Book Review – Shadowbred
Author: Paul S. Kemp
Cover Artist: Raymond Swanland
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: November 2006
Wizards of the Coast and Forgotten Realms: Names that echo fancies of Dungeons and Dragons. The mere whisper of D&D can illicit comments from all shades of life, which proves that it has transcended other games by embedding its existence in society. To fantasy readers, on the other hand, those names recall a different thought. For me the “thought” that materialized was R.A. Salvatore; he was able to captivate me through the trials of Drizzt Do’Urden. Surprisingly, this is no longer the case. Now when I hear Forgotten Realms, I think Paul S. Kemp.
Shadowbred, Paul S. Kemp’s first follow up to the The Erevis Cale Trilogy, starts off with Erevis Cale’s dreams being visited by a friend in duress. Unaware of what is truly happening and where his friend even is, Cale can only wonder about his friend’s safety. He later answers a message from the son of an old acquaintance by making his way to Selgaunt – his previous home. He is able to get there faster than most; he has the ability to progress leagues in a single step by traveling through shadows. Upon arriving, he learns from an unexpected source that his friend is in dire need. While there is nothing Cale can do at the present to aid his friend, he further learns that his friend’s fate is somehow tied to Sembia, the nation that Selgaunt resides in. He then meets up with the individual in Selgaunt that requested his presence and is offered the position of advisor to the Hulorn, which he quickly accepts. In a neighboring city that lies in Sembia, a power struggle ensues after the Overmaster mysteriously dies. In a wicked – but not unplanned – turn of events, the nation is thrown into civil war. Cale, now being an advisor and still in search of his ailing friend, is like the soft center of a Tootsie-Pop, stuck right in the middle.
When diving into Shadowbred, the first thing that hit me was how well Paul S. Kemp wrote. He did not attempt to write over his reader’s heads, and gave credit to their intelligence by not lacking in complex grammar principles. Adding further to Shadowbred’s interest, Kemp writes portions of this book from first and third-person perspectives, the primary format being third-person. However, the first-person is not thrown in sporadically, but is used after a character is forced to retreat to the recesses of his mind, which really keys us in on what is occurring “inside his head”. Kemp is also adept at presenting attributes of his characters over time, rather than introducing us through a rapid-fire session of information like a door-to-door vacuum salesman.
Paul S. Kemp’s first book of The Twilight War Trilogy, Shadowbred, is filled with elements that many good novels have: detestable bad guys, personable good guys, and an intriguing plot. What Kemp does with those ingredients is what makes him a head chef at a popular New York dining establishment, rather than a Grill Technician at Wendy’s. Needless to say, I am eagerly awaiting the next courses
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