Discord
Changelog
Well, I finally ordered these and finished them up about a week ago. While I kind of understood what happened before, I never realized how bad things really turned out for Thay. Quite upsetting.
However, I did enjoy the books, regardless. All-in-all the depictions of the battle scenes and layout of Thay were great. And it really gave my imagination a ride trying to visualize all those spell battles between archmages. Scary AND fun!
I do agree with Thayan_Knight though, that the outcome left something to be desired. But Thay as it is currently in our PW's setting is proof that it isn't the first time in its history that the 'bad guys' there won. ;)
My only *real* complaint though...
*spoiler alert below*
....starts with the fact that Szass Tam was portrayed as basically invincible and infallible up until literally the last couple chapters of the final book. I mean seriously - all of the other zulkirs and most of the tharchions, against him and his necromancers and a couple other tharchions - and not only does he survive, but still technically 'wins'?!?! Surely even a council of super-intelligent bickering zulkirs (archmages themselves!) would have figured out some way to turn the tide on him and come up with their own tricks.
It got a little frustrating during the multiple, multiple battles where the zulkirs would get the upper hand, only to have [insert one of Tam's so-called magnificent tricks here that no one anticipated] cause them to lose....yet again. It really took some fun out of reading the battles knowing by the end of the second book that every battle the writer took time to portray would go Tam’s way.
Bleh. :P
However, I did enjoy the books, regardless. All-in-all the depictions of the battle scenes and layout of Thay were great. And it really gave my imagination a ride trying to visualize all those spell battles between archmages. Scary AND fun!
I do agree with Thayan_Knight though, that the outcome left something to be desired. But Thay as it is currently in our PW's setting is proof that it isn't the first time in its history that the 'bad guys' there won. ;)
My only *real* complaint though...
*spoiler alert below*
....starts with the fact that Szass Tam was portrayed as basically invincible and infallible up until literally the last couple chapters of the final book. I mean seriously - all of the other zulkirs and most of the tharchions, against him and his necromancers and a couple other tharchions - and not only does he survive, but still technically 'wins'?!?! Surely even a council of super-intelligent bickering zulkirs (archmages themselves!) would have figured out some way to turn the tide on him and come up with their own tricks.
It got a little frustrating during the multiple, multiple battles where the zulkirs would get the upper hand, only to have [insert one of Tam's so-called magnificent tricks here that no one anticipated] cause them to lose....yet again. It really took some fun out of reading the battles knowing by the end of the second book that every battle the writer took time to portray would go Tam’s way.
Bleh. :P