Oy I need to be less lazy when it comes to writing up these book reviews, as now I've got a backlog sat on my desk to type up. Under Fallen Stars by Mel Odom is a Forgotten Realms novel and the second book of the Threat From The Sea trilogy. The theme of this trilogy is a devastating war waged by the evil undersea creatures of Faerun (primarily the sahuagin) against the good undersea races and also the surface dwellers who sail on the oceans and live along the coastlines. This book follows on from where Rising Tide left off with the various characters all heading towards the port city of Baldur's Gate.
What follows is a spectacular night assault on the city by pirates, sahuagin and various sea monsters that devastates the cities bustling port and hard presses the cities famous Flaming fist soldiers to prevent more of the city going up in flames. Jherek is in the thick of the fighting, alongside his new friend, a dwarf with a pegleg by the name of Khlinat Ironeater. Also in town, searching for Jherek is the elderly bard Pacys, drawn there by the epic song he is chasing.
While the battle rages above, Iakhovas and Laaqueel slip into the city unnoticed, retreiving an item that has long been hidden in the sewers, he again spending the lives of her people to provide a distraction adding fuel to his priestesses doubts about the nature of her master. The battle is very well written and I enjoyed it immensely. The aftermath finds Khlinat injured and Jherek wandering the streets in search of a priest to tend to his friend. It is there that he again encounters Sabyna, the pretty ships mage he befriended in the first book, and together the pair are captured (along wth her ship, its captain and crew) by Vurgrom, a pirate in the employ of Iakhovas.
As Jherek and Sabyna are sailed away from the city, heading upriver at a considerable speed (thanks to a strange chair that she is strapped into which adds power to the ship. From a D&D DM/players point of view, it was nice to see a Spelljamming Helm in use), so Pacys finds Khlinat, the two striking up a friendship as the bard learns about Jherek from the dwarf, quickly getting over his despair at having missed/lost the lad he had been drawn too, reasoning that if his god had intended for him to meet Jherek then, then he would have and such a meeeting must be ordained for a later date.
Iakhovas meanwhile reveals what he took from beneath Baldur's Gate to a less than impressed Laaqueel, a ship in a bottle. But not just any ship, this is the Tarjana, a mudship capable of sailing through anything, and a floating fortress from which he intends to command the next phase of his war. Taking the bulk of his kingdoms warriors, Iakhovas opens a portal and brings them through it with him, Laaqueel and his ship to the Inner Sea of Faerun, a place that the undersea residents of it call Seros, and which everyone else calls The Sea of Fallen Stars. Here he rallies the sahuagin of that sea to his cause in a rousing finale to the book.
By the end of the book all the major players have made their way to The Sea of Fallen Stars, Sabyna accompanying Jherek when they finally get free of Vurgom's clutches, the pair travelling with a paladin of Lathander (God of the Dawn) by the name of Glawinn (arguably my favourite character in the series) to a port where they join the crew of Black Champion a ship under the command of the half-elf Captain Azla, she a fierce rival of Vurgom's who wants to find out what he is up to. Pacys and Khlinat arrive by another means, much to the astonishment of the Priests of Gond (God of Invention & Smithing) in Baldur's Gate.
This is a brilliantly written book, I loved reading it and I found myself flicking forward a couple pages each time I had to put it down to return to work at the end of a break just to get a glimpse of what was going to happen next. Unsurprisingly this book gets 5/5 from me.
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