Depths of Madness

Forgotten Realms: The Dungeons #1

by Erik Scott de Bie

The last thing she remembers is seeing her friends die... Now it's her turn.

Eldritch and forgotten arcana wait within its vaults. Twisted accidents of magic prowl its halls. Sinister forces lure the unsuspecting deeper into death or madness. Its victims don't remember how they got there. No one remembers how to get out...

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

310 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 13, 2007

Reviews

[Artemas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ouch! This one would have been fine if the author didn't saturate nearly every page with a lame pun or teenage-proficient innuendo.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Depths of Madness by Erik Scott de Bie

Depths of Madness is the first book released in The Dungeons series of stand-along novels. The series contains three other entries, which are all written by different authors. Since each novel is a stand-alone, you can read this series out-of-order. The series is set in the Forgotten Realms setting of Dungeons and Dragons. The other novels in the series include; The Howling Delve by Jaleigh Johnson, Stardeep by Bruce R. Cordell, Crypt of the Moaning Diamond by Rosemary Jones. Erik Scott de Bie has written two other full-length novels, both set in the Forgotten Realms. His first novel is Ghostwalker (part of The Fighters series) and his second novel is Downshadow (part of Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep series). He has an upcoming novel based off characters from Downshadow called Shadowbane which is due out late 2011. He has also written a number of short stories and game design books. Depths of Madness was released in March 2007 and published by Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

Fox-at-Twilight finds herself locked away in a cell. Her last memories being seeing her friends die and barely escaping. As she explores her cell, she finds out that she isn't the only occupant, finding a young man named Liet. After a brief introduction, Twilight finds out that the jailer is a demon-stitched troll and is easily duped. Using Liet in a way that no man wants to be used, Twilight creates a distraction and is able to lock up the troll. She then explores the dungeon and finds other cells along with a locked chest. Being unable to open it without tools, Twilight returns to her cell as through nothing has happened. The troll is confused and buys it. After sometime, Twilight manages to escape again, though this time without the notice of the troll. As Liet and her check out the other cells, they discover other prisoners and work to free them. They find a confused halfling named Slip, an older wizard named Asson along with his elven wife named Taslin, a goliath named Gargan, and an evil warlock named Davoren. After freeing all the prisoners, the group goes to the chest that Twilight found and opens it, discovering all their equipment. After donning the arms and armor, they discover a trapdoor in the ceiling and make their way higher into the complex. Making it safely out of their prisons, they find themselves in a confusing mess of tunnels and sewers. The group must survive the trials and tribulations of the dungeon that they find themselves in as well as dealing with each other. If they don't escape soon, madness will consume them all.

Criticisms:
1) Background. Depths of Madness has one major problem and it's the background. The first issue is that the story seemed to start out of no where. It never felt like there was a beginning to the story. Instead the reader is just thrust into a situation that seemed random. There was no real build up to the story. Basically, the story began suddenly and it was very jarring. The second issue is that the characters just seemed to appear out of no where. We don't know who these people are or why they are there. Yes, some of those questions do get answered, but we still don't know anything about these characters. They just came across as awkward. The final issue with the background is that the scenery is hardly described. It was hard to picture any of the areas that the group find themselves in. There was some description, but it vague and left out a lot of much-needed detail. The locations sounded interesting, but with hardly any description, they were wasted. The background issues in Depths of Madness really made it hard to get right into the story and be that interested in what was going on.
2) Beginning. Depths of Madness has an awkward and hard to follow beginning. I've already mentioned that we are just thrown into the groups situation out of nowhere, but it's much more than that. The problem seems to stem from a lot happening all at once. Depths of Madness begins simply enough, but the prologue doesn't really flow into the actual story. Instead, we are left with more questions. How did Twilight end up locked up in some cell? What was going on with that battle in the prologue and how does it tie into this story? Things like that get prevent a reader from getting into the story right off the bat. It's just confusing.

