the Realms include; The Last Mythal trilogy (Forsaken House, Farthest Reach, and Final Gate), The Shadow Stone (part of The Adventures series), Easy Betrayals (a book in the Double Diamond Triangle Saga), The City of Ravens (part of The Cities series), and the third book in the War of the Spider Queen series called Condemnation.
Warning Spoilers for Corsair will be present, but there will be little to no spoilers present for Avenger.
The story picks up a few months after the events at the end of Corsair. We find that the Hulmaster's were usurped out of ruling Hulburg by an elven mage driven towards revenge. During the forced exile, the Hulmaster's are staying at a summer home in the nation of Thentia, a neighboring kingdom to Hulburg. During this time, we learn that the Hulmaster's have been building an army to take back Hulburg from the fake harmach, or ruler, and the mage controlling him. We soon learn that Geran Hulmaster is entering into the city to cause unrest and problems for the ruling power. After one such mission, Geran returns to the family and during the night they are attacked by assassins, in which Geran learns that the assassins were commanded by a priest of Cyric, the god of madness. After a devastating blow is dealt, the remaining family is now convinced to take back the city, after Geran gets revenge and the first blow. During his trip to take down the assassins master, Geran meets up with Sarth Khul Riizar, a tiefling mage and friend, to help him take down the leader. After succeeding, Sarth and Geran are split up in order to escape the elven mage Rhovann Disarnnyl's runehelm warriors, which are indestructible. In order to take back the city, Geran must try to find a way to disable the warriors, which leads him into a deal with someone better left alone. Do the Hulmaster's take back Hulburg and overthrow the usurpers or are things more complicated than they seem?
Negatives:
1) Bad Clichés. There were a number of awful, painful to read scenes involving just terrible clichés. For example, early on in the story we have Kara Hulmaster, the leader of the Shieldsworn and Geran's cousin, make a speech to her war captains to bolster their cause. In essence and thought, it's reasonable. Yet, the execution was awful. Basically, take all the cheesy and silly movie speeches you ever saw and combine them into this speech here. It was painful and quite silly. And do people really applaud and cheer after what was meant to be meeting to discuss strategy? It would have been understandable if she was speaking in front of her troops but to five or six people, it just was cheesy and silly. Then you have the epilogue... At first it was decent and good, then you have what is by far the worst way to end anything ever. Without giving it away, imagine a generic romantic comedy about two people in love and what would happen if they announced something in a crowded room. Basically, it doesn't fit at all within the story. There are other examples, but those two just were plain stupid.
2) Wounds. I don't remember if in the previous two books if the injuries the characters contain seem to vanish or barely hinder them, but here it seem like anything short of a decapitation is deadly. If that isn't enough, the words used to describe the wounds couldn't be more severe sounding. What bothered me is that Geran seemed to always be scored or have flesh ripped off yet, a few days later he is fine and dandy. It just bothered me like nothing else. What makes it worse is something that happens late in the story that should have made Geran unable to do anything, yet what does he do? Grin and bare it, and I'm sure if you were in his position you wouldn't be able to move let alone continue on. It's like the injuries are nothing. At least at the end, one injury does hamper someone, so at least that's good!
3) Dialogue. This is a minor complaint that really only appeared here and there. Some of the dialogue seemed utterly emotionless. It seemed like there was not a trace of anger, excitement, fear, or determination in some scenes. It just seemed like there was meant to be some added, but things were forgotten. Then to go along with that problem, you have dialogue that doesn't seem to really match up and had an odd, weird feeling to it. This really only happens maybe a few times in the story, but it still felt weird to read.
Positives:
1) Pacing. The pacing is just great. The previous two books had a slower, dragging pace that never really seemed to enthrall me for to long. In Avenger, it's faster paced and doesn't get bogged down in needless details or story lines. I felt that the story was more contained a focused instead of the branching, many arched plots in the previous books. Basically, it's one giant plot with little subplots that actually feel like they belonged and were relevant to the overall story. Then the action was done will enough that it made things flow and happen quicker.
