by Paul S. Kemp
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Product Description
The first title in a new trilogy featuring the most popular character from the Sembia series.
This is the first title in a new Forgotten Realms trilogy centering around the key character from the popular Sembia title Shadow's Witness. Author Paul Kemp created the main character and is writing the entire trilogy, which will be broad in scope and rich in Forgotten Realms mythology.
The shadows grow long on the mean streets of Selgaunt. The sun sets on one man’s service to Sembia’s merchant lords. The day’s end finds Erevis Cale serving a new master, one who is beyond the petty accumulation of wealth.
After all, what is gold to one who trades in souls?
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
from a new convert, 2008-06-21
This is completely different than what I normally read - not that that is a bad thing. I don't have any background knowledge of AD&D, but obviously I didn't need any. I loved this book and am looking forward to reading more from this author. I agree that the characters are very well written. I feel like I know them.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Great Book in a Great Trilogy, 2008-05-05
I read the whole 'Erevis Cale Trilogy' before I wrote a review of the first book. Twilight Falling, Dawn of Night, and Midnight's Mask are all great books.
Twilight Falling begins with ruthless villains murdering their way through the realm in search of a Crystal Sphere. This sphere rests in the possession of Erevis Cale, a 'retired' assassin serving as a butler in Sembia. After the passing of his master, Erevis is trying to decide what to do with the rest of his life when he crosses paths with the villains. Once they meet, his choice becomes clear and he dawns his mask once again. Reuniting with old friends, a (good) thief named Jak Fleet and an (evil) assassin named Drasek Riven, Erevis seeks to stop the villains and their fiendish plot.
Throughout the story, Erevis must make painful decisions. This is where the Erevis Cale trilogy sets itself apart from nearly all of the other Realms novels. Erevis thinks about what he needs to do as well as the consequences of his actions. In situations where the end justifies the means, how much of his humanity is he willing to sacrifice?
If Erevis listens to his conscience all of the time, the bad guys will win. But every time he strays from the path of good, part of him is lost forever. Can he stop the villains? If so, how much of his soul will remain intact in the end?
There's also plenty of action in the book as well. Sword fights, magic battles, and more... They're all tactical, exciting, and easy to visualize. The battles also advance the plot, leaving the characters with physical as well as emotional scars.
The characters are all very well written, very memorable, and quite deep. This trilogy also has great villains.
Throughout the book, the plot doesn't just move forward, it actually thickens. It gets more and more dramatic throughout the trilogy.
This is everything you could ask for in a fantasy novel.
If you like Twlight Falling, know that the other two books are just as great, if not better.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A Series Worth Reading, 2008-04-14
I fear the Forgotten Realms was in a slump for awhile until this gem of an author came onto the screen. Kemp has a flair for easy-flowing narrative, tormented characters with snappy dialogues you can't resist reading about, and break-neck speed plots that do not fit the cookie-cutter mold of today's fantasy, but dare leave the audience standing aghast saying, "No! It can't end that way, I must have more!" leaving one eager for the next in the series. Keep it up Kemp, you've brought life to the Realms. I look forward to many more tales. Bravo!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 D&D plus depth of character, 2008-01-23
I admit I didn't go into Twilight Falling with high expectations. I have a (perhaps unfair) bias that the majority of D&D books are hack jobs. I only picked up Twilight Falling to silence a persistent friend.
I'll have to thank him for being so persistent. Twilight Falling surprised me by being different and deeper than most fantasy novels I had read in the past.
It all starts with a man named Erevis Cale working as a butler for the powerful Uskevrin family. The Patriarch has died just prior to the book's opening and Cale is preparing to move on when he foils a burglary.
There's more to this burglary than meets the eye. Turns out some very powerful people are attempting to steal a pretty, but worthless sphere. After some well written sword play and magic antics we wind up with a couple dead, a kidnapped guard and the sphere split in half.
The first thing that surprised me here was the big deal made over the kidnapped guard. Usually in these books death comes quickly and is glossed over, most especially for an unknown guardsman. Seeing characters care about the well being of one of the house guards was a pleasant surprise, making the characters actually seem human.
Indeed, all of the main characters and some of the villains were very well written. Don't get me wrong, this ain't fine literature, but I have to give Paul Kemp credit for turning out three dimensional characters in a genre where we are lucky if the characters get two dimensions.
Another nice aspect is that (in this first book at least) there isn't the fantasy cliché of a small band of characters challenging an Earth-shaking evil. The fact is that Cale and his crowd are mainly after the group of villains for revenge, pure and simple. That they discover that the main villain is actually up to something dangerous is somewhat secondary to our heroes.
One thing that I didn't like is that it felt like this was the second or third book in a series. Most especially in the beginning, Cale's past is alluded to in such a way that it is assumed we have read his past adventures. Mr. Kemp doesn't even tell us what Cale looks like. Somewhere around page 80 or so there's a mention that he is bald. After finishing the entire novel I still didn't know if he was tall, short, thin, muscular, tattooed, scarred?
Since this was the first book in a series centering on this character, Mr. Kemp really should have provided a prologue or worked some stuff into the story so that newcomers to Cale didn't feel like they were treading water. Only after feeling lost at the beginning did I find out about his previous appearances in The Halls of Stormweather and Shadow's Witness.
Another criticism is that names of various groups are thrown out with the assumption that we are all D&D players. It took me a while to figure out what Zhents were. The way these things were thrown out in the beginning almost made me stop reading.
I know that the D&D fans will say this isn't a fair criticism, but these would have been easy fixes. Take Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts series to see what I'm talking about.
Still, I did get past what bugged me. I will read the rest of this trilogy and will check out the next one assuming that the next two books are of this quality. Paul Kemp is easily the best D&D author I have read. He is a fine writer regardless of what field he writes in.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 I was surprised at how good this little book is., 2008-01-03
Not Shakespeare, but not drivel either. Craftsman like standard fare. The characters were well developed, the plot interesting, the magic believable. The bad guys were a tad too bad, one dimensional, but...well, these are bad guys and since all I know of the Forgotten Realms I learned from Baldur's Gate, which I played until the disc disintegrated years ago, I was happy with the book as a whole. My only serious complaint is that the words "Riven sneered" is on nearly every page, once his character is introduced. I almost started a drinking game, then realized I would be unconscious by about page 15, and so restrained myself admirably. I plan on buying the other two books. This is decent escapist fare.
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