Praises:
1) Characters. The characters, even with the slow and awkward beginning, were fantastic. I didn't expect the characters to carry the story, almost singlehandedly. Without them, Depths of Madness wouldn't have been that good. It was surprising that each character was as developed and interesting as they were. Every character was just superb. Twilight was amazing, she brought a lot of depth and character to the story. Twilight was interesting. When her past is brought up adds a lot to her character and really fleshed out her character. Her personality is wonderful and she makes you like her. She has that charismatic quality to her that I just love in fictional characters. Everything she says, you believe. Then when the story ends, you don't know if what she said throughout the story was true or not. Liet was a decent character, but doesn't become interesting until close to the end of the book. His personality is hard to get used to. Basically he's a lovesick puppy following Twilight around and the relationship that develops between him and Twilight is good. But truth be told, I just didn't care for him as a character very much. Slip is surprising and really threw me for a loop. I can't say more than that, else I'd ruin the story. Asson and Taslin were decent as well. Asson was the probably the weakest character out of the group, mostly because he didn't have a lot of time to really develop. Thankfully, he did have some great moments. Taslin, on the other hand, gives a lot of depth to Twilight. She's a good character on her own and has some great moments, mostly with her interactions with Asson and the time she shares with Twilight. Davoren was surprisingly just as developed as Twilight. He had a lot of depth and made his character his own. You almost want to hate him, but there's something about him that makes you like him. It's weird feeling. He's bitter, powerful, and down-right evil but he seems almost like a scared bully who wants to be accepted but can't deal with that. It's surprising. However, I don't want to go into any further detail because you should experience them for yourself.
2) Dark. This story is dark and I love dark stories. There are a lot of terrible and sickening moments that I didn't expect to see. Some of these moments could have gone on for a while longer to really give it an even more creepy feeling, but they still were good. There is a lot of gory moments, but that's not what makes this story dark. The characters make this story dark. Their pasts and actions aren't something that you would expect from a fantasy novel. There are no 'heroes' or truly good people in this story. Everyone carries a dark secret or five. Also, the group isn't a normal group. They all seem to either distrust one another or outright hate each other. As relationships form and developed in the group, we see some scary things. There are quite a few moments that stick out in my mind; Taslin and the doll, Twilight and the bloody hand-prints, and the confrontations that Davoren has with Taslin and Twilight. Depths of Madness is not a happy story, by any means.
3) Storytelling. After a while, Depths of Madness seems to succeed in making you feel like your becoming a little unhinged. The odd way the story is told helps this. For most of the story, we are left in the dark about what is happening. This helps cause you to be unsure of what's going on. There is a definite feeling of not having any control over what is happening. The story throws you for a loop almost every chapter. You never really know what is going to happen, and trying to guess at it almost seems pointless. Also having Twilight be the main focus of the story helps. Everything that happens to her adds to this feeling of confusion and puts you right into the story. It's weird but this makes you feel almost what Twilight is feeling. The storytelling is just interesting and had something I didn't expect, a sense of madness.

Side Notes:
1) Fox-at-Twilight. Twilight appears in a short story by Erik Scott de Bie in the Realms of the Elves anthology titled “The Greatest Treasure”. This doesn't have any impact on Depths of Madness, but it would be an interesting read to gain more knowledge about Twilight.
2) Goliaths. This is the first story, that I know of, in the Forgotten Realms that features a goliath. After reading this story I really do want to know more about this race.
3) Cover Art. The cover for Depths of Madness is good. The colors really convey the dark aspects of the story, with blacks and browns. The character on the cover, Taslin, looks great. I like the touches of wear and tear on her outfit and weapon, along with the scratches and cuts on her face. She really draws your eye and is definitely the main focus of this cover. It also helps that the scene depicted actually happens in the story. All in all, I like the cover art.

Overall: 4/5
Final Thoughts:
Depths of Madness is an interesting story with some wonderful characters. However, there are a few problems with it. The major problem is with the background. The story just starts and throws you in. You don't know what is happening or who these people are. Because of this, the beginning of the story really suffers. It's hard to get into right away. Thankfully, the characters really save the story from being annoying. They were all well-developed and very three-dimensional. These characters almost felt like real people and are some characters that really do deserve to be read about. The story is amazingly dark. It's violent, creepy, and leaves you with a feeling of madness while reading it. This is not a happy-go-lucky story. The storytelling really enforces the feeling of madness. Scenes seems to be slightly random and leave you with wanting more. You never know what is going to happen next. I would wholeheartedly recommend Depths of Madness to anyone, especially those who like dark stories and fantastic characters.

[Bernardo Blue · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very "meh" book - the concept was good, and I was expecting more. Neither the writing nor the story stand out any bit, and the only real positive aspect I can point is that it was somehow unpredictable. Hopefully, it will give me ideas for future D&D sessions, at least.

Note: It was hilarious how many times an attack missed "by a thumb's width" - it had to have been repeated every 10 pages or everytime an attack missed.

[Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Depths of Madness easily lives up to the high expectations I had for Erik de Bie's second novel. It is an even darker novel than Ghostwalker and is just as well written. This book pushes the limits usually constraining the Forgotten Realms series, which I think is refreshing. It has new ideas and uncommon characters, rather than relying on stereotypical, tried-and-true formulas. Characters are not invincible; they have their weaknesses and so they seem realistic. There is an array of both heroes and enemies, and the distinction between the two is not always obvious. Uncertainty is a common motif throughout. The story line is exciting and gripping, and sometimes even horrifying. Overall, this is an awesome book, and I can't wait to see what Erik de Bie creates next.

[Summer · Rating 3 out of 5]

What started as what felt like a typical transcript of someone's D&D game quickly became more than it appeared to be with a nod to H.P. Lovecraft. I was pleasantly surprised. The sheer theme of 'madness' and 'who can you trust?' drove me to finish this piece. Let's just say that I didn't see it all coming.

None of the characters really moved me one way or another, but it was interesting to finally see a fantasy novel that addressed a character's state of mind more than their actions, pasts, or encounters. Sanity really can make all the difference, eh?

[Devin Milliron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not a D&D fan, but starting reading the books because of an increasingly popular dark elf who caught my interest too many times at the bookstore. So, because of that, I am not at all familiar with the deities, countries, or races of the world. This hurt my experience since de Bie explains practically nothing about the world these characters live in. I was interested in this book because if it's summary, but I find it frustrating, especially since this is a specialty gaming company that one would think wants to expand their influence and interest the general public. When one of us gets drawn in, we certainly don't want to feel alienated by the obscure and strange names. Anyway, I found the wikia to be immensely useful on this one.

The writing style could be difficult at times, as the author has a tendency to describe things hastily and then move on, leaving us confused as to what exactly happened in any particular moment (like how the characters ended up outside at one point). The first couple chapters were especially difficult, as if de Bie was just learning how to get his bearings as an author and we were the subject of his experimenting. But it got better after that. Indeed, I was sucked in and spent all night reading it, finishing it two days later.

I could argue about Twilight's reactions and motives, many of which were confusing and unrealistic, but she was an admittedly complicated character and I can't begin to understand her since we don't get to view her past at all. But what I found fascinating were all the different personalities struggling together to stay alive and how they interacted. I loved the hateful Davoren most of all because his contempt and vileness put a wedge into everything the characters were trying to accomplish. I found the ending very satisfying because, although I knew there was betrayal involved, it was a complete surprise to find out to what degree, and especially how it resolved.

I also loved the innocent Liet, mostly because he is the type of lame character that would never appear in a fantasy adventure: no power, no strength, too naive. These things made him so normal, that I couldn't wait to see how else he would affect the story. I also enjoyed seeing how he affected Twilight, who promised herself not to fall for him. So, of course I enjoyed the ending (I'm trying not to spoil anything, but I like unexpected and difficult resolutions).

So, overall, a fun and exciting adventure, not overly deep, but filled with fascinating characters and creatures (my first encounter with a sharn, and I was blown away). That's really all I wanted, although I'm a sucker for creepy horror and I could have used more grisly details and scary moments, which was what I thought would predominate here. There was enough of it, though, to keep me reading straight through and crave more.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was not a very big fan of The Dungeons series, in retrospect. In theory, the series had a lot of potential- a book about people wandering around in Undermountain probably would have been really, really good. As a whole, though, I think the series was underwhelming, at best. Depths of Madness kicked off the series, and I think it encapsulated the series as a whole- it had it’s good points, and I didn’t stop reading in disgust, but overall, I found it uninspiring. And, before I go into further detail about my review, I just want to let it be known that Erik is a great guy, one of the more helpful WotC authors, who isn’t afraid to interact with us readers/fans, help us out, be buddy-buddy with us, and so on. I don’t want my criticisms to come off as attacks on him (I don’t think they will; I go into deeper detail because I like him, not because I’m trying to be a pain in his ass!), or his general writing ability- another one of his novels, Ghostwalker was a great book, so don’t not go trying his books for yourselves because of this one review!