2) Geran. In the past two books, he never really seemed all that deep or insightful, even though he was written as such. Here he just becomes a little deeper and actually seems to have a personality. When Geran has to go revisit his past later in the story, you can really see him develop into a more interesting and deep character. Then the “love-square”, to put it simply, Geran is in love with three women, was handled well enough that it never felt forced or rushed. You generally believes he loves who he chooses.
3) Rhovann. He is probably the best and most believable villain in the trilogy. In the first book, we had a poor excuse of a villain, or more correctly, a few horrible villain characters. They never seemed menacing or evil. In the second book, there was slight improvement with Rhovann being a secondary villain and the main villain had the menacing down but was hardly used. Here, we have a villain that is just out to make Geran's life miserable and he succeeds in almost every possible way. He does things to him that are extremely vile but at the same time not. He just works for pay back for everything wrong in his life that was caused by our hero. He's one person you wouldn't want to wrong.
Side Notes:
1) Predictable Events. I have to mention that a lot of the events were very predictable. You really could tell where one scene was going after a few paragraphs in. However, it doesn't detract from the story as a whole.
2) Short Story. There are some events that happen that are found in a short story in Realms of the Dead. The short story is called “The King in Copper” and it can fill in some of the back story you find in Avenger.
3) Cover Art. As with the previous covers, this is just as good, if not better. The heroic pose is wonderful and actually seems it could be real. Then you have Hamil, Geran's ghostwise halfling friend, along with Geran on the cover. I don't know why, but I just like this. It really catches my eye.
Overall: 4/5
Final Thoughts:
Everything that plagued the first two books were either fixed or replaced in here. While Swordmage and Corsair was slow, Avenger isn't. It's a better paced story. The only huge problems I have are that the wounds are like mosquito bites and that there are a lot of horrid clichés found within. At least the main character and villain were wonderful. Geran becomes likeable and deeper, and Rhovann is someone not to be messed with. It's a good ending to a decent trilogy.
Warning Spoilers for Corsair will be present, but there will be little to no spoilers present for Avenger.
The story picks up a few months after the events at the end of Corsair. We find that the Hulmaster's were usurped out of ruling Hulburg by an elven mage driven towards revenge. During the forced exile, the Hulmaster's are staying at a summer home in the nation of Thentia, a neighboring kingdom to Hulburg. During this time, we learn that the Hulmaster's have been building an army to take back Hulburg from the fake harmach, or ruler, and the mage controlling him. We soon learn that Geran Hulmaster is entering into the city to cause unrest and problems for the ruling power. After one such mission, Geran returns to the family and during the night they are attacked by assassins, in which Geran learns that the assassins were commanded by a priest of Cyric, the god of madness. After a devastating blow is dealt, the remaining family is now convinced to take back the city, after Geran gets revenge and the first blow. During his trip to take down the assassins master, Geran meets up with Sarth Khul Riizar, a tiefling mage and friend, to help him take down the leader. After succeeding, Sarth and Geran are split up in order to escape the elven mage Rhovann Disarnnyl's runehelm warriors, which are indestructible. In order to take back the city, Geran must try to find a way to disable the warriors, which leads him into a deal with someone better left alone. Do the Hulmaster's take back Hulburg and overthrow the usurpers or are things more complicated than they seem?
Negatives:
1) Bad Clichés. There were a number of awful, painful to read scenes involving just terrible clichés. For example, early on in the story we have Kara Hulmaster, the leader of the Shieldsworn and Geran's cousin, make a speech to her war captains to bolster their cause. In essence and thought, it's reasonable. Yet, the execution was awful. Basically, take all the cheesy and silly movie speeches you ever saw and combine them into this speech here. It was painful and quite silly. And do people really applaud and cheer after what was meant to be meeting to discuss strategy? It would have been understandable if she was speaking in front of her troops but to five or six people, it just was cheesy and silly. Then you have the epilogue... At first it was decent and good, then you have what is by far the worst way to end anything ever. Without giving it away, imagine a generic romantic comedy about two people in love and what would happen if they announced something in a crowded room. Basically, it doesn't fit at all within the story. There are other examples, but those two just were plain stupid.
