Download The Lost Library of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), by Mel Odom
From the combination of knowledge and activities, someone can enhance their skill and also ability. It will lead them to live and also work much better. This is why, the students, employees, and even companies must have reading habit for publications. Any sort of book The Lost Library Of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), By Mel Odom will offer specific knowledge to take all advantages. This is what this The Lost Library Of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), By Mel Odom informs you. It will add more expertise of you to life and work better. The Lost Library Of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), By Mel Odom, Try it as well as confirm it.
The Lost Library of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), by Mel Odom
Download The Lost Library of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), by Mel Odom
The Lost Library Of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), By Mel Odom Exactly how a simple idea by reading can improve you to be an effective person? Reading The Lost Library Of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), By Mel Odom is a quite basic activity. Yet, exactly how can many people be so careless to check out? They will like to spend their spare time to chatting or hanging out. When as a matter of fact, reviewing The Lost Library Of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), By Mel Odom will offer you more probabilities to be successful completed with the hard works.
As one of the window to open up the new world, this The Lost Library Of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), By Mel Odom provides its impressive writing from the author. Released in among the preferred publishers, this book The Lost Library Of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), By Mel Odom becomes one of the most desired books lately. Really, guide will not matter if that The Lost Library Of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), By Mel Odom is a best seller or otherwise. Every publication will still offer ideal sources to get the user all finest.
Nonetheless, some people will seek for the very best vendor publication to read as the very first reference. This is why; this The Lost Library Of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), By Mel Odom exists to satisfy your need. Some individuals like reading this book The Lost Library Of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), By Mel Odom because of this popular publication, yet some love this due to favourite writer. Or, lots of also like reading this book The Lost Library Of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), By Mel Odom since they actually have to read this publication. It can be the one that truly like reading.
In getting this The Lost Library Of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), By Mel Odom, you might not still pass walking or using your motors to guide establishments. Obtain the queuing, under the rain or hot light, and also still look for the unidentified book to be in that publication store. By seeing this page, you can just hunt for the The Lost Library Of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), By Mel Odom as well as you can locate it. So now, this time around is for you to choose the download web link and acquisition The Lost Library Of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), By Mel Odom as your own soft file book. You could read this book The Lost Library Of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), By Mel Odom in soft data only and save it as all yours. So, you don't have to fast place guide The Lost Library Of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), By Mel Odom into your bag anywhere.
The Lost Library of Cormanthyr
Is it just a myth? Or does it still stand . . . somewhere in the most ancient corners of Faerûn?
An intrepid human explorer sets out to find the truth and what starts as an archaeological expedition soon becomes a race against time as an undying avenger is determined to protect the secrets of the ancient, xenophobic elven empire of Cormanthyr.
Lost Empires is a bold new series that uncovers the secrets of the lost, ancient Forgotten Realms world.
- Sales Rank: #458969 in eBooks
- Published on: 2012-10-09
- Released on: 2012-10-09
- Format: Kindle eBook
Most helpful customer reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
Short of Potential, but Decent
By AnthonyWrites
MINOR SPOILER WARNING: There are no crucial plot elements revealed in this review. However, in the interest of providing a very in depth review, there are some minor spoilers in the text. They should not in any way ruin the story, but they do reveal some story events. If that bugs you out, STOP HERE!
Some background on this review: I had read a few Forgotten Realms books. They were not good. In fact, they were mostly refuse, most notably the Ed Greenwood, creator of the Realms, authored "Spellfire," which I threw across the room halfway through, it was so pathetic. Even though I had enjoyed "Horselords," I had sworn off of FR books altogether due to my other reads, until an online acquaintance who worked in the WotC/TSR fiction dept. convinced me that they were doing some new and exciting things. So based on his recommendation, specifically for this then "new" series, I gave it another shot. Now, the review:
The story revolves around Baylee, a ranger/archaeologist who was mentored by a mage with whom he's had a falling out. Baylee is more interested in knowledge than riches, much like his mentor. When the mage, Fannt Golsway, is murdered by a drow (yes, there's them drow again :-/ ) early on, Baylee, away on an expedition, is implicated. Fannt lived in Waterdeep, so a contingent (read: small army) from there is sent to find Baylee, which they do easily enough. It becomes quickly apparent that Baylee is not guilty of anything, and the search for the murderer is tied up in Fannt's search for the Lost Library of Cormanthyr, which was lost at the fall of Myth Drannor and is now guarded by a lich.
