The Harpers Series (Possible Spoilers)

[pritchke]

<font face="Verdana" size="3" color="#00FF00">I have currently read a few of these books and I actually like them. Each book is its own story about a Harper or group of Harpers. So for any one who likes the world of Forgotten Realms but wish to avoid Salvatore's characters like Drizzt than it might be worth your time. One thing I like about the Harpers is the characters are not God like, they get hurt, and many of them die, and seldom survive without help from others. Plus you can read any book in the series as none of the stories or characters are reused.

So far I have read

4. [img]graemlins/starhappy.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/starhappy.gif[/img] 1/2 The Night Parade - Kind of a weird novel with the most bizarre creatures in the realms. Of the party of Harpers who went to investigate missing children, only 2 survive.
5. [img]graemlins/starhappy.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/starhappy.gif[/img] 1/2 The Ring of Winter - I enjoyed this book, it was fun. Basically it is a quest for a powerful artifact that gives inmortality, and controls the weather, and most of the action takes place in the land of Chut. There are some chessy animals, and I thought the ending could have been different, That is why it does not get 3 stars. The villian was great, very evil.
6. [img]graemlins/starhappy.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/starhappy.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/starhappy.gif[/img] 1/2 Crypt of the Shadowking - This has been my favourite so far. The Zhentarim Guard controls a city and a former Harper(Bard) teams up with a Harper on her first mission to overthrow The Zhentarim in the city. The leader of the Zhentarim is an old nemesis of the bard who is seeking a powerful artifact found in the Shadowkings crypt. The book has many twist, and betrayal is not usually what it seems. The Bard puts together his old adventuring party. The ending was good, the villains were great.

Just started reading:
3. Red Magic - So far it is about a powerful red wizard of Thay who has some devious plan which I don't know yet, and the first Harper that I have read about is a Druid who can turn into a Falcon, or bear. 1st chapter has been good.

After that I will read
7. Soldiers of Ice - Don't know what it is about yet.</font>

[ 12-14-2004, 05:27 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

[Morgeruat]

I have the first one, haven't read it yet, but it's by Troy Denning, who has some fairly good books, as well as some stinkers, IIRC it's called the Parched Sea

[Larry_OHF]

<font color=skyblue>You are right, all of the Harpers novels are good! If I remember, there are 16 of them. Although I have them all, I have only read up through the Ring of Winter...and have stopped for a while...trying to get through the Silmarillion. If I remember, two of those Harpers books are from Elaine Cunningham. She wrote one of them, then four of five down the row, she wrote a sequal to it...then decided to republish them and add a third to make a trilogy...and calls it "Songs and Swords Trilogy". The first two books of Song and Swords are the exact same as their Harper originals. That frustrates me. I had to buy the other two again to have the uniform trilogy.</font>

[pcgiant]

Originally posted by pritchke: After that I will read 7. Soldiers of Ice - Don't know what it is about yet.

I tried to read this one - however I gave up really close to the end. I just didn't find it interesting.

[pritchke]

<font face="Verdana" size="3" color="#00FF00">Wow, I didn't think any of these books could get better than "Crypt of the Shadowking". I have now finished book 3 "Red Magic".

3. [img]graemlins/starhappy.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/starhappy.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/starhappy.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/starhappy.gif[/img] A couple Harpers(Druid and a Centaur team up with a diplomat Mage) to investigate a Red Wizard in Thay who is building an army. They fear he may try to attack an area outside of They. In Thay they are captured by a Lich who is the oldest and most powerful Red Wizard. Red Wizards are constantly plotting against each other and the Lich and the Harpers seem to have similar goals but the Lich cannot interfere directly and normally he would just add the Harpers to his army of undead. However he instead enslaves them and gives them temporary control over his army to stop the Red Wizard who is plotting to control Thay.

Now I am going to read book 2 before starting 7.</font>

[ 12-14-2004, 05:01 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

I've read 2 or 3 and I like them. I'm reading the cities series right now
(actually their indipendant books). The one I'm reading is "The Jewel
Of Turmish" and it's very good, especially if you're interested in Druid
stuff!

[pritchke]

<font face="Verdana" size="3" color="#00FF00">2. [img]graemlins/starhappy.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/starhappy.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/starhappy.gif[/img] ElfShadow - This book started off really slow and was slightly confusing for the first 5 chapters. The very first chapter was a past event which was important later on but kind of confused me at the beginning. After chapter 5 it really picked up and got quite interesting. I like the idea of the Harpers using an Assassin with a moonblade to track down an Assassin that is killing Harpers. Some Harpers suspect that the assassin that they send on missions is the assassin as it has to be someone in the Harpers circle. They send a foolish Bard (he only pretends to be a fool to get close to people) to watch her and find the real assassin. Anyway the book resolves around the moonblade and its powers. When the Bard was introduced it started to pick up, he is very witty, and funny. If it were not for the first 5 chapters I would have gave it another star or two, Good Book overall.</font>

[ 12-14-2004, 05:01 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

[pritchke]

<font face="Verdana" size="3" color="#00FF00">1. [img]graemlins/starhappy.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/starhappy.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/starhappy.gif[/img] 1/2 "The Parched Sea", I just read it was very good, I was upset, well not in the ending but the fact that an event happens that I wasn't expecting towards the end to my favorite character in this book. Some very likeable characters in this book. There are no uber-muchkins in this book. Speaking of which....

9. [img]graemlins/starhappy.gif[/img] "Crown of Fire" - This is by Ed Greenwood and full of ubermunchkins, it is like everyone is all powerful having holes burnt through them and still walking . It is a WTF book if I ever saw one. Elminster is the biggest ubermunchkin ever why doesn't he just die already, Mirt is a ubermunckin, and so is Storm although they are likeable. The main character is more of an ubermunchkin than Elminster, Lord Mansoon is a ubermuchkin, and the Lich Lord is a ubermunchkin but you would expect him to be tough although I don't know were his compassion comes from sparing all the main characters while his spells fries everyone else. The main characters end up with sizzling hair, and fingers, or a hole through them but thay are all OK like in a cartoon. Beholders are like mice when compared to many characters in this book. When compared to the characters in these books Drizzit is not an ubermunckin. So what I don't like about the book is it is full of ubermunchkins, what I do like is that we get to see some pretty neat characters from the Realms despite them being ubermuchkins, and there are some characters who you will like that are not so ubermunchkiny. The story is fairly decent despite that it reeks of uber-munchkinness so I gave it [img]graemlins/starhappy.gif[/img] .
</font>

[ 12-14-2004, 05:29 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

[Sir Degrader]

You might want to put a spoilers tag, seeing as how you just revealed a character to die.