Shadowdale is the first book in The Avatar Trilogy from author Scott Ciencin (writing under the name Richard Awlinson) and set in the Dungeons and Dragons world of Forgotten Realms. It was first published in 1989 and then reprinted in 2003. This trilogy is supposed to have been highly influential in the development of the Forgotten Realms world and it features the famous Gandalf-like wizard named Elminster.

The story opens with several of the gods of the Forgotten Realms fighting because the famed Tablets of Power are missing. The main god, Ao, banishes the other gods back to the Realms and forces them to take on human form called avatars. This story focuses mostly on Bane (god of suffering), Mykrul (god of the dead) and Mystra (a good god). This book is a great way to add some personality to the different gods of the D&D world. Usually you just hear about them but here they actually become characters.

With the gods on earth in human form, the world of magic is thrown into chaos. Even the simplest spells yield crazy results and magic is unstable. In one example, a wizard casting a basic levitation spell floats up into the clouds and disappears, never to be seen again. Even clerical healing powers are questionable, so all the people must rely on their own abilities since magic is no longer dependable. With the world in chaos, four adventurers (a fighter, thief, cleric, and mage) must travel to the city of Shadowdale and confront the Avatars.

This book is okay, but could have been a lot better. I had several problems with the story, mostly because the characters aren’t developed that well. Only a few people actually have personalities while the rest just act out. For that reason, it was hard to get into them and even more difficult to differentiate between them. Another thing that bothered me was the lack of racial diversity. There weren’t any elves or dwarves or gnomes or even orcs. It does have a few great moments, though. One part where a character struggles with a huge facial scar registered with me since I have personally experience similar feelings after a car accident.

I thought the beginning of the story set up a great premise to have fun with misfired spells, but that part didn’t really lead anywhere. The author created his own opportunity to invent new variants of old common D&D spells, but he didn’t. I also thought most of the fight scenes were pretty weak and lacking details. In two of the battles, one guy gets shot with an arrow and then the rest of the fight is described in a couple of sentences. I am spoiled by the excellent blow-by-blow action sequences from D&D author R.A. Salvatore and this book does not compare.

The most annoying thing in the whole novel reflects the laziness of the author. One dying character asks another to lean in closer as if to tell him something important, but instead he tells a joke and dies. This would have been a great opportunity to give the dying character a last bit of flair, but instead the author just wrote, ‘He told him a joke’. What happened to the ‘show, don’t tell’ rule of good writing. What editor would let an author get away with that?

This book ends on a major cliffhanger, but since this is the first part of a trilogy, you know there will be more. The second book picks up right after this one ends, so you might as well read them back to back. As a standalone novel, this one is okay, but I’m hoping the trilogy as a whole will be better. The same author wrote all three novels, so my expectations aren’t too high.

My review of Book II - Tantras: http://www.epinions.com/content_189147680388

Recommended: Yes