First, the good: Mel's writing style is easy to read. He isn't overly wordy, nor does he belabor anything to much, so the story moves along at a fairly brisk pace. The plot itself is compelling, especially the idea of a vast, hidden store of ancient knowledge that far surpasses anything known on Toril today (!) including Candlekeep. Baylee is a sympathetic character, one you want to see succeed. He has a sidekick, an Azmyth Bat named Xuxa, who can telepathically communicate with others. The bat is rather endearing and is kind of a conscience to Baylee, being portrayed as an older, wiser being. A feminine interest is the civilar of the Waterdeep Watch, Cordyan Tsald. She's portrayed as strong and efficient, if a bit wet behind the ears. The drow mage is Krystarn Fellhammer, who is under servitude to the lich Folgrim Shallowsoul, guardian of the Lost Library. She displays the standard hatred and lack of moral stability we're used to from drow. The lich is sufficiently evil and cunning. Also involved is another ranger by the name of Civva Cthulad (sounds Lovecraftian, does it not... not that there's any other connection here... Civva is as honorable as they come.) The characters are sufficiently distinct and recognizable from scene to scene to give the story a consistent feel, for the most part. The ending, too, is rather satisfying. I won't go so far as to tell what it is, but, as you'll see below, it saved the book from becoming just another reason not to read anymore FR stuff...
Which takes us to the gripes: There were many. None of these, keep in mind, were enough to make me want to pitch the book aside, because, all in all, it was a decent read. But I do have quite a stack of books still left to read, and I don't want to spend my time in books that don't live up to their potential if I can help it. This book was borderline. I truly believe that Mel sold his subject matter furiously short, and not just that, but also the characters that he developed deserved much more attention and development than he gave them.
Now, to get specific: Mel is a good writer. But, he has a tendency to drop into spurts of over-description all at once. He'll drop out of the action to completely describe a character or scene with, to me, an overabundance of flowery metaphoric description. Now, if all of his writing was like this, it wouldn't be noticable, but much of his writing is quite efficient and sparse, and these fits of description sound like he doesn't trust himself to adequately give us the picture in the midst of the action, and that he doesn't trust our imaginations to fill in enough of the blanks for him. He needs, I think, to trust himself more. That said, the book needed, I think, about another 75-100 pages, and not for more description :-) Several times characters were introduced, then disappeared into the ether after they were made to seem *very* important to the plot. The most glaring instance was at the very beginning, with the introduction of the lady warrior/thief (?) Jaeleen, an old love interest of Baylee's. Mel gave her as much importance as Baylee, to the point where the reader thinks he sees the pattern that these two adventurers are about to be thrown together into something bigger than themselves, and will need to overcome their personal conflicts (fairly well established by Mel) to succeed. A few pages into chapter six (where the basic plot is still being established) she's gone, never to return. She is not so much as mentioned, save as a comparison to the civilar a scant two or three times. This reader still wonders what in Hades happened to her. Though there was conflict between Cordyan and Baylee, it was fairly superficial because they had no history. The conflict between Baylee and Jaeleen was fat with potential, potential Mel tossed to the wind. In fact, had he found a way to keep Jaeleen around, the additional conflict with the civilar would have given much more body to all of the characters. Speaking of the Cordyan, Mel backed off of that one too, unfortunately. She comes off as two-dimensional. The only depth you see is an inkling of attraction to Baylee, which goes basically nowhere throughout the book. Otherwise, she the standard, young, efficient do-gooder who also happens to have the looks of a Victoria's Secret model. In fact, Mel, to my chagrin, treated most of the women somewhat as objects, making more of the way their clothes fit their lithe figures than he did of their actual personalities. This is just a lack of care and dedication, because Mel's writing makes it obvious that he's more than capable of the depth that I was expecting but missed. The drow, Krystarn, is hopelessly stereotypical. She does the standard deal-making and doublecrossing, right from the beginning, in the continual power-struggle of the underdark. Mel deals with Folgrim, the lich, with much more skill, IMO. Early on, you have no idea who he is. He is shrouded in mystery for much of the book and his shadow looms large. Unfortunately, he ends up coming off a bit inconsistently at the end when he's finally revealed to everyone involved, showing massive and impressive strength (as he should) and at the same time, having glaring weaknesses that don't seem consistent, such as the complete inability to deal with a fire started in the library, his raison d'etre, during the big climactic scene. Baylee himself is much better handled, as the main character should be. However, he comes off as a bit too 'heroic' if I may say so. He's incredibly brutal in battle, but doesn't carry much in the way of weapons (a sling is it, for the most part) as a ranger normally would. He's somewhat of an archaelogical Dudley-do-right, at least toward himself, and this detracts from the personality that Mel started to add at the beginning by hinting at some weaknesses, especially in terms of trusting others. But he progresses into someone that's pretty much got it all down to a "T", despite his youth. He's street-savvy, battle-savvy, quite knowledgable, and has high, high ethics, esp as concerns knowledge. He's missing some glaring weaknesses.
