By Ian Strelec, Staff Reviewer

Available at Amazon.com

Initiative Round
Marked for Death is the first book in The Lost Mark series by Matt Forbeck and is published by Wizards of the Coast. The story follows two friends, a human warrior and a shifter hunter, veterans of the war that spent 100 years tearing their world apart and has finally calmed down. Kandler, the human warrior, was married to an elven woman killed in the cataclysm that created the Mournlands, a vast swath of territory covered in fog so thick you can't see the hand in front of your face, and everything inside is utterly dead, though nothing decays. Burch is his shifter friend from the days of the war.

After people from the village start disappearing, everyone goes on the alert when the latest is found hacked apart and scattered around the outskirts of town. Everyone is growing more and more apprehensive of the nearby Mournlands, when a small party of Knights of the Silver Flame arrive. On the day of the funeral for the woman found so horribly murdered, the Knights recognize the remains and realize it was the woman they had killed - but they had destroyed her when she wandered into their camp as nothing but a twisted form of unlife: a zombie.

A few days later, following increasing hostilities throughout the town with the new dangers approaching, a massive attack is launched by swarms of vampires who, it turns out, are searching for the Lost Dragonmark. They call it the Mark of Death, an ancient and truly powerful mark that gives its bearer power of life and death, passed down through family lines of those once touched by the powers of dragons.

Who should bear it, it turns out, but none other than Kandler's daughter. The vampires manage to spirit her away into the Mournlands, and Kandler, Burch, and the Knights leave town and go after them. They encounter crazed elves, the walking city of the warforged, and many other things deep in the gray mists of the deserted wasteland, but can they find Kandler's daughter before the forces of the vampires put her to their foul use?

Critical Hit
While not incredibly unique in story, this book is solid in the telling. Forbeck uses just the right amount of description in the text, leaving some to the imagination but giving enough detail that what he describes is easy to imagine. His characters aren't incredibly well-developed, but it's tough to do in the 366 pages he used and he did leave enough open for much better development further along. The story does seem believable (at least, in the terms of sword and sorcery that define Eberron and all the other D&D worlds) and the characters realistic in motivation and their reactions to different situations.

Another key point is in the telling of the story itself, as Forbeck keeps the story moving and manages to cram far more into it than might be expected in the small space he used, without making the story seem rushed. Marked for Death is also fairly fast-paced, easily keeping your attention as you read.

Critical Fumble
The only complaint I can offer about this book is that it seems very much like a lot of the other fantasy books I've read, but then again, it's tough to be original with a million different titles appearing on the shelves listed "Fantasy" on a yearly basis.

Coup de Grace
Overall, Marked for Death is an interesting and solid title, though not earth-shattering in any aspect of the storytelling. It does a good job of introducing a reader to the world of Eberron as well, and actually improved my opinion on a campaign world I hadn't held much hope for.

Final Grade: B