This is my favorite book of the Pathfinder Tales so far. It earns a solid PG under the MPAA rating system. This book was a fun quest. As I read it, I felt like I was running through an adventure. There are some mature themes in it (racism, love/loss, violence, death, quest for power), but nothing that you wouldn't find in any novel read in a Jr High/High School English class. This book has a very strong female lead. I would rate this as a Teen+ book, highly enjoyable to all ages above 13.

A great story with interesting characters and a fun gripping plotline.

Reading this novels feels like reading a report of an adventure someone played, which does not have to be bad... but somehow this was too boring and foreseeable. Compared to the other books this one is written more in the tradition of the "classic fantasy pulp novel" so it's pretty naive and full of cliches. Might be a nice read for kids, though ;)

Plague of Shadows by Howard Andrew Jones

This is another Pathfinder novel, the main character is Elyana a elven adventure. Most of her former adventurer friends are now dead, she stayed and lived near her friend Stelan who become a Lord. When her friend becomes ill with a shadow plague magical disease brought on by one of their former friend a shadow wizard named Acril. She goes on a quest to find a cure and eventually ends up searching for the Crown of Shadows. She travels with Stelan's son, Renar, Drelm a half orc loyal to the Lord, Kellius a Wizard, and Vallyn a bard that use to travel with Stelan and Elyana.

It starts with them trying to track down Acril and force him to remove the plague. Eventually they are forced to seek out the Crown of Shadows. While Acril is indeed a villain he is a very interesting character and far from the only villain in the story. In fact all the characters are well done and interesting. I don't want to give away any spoilers for the book. But the book has a little of everything that makes a fantasy book a good fantasy book. There is a dragon, wizards, evil cults, monsters, a epic quest, travel to another plane of existence in this case the shadow plane. There is enough twists and turns to keep you from knowing what's going to happen at the end and keep you involved in the story looking forward to what is going to happen next. If you are a fan of fantasy books it is worth checking out, if you are a Pathfinder fan then I strong recommend the book, to date I think it is the best of the new pathfinder novel line.

Trust me, I'm a Succubus.

This is the most traditional and generic fantasy narrative out of the paperback Pathfinder Tales thus far. