Publisher: Tor/Forge
SYNOPSIS:
Rodrick is a con man as charming as he is cunning. Hrym is a talking sword of magical ice, with the soul and spells of an ancient dragon. Together, the two travel the world, parting the gullible from their gold and freezing their enemies in their tracks. But when the two get summoned to the mysterious island of Jalmeray by a king with genies and elementals at his command, they'll need all their wits and charm if they're going to escape with the greatest prize of all-their lives.
From Hugo Award winner Tim Pratt comes a tale of magic, assassination, monsters, and cheerful larceny, in Pathfinder Tales: Liar's Island, set in the award-winning world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
REVIEW:
Roleplay novel books seem to be coming into vogue recently and whilst some of the settings work extremely well for the reader, sadly for me, it feels that Pathfinder is one that really isn’t sure what it can or can’t do. Its not that the authors do a bad job, but for fans of the world already, there is a lot of the additional complex details that just aren’t needed and really slow the storytelling down whilst they have to sit back and wait for the author to infodump some background in there for the uninitiated.
It really slows the book down, it feels that there’s too much detracting from the overall arc and when you cut these out it keeps it moving smoothly as well as allowing the characters to get on with their own stuff. For me, its not a series for those unfamiliar with it and perhaps because the main readership is for fans, what would work better would be a guide to Pathfinder to be read prior to staring the novels or even to cross reference so that they can keep the tale sailing along.
All round, a book that was OK, but at the end of the day, if they keep interrupting to have to explain a lot of the details, it’s a series that for me as a reader is not going to be on my TBR list for long.
