Mark Sehestedt

This is one of the harder to find Eberron books, which is odd since it was one of the earlier ones and presumably should have been in print longer. It is a collection of short stories, some of which are notable for providing additional background and origins for characters featured in later novels. Keith Baker gives us his party from 'The City of Towers', Edward Bolme features Teron from 'Orb of Xoriat', James Wyatt provides another angle on Janik Martell from 'In the Claws of the Tiger', Paul Crilley's Col shows up in 'Night of Long Shadows', and Tim Waggoner shows how Diran Bastiaan and Ghaji met before 'Thieves of Blood'. None of the stories are essential for reading those later books, of course, but I did appreciate getting more out of my favorite characters in the franchise, the book is only missing a contribution from Don Bassingthwaite to be an all-star collection.

Being a collection, some stories are better than others. A few were a bit confusing in execution. The collection succeeds as a broad overview of the setting and an ideal place for a reader to start.… (mere)

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission. Title: Cry of the Ghost Wolf Series: Chosen of Nendawen Author: Mark Sehestedt Rating: of 5 Battle Axes Genre: SFF Pages: 311 Format: Kindle Synopsis: Hweilan escapes, fights, gets captured, brokers a deal, then has to deal with the demon lord and finally she has to deal with Nendawen himself. Because Nendawen literally lives to hunt, even outside of his own plane of existence. My Thoughts: The first 75% of this book deals with the hobgoblins and Hweilan. Not until the last bit does Hweilan face off against Jagen Ghen. That made this drag and made this feel very fluffed out. The battle was anti-climactic, the interjection of Hweilan's father into the overall storyline was not well handled and felt like it was tacked on so Sehestedt "could" write another series if feasible. So while I rated all 3 books the same, I enjoyed the first book the most and each successive one less. That is not a good way to end a series. "… (mere)

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission. Title: Hand of the Hunter Series: Chosen of Nendawen Author: Mark Sehestedt Rating: of 5 Battle Axes Genre: SFF Pages: 304 Format: Kindle Synopsis: Hweilan is Nendawen's Chosen. But being a Hunter is about training as well as instinct. If she can survive the training, can she survive the mountains of Highpass and the clans of hobgoblins living there? Oh no's! My Thoughts: Book One was all about the setup. Just like in all cliched Quest/Revenge stories, you have to have a Training Arc. This was the training. First Hweilan learns all about herbs and nature and stuff from a little green'ish goblin. Yep, Yoda makes his appearance in Forgotten Realms. Then she becomes all bad ass warrior'y with a fox warrior. Next she learns magic'y things from a Spider lady. Finally, she is hunted by Nendawen himself. Now she can hunt down Jagen Ghen the demon and his brethren. But she rescues some knights, gets captured by hobgoblins and the book ends with them all in prison while the hobgoblin queen decides whether to turn Hweilan over to Jagen Ghen or not. With that kind of ending, I immediately started the 3rd and final book. Not sure if I approve of that or not. "… (mere)