This May Be Good Bye to the Realms for this Reader
Well, I just finished Paul Kemp’s latest trilogy. Without spoilers, it was good but not as good as the first Cale trilogy. Since it appears Elaine Cunningham’s sixth book in the S&S series was cancelled (DOH!) that may just be the last FR book I read after more than 15 years of following the Realms. After reading the Epilogue in Shadowrealm, I said “uh oh” and checked out Candlekeep to find out what the heck is going on. I figured “oh, just another RSE” or something dumb. But then I read up on the 4e switch and reshaping of the Realms... which apparently is happening without even describing the event in detail through a series about the very event that is doing the reshaping. For real? Perhaps the novel change has a bright spot in that Salvatore will FINALLY be forced to wrap up a series that jumped the shark a dozen years ago. :p
I manage a bookstore. I know things are tough in publishing and I am sure Wizards is under tremendous pressure from corporate to strengthen the hits and limit the duds. The Realms have been sliding in the wrong direction for a while now. So a reboot may save the franchise is what these folks may be thinking. Or. Instead of rebooting the franchise, perhaps they alienate all the long time fans (who continue reading even though most books have gotten really really bad) while at the same time not drawing in any new readership. My opinion? Don’t fix it if it is not broken. They needed better and more talented authors rather than a whole new direction. The world is there for the taking. It just hasn’t been brought to life very well in recent years, IMO.
So I am heading off in other directions for my reading pursuits and discovering non-realms fantasy authors I am LONG over due on reading. Currently delving into the Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R Donaldson. Damn! How did Donaldson slip past me without me knowing? Maybe even better than Tolkien. Jury is still out.
I manage a bookstore. I know things are tough in publishing and I am sure Wizards is under tremendous pressure from corporate to strengthen the hits and limit the duds. The Realms have been sliding in the wrong direction for a while now. So a reboot may save the franchise is what these folks may be thinking. Or. Instead of rebooting the franchise, perhaps they alienate all the long time fans (who continue reading even though most books have gotten really really bad) while at the same time not drawing in any new readership. My opinion? Don’t fix it if it is not broken. They needed better and more talented authors rather than a whole new direction. The world is there for the taking. It just hasn’t been brought to life very well in recent years, IMO.
So I am heading off in other directions for my reading pursuits and discovering non-realms fantasy authors I am LONG over due on reading. Currently delving into the Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R Donaldson. Damn! How did Donaldson slip past me without me knowing? Maybe even better than Tolkien. Jury is still out.