I meant to write up this book review a few days back, still better late than never I suppose. The Jewel of Turmish by Mel Odom is a Forgotten Realms novel and the third book in the four part The Cities series. Each of the four novels is set in one of the great cities of Faerun, in this case the city of Alaghon, capital of the realm of Turmish. I've read all four of the series now and posted a review a while back of one of them, The City of Ravens, the other two I'd read before starting this blog.
The main character of this story is a young male druid by the name of Haarn Brightoak, a defender of the forests and wild lands of Turmish and a servant of the Emerald Enclave, an organisation of druids and rangers, determined to blance the growth of civilisation with the preservation of the wilds. A fantasy version of Greenpeace or the National Trust, only armed with spells and blades! We encounter him as he is following a band of mercenaries who have come into his protected woods to hunt wolves, having been offered gold to bring back wolf scalps by a farmer whose children were attacked.
With the mercenaries is Druz Talimsir, a striking young woman who left her family home in Cormyr to see the world and have adventures. When Haarn catches up to the group she is travelling with, she manages to defuse the potentially violent encounter and then accompanies Haarn as he takes up the hunt for the wolfpack, determined to stop them from preying on humans, knowing that their actions will only serve to bring more hunters into the woodland, hunters that will not be picky about which wolves (and other animals for that matter) they are killing.
Meanwhile in Alaghon itself ,a group of children make a terrible mistake and accidentally wake a long slumbering evil, the mohrg wizard Borran Klosk. As for what a mohrg is, words fail me, so have a look at this picture instead! Now picture that, only with spells as well. As for the name, is it just me or does the name Borran Klosk sound like some eastern european actor from an old Hammer Horror movie? It sure did to me. Anyway, it can use that hideous tongue as a weapon and the book is replete with many mentions of it smashing through heads and ribcages with ease.
To my mind there are two problems with this book. The first is that despite the book ostensibly being about Alaghon, the city doesn't really feature that strongly and certainly is not brought to life by the narrative. In the other books in the series (The City of Ravens, Temple Hill and The City of Splendors), the city itself has seemed as much a character as the people in the story. Not so in this case. the second problem is how long this book takes to really get going. As an example, it is not until page 263 that Haarn and Druz even enter Alaghon, spending far too long in the wilderness hunting a scarred old wolf. Were this a story about a druid in the wild, that would be all fine and good, it is certainly well written, but it is a story about a city. For that city to barely feature is inexcusable.
Actually, while I'm on the topic of things that are wrong, I'll add a third item that annoyed me about this book. The author had previously written the Threat From The Sea Trilogy, which I have not, as yet anyway, read. This novel takes place not long after the end of the trilogy and while I would expect recent events to be mentioned, I would not expect them to be mentioned, repeatedly, in every chapter (and at times it felt like every sodding page). In particular the destruction of The Whamite Isles. Yes they were destroyed, yes the population that lived there is now mindless undead. I got that the first couple times you wrote it Mr. Odom, it really wasn't neccessary to beat me over the head by mentioning it another 50 times!
This book suffers from a loooong drawn out beginning and a rushed finale. At 311 pages, for the main characters to not even enter the setting for which the book is named until page 263 is just wrong. Also the villain of the piece could really have used a better name, I felt like laughing every time I read Borran Klosk on the page (and did laugh whenever some civilian or other would scream something like: "It's Borran Klosk!! Run for your lives!!"). See? You're probably grinning too.
I'm going to award this book 2/5 and it gets that second point solely on the basis of the good writing in the wilderness chapters. Druz and Haarn are good characters, I enjoyed reading about them in the wild and their burgeoning respect and affection for each other. If the book had been 311 pages of that, I'd likely be awarding it 4/5 instead.
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