4 out of 5 stars
I liked this book and I am glad I finally read it. I actually have started this book in physical or digital form 3 or 4 times over my lifetime. It is not a bad book and I think that there is a reason so many people give it positive praise. While any book linked to another property is going to suffer a little in trying to fit into that other property this one feels like it’s own thing.
This is a classic fantasy adventure book based in a world originally created for Dungeons & Dragons. While this could have been clunky and forced some of the game mechanics onto the story I think it does a fantastic job of just using the world and not the game as it’s base. Yes the magician still has spell slots but it is explained away as the using of a spell causes the magician to forget that spell so they must study their spell book to gain it back. It also has all the fantasy races, well not all of them but it has dwarves, elves, half-elves, Kenders (which are just D&D versions of Hobbits before they became halflings), as well as goblins and hobgoblins.
Now it does suffer from being a bit formulaic but only in that it is sort of predictable but it doesn’t take away form the characters growth and it doesn’t make it any less fun to read. The tropes can get annoying as well but this book feels fresh and that might be because I know it was written prior to a lot of the trope filled media that came during the late 80’s and 90’s. A grumpy dwarf, a wise half-elf struggling with which world they belong to, a stoic knight from a lost order, a mysterious wizard who may or may not be evil, a silly thieving halfling, and the beautiful cleric. They all come together in a tavern and go on an adventure. Thrust together by circumstance they grow a bond of friendship and go on an adventure.
While this is all great the main characters actually know each other from 5 years prior to the start of this book and happen to meet the beautiful cleric and her gigantic barbarian boyfriend in the tavern. So we get to see these characters re-acquaint themselves with each other after being absent from each others lives for years. While I would have liked some more dives into what each character got up to in their time away the book is the first ion the series so I have no knowledge of what they were doing before they split either. There are clues sprinkled throughout and we learn that one of their group, the half-elves love interest, has decided not to come to the meeting. While more in-depth for each character would be welcome I think the boom does an okay job of telling the main story. It is already 400+ pages so adding more would have just made it longer and slowed down the pacing.
That I think for me was the best part of this book, the pacing. A lot of fantasy books like to spending chapter after chapter sitting in the cage going nowhere. Throwing out backstory and character building all while the character is sitting in a cage as a slave or prisoner. Yes I am throwing shade at Brandon Sanderson and the first third of Way of Kings. There is one chapter in which the characters are prisoners and that is it. 1 chapter and it is not a very long chapter and they get out and the story moves along. The character building and backstory all come from other moments in the story. In fact they utilize the prisoners in a cage part well to get them from one point to the next organically as well as giving them a reason to join their rescuers.
Overall this is a simple fantasy book but it is good and deserves to be recommended. I will for sure be reading at least the trilogy that Autumn Twilight is a part of ad perhaps the next trilogy as well. I do want more of Tasslehoff and Flint so I am hoping they have bigger parts in the rest of the series.
The Fresh Persepctive 