2) Wounds. I don't remember if in the previous two books if the injuries the characters contain seem to vanish or barely hinder them, but here it seem like anything short of a decapitation is deadly. If that isn't enough, the words used to describe the wounds couldn't be more severe sounding. What bothered me is that Geran seemed to always be scored or have flesh ripped off yet, a few days later he is fine and dandy. It just bothered me like nothing else. What makes it worse is something that happens late in the story that should have made Geran unable to do anything, yet what does he do? Grin and bare it, and I'm sure if you were in his position you wouldn't be able to move let alone continue on. It's like the injuries are nothing. At least at the end, one injury does hamper someone, so at least that's good!
3) Dialogue. This is a minor complaint that really only appeared here and there. Some of the dialogue seemed utterly emotionless. It seemed like there was not a trace of anger, excitement, fear, or determination in some scenes. It just seemed like there was meant to be some added, but things were forgotten. Then to go along with that problem, you have dialogue that doesn't seem to really match up and had an odd, weird feeling to it. This really only happens maybe a few times in the story, but it still felt weird to read.
Positives:
1) Pacing. The pacing is just great. The previous two books had a slower, dragging pace that never really seemed to enthrall me for to long. In Avenger, it's faster paced and doesn't get bogged down in needless details or story lines. I felt that the story was more contained a focused instead of the branching, many arched plots in the previous books. Basically, it's one giant plot with little subplots that actually feel like they belonged and were relevant to the overall story. Then the action was done will enough that it made things flow and happen quicker.
2) Geran. In the past two books, he never really seemed all that deep or insightful, even though he was written as such. Here he just becomes a little deeper and actually seems to have a personality. When Geran has to go revisit his past later in the story, you can really see him develop into a more interesting and deep character. Then the “love-square”, to put it simply, Geran is in love with three women, was handled well enough that it never felt forced or rushed. You generally believes he loves who he chooses.
3) Rhovann. He is probably the best and most believable villain in the trilogy. In the first book, we had a poor excuse of a villain, or more correctly, a few horrible villain characters. They never seemed menacing or evil. In the second book, there was slight improvement with Rhovann being a secondary villain and the main villain had the menacing down but was hardly used. Here, we have a villain that is just out to make Geran's life miserable and he succeeds in almost every possible way. He does things to him that are extremely vile but at the same time not. He just works for pay back for everything wrong in his life that was caused by our hero. He's one person you wouldn't want to wrong.
Side Notes:
1) Predictable Events. I have to mention that a lot of the events were very predictable. You really could tell where one scene was going after a few paragraphs in. However, it doesn't detract from the story as a whole.
2) Short Story. There are some events that happen that are found in a short story in Realms of the Dead. The short story is called “The King in Copper” and it can fill in some of the back story you find in Avenger.
3) Cover Art. As with the previous covers, this is just as good, if not better. The heroic pose is wonderful and actually seems it could be real. Then you have Hamil, Geran's ghostwise halfling friend, along with Geran on the cover. I don't know why, but I just like this. It really catches my eye.
Overall: 4/5
Final Thoughts:
Everything that plagued the first two books were either fixed or replaced in here. While Swordmage and Corsair was slow, Avenger isn't. It's a better paced story. The only huge problems I have are that the wounds are like mosquito bites and that there are a lot of horrid clichés found within. At least the main character and villain were wonderful. Geran becomes likeable and deeper, and Rhovann is someone not to be messed with. It's a good ending to a decent trilogy.
August 18, 2021
Last book in the Moonsea Trilogy. From the end of the second book you pretty much knew where this one would take you. Yet because the direction was so straight forward the book is full of a lot of filler to take up space. The book tries hard to tie up multiple plot lines that it started in the first book. A lot of the stories just felt like a campaign, and then the story continued as if nothing. The Cyrist priest, the Myth Drannor, the copper king, the Vaasa and several other story lines just felt like they were put in to stretch out the story line. The each happen within a select amount of pages and little was changed afterward.
All in all it was a decent book. I didn't enjoy the story as much as the first two books through. Ironically enough the book trilogy doesn't end better then it started. It's still a weak "Kingdom" that is trying to survive.
All in all it was a decent book. I didn't enjoy the story as much as the first two books through. Ironically enough the book trilogy doesn't end better then it started. It's still a weak "Kingdom" that is trying to survive.
