Fantasy Book Review: The Spectral Blaze: A Forgotten Realms Novel (Brotherhood of the Griffon) by Richard Lee Byers  

Have you ever read a great fantasy novel? Have you ever read a bad one? Well I read both, and Review them! I’m Guy Sciancalepore, an aspiring author who writes reviews of the novels he has both loved and abhorred…

After the Captive Flame and Whisper of Venom, The Spectral Blaze: A Forgotten Realms Novel (Brotherhood of the Griffon) had a lot to live up to and it did. Byers continues on with the Brotherhood and their leader Aoth Fezim, who due to the spellplauge has extended life and truesight eyes. The Brotherhood rescued Tchazzar in the first book and helped him defeat the Great Bone Wyrm in the second but during the course of the confrontation it was revealed to the humans that the Dragons are playing what is known as the Great Game in which they try to plunge the countries around the Alamber Sea into war and thus gaining points in said game. The game is evil and will destroy nations for false reasons; will Aoth and the Brotherhood be able to stop the dragons?

Pros: 1. Once again the Brotherhood lives up to snuff with many of the characters undergoing significant change, thus many of the characters are Dynamic characters. The ones that stand-out to me are Oraxes and especially Jhesri Coldcreek.

2. The battle scenes are vivid and intense, especially the magic duels. Byers’ puts you right into the middle of the action.

3. Byers’ does such a good job with characterization that the ones you wouldn't expect to be pleasant (Halyona, Tchazzar) are well done and interesting.

4. More on Coldcreek. Her change throughout the books is astonishing and if it isn't stated that Aoth is the main character one would come to the conclusion that she is. You will really be happy with her.

Cons: 1. My only real con is the ending. We spent all that time building up to the final battle and I felt it was a bit short. The death of a few characters I felt was not touched upon enough and I would've liked to see how the region fared a month or two after the actions of the book.

All in all, The Spectral Blaze was an acceptable novel by Richard Lee Byers. Byers’ ties together all the plot strings and gives the reader a short, but satisfying ending. Richard is an experienced author and it shows with his ability to bring out some of the more reviled characters and put them in the spotlight. The author also displays and adequate ability to “show”, and not “tell” the reader. If you have read the previous two novels you are going to want to pick this one up. If you haven’t read them yet, you are going to want to.

Pick up The Spectral Blaze at amazon.