For the most part, the book had interesting characters. The party in the novel is a “balanced D&D party”, something that sometimes grinds my goat in these kinds of book situations, but it doesn’t feel like it. Inter-character strife and problems, as well as characterization past “I’m the team healer; I’m the team magician; I’m the team fighter” makes it feel that way. The party might have the optimal party cross-section for D&D dungeon delving, but because there’s always lingering suspicions about the loyalties and motives of everybody, it doesn’t feel artificially constructed like that. By far, Gargan the Exiled was my favorite character. He was something of a philosophic, gentle giant, but whatever it was about him, he had the ‘It Factor’ that interesting characters have. For whatever reason, I don’t think that any other characters in the novel had it- Fox-At-Twilight included (I’ll get to her a little later). Davoren the Warlock could have had it, but at times, he felt too much like a generic, stereotypical evil-for-evil’s-sake villain. He did, of course, have Fiendish blood running within his veins, and was a servant of Asmodeus, so he had good reason to be evil-for-evil’s-sake, but, to me, those kinds of characters are very hit-or-miss with me. Davoren wasn’t a miss, per se, but it might have been that that ‘intangible’ factor that causes me to classify him as not having ‘It’, whatever ‘it’ is in my mind.

The villains, I wasn’t really that big of a fan of them. Ruukthalmuramaxamin, it’s a Sharn, so it is what it was. You can’t comprehend those guys. Gestal, the Demon cultist, him I did not like. As a villain, he’s a generic evil cultist, which I have no problems with, but his relation to Liet, I don’t think that was expanded on enough in the novel. They’re the same person, but, was Liet something of a secondary personality to Gestal? Something in the sense of, since the individual who was Liet/Gestal was a normal person, and pledged himself to a Demon Lord, he needed to exorcise him of any goodness. So, Gestal was the pure and unadulterated evil personality that was normally in control, whereas Liet were the buried vestiges of any goodness the man once had? Something similar to, to use the best analogy I can, the relationship between Piccolo and Kami in Dragon Ball Z- they were once the same individual, but became two separate ones when Kami had to purge all of the evil from within himself, resulting in the birth of Piccolo (though, in this case, with Liet/Gestal, only one individual was involved, and they were more or less personalities, rather than different good/bad individuals)? Simply a ploy to gain Twilight’s trust, and lure her (and the others), to his inner sanctum, that somehow gained it’s own awareness? That relationship confused me- not necessarily to the point where the story didn’t make sense, since companions swerving and actually being antagonists is a regular story hook, but...

Now, while the characters in the novel were mostly good, the plotline in Depths of Madness, unfortunately, I did not find too compelling. Most importantly, it took until the middle of the book (page 164) for us to learn how the members of the party got into the dungeon to begin with. For whatever reason, that bugged me. The novel opens up with the main characters being imprisoned, and eventually escaping their bondage and attempting to free themselves, but it took almost half the book for us to learn how they got down there in the first place. Their relative lack of purpose, other than escaping, and us readers not knowing the details as to how/why/when they all were imprisoned in the dungeon made certain parts at the beginning drag. And then, once we actually found out why the various characters were summoned- Gestal was looking for a partner!?

Now, about Fox-at-Twilight for a second. I know a lot of people are big fans of hers. Me, I don’t love her, but I don’t dislike her, either. She has a ‘mostly positive’ rating in my book. Re-reading Depths of Madness made me see her in a whole new light. Beforehand, as I remembered her mostly from the couple of short stories she was featured in, where she seemed the type of character who was always calm and collected, had things under control, and always had some kind of ace up her sleeve. The Fox-at-Twilight from Depths of Madness painted a much more complicated version of who she is. On the surface, she seemed in cool, calm, control, but how often did we see her beating herself up over something she did, or failed to do? On the surface, she passes herself off as unattached and aloof, but on the inside, we see how much she actually cares for past and present friends and lovers. In the setting, we have quite a few characters who presented as the relatively ‘all-knowing’, ‘all-powerful’, ‘no problem, take on anything’ kind of characters, and I think seeing this side of one of those types of characters, their Human side (or, Demihuman side, in this case) was interesting.

Miscellaneously, Negarath was a Netherese enclave, but it seemed like Relativity, or House of Stairs, the famous paintings by Maurits C. Escher that had the staircases going up, down, sideways, and every other perspective. I’m wondering, since Negarath was so weird, for a lack of better words, who (Nega, I am assuming) built it like that, and why? I don’t think that there were enough clues that Slip was evil, either. Her being evil, obviously, was supposed to be a huge swerve, and leave readers with a “WTF? Wow!” moment at the end of the book, but I think it could have been hinted at a little more. For example, when Gargan used his healing powers, it was described as feeling like an invigorating stream of fresh water coming down from the mountains. When Slip healed people, the healing power wasn’t really described in much prose. If it had been in some way (numbingly cool, for example, with the coldness alluding to her inner evil, since cold often equates with evil), subtle enough to go unnoticed, I think the “WTF? Wow!” moment at the end would have been even more “WTF? Wow!”-ier. One of those things where you say to yourself, “Oh, man, how did I not notice that!?”