December 29, 2023
4.5 stars [Fantasy]
(W: 4.4, P: 4.25, O: 4.5)
Exact rating: 4.38
#11 of 113 in genre
Baker started the Blades of the Moonsea trilogy with a near masterpiece in Swordmage. The second book Corsair was not up the same standard, but Baker nearly matches the first book with the final installment, Avenger. The verve and verisimilitude of Swordmage returns as Geran fights to regain the throne of Hulburg against his old, elven nemesis Rhovann and several other, realistic factions. Baker is a gifted author.
(W: 4.4, P: 4.25, O: 4.5)
Exact rating: 4.38
#11 of 113 in genre
Baker started the Blades of the Moonsea trilogy with a near masterpiece in Swordmage. The second book Corsair was not up the same standard, but Baker nearly matches the first book with the final installment, Avenger. The verve and verisimilitude of Swordmage returns as Geran fights to regain the throne of Hulburg against his old, elven nemesis Rhovann and several other, realistic factions. Baker is a gifted author.
September 21, 2017
Awesome Book
I started reading D anD books about twelve years ago. And I just can not stop. These are the best writer and stories to read. They just keep getting better and better. Richard Baker just knows how to pull you in and sweep you off your own world and put you on Faruan. I can not wait to start t h e next book, but I feel as if Gerun, and all the character s are your friends, and you just won't t h e best for them. Read them you will agree, Th e Forgotten Realms are awesome to.
I started reading D anD books about twelve years ago. And I just can not stop. These are the best writer and stories to read. They just keep getting better and better. Richard Baker just knows how to pull you in and sweep you off your own world and put you on Faruan. I can not wait to start t h e next book, but I feel as if Gerun, and all the character s are your friends, and you just won't t h e best for them. Read them you will agree, Th e Forgotten Realms are awesome to.
October 11, 2019
A Satisfying Conclusion
Geran, Hamil, Sarth, Mirya, Kara... They drew me in deeper and hooked me closer when I wasn't looking and paying attention. I feel I have read about more interesting characters, plots that were more involved and less cheesy...but rarely have I felt so satisfied. I loved the trilogy. I fell in love with the characters. I joined the Hulburg ranks! Fantastic conclusion. Well done, Mr. Baker! Well done. Thank you.
Geran, Hamil, Sarth, Mirya, Kara... They drew me in deeper and hooked me closer when I wasn't looking and paying attention. I feel I have read about more interesting characters, plots that were more involved and less cheesy...but rarely have I felt so satisfied. I loved the trilogy. I fell in love with the characters. I joined the Hulburg ranks! Fantastic conclusion. Well done, Mr. Baker! Well done. Thank you.
December 17, 2022
"I wish the cost of my choices wasn't so dear" p 77.
Baker resolves threads of plot (exciting battles) and politics (betrayals) to finale. Geran 31, human friend Mirya, and just-rescued half-elf Nimessa sort out who loves whom, or not, now. Enemy dark mages -- one-hand, Vaasan, skeletal -- have different endings. Baker varies what happens to characters, little to their cores.
Typos
p 335 he days IS in days
p 533 singing IS singeing
Baker resolves threads of plot (exciting battles) and politics (betrayals) to finale. Geran 31, human friend Mirya, and just-rescued half-elf Nimessa sort out who loves whom, or not, now. Enemy dark mages -- one-hand, Vaasan, skeletal -- have different endings. Baker varies what happens to characters, little to their cores.
Typos
p 335 he days IS in days
p 533 singing IS singeing
October 27, 2020
Great 3 books. I really enjoyed these adventures tales. The Story builds up to the final book. where I couldn't see how the goodies could win?
Some great characters and creatures.
Well, recommend this series.
Some great characters and creatures.
Well, recommend this series.
May 16, 2023
I enjoyed the entire trilogy, but felt this was a case where the first book was definitely the best (and I really liked that one). I was happy I read this, and am moving on to another Richard Baker trilogy.
February 22, 2021
How long before a home in exile becomes a home?
There was a grim satisfaction in measuring himself by the quality of his enemies.
Sometimes wisdom comes disguised as foolishness...
