A twist on the standard AD&D fantasy novel24 May 2012tThis is quite an unusual novel for the standard fair that tends to come out of TSR (now Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro). Most of the AD&D books are stock standard fantasy adventures that involve quests to either retrieve an artifact, kill a bad guy, or both. However this one is different: it is set in a single location and takes place over a week. It is not so much an adventure but more of a romance novel with some mystery and intrigue thrown it. It is not what one would expect when one comes to play an AD&D game, though over the years there has been some improvement on the standard hack and slash dungeon crawl.tThe novel only includes one major character from Azure Bonds: Olive Russkettle the halfling. While Giorgioni Wyvernspur did appear in the previous novel, he was only a supporting character, but in this story he is the major character. This novel is not strictly a sequel in that it seems to have little to do with the previous novel with only one of the other characters making an appearance. However, this may change when we come to the third novel in the series.tThe story is about how a family heirloom, the Wyvern's Spur, goes missing. The omen is that if the heirloom is lost then the Wyvernspur family will fall into misfortune. Remembering that this novel is set in a magical fantasy world, such omens tend to hold more weight than they do in our world. My general position on omens in our world is that they only have power over you if you let them. I do understand, especially when one is quite superstitious, that it can be difficult not to let it control you, but I guess it takes a lot of willpower to resist such thoughts. The idea is known as thought control and it is a method that psychologists use to assist people cope with depression and anxiety. The idea is that if we have such intruding thoughts then we need to replace it with an opposing thought and attempt to focus on that new thought. For instance, if we go for a job and fail then we can begin to believe that we are failures. However, if this is only one job then there is quite likely other reasons why we may not have got the job. Thus, when we start to think about how we are a failure because we did not get this job, we need to banish that thought and consider other reasons why we failed to get that job (maybe there was somebody a lot more qualified for the position, or maybe, in the end, we really did not want to work for that place). However, sometimes it may be us, and we need to sit down and consider what it is we are doing wrong, or what it is that is keeping us from succeeding.tHowever, in this novel we are in a fantasy world, and there is magic in the world, so there are reasons behind the bad omen. In the case of this novel, it is because the spirit of a wyvern (a magical draconian creature) is bound to the heirloom and is the protector of the family. However, when the heirloom is stolen, the wyvern, who is bound to the heirloom, can no longer protect the family, so trouble no doubt befalls them.tThe series is called the Finder's Stone trilogy. We do hear of the Finder's Stone in the first novel, but it seems that it does not appear in this novel. However we discover that one of the patriarchs of the Wyvernspur family is named Finder, so I suspect that not only will this become important in the next novel, I also suspect that the Wyvernspur family may play a more important role as well. However we will await to see what the next novel brings.
Aunque el primer libro terminó con la historia, este spinoff lo complementa en alguna de sus incógnitas, pero resulta independiente del primero, haciéndolo destacar como propio, pero hay que leer el primero para reconocer eel pasado de los personajes y su caracter forjado. La historia del típico antihéroe que las circustancias le empujan a superarse así mismo, pues dentro de cada cobarde existe un ser humano aferrado a la vida a cualquier precio y este principal lo hace para sopresa de todos. Destacar el personaje de "Pajarita", la burra que podría haber dado más juego a la vida del héroe, siempre predestinada a ser bocado de alguna bestia. Una aventura, bueno, multiples aventuras de capa y espada en estos Reinos Olvidados que tanto juego dan y que seguiré desgustando.
