I enjoyed this, but compared to [b:Shadow's Witness|62471|Shadow's Witness (Forgotten Realms Sembia, #2)|Paul S. Kemp|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1312041355s/62471.jpg|19289028], this was kind of pale.

Lots of posturing between Cale and Riven, supposed to make us think their frenemies. I am kind of sick of that type of relationship.

But other than that, a nice enjoyable read about the shadow world. ( )

Goodreads gave this book greater than 4 stars. With that kind of rating, I opened this book eagerly waiting to be regaled by a new world or some kind of crazy plot or a different magic system or, or something that would at least make me nod in understanding why this book was rated so highly.

Instead... I opened the book to 400 pages of disappointment.

I had a lot of major problems with this book. The "in medias res", the telling-not-showing, the nature of the characters, the character dynamics, the lack of coherency in the world, the villains... and I think I can make this list go on longer, but I don't think I will in interest of time.

The book starts off "in medias res" with Cale, our assassin-butler main character. And already there's a major problem. We never see this guy as a real butler. Instead the author tells us he was an assassin who became a butler, but now that his master died, he'll have to use his assassin skills again. Soooo.... what was the point of him being a butler again? It's a very strange place to dump the reader to get to know this character.

Next, I utterly hate these characters because none of them actually hold up to their given status. Assassins? PLEASE. They act more like soldiers. Aren't assassins supposed to use deception and kill subtly? Instead these characters go around slashing and hacking and fighting duels. So again, what is the point of them being assassins? It's as if Kemp thought "oh hey, it'd be cool my story had an assassin or two. But.. they still have to fight duels and throw manly punches because those are cool too, even though an assassin wouldn't do that. Oh well, the readers won't figure that out."

Well, NO I DON'T THINK SO. You can't just tell me that they're assassins and then expect me to take that as truth. You've got to show it to me in their actions and in their thinking. But nope, instead we've got Cale and Riven acting like they don't normally kill people for a living (please, Cale can't even torture someone? What, how did he even survive as an assassin?).

And all that abuse that Riven takes from the Cale and Fleet? Good grief, why did Riven even stay? There is no chemistry between these characters. There is nothing that I would imagine to make them friends. They're just characters that have to interact with each other for the sake of the plot. And the end where Riven realizes his loyalty to Cale, I had to roll my eyes and laugh otherwise I might have chucked this book out my window.

See? Already the characters were a big fat minus. But even beyond that, the world and magic was lacking as well. I got no sense of what kind of world they lived in. There is nothing that stands out or makes it unique. Just like the magic. Hurr durr, yeah there's magic. And we don't even get the basics of how it works. Does it take energy or strength? The magic seems so random - someone has the power of mind control, the Mask can give other powers. But how does it work? Why does it work? Can anyone use it? Nothing is explained, everything must be taken at face value. Well, no. I don't like that because if you don't explain how the magic works, then it's almost like a deus ex machina that you can use anytime you want. All of a sudden it's revealed that another character can somehow do this cool thing because of "magic"! What? You can't randomly drop powers into a book unless there is some basis. And then demon magic. What is that? What are the limitations, what are the costs? Why don't we know anything?

As for the gods and religion, what is the Mask? Who are the prophets? Why are they chosen? None of this stuff is explained. There is just no depth to this story! I am so infuriated. And no, you cannot tell me it'll be explained later in the series. This is the mark of a shallow world if you can't explain some things in the first book. It's confusing, not mysterious.

As the book seemed to accumulate more and more flaws in my eyes, I grew less and less interested. To the point where I gave up 300 pages in and then flipped through the rest of the pages to see the climax. Hmmm yeah. That would have been anger-inducing if I cared a modicum for these lackluster characters. Good thing I didn't, right?

Basically, this book is a parody of a great fantasy novel. It has all the right components in summary. Assassins with a conscience, a mysterious object that could destroy the world, a rival-turned-friend, strange magic and a god that gives strange talents, demons, villains. Oh yeah, there's a reason why I picked up this book with high hopes. But y'know what? All of those great components mean nothing because they're placed in this book without depth or thought, as if Kemp is just checking off boxes on his list. Yep yep readers will love it because of these fantasy buzz words!