Now in terms of story, a glaring problem with the plot is that the opposition to Baylee's goals aren't consistent. He isn't dogged at every step by an overwhelming evil. In fact, for the most part, you never doubt Baylee's ability to pull through the situations, which takes away some of the possible suspense. He doesn't take enough hurt in battles, he doesn't have conflict from the others like he should, and he's never *really* wrong
about anything important. Even though he was a suspect in his mentor's murder, he was basically off the hook right away, even after he took off without informing the Waterdeep watch that he was going away... It would have added greatly to the suspense if Mel had taken the care to make sure that Baylee was up to his eyeballs in suspicion and therefore *had* to follow his master's trail in order to clear himself. Instead, that possibility is whitewashed and Baylee's just after knowledge in memory of his master, which is reasonable motivation, but not as urgent. Another conflict/threat problem is Krystarn. She never *really* provides the level of threat she could to Baylee, even though she began the story by *savaging* Baylee's mentor, a very powerful mage in his own right. She is sent to dispose of him, then just disappears and is far too easily diverted later in the story. She goes back instead and works on her own ambitions that, while they will eventually intersect Baylee's motivations, don't serve to dog Baylees' steps and make *real* trouble for him. One point in the book, after an underwater scene, Baylee is at odds with a Pirate captian who was begrudgingly helping him. There's no setup. At first they're off balance and helping each other warily, then, with a
chapter break, they are throwing knives at each other and fighting with no reasonable transition work provided by the author. This is just sloppy, and, I'll say it again, Mel's ability is, I think, much higher than what he did there.
One final gripe: Sometimes Mel was a little to plain about game mechanics. Specific spell names remind us that it's an AD&D book, rather than a fantasy fiction book. The worst instance is the power of the Azmyth bat Xuxa to cast a silence spell once a day. He literally says "The azmyth had the ability to magically create silence in the area near her once a day." Might as well have just printed the spell description from the PHB or the power description from the MM or MC.
All in all, the book *was* a decent, fun read. The fate of the characters and the Library is handled quite well. But Mel had SO much to work with that he left out. The potential for conflict and suspense was enormous. The characters began well but ended up looking a bit too good and untouchable. I found myself very disappointed that someone who could write so well would sell such a great idea so short...
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
A poor book by any standards...
By Edwin H Morales
This book leaves much to be desired. First of all, the author leave too many unfinished stories. For example, it gives you an interesting epilogue which introduces almost the best rounded characters in the story. At the end of this epilogue, the author gives us the hint that these characters are going to return to the main story, but this never happens. This elemment in the book repeats itself even with another character Jaeleen, which is mentioned in almost half of the book but it is never given a satisfactory conclusion (the character disappears without a trace and a reason as to why). Also I found the action of the story (such as battle scenes) being poorly described and ended so fast that they became pointless. (One hit-one kill).
The development of the story and characters leaves much to be desired. For example, the main character is an "overqualified" adventurer who never lose an argument or a battle. At the end of the book, we have a main character who knows everything, fights (and wins) with everything. Indeed, it makes it difficult for the reader to identify him(her)self with the main character. My recommendation...do not buy this book. There are other and much better fantasy books out there.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
"The hobgoblin's head exploded when a large diamond slammed through it." (p.297)
By L Gontzes
The Lost Library of Cormanthyr is the first in a series of four novels (known as the Lost Empires series and which includes Faces of Deception, Star of Cursrah, and the Nether Scroll) that deal with the secrets of four of Toril's long lost ancient civilizations.
The book describes the adventures of an archaeologist ranger named Baylee Arnvold who, along with his azmyth bat familiar, tries to find out who killed his mentor, Fannt Golsway, in the city of Waterdeep. His efforts lead him from adventure to adventure before he has to face a powerful undead which in its quest for power is set on magically transporting one of Faerun's oldest and most magnificent libraries to the Astral Plane so that it may protect its contents from interlopers as well as unlock Toril's secrets without the threat of that many adventurers interfering.
