Shadowrealm

The final book of the Twilight War trilogy is a climactic end, not just to this series, but is also one of the steps that led to the end of Faerûn as we know it (i.e. transition to D&D 4th Ed.).

As with the books that star Erevis Cale (this and the previous trilogy), the book continues immediately from book 2. The whole plot is epic right from the get-go. I had thought the action in the initial half of the book would be a false climax, but I was wrong. It was epic in scale almost the entire way, with a tight pacing to match.

We see how Erevis struggles to reconcile his dual nature, and his dual promises. We see Riven making his own impact as a Chosen of Mask, and as a man. We get bits on the two Shadovar Princes tasked with dominating Sembia. We see Magadon struggling with what happened to him at the end of book 2. Abelar Corrinthal gets the spotlight too, as we see both his strength and weakness faith; a strong counterpoint to Erevis. We also see how Tamlin Uskevren fared - I'm really disliking this character, so it was rather fitting that he got what he deserved. These are all characters that are beautifully brought to life.

I don't want to summarise or allude to the multi-layered plots and reveals that the author so superbly threaded through. Suffice to say, if you're a Realms fan, this is simply superb writing and story-building; you need to read this series. The epilogue is actually building a bridge to the changed Faerûn, but Paul S. Kemp managed to do it in a way that feels very fitting and very well done.

Merged review:

The final book of the Twilight War trilogy is a climactic end, not just to this series, but is also one of the steps that led to the end of Faerûn as we know it (i.e. transition to D&D 4th Ed.).

As with the books that star Erevis Cale (this and the previous trilogy), the book continues immediately from book 2. The whole plot is epic right from the get-go. I had thought the action in the initial half of the book would be a false climax, but I was wrong. It was epic in scale almost the entire way, with a tight pacing to match.

We see how Erevis struggles to reconcile his dual nature, and his dual promises. We see Riven making his own impact as a Chosen of Mask, and as a man. We get bits on the two Shadovar Princes tasked with dominating Sembia. We see Magadon struggling with what happened to him at the end of book 2. Abelar Corrinthal gets the spotlight too, as we see both his strength and weakness faith; a strong counterpoint to Erevis. We also see how Tamlin Uskevren fared - I'm really disliking this character, so it was rather fitting that he got what he deserved. These are all characters that are beautifully brought to life.

I don't want to summarise or allude to the multi-layered plots and reveals that the author so superbly threaded through. Suffice to say, if you're a Realms fan, this is simply superb writing and story-building; you need to read this series. The epilogue is actually building a bridge to the changed Faerûn, but Paul S. Kemp managed to do it in a way that feels very fitting and very well done.