Split the Party Spells Swords Stealth Volume 2 Drew Hayes Books
Download As PDF : Split the Party Spells Swords Stealth Volume 2 Drew Hayes Books
Fleeing from a vengeful king has sent the former NPCs across Solium’s borders, into the kingdom of Alcatham. As wanted fugitives, they head to the small farming village of Briarwillow, hoping to blend in, lay-low, and avoid trouble at all costs. Unfortunately, Briarwillow has problems all its own, and its troubles quickly become theirs. If they hope to survive long enough to escape, they’ll have to tackle an all-but-forgotten mystery buried at the town’s border, as well as seek the wisdom of a mysterious group of mages. With time, magic, and at least one god against them, it will take everything they’ve got to save Briarwillow, and themselves.
Split the Party Spells Swords Stealth Volume 2 Drew Hayes Books
I wasn’t certain, last year, whether Drew Hayes was planning to write a sequel for his novel NPCs, which just so happened to be the book that introduced me to someone who’s become one of my most-watched authors. NPCs left plenty of room for more adventures, but stuff like sequels can depend on reader interest…and even though I thought the whole thing was just great, I wasn’t convinced the general public would take an interest (or get some of the concepts the book was poking fun at), or that the target audience (fantasy RPG gamers) would be big enough to inspire a continuation.Well, here we all are, so something must have gone right.
I’ll admit, though, I had a bit of a sinking feeling at first. Part of what delighted me so much about NPCs was the concept. It took all the stereotypes and tropes of fantasy RPGs – and forget the PnP games, these are things that anyone who’s even played a single video game probably started taking for granted early on – and it laughed at them. The concept of it all was plenty strong enough to prop up the first novel, but that concept only had so much momentum.
Fortunately, the whole NPCs-turned-adventurers thing stayed in the background; this sequel is more about them settling in to actually BE adventurers, rather than just pretending. And that’s good; I really liked the concept of NPCs, like I said, and I’d really hate to see something so genius turn tedious.
And it didn’t; far more focus was placed on the capital-Q Quest itself, and the growth of the characters, and the introduction of a few new faces. Just like the last book, there were short interludes in the real world showing an actual tabletop game being played in the fantasy universe, but this time, the role players’ quest ended up diverging from the NPCs’, though there were reminders of the overarching plot tying everything together. (Also, the real-life role players weren’t nearly as aggravating, which was nice.) All in all, I’d call it a huge success. As if you couldn’t guess from the score I gave it, right?
Since it’s hard for me to write a review without finding *something* to complain about, I will point out one negative, at least as far as I’m concerned: anyone who’s familiar with Hayes’s other series, the Super Powereds, will see a lot of similarities in the way he draws his characters. It wasn’t hard for me to find a parallel character for, well, pretty much the entire cast of NPCs…and I’m surprised he even bothered to come up with a new name for SP’s Angela when he plopped her in this book as the real world GM’s big sister. I’m not saying I don’t like Hayes’s characters, in whatever incarnation they’re taking at the moment, and I’m sure he taxed himself writing as many different people as he did, considering the enormous cast of Super Powereds, but it might have been nice had the NPCs grown their own unique voices instead of sounding so…universally familiar.
Now, I’ve read enough e-books that I almost feel obligated to address the usual technical issues. First, cliffhangers — I’m happy to report that we don’t have one. Like he did in book one, Hayes left plenty of dangling threads so there’s room for the story to grow and flourish, but this is a complete book. (I’d wish any number of other authors would read this and see how it ought to be done if I didn’t know I’d be wasting my time.) Second, editing: it’s good. I caught one mistake – he used the word “tenants” when he meant “tenets” (as in “the tenets of a god’s faith”). I wasn’t looking for errors, but since they usually jump out at me whether I’m looking or not, I’d say one whoops is pretty darn good – and it’s consistent with what I’d expect in a traditionally-published paperback book.
So. I’ll assume that if you’re here, checking out reviews for Split the Party, you’ve read NPCs. If that’s the case, I can recommend this one strongly – the story could’ve easily stagnated, but Hayes moved the story and the characters in the direction it and they needed to go with some real precision. The very moment the cleverness of the first book’s concept started to get old, he moved the focus elsewhere, and the series is stronger for it. Now, if you stumbled onto this book by mistake and haven’t read NPCs, go and do that, please. Split the Party will still be here when you’re done.
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Split the Party Spells Swords Stealth Volume 2 Drew Hayes Books Reviews
Drew Hayes reaches his stride in this book. The Party created of minions in the previous book have gelled into a highly effective strike force.
The title, Split the Party, is a accurate depiction of the middle portion of the book. The party does in fact have to split several times to accomplish its mission.
Without giving away any plot points, in this book we learn more about Grumble, patron god of minions, how the gods operate, how paladins are made, and the mages guild in Drew Hayes' fantasy world.