I don't see the depth in this story. In the characters, in the world, in the magic or gods, anything. It's all very two dimensional to me.

One star. Could not bear to even properly finish this book.
Not recommended for anyone.
I will probably not pick up any other book from this author either.

-edit-
After doing a bit of research and sleuthing (AKA Wikipedia), I found out that this is set in a Dungeons and Dragons world. Ahh, it makes more sense. This is almost like a novel-length fanfiction for a premade game, which explains lack of world building and magic background. It might also explain the strange dilemma of assassins-who-aren't assassins because I think D&D just gives you characters with stats, but are still able to do non-character-like actions.
Regardless, all these things still do not make a good (standalone) novel. The one star stays. But at least I can raise my opinion of the author. ( )

Goodreads gave this book greater than 4 stars. With that kind of rating, I opened this book eagerly waiting to be regaled by a new world or some kind of crazy plot or a different magic system or, or something that would at least make me nod in understanding why this book was rated so highly.

Instead... I opened the book to 400 pages of disappointment.

I had a lot of major problems with this book. The "in medias res", the telling-not-showing, the nature of the characters, the character dynamics, the lack of coherency in the world, the villains... and I think I can make this list go on longer, but I don't think I will in interest of time.

The book starts off "in medias res" with Cale, our assassin-butler main character. And already there's a major problem. We never see this guy as a real butler. Instead the author tells us he was an assassin who became a butler, but now that his master died, he'll have to use his assassin skills again. Soooo.... what was the point of him being a butler again? It's a very strange place to dump the reader to get to know this character.

Next, I utterly hate these characters because none of them actually hold up to their given status. Assassins? PLEASE. They act more like soldiers. Aren't assassins supposed to use deception and kill subtly? Instead these characters go around slashing and hacking and fighting duels. So again, what is the point of them being assassins? It's as if Kemp thought "oh hey, it'd be cool my story had an assassin or two. But.. they still have to fight duels and throw manly punches because those are cool too, even though an assassin wouldn't do that. Oh well, the readers won't figure that out."

Well, NO I DON'T THINK SO. You can't just tell me that they're assassins and then expect me to take that as truth. You've got to show it to me in their actions and in their thinking. But nope, instead we've got Cale and Riven acting like they don't normally kill people for a living (please, Cale can't even torture someone? What, how did he even survive as an assassin?).

And all that abuse that Riven takes from the Cale and Fleet? Good grief, why did Riven even stay? There is no chemistry between these characters. There is nothing that I would imagine to make them friends. They're just characters that have to interact with each other for the sake of the plot. And the end where Riven realizes his loyalty to Cale, I had to roll my eyes and laugh otherwise I might have chucked this book out my window.

See? Already the characters were a big fat minus. But even beyond that, the world and magic was lacking as well. I got no sense of what kind of world they lived in. There is nothing that stands out or makes it unique. Just like the magic. Hurr durr, yeah there's magic. And we don't even get the basics of how it works. Does it take energy or strength? The magic seems so random - someone has the power of mind control, the Mask can give other powers. But how does it work? Why does it work? Can anyone use it? Nothing is explained, everything must be taken at face value. Well, no. I don't like that because if you don't explain how the magic works, then it's almost like a deus ex machina that you can use anytime you want. All of a sudden it's revealed that another character can somehow do this cool thing because of "magic"! What? You can't randomly drop powers into a book unless there is some basis. And then demon magic. What is that? What are the limitations, what are the costs? Why don't we know anything?

As for the gods and religion, what is the Mask? Who are the prophets? Why are they chosen? None of this stuff is explained. There is just no depth to this story! I am so infuriated. And no, you cannot tell me it'll be explained later in the series. This is the mark of a shallow world if you can't explain some things in the first book. It's confusing, not mysterious.