[Daniel Willis · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I saw the blurb I was hopeful. Finally a Forgotten Realms novel about a simple dungeon crawl, no boring ultra-powerful Elminster or thinly veiled advertisement for the next WotC product. And the set up, although not original, drew me in: Seven strangers find themselves locked in cells and must join together to fight their way out. I expected a clever novel of equipment-less characters outwitting opponents while slowly gaining each other's trust, maybe with some back biting and betrayal along the way.

Well there is betrayal -- the main character's sword is named that. I should have been wary when the seven found all their powerful magic items conveniently locked in a chest in the jailer's bedroom, but still I was hopeful it would be a clever crawl. Alas the battles were unsatisfactory, an afterthought. Speaking of the jailer, it (a troll) of course followed after the party, adding to the tension, yet that went nowhere. I have seen one of the main enemies, the sharn, in another book and do not feel it is that exciting of a monster. Also the Forgotten Realms deities, which I am not familiar with, figured too prominently, I was lost. I was also lost at how Fox-in-Twilight and Gargan suddenly were outside the dungeon and in a goliath camp getting healing -- seems like something from a real D&D game, got to go somewhere and heal, pause the dungeon Mr. GM until we get back. And the "surprise" ending -- there were hints, I expected something like it. Even so it made no sense to me.

On the positive side I liked the dungeon itself, cool idea, yet did not feel it was properly developed to its potential. The writing is fine, and the pacing decent. Overall though it was only ok.

[Wade Johnston · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good "dungeon dive" novel. It's much darker than most forgotten realms books. Some pretty fantastic gore (for forgotten realms. Exploding eyeballs. Severed hands. Intestines flung all about. Fox at Twilight may be my favorite FR character of all time. If you're looking for a fun stand alone story with a mismatched party of adventures then you can't go wrong. There's also 3 more books in this sub set though they're all stand alone and only have VERY minor connecting threads do much so that they're easy to miss if you're not looking for them. We need more Twilight books! I'm glad this author has written more realms novels as I enjoy his writing and the action is good too and he isn't afraid to go to the dark places a world such as forgotten realms holds within its boundaries.

[Vanteacher · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dungeon crawling adventure with a full set of classes and their personality issues.

If you like dnd, you will like this book.
I looked up a few of the monsters online. Was really fun. The forgotten realms wikia was very helpful.

Your imagination can really take flight!

If you've ever played in a dungeons and dragons campaign or wanted too. It's like a really fun campaign.

Kudos to the writer Erik Scott de Bie

[Richard Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beginning and end of this one was pretty messy but the characters were interesting and distinct and the fight scenes were well-described. The narrator for the Audible version had some very weird pauses which made things tricky to follow.

[Kagan Oztarakci · Rating 2 out of 5]

"To fear losing what you love is to abandon loving it here and now. To fear losing one you know you will lose makes less sense still."

"(She) was ever a creature who worshiped her own destruction"

"How can equality be maintained, (she) mused, if not by mutual antipathy?"

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dungeon filled with chaos and death. Negarath is a crazy place that many want to have control over. The Sharn are quite a mystery and not to be trifled with.

[Nickmarple Marple · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good dungeon based adventure. The elf Twilight and the Goliath Gargan. In a dungeon based on chaos and madness. Who is really who they claim to be? Influences of Demigorgon.

[Jason Folkens · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had difficulty empathizing with any characters in this novel. They all seemed overly superficial, and sometimes acted in a manner that I thought to be out of character. It may sound harsh, but I wouldn't be surprised if the author just came up with the novel by converting one of his previous gaming sessions, where all the party members have to scramble to come up with some kind of backstory, and all they can come up with is some superficial reason for being in a dungeon. This approach typically makes material that is not novel-worthy.

Fun fact: Through this book, goliaths (the race) are introduced to the forgotten realms. People concerned with continuity may question how the goliath was identified by his peers without precedent, but the author admits that including them in the novel was his idea, not demanded upon him by WoTC. I personally would have preferred that their inclusion be qualified by some explaination within the novel.

Patience may come to those who wait and this book is no exception. It isn't until about two thirds through the story where the reader is given hints about the location of the dungeon that they're trying to escape from.