One of the hallmarks of the books is that Drew explores obvious methods of defeating traps and monsters that will have even the most harden role-players slapping their heads, groaning, and eventually chuckling.
While the first book was fairly generic and could have been set in any rules system, this book clearly reveals the Dungeons and Dragons influence, and the Advanced and 2nd Ed. provenance to be specific.
As a parent, the previous book had some fantasy violence (though no more than the latter books of Harry Potter), this book has a bit more adult violence situations and takes off the PG filter on the language. Just be aware that your little one might be asking what this word the characters keep using means. The books still steer clear of anything deeper than extremely vague amorous suggestions - so that is not a conversation that the book might generate.
One final bit before hitting a very few spoilers ... the moral quandaries brought up in the book are excellent and could form the basis for some profitable discussions with younger readers on what right and wrong really mean in dire circumstances.
** Minor Spoilers Follow **
The main plot-line, the existence of reality altering artifacts that bind the game world to our own is further explored, but not resolved. In fact, this book points the way for many potential future books in the series as each one could reveal one more facet of the isohedron of doom!
Grumph is admitted to the mages' guild, and his trial is probably the highlight of the book. It was really fun to read the nuanced plot-threads that revealed that as in our own world most people would rather face certain death than die by the thousands little deaths of paperwork and administration.
The player character turned independent NPC from the previous novel is back and set on a course to try and become a paladin - though it is harder now that he is an NPC.
All in all, a very good book!
I wasn’t certain, last year, whether Drew Hayes was planning to write a sequel for his novel NPCs, which just so happened to be the book that introduced me to someone who’s become one of my most-watched authors. NPCs left plenty of room for more adventures, but stuff like sequels can depend on reader interest…and even though I thought the whole thing was just great, I wasn’t convinced the general public would take an interest (or get some of the concepts the book was poking fun at), or that the target audience (fantasy RPG gamers) would be big enough to inspire a continuation.
Well, here we all are, so something must have gone right.
I’ll admit, though, I had a bit of a sinking feeling at first. Part of what delighted me so much about NPCs was the concept. It took all the stereotypes and tropes of fantasy RPGs – and forget the PnP games, these are things that anyone who’s even played a single video game probably started taking for granted early on – and it laughed at them. The concept of it all was plenty strong enough to prop up the first novel, but that concept only had so much momentum.
Fortunately, the whole NPCs-turned-adventurers thing stayed in the background; this sequel is more about them settling in to actually BE adventurers, rather than just pretending. And that’s good; I really liked the concept of NPCs, like I said, and I’d really hate to see something so genius turn tedious.
And it didn’t; far more focus was placed on the capital-Q Quest itself, and the growth of the characters, and the introduction of a few new faces. Just like the last book, there were short interludes in the real world showing an actual tabletop game being played in the fantasy universe, but this time, the role players’ quest ended up diverging from the NPCs’, though there were reminders of the overarching plot tying everything together. (Also, the real-life role players weren’t nearly as aggravating, which was nice.) All in all, I’d call it a huge success. As if you couldn’t guess from the score I gave it, right?
Since it’s hard for me to write a review without finding *something* to complain about, I will point out one negative, at least as far as I’m concerned anyone who’s familiar with Hayes’s other series, the Super Powereds, will see a lot of similarities in the way he draws his characters. It wasn’t hard for me to find a parallel character for, well, pretty much the entire cast of NPCs…and I’m surprised he even bothered to come up with a new name for SP’s Angela when he plopped her in this book as the real world GM’s big sister. I’m not saying I don’t like Hayes’s characters, in whatever incarnation they’re taking at the moment, and I’m sure he taxed himself writing as many different people as he did, considering the enormous cast of Super Powereds, but it might have been nice had the NPCs grown their own unique voices instead of sounding so…universally familiar.
Now, I’ve read enough e-books that I almost feel obligated to address the usual technical issues. First, cliffhangers — I’m happy to report that we don’t have one. Like he did in book one, Hayes left plenty of dangling threads so there’s room for the story to grow and flourish, but this is a complete book. (I’d wish any number of other authors would read this and see how it ought to be done if I didn’t know I’d be wasting my time.) Second, editing it’s good. I caught one mistake – he used the word “tenants” when he meant “tenets” (as in “the tenets of a god’s faith”). I wasn’t looking for errors, but since they usually jump out at me whether I’m looking or not, I’d say one whoops is pretty darn good – and it’s consistent with what I’d expect in a traditionally-published paperback book.
So. I’ll assume that if you’re here, checking out reviews for Split the Party, you’ve read NPCs. If that’s the case, I can recommend this one strongly – the story could’ve easily stagnated, but Hayes moved the story and the characters in the direction it and they needed to go with some real precision. The very moment the cleverness of the first book’s concept started to get old, he moved the focus elsewhere, and the series is stronger for it. Now, if you stumbled onto this book by mistake and haven’t read NPCs, go and do that, please. Split the Party will still be here when you’re done.
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