Mel Odom does a good job of acquiring and presenting essential knowledge relevant to Faerun, including customs, religion and the history of the peoples of Toril e.g. "The city had once been called Rainydale, known as Selarrynm in the elven tongue, and had been one of the larger trading posts outside of Myth Drannor proper." (p.256) Additionally, the author does a wonderful job of describing the Legend of the Sleeping Kings (pp. 47-48) as well as the sacrificial altar dedicated to the god Vaprak, a deity worshiped by trolls and ogres alike. (p.46)
Moreover, on page 133 he provides very good descriptions of the fireball and web spells, while on pages 267-268 he does a good job in his portrayal of hook horrors.
Furthermore, Mel Odom is on the ball when the baelnorn utters: "In truth you are all humans, and I would care less if you all die in this endeavor. Myth Drannor and its environs should never have had to suffer the presence of humans, dwarves, or any other barbarian species that came into the City of Songs and drew her down." (p.284)
Finally, the author succeeds in keeping the reader focused with phrases such as "Trollkin are known for their appetites. Human flesh is thought of as a delicacy by some." (p.49)
On the negative side, the author repeatedly fails in providing an accurate description of the drow and instead treats them as if they were mere kobolds (!) e.g. "The dark elves had more lies than truth, and absolutely no honor. To enter the Underdark was to walk into death itself," (p.70) while on page 274, Baylee tells the dark elves "You have a chance at living. Take it and run," and... they actually fled (!) before Caleban, the wizard, added "You can't trust even a drow's cowardice." You have got to be kidding me!
Moreover, in Chapter 12 Mel Odom shows what apparently are 1st level characters picking off drow who die after a single blow!!! In truth, the dark elves would have pulverized these humans without even breaking into a sweat. In short, the fight against the drow described on pages 270-274 was just sad!
Additionally, there were silly and wholly unnecessary mistakes e.g. Fellhammer is more a dwarven family name than a dark elf's; it's elementary! To that one should add that a Bag of Holding does not transport troops. Also, Mel Odom refers to a dead drow male on page 273 as "the dead man" and then goes on to say "...then heard a man scream in agony: `My eyes, my eyes.'" Really? In Common? I seriously doubt that. Furthermore, a lich does not only NOT scream in pain when thrown ordinary caltrops, but is actually unaffected, so to have this be THE highlight is highly inappropriate to put it politely. So it's silly mistakes like that that take away from the overall enjoyment.
Other drawbacks include Xuxa, the azmyth bat, which was just not interesting at all and the mystery behind Jaeleen; one moment she is part of this novel and the next she just vanishes.
Finally, Mel Odom could have done a much better job of describing how and why the dark elf got involved with the lich and why one of the most amazing libraries of all times was not protected with traps or mythal that would have kept it both fire-proof and lightning-proof.
I wish more novels would be set in never or little-before covered areas of Faerun, namely Hillsfar, Zhentil Keep, Thay, Chessenta, Threskel, Unther, and Mulhorand to name a few, as opposed to the usual, Waterdeep/Sword Coast or Western Heartlands locations.
If it's Myth Drannor you long for, try and get your hands on a copy of the Ruins of Myth Drannor accessory/adventure (it is Second Edition AD&D, out of print and it will take a bit of searching, but it's well worth it).
In conclusion, The Lost Library of Cormanthyr will provide for a fair amount of entertainment though it could have been so much better. 3 Stars
The author purposefully provides room for a sequel, though I am not sure there is a demand for it (at this point it's been years since the book was published and I do not believe the sequel ever materialized).
See all 16 customer reviews...
The Lost Library of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), by Mel Odom PDF
The Lost Library of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), by Mel Odom EPub
The Lost Library of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), by Mel Odom Doc
The Lost Library of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), by Mel Odom iBooks
The Lost Library of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), by Mel Odom rtf
The Lost Library of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), by Mel Odom Mobipocket
The Lost Library of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), by Mel Odom Kindle
! Download The Lost Library of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), by Mel Odom Doc
! Download The Lost Library of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), by Mel Odom Doc
! Download The Lost Library of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), by Mel Odom Doc
! Download The Lost Library of Cormanthyr: Forgotten Realms (Lost Empires), by Mel Odom Doc
