Whisper of Waves: The Watercourse Trilogy, Book I

by Philip Athans

Book Overview

The Wizard. Pledged to the Red Wizards of Thay from boyhood, he will do anything for anyone who can give him more power. In a twisted dimension outside the walls of time and space, he plots and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786938374
• ISBN13: 9780786938377
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
• Length: 309 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.6" x 6.7"

Customer Reviews

Refreshing, and simply great

This novel is the opening one of the Watercourse trilogy by Philip Athans. Reading the reviews here, I was skeptic about its quality, understanding it as some kind of a failed G.R.R. Martin wannabe set in FR. Oh, I was so wrong. The story in this book is far from your standard hack and slash fantasy novel, rewritten a million times over. To put it short, it is about a visionary who will reshape the trade in the Realms by determination itself. The book is divided in 70 or so small chapters, but every single one of them has a story to tell, and they are chronologically ordered, so there is nothing confusing or disjointed about them. Being book one of a series, it is largely focused on its numerous characters, a wide variety of colorful individuals, getting tied together only towards the back end of the book. Characters are much deeper, unique and more believable then in any Realms novel I read so far. And I think I've read them all. Book is charged with emotions, and is completely free of clichés. A rarity in these times. Characters aren't your typical bunch of comic-relief dwarfs, mysterious elves and prodigal wizards. They are people with their strengths and more often, their weaknesses. Usually in second part of the review I put my complaints about a novel. Ill leave it blank this time. If you want something intellectually challenging, pick up this book, you will love it. If you want hack and slash fantasy (like most of the reviewers here it seems), then pick any other book from the fantasy shelf, you have a 90% chance of hitting the mark.

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This novel is in some ways more intelligent than some other Realms offerings, and in some ways less. As for the basics: The writing is good, and I had no trouble following the plot, which others have claimed is disjointed; like other WOTC novels, this one occasionally suffers from poor editing, but the author cannot really be blamed for that. To move on to things of more substance: It is nice to read a Realms novel that is also a novel of ideas; but to anyone who has read Ayn Rand, this novel is not going to seem like one of very original ideas. Athans has simply transplanted the characters and some of the plot of _The Fountainhead_ to Faerun. What Ms. Rand would have thought of this is anyone's guess. She would have been flattered, probably, that someone had so wholeheartedly embraced her philosophy; but it might have dismayed her to find that Objectivism had finally come home to roost in its home plane, the world of fantasy. This is not the place to voice an extensive criticism of Objectivism or of Rand, though such a critique (positive or negative) will inevitably be a part of a well-read reader's response to this novel. Knowing Rand, what is really of most interest in reading this novel is how Athans adapts her ideas to the Forgotten Realms and, more generally, the fantasy genre. Rand's skepticism, for instance, is hard to reconcile with an interventionist pantheon, and yet Athans somehow makes the gods and his main character coexist by giving him an off-handed, rather indifferent comment on the subject. Meanwhile, selfishness as a virtue must intermittently take back seat to selfless bravery, as when the main character charges giant frogs to save two young boys. Somehow, Athans manages the reconciliation without his hero seeming entirely wooden, though there are times we see the stilts. The interest of the novel is in the peculiarity of the author's project, and I have to say that I am very interested to see how the series progresses. For one, the Objectivist protagonist is typically a static character. Aloof, infuriating but also compelling to the other characters, incapable of making mistakes or miscalculations, supremely talented at whatever he does, and as single-minded as a worker bee, the hero transcends the normal alterations of human behavior. This is well and good for him, but in a trilogy, such stasis inevitably bores readers expecting change and growth. I am curious to see what Athans does with this; there is the intriguing possibility that he could go beyond Rand, and make his character breathe in a way Howard Roark never could--he could perhaps even problematize the rather slapstick and contrived, black-and-white political drama he has set up in this first book. Hardly a Marxist myself, I nevertheless find his satire of "collectivist" thought and the manipulative intelligentsia a little facile. Athans has done remarkably well writing a novel of ideas, even if those ideas aren't his own. If Athans dev

Decent first book - leaves much potential for the rest of the series

"Whisper of Waves" was an interesting book. It created a story that was just intriguing enough and just fast-enough paced to yield a positive review. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book to fans of the fantasy genre, but I would definitely recommend this book for "Forgotten Realms" fans. I respect the author because he basically has created three main storylines that at times loosely weave in and out of each other. The reader can tell by the end of the book that there will be an exciting series of events that finally bring all these plotlines together in a huge climax. I believe that the upcoming books will provide a higher excitement level and more action than this book was able to provide. Here is what I did not necessarily enjoy about the book. The book spans many, many years. The reader must really pay attention to the dates, months, and years provided at the beginning of every chapter in order to determine where the plot is advancing chronologically compared to the previous chapters. There are also many smaller characters that are foreshadowed to have important roles later on. At the beginning of the book I had a hard time keeping track of who everyone was, but that was quickly cleared up. The other thing I disliked was the action/fight scenes. They seemed forced and unnecessary in some aspects. I understand why they are important toward the plotline, but they still seemed forced. It seemed to me, in my opinion, that the author was just trying to write in some action and fighting since it is a "Forgotten Realms" novel and the author is trying to establish himself as an all-around, "power-author" of the Realm. However, that being said it should be noted that Athans does weave a compelling political tale that will only get more interesting and more complex as the series progresses. To sum up, this is a good story for "Forgotten Realms" fans. I can see some serious world events that might shape the rest of the Realms stories to come. This book is one of the better FR novels I have read in some time for one reason. Athans is like a drug-dealer. He gave me this novel and said, "Here, try this out," and then gave me enough to get excited about, enough to "wet my whistle," and enough to leave me wanting more. Unlike a drug dealer, Athans isn't going to charge me an arm and a leg to get my next fix, just $6.99. This book leaves room for a lot of potential for the rest of the trilogy. The final thing I will say is that this book is what FR trilogies should be. This book is not like "The Sapphire Crescent" which is a self contained novel and didn't need two more books afterwards (see my review of it for further information). "Whisper of Waves" is a small, integral piece of a much larger work.