By Ian Strelec, Staff Reviewer

Available at FRP Games

Forgotten Realms: The Ruin PB [Novel]
Retail $6.99 Sale $5.59

Initiative Round
The third book in the "Year of Rogue Dragons" trilogy by Richard Lee Byers and published by Wizards of the Coast, The Ruin opens several months after the close of The Rite. A dangerous new foe has sprung up for the seekers (as Dorn, Kara and co. have begun to be called) in the far northern reaches of the Great Glacier. They have to make their way in that direction in their quest for the end to the Rage anyway, which means that if they wish their quest to succeed they must first contend with this Ice Queen.

Meanwhile Sammaster's plots continue on relatively unabated, dracoliches being formed and dragons running amok in their determination to rule the world. The Year of Rogue Dragons comes to a spectacular finish of epic proportions in this finale, in a last desperate battle to determine the fate of Faerun. Will the hordes of evil dragonkind become the lords and masters of the Realms or will good prevail and the Rage be ended?

Critical Hit
The book continues where its predecessor left off, including numerous D&D references and sticks closely to the rules defined in the Core Rulebooks. It's still fun to read through and recognize spells, magic, and monsters (namely dragons) one can find listed in any number of sources.

The combats are interesting and involving, and the plot (while relatively straightforward) is still a strong one. The characters maintain an air of reality and believability as well, and the book moves at a quick pace.

And then there's the final battle. I won't ruin it for you, but I will just say it's done well and really is spectacular. It's easy to imagine the sheer chaos that it had to have been, and the havoc the battle wrought.

Critical Fumble
The problems come when one gets too involved. While somewhat believable, the character's speech patterns and personalities can become somewhat wooden and cliched at times, and the book does little to involve several of the main characters in the story. The primary example is the dwarven ranger, Raryn. His character is undeveloped, flat, and pretty much just boring. He's always there, but simply ignored as the story progresses.

Another issue is Dorn, the half-golem lead character. By now, his whole everybody-hates-me-someone-just-kill-me-and-get-it-over-with attitude is beyond frustrating. His character simply doesn't seem to grow much beyond his self-absorbed self-pitying beginning.

Coup de Grace
Ultimately, the book simply isn't as good as its two predecessors. The battle scenes are still well-done and the story decent, but the characters lack a sense of growth as the story progresses. Typically, the whole point of a tale such as this is to watch the characters flourish and grow (in the terms of the fantasy genre, this usually means changes wrought in trial-by-fire and frantic battle) and the story just doesn't carry out its potential. That was okay in the first two because there was still more time for decent development, but this book still lacks it.

Final Grade: C+