As the book seemed to accumulate more and more flaws in my eyes, I grew less and less interested. To the point where I gave up 300 pages in and then flipped through the rest of the pages to see the climax. Hmmm yeah. That would have been anger-inducing if I cared a modicum for these lackluster characters. Good thing I didn't, right?

Basically, this book is a parody of a great fantasy novel. It has all the right components in summary. Assassins with a conscience, a mysterious object that could destroy the world, a rival-turned-friend, strange magic and a god that gives strange talents, demons, villains. Oh yeah, there's a reason why I picked up this book with high hopes. But y'know what? All of those great components mean nothing because they're placed in this book without depth or thought, as if Kemp is just checking off boxes on his list. Yep yep readers will love it because of these fantasy buzz words!

I don't see the depth in this story. In the characters, in the world, in the magic or gods, anything. It's all very two dimensional to me.

One star. Could not bear to even properly finish this book.
Not recommended for anyone.
I will probably not pick up any other book from this author either.

-edit-
After doing a bit of research and sleuthing (AKA Wikipedia), I found out that this is set in a Dungeons and Dragons world. Ahh, it makes more sense. This is almost like a novel-length fanfiction for a premade game, which explains lack of world building and magic background. It might also explain the strange dilemma of assassins-who-aren't assassins because I think D&D just gives you characters with stats, but are still able to do non-character-like actions.
Regardless, all these things still do not make a good (standalone) novel. The one star stays. But at least I can raise my opinion of the author. ( )

I admit I didn't go into Twilight Falling with high expectations. I have a (perhaps unfair) bias that the majority of D&D books are hack jobs. I only picked up Twilight Falling to silence a persistent friend.

I'll have to thank him for being so persistent. Twilight Falling surprised me by being different and deeper than most fantasy novels I had read in the past.

It all starts with a man named Erevis Cale working as a butler for the powerful Uskevrin family. The Patriarch has died just prior to the book's opening and Cale is preparing to move on when he foils a burglary.

There's more to this burglary than meets the eye. Turns out some very powerful people are attempting to steal a pretty, but worthless sphere. After some well written sword play and magic antics we wind up with a couple dead, a kidnapped guard and the sphere split in half.

The first thing that surprised me here was the big deal made over the kidnapped guard. Usually in these books death comes quickly and is glossed over, most especially for an unknown guardsman. Seeing characters care about the well being of one of the house guards was a pleasant surprise, making the characters actually seem human.

Indeed, all of the main characters and some of the villains were very well written. Don't get me wrong, this ain't fine literature, but I have to give Paul Kemp credit for turning out three dimensional characters in a genre where we are lucky if the characters get two dimensions.

Another nice aspect is that (in this first book at least) there isn't the fantasy cliché of a small band of characters challenging an Earth-shaking evil. The fact is that Cale and his crowd are mainly after the group of villains for revenge, pure and simple. That they discover that the main villain is actually up to something dangerous is somewhat secondary to our heroes.

One thing that I didn't like is that it felt like this was the second or third book in a series. Most especially in the beginning, Cale's past is alluded to in such a way that it is assumed we have read his past adventures. Mr. Kemp doesn't even tell us what Cale looks like. Somewhere around page 80 or so there's a mention that he is bald. After finishing the entire novel I still didn't know if he was tall, short, thin, muscular, tattooed, scarred?

Since this was the first book in a series centering on this character, Mr. Kemp really should have provided a prologue or worked some stuff into the story so that newcomers to Cale didn't feel like they were treading water. Only after feeling lost at the beginning did I find out about his previous appearances in The Halls of Stormweather and Shadow's Witness.

Another criticism is that names of various groups are thrown out with the assumption that we are all D&D players. It took me a while to figure out what Zhents were. The way these things were thrown out in the beginning almost made me stop reading.

I know that the D&D fans will say this isn't a fair criticism, but these would have been easy fixes. Take Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts series to see what I'm talking about.

Still, I did get past what bugged me. I will read the rest of this trilogy and will check out the next one assuming that the next two books are of this quality. Paul Kemp is easily the best D&D author I have read. He is a fine writer regardless of what field he writes in. ( )