There was a grim satisfaction in measuring himself by the quality of his enemies.
Sometimes wisdom comes disguised as foolishness...
November 9, 2016
This was a pretty good conclusion to the trilogy. After the events of the previous book, Geran and his family have been exiled from Hulburg. Of course, Geran doesn't plan to leave things that way, especially when his old rival Rhovann is involved. Obviously, this means there's going to be a big battle at the end, but there's also some dungeon crawling, a couple of trips to prison, and even a jaunt into the Shadowfell version of Hulburg. The latter was especially fun and a nice follow up to the trip into space in book two. And I must say I wasn't sure if we'd ever actually visit Myth Drannor, so it was nice that Geran takes a trip there and works through a few of his issues from the past. Geran continues to be a fun character, though I still feel like the best use of his swordmage abilities came in the first book. He doesn't ever seem to gain any new spells or powers, which is a bit disappointing. We do find out a bit more about why the King in Copper cares about him so much, and I liked the fact that there's no attempt to slay the lich. In fact, Geran is actually forced to team up with him to take down Rhovann's minions! There are some nice action sequences here, with a fairly heavy focus on constructs and demons. Geran's companions continue to be fun, even if Hamil and Sarth's schticks have started to wear a bit thin. Nonetheless, I'm sad that this is the last book about this set of characters because I've quite enjoyed reading about them, and there's definitely room for more adventures. Yes, there's a relatively happy ending, but there are hints of dark things to come in Hulburg's future. Of course, I guess that's where playing some D&D comes in. As it is, I feel like this has been a fun series that highlights what I liked about the 4E Realms, and I definitely plan to seek out more of Baker's novels at some point, especially the trilogy about Myth Drannor now that I've seen that place here.
April 3, 2011
Definitely a good ending to the Trilogy. The pace was a lot more action/intense than Corsairs. It had more of the Arcane elements I really enjoy with the Forgotten Realms. The plot had some good twists and development. It reminds me something of a series of short stories welded together (very well at that), but it flows to seamlessly to be compared to that. It read extremely well, and had nice evolution.
July 28, 2013
Outstanding ending. Really enjoyed this story in the Forgotten Realms. Having it based somewhere I had not read about was great. The author pretty much tied everything up from all 3 books. Nice to see that everything doesn't need to have dark elves :) Granted, I've sure been reading about a lot of tieflings lately. Guess it was just something new that everyone had to use. Sarth was a really strong character though.
September 19, 2010
It was a fairly good series, and much like the first two books, everything just seemed to end too easily, and predictably. It's not a bad read, and it's fun if you don't really want to think too much, and I am glad that I finished it up, but wouldn't say it's a series I would ever read again, nor recommend strongly.
September 30, 2011
really good book, i understood what was going on even though I didnt read the 1st 2 books. Very fast-paced action, very fun read. really liked the way the author portrayed combat, very-fast paced and full of action. I especially liked the way he described the spell effects. all in all, awesome read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 24, 2014
Richard Baker doesn't disappoint in this finale of the Blades of Moonsea trilogy. Fast paced with enough swordvswinging, magic hurling political tale of revenge. Love, betrayal tragedy and triumph leaves me wanting to return to Hulburg on the Moonsea in 10 years to get the next phase of Vassan ambition and to find out what, if any, reparations Garen makes to the Coronal of Myth Drannor
May 17, 2010
This book wraps up a trilogy, and it was pretty much more of the same escapist adventure that was served up in the first two. Fairly well written, but predictable. But that's alright sometimes, you know?
October 31, 2010
A bit disappointing, not as good as the first two. Though the action keeps on moving and the resolution is good, it lacks twists and for me it seemed to be written in a hurry. Still a good ending for the trilogy.
May 2, 2010
Not a bad series (see first book for more detailed review) and one of the better authors in the FR fantasy game-related genre series.
February 3, 2011
The first book of three was better, and the second one wasn't that bad. I felt as if something more was missing from Avenger. It felt too short and more depth into the story.
July 3, 2011
I think this might have been the best of the 3... Probably a solid 3.5.. but just dont think i'll remember it in a year... so cant give it a 4.
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