Lady Of Poison: A Book Review

My book to read at work the past week has been Lady of Poison by Bruce R. Cordell. Published under the Forgotten Realms shared world imprint by Wizards of the Coast, the novel is set in a region of the Realms continent of Faerûn that has barely been touched on before, namely The Great Dale (or more specifically the vast woods along its northern and southern borders).

The story centres on a man named Marrec who has a dark secret he is hiding about his heritage and past actions. He is trying to make amends to himself for being what he is though, by completing a dream sent quest by his goddess, whose power is waning, to rescue a Child of Light. He travels with a tattoed warrior named Gunggari, from a distant land named Osse (which isn't on any map of the Realms I know of or possess), who wields a dizheri which is of equal use as a heavy warclub and a musical instrument (think a didgeredoo and you're on the right lines).

This odd duo duly find the child and encounter the forces of the Rotting Man, the main villain of the storyline, a dark champion of the evil goddess Talona (hence his title is the Talontyr) and his three generals, the Blightlords (named Gameliel, Annamelech, and Damanda). They also encounter some allies in the shape of Elowen (an elven ranger) and Ususi (a deep imaskari wizardess).

The book is a cracking read, blending together all that is best about a good D&D adventure, some intrigue, treachery, wilderness, dungeoneering, camaraderie and villainy. I'd reccomend it to anyone wanting to know what playing D&D is like, as the book could very easily be used to write an adventure based on it. I seriously hope Mr. Cordell writes more books set in the Realms, as he has a good way of blending information about the world into his writing style, meaning that even someone who has never read a Realms book before, would finish the novel with a lot of details about a part of the world. All in all 4/5, it loses a point only because the books seems hurried in the last 100 pages or so. Had the author had another 50-100 pages to play with when crafting this tale, I'd no doubt be giving it full marks.