Book Diary: Shattered Chains and The Final Sacrafice

Double Whammy Today

Book: The final Sacrifice
Author: Clayton Emery
Pages: 312
Hard Core Scale: 1.5
Normal Scale: 7
Publish Date: 1995
About: Gull and Greensleeves hurry to uncover the secrets of the artifact helm to confront Towser and his Wizard cronies once and for all.
Review: Waaaasteeee…… I feel WOTC placed Clayton on a word count as so much of this books jarring plot points are time wastes. Nothing like journeying to find something you had all along. Great character growth from the last book is thrown out the window as strong and interesting female characters become nothing but wet blankets. One can argue this is more Greensleeves story, but it all Deus ex away with a dull and puzzling ending in the decision making zone. A average fantasy fan may enjoy the story, but the gaping plot holes are vast chasms.  


Book: Shattered Chains
Author: Clayton Emery
Pages: 278
Hard Core Scale: 1.5
Normal Scale: 7
Publish Date: 1995
About:  Gull and Greensleeves build their army to stop wizards. They are joined be a hero from Benalia with a gift of training their army. Yet, such heroes have their own burdens. Amongst it all, Towser’s captured box grows with its own secrets.


Review:
This would have been a 2, but it is dragged down by terrible plot of convenience and extreme Deus ex that is character dependent and serves no purpose beyond that. Strange elements in trope escape. At the same time there is great character growth only muddled by bad love triangles. Extreme Maguffin that does not do much. First mention of Phyrexia, which pretty much remains the same, lore of misinterpretation, saves its weird turn as hell for artifacts, which is pretty much is. Some cool introspective of the Brother’s War is provided. As the same time card us as lore use is strange at times with over use of artifacts not doing what they originally where supposed to do. At the same time revisionist history has some unique plot points that puts blame on future writers who did not do their homework.  

 



Book covers By Kevin Murphy, copyright 1995, Harpers Prism, Wizards of the Coast.

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