Mistshore: Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep

by Jaleigh Johnson

Violence and Magic in the Streets of Waterdeep! Icelin thought she had escaped the horrors of her past--until they come hunting her, forcing her to go to ground. But when things go from bad to worse,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 078694966X
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.1" x 0.9" x 4.2"

Customer Reviews

A fine novel for any fantasy enthusiast

Readers who delight in Linnaean taxonomy (and don't mind some pretty dreadful faux Latin) might classify this excellent novel as ficcionus gamus-->dungeonus et dragonus-->realmsus forgottiones-->eddicionus quartus. Which is to say it's a new Forgotten Realms novel, specifically one in that is set some hundred years farther along the time line that most of the other books in that shared universe. <br /> <br />If you don't know what any of that means, don't worry. It won't effect your enjoyment of the novel at all, and you may even find yourself moved to pick up other Realms novels. I know I'll certainly be ordering this author's earlier entry in the line, The Howling Delve. <br /> <br />If you're already a Realms fan, then take heart. Whenever and wherever it happens to be set, these are still the Realms you love, and here's a story told by an author who obviously loves them as well. And luckily for all readers, Jaleigh Johnson is also an author of wit, grace, and style. Her voice is strong, and perfectly pitched for a fiction that demands a great deal of its characters--a range of memorable people bearing memorable burdens (burdens sometimes made out of the very stuff of memory). <br /> <br />Other reviewers have laid out plot details for those who need them. Instead of doing that, I'll make a comparison. The novel that kept springing to mind as I read this wasn't another Realms book, but it was a fantasy novel. Johnson shares China Miéville's fascination with the motifs of scars and wounds, and as readers do in his estimable novel The Scar, they'll here find scars which are purely physical aplenty, but also those which are psychological and emotional, magical and mundane, and even architectural and geographical. <br /> <br />This is fine novel.

Works for longtime FR readers and newcomers alike

I'm a newcomer to the Realms, but I picked up several Forgotten Realms books at GenCon and have been slowly familiarizing myself with the world and the history. Mistshore is the story of Icelin, a girl scarred by spellplague and left with a perfect memory and very imperfect magic -- the kind that tends to holds the potential to kill her and everyone around her. She encounters a scarred elf named Cerest who knows secrets about Icelin's past soon becomes obsessed with claiming Icelin for his own. With the help of a butcher named Sull and a thief/monk named Ruen, Icelin flees to Misthore, the most dangerous part of the city of Waterdeep. Mistshore is a fascinating place, a makeshift town on the water, made up of wrecked ships and other debris. The inhabitants are the lowest of the low, but still preferable to the cold evil that is Cerest and his hirelings. The book follows a small party through an adventure, but it didn't feel like an Adventuring Party. Our heroes have a more common feel to them. They're less Heroic, and more just regular people trying to survive. Ruen was the only one who really stood out as having an actual character class (dual-class monk/thief), such as when he uses his monk abilities in unarmed combat or to catch missile weapons. Sull is no fighter. Though he fills that role, he's simply a butcher doing what he can to protect Icelin. His weapons aren't daggers or axes, but his meat cleavers. And while Icelin shares some traits with D & D wizards, she doesn't feel like a Wizard or Sorcerer. There were still moments my unfamiliarity with the Realms made me stumble. I don't know what the spellplague is, for example. And there were other references I missed, but nothing that completely threw me out of the story. I think most readers would be able to pick up Mistshore and enjoy it regardless of whether they've read anything else from the Realms. This is a somewhat gritty book. Mistshore isn't a pleasant place, and Johnson allows us to see some of that ugliness. Some of it still feels a little romanticized -- the lepers with the hearts of gold, for example. But you get enough of the harsh edges to realize how nasty a place Mistshore can be. Combine that with Cerest -- he's an elf in a fantasy world, but he's also a very realistic stalker. The obsession with which he pursues Icelin ... let's just say it was vivid enough to make me uncomfortable, and I mean that as a compliment to Johson's writing. The result is fantasy which isn't shiny and fun and heroic, but down-to-earth and desperate and real. Not the tone I was expecting, but it worked well. Good setting, good characters, and a good plot. What more does a book need?

Fast paced, enjoyable read

Mistshore by Jaleigh Johnson is one of a series of stand alone novels in the Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep series. The other novels also in the series are; Blackstaff Tower: Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep by Steven Schend which was also released in September, 2008, Downshadow: Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep by Erik Scott de Bie scheduled for release in April, 2009, and City of the Dead: Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep by Rosmary Jones due to be released in June 2009. This novel marks Ms. Johnson's second foray with writing a full length novel set in the Forgotten Realms; her first novel The Howling Delve: The Dungeons (Forgotten Realms) which is part of the Dungeons series. With any author, the question is, did they improve in their writing from the previous work? Well, here is my answer to that. The plot of this novel is actually a couple plots woven together to create a larger scale story. I actually liked this approach as it made the story feel much more intimate than large scale novels. The main arc of the story follows a young girl, Icelin as she seeks to get away and hide from accusations made against her. Along the way she discovers a series of questions about her past. The second story arc is the appearance of a rogue, Ruen, who finds himself protecting Icelin. This duo quickly finds themselves in a variety of situations that are not always easy to escape from. There is also the person behind the scenes seeking to kidnap Icelin for his own purposes. The last thing about the plot, which can be gleaned from the title, is the setting. Mistshore is a little explored section of Waterdeep where only the street waifs reside. Even the city watch is hesitant to go into Mistshore for fear of what could happen to them. In the sense of introducing a section of Waterdeep, this novel does a very good job. There is plenty of information within the pages that allow the reader to truly see what it is that makes Mistshore unique. In the terms of an actual plot, it is tight, self-contained, and held my interest throughout. A very good combination of exploring the setting while, at the same time, telling a story. The characters in this book are a motley group. We have Icelin, who has a perfect memory but also has questions about her past that she simply can not remember. She also possesses a form of magic to where every time she casts a spell she causes herself pain. We have Ruen, a rogue who has a seedy past and is always looking out for himself who finds himself entangled with Icelin's fate. Ruen also has a shroud of mystery over his actions and background. The third `main' character is Cerest, an elf with a facial disfigurement from a fire that occurred long ago. He is seeking to kidnap Icelin to talk to her and bring her into his fold. Along the way, Ms. Johnson introduces the reader to a myriad of other characters; some memorable some faceless guards and city folk. However, in each instance the encounter with another character feels ordinary and c