Tantras: The Avatar Series

Over on [[ASIN:B005UFN5M0 Shadowdale: Avatar Series, Book I (The Avatar Series 1)]], I posted a review of the many things that made Shadowdale a very hard book to read. Tantras has all those same things except more of them. Or maybe it just seemed like there were more of them because I was already sick of them from Shadowdale.

Lots of presenting a one line descriptive "hook" of a character that he uses to refer to said character instead of their names or more thoughtful referents. "You will not outsmart this one-eyed fighter," yelled the one-eyed fighter as the one-eyed fighter circled the bald thief.

Lots of telling instead of showing.

Lots of implausible events to and lack of depth to get as from plot point to plot point as soon as possible.

One amazingly obvious prophecy that seems to dupe all the characters.

Bane is still a complete idiot. "I know you're in love with Midnight. But I want you to capture her and bring her to me. If you will, I'll let you go." "Ok, I'll do that." "Ok, good enough for me! Here's some healing. Let me know when you're done. Bye then! Totally free to leave my stronghold without any supervision or any other guarantees you'll actually do what you said!" This guy could not conquer a backyard the way he's portrayed.

The climactic fight at the end started out promising, but quickly devolved into a lot of falling. Once again, there was a conclusion the author wanted to get to, so he got us there the quickest way possible without regard to story or drama. But thank Helm that completely obvious prophecy was fulfilled after nobody could figure it out - it truly saved Tantras from nothing in particular.

Lots of implausible, illogical things that happen solely to keep things moving in the right direction, like a DM trying to railroad her group to follow the adventure module. "We go south!" "Well, the south gate is snowed in, so you turn north." "It's summer!" "I know. The world is unstable right now." "What if we go East?" "East no longer exists as a direction. Magic. Also, you trip over a map that directs you to go north."

Not enjoyable at all, but there were some good ideas in it. I'm on book 3, now, and it is a welcome balm after getting through this hedge of a book.

A little slow in progression, but vital in the lore of the Forgotten realms.

I began reading this series in order to fill in my knowledge of The Forgotten Realms for a D & D campaign I am running. While having the story unfold in a world I have occupied vicariously for over twenty years is entertaining, if I have to hear Midnight described as "raven haired" one more time I may destroy the realm myself.

Frankly, the writing seems amateurish and the only thing drawing my onward through the tale is my interest for the world in which it is based.

It's really difficult to rate only one book here. I wasn't getting into the series until about the 3rd one but you have to read the first two to appreciate the world. 4 and a half stars for the series as a whole but individually it's tough to fall into it because of the off the wall craziness it sometimes asks us to imagine.

Overall, I thought Tantras was very good but, at times it seemed that the thought pattern of Lord Bane could have been written a little better. It just seemed to me that the intelligence level of a so called "God" should have been a bit higher. It was almost to the point of Lord Bane being even kind of stupid. The first time I read the book I saw right away that Kelemvor was going to betray his promise to Bane for getting rid of his curse. One would think that a god might and should see that coming, or at least entertain the idea. Even though I thought that that whole part of the book could have been written a little bit better, I still enjoyed the book (and the series as a whole) and would recommend it to anyone that is a fan of the realms.

The story line is still good but the development of the characters and the world seems confusing and choppy. The book moves along well but not always in ways that are fully developed.

loved it!

I had to force my self to read the first book it was so bad. But it was worth it, because I couldn't put book 2 down!!
This is how a forgotten realms book should be!!

I can't wait to read the next one. The plots are very interesting and the story moves very Quickly like an action movie

If you ever had games in this setting, you'd feel the magic right away; meeting the gods your cleric worshiped and the organizations your mercenary served. It's a great complementary product to make your FR experience whole.