Finished this book over a week ago now (and in fact I have the second book in the Trilogy sat in front of me to review also as I write this), so about time I got this novel review written up. Rising Tide by Mel Odom is a Forgotten Realms novel and the first book of The Threat From the Sea Trilogy. Set a few years before the "present day" of the Realms (the year 1374DR currently), the Trilogy details a devastating war that is waged by the evil undersea races against both the peaceful undersea races and also the surface dwellers who dare to sail on the seas and live along the coastlines bordering those same seas.
The instigator of this great war is a mysterious villain by the name of Iakhovas. He is found in a comatose state in a sunken tomb by the malenti priestess Laaqueel. A malenti is a sahaugin born in the shape of their most hated enemies the sea elves. Most such cursed offspring are killed at birth, but some are kept as spies. Laaqueel is doubly cursed though, as her skin has the pale colouring of a surface dwelling elf, rather than the blue or green of a sea elf. It is because of her unique appearance though that she is able to infiltrate surface realms and learn from their libraries of One Who Swims With Sekolah. Sekolah is the Great Shark, the savage and uncaring god of the sahaugin race. Seeking out this legend, causes her to find Iakhovas and awaken him.
Iakhovas is very powerful, an accomplished sorceror who cloaks his true appearance in illusions at all times, appearing to the sahaugin as an impressive example of their own species. Laaqueel though sees him as a one eyed human, scared with runes etched into his skin. Though she rises to power at his side, and she revels in the strength he can bring her people, she has her doubts about her new master. It is through her eyes that we see the evil forces side of the war.
The other main character is Jherek, the bastard son of a ruthless pirate named Bloody Falkane. Branded with his fathers symbol on an arm, Jherek has spent his life since escaping his fathers ship hiding who he really is, knowing that the reward on members of Falkane's crew would cause pretty much anyone to turn him in should they see the mark. Raised by a fortuneteller who took him in, and the phantom Malorrie who haunted her house, he has lived by building ships and working as a sailor.
Fate really doesn't seem to smile on Jherek, one ill turn following another, but ever since the night when he dived from his fathers ship, whever he has been in danger, a voice has called to him with the words "Live, that you may serve". He doesn't know who it is that calls to him, or how he is meant to serve though. When his brand is discovered by the crew of the ship he is working on, he is forced to leave both the ship and then to the town of Velen where he grew up, the only place he has ever called home. He takes passage on another ship, where he befriends Sabyna, the ships pretty mage, who he always calls Lady, even when she tells him that she is no such thing.
Elsewhere, the great city of Waterdeep comes under devastating attack by thousands of sahaugin warriors and many great creatures of the deep, Iakhovas using the resulting carnage as a diversion to claim an item of power, one of many that he has agents in both the outer and inner seas of Faerun searching for. He is determined that all that once was his will be again, but his willingness to shed her peoples blood for the sake of his personal power adds fuel to Laaqueel's doubts, even as she clings to his rising star, sharing in the power he gathers about himself.
Witnessing the onslaught on Waterdeep is the elderly bard Pacys, a man who has wandered the highways and byways of Faerun for most of his seventy six years of age, reciting songs and tales, but who has yet to compose any great saga to pass to the world. He yearns to record a story that he will always be remembered for. A devout worshipper of Oghma (the God of Knowledge) he has heard tantalising hints of such a epic story/song for years now. When the attack comes, he feels the pull of destiny upon him, knowing that there is a greater story than just the attack, and that what he is seeing is merely one act of a far larger plan.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, it is a little slow in getting started, and Jherek doesn't really seem to do all that much. Still by the books end, all the various plot threads weave towards each other, for a fateful meeting in the next novel. Both Jherek and Laaqueel are very well written characters, both plagued by doubts for different reasons, both outcasts in their way. The battle scenes are engaging, and in Iakhovas we have a truly sinister villain, his motives and indeed his real identity kept secret, and his speech both powerful and condescending (he always refers to Laaqueel as "little malenti").
I'm going to award this book 4/5, as it is a very entertaining read, but it could have been better.
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