One thing I heavily begrdge Eriks editor for, however, is the frequent context shifts in paragraphs. The writer will start a paragraph from the perspective of one character, and end the paragraph from the perspective of a different character. This causes the reader to either halt their progress through the book and reevaluate the meaning behind the ambiguously phrased passages, or pass by them with only partial understanding of what ideas the author was trying to convey.

Moreover, the transition from chapter 25 to chapter 26 was unacceptably abrupt. On page 262 the characters are doing battle in the underdark, and on page 263 they are in the middle of a desert with absolutely no explaination. The reader may be tempted to re-read chapter 26 because it doesn't seem to follow the previous chapter. Perhaps a few chapters were cut from the book for the sake of brevity after it was written?

In summary, though the plot of this novel does have some redeeming value, there are plenty of things that a reader can use as an excuse for not liking it, especially if they are a long time realms fan concerned with realms continuity, or a fastidious reader.

[Jonathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this novel because I enjoyed the short story de Bie contributed to "Realms of the Elves" that introduced Fox-at-Twilight. I'll be honest and say I probably could've spent my time on the Realms more wisely.

First, de Bie assumes the reader has a high degree of familiarity with Twilight, one that I don't think is merited from her brief appearance in a short-story anthology. For example, Twilight mentions several lovers here as if they're well established characters (like she dated Tanis from Dragonlance). She also has has a contentious relationship with her god that da Bie leaves largely unexplored, as if we should already know the background of their relationship.

Second, the title of this novel says it all. Everyone in this novel is somewhat insane, vacilitating between sane and crazy, usually at inopportune moments. Several characters are completely emotionally unstable for no apparent reason. Even our supposedly fearless Twilight spends much of the novel naked and cowering in corners. She's either lovesick over characters she seems to dislike or she's nervous about trusting characters she obviously shoudn't. For a battle-hardened elf, it's odd behavior to say the least, but de Bie never makes it clear if we should blame it on the dungeon itself. (I already assumed the dungeon has a geas that makes sexy elves take off their clothes.)

Finally, the denouement is interesting, but I get the sense I'd find a lot of holes in it if I thought about it more carefully. As such, I'll just leave it at that. I can't say I recommend the book, but if you're looking for a good dungeon crawl to read at the beach, this novel might be up your alley.

[Pierre van Rooden · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fair story, with some interesting characters and a very strange dungeon - it takes a while before realizing what exactly is wrong... and it is a very clever and nasty trick, too.
Unfortunately, the main protagonist is not really sympathetic. I guess I just don't warm up much to the lone wolf types that are angst-ridden for intimacy (other than bed-warming) and friendship. The early 'Fox-at-Twilight' gets on my nerves. She tries too hard to fake being an uncaring lying opportunist - and so looses respect and becomes a distraction.
I would also have liked some plot exposition to come a bit earlier. It was rather unreal to spend most part of the book reading about people and not even knowing WHY they are there or hwat their background is. I think it might have helped make some characters more real.
I the end I found it enjoyable, but with less focus on Fox's inner turmoil and more attention to the other characters, this could have been a better novel.

[Balazs Badics · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe many who have read this book will disagree with me, but I think it is one of the best, most unpredictable and unconventional Forgotten Realms books. I have read it 3-4 times, and could read it again and again. Twisting and unpredictable plot, betrayals, unlikely “heroes”, like Liet. Fox-at-Twilight is a great character and she deserves more books and stories. Some say that the background of the characters is not explained, but many short excellent books, like “ Where eagles dare” or “Enders game” are similar.

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really struggled to fininsh this one. But I persisted...and the book ended. Ho hum...

By the way, I listened to some of this on my Kindle via the Audible.com audio tracks and whisper sync. Worst narrator/reader ever!!! I won't be listening to Dara Roenberg again. Sorry.

[Jeffery Mace · Rating 4 out of 5]

A random dungeon crawl in novel form. Its an enjoyable story, but doesn't become a compelling read until after the midway point. Recommend if you can stay with a slow start.

[King · Rating 5 out of 5]

love this book. it was one of the first books I read as an adult.It is one of the very few books I have read more than once.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow this felt like it was written by one sadistic DM. Meat grinder of a dungeon crawl

[Dave · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nope. Couldn't continue after the first 20 pages. Especially not on audible with that narrator.

[Jackies Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good - nice fast paced adventure.

https://youtu.be/79StSJUbz3M

My YouTube review goes into greater detail

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

Awful, awful characters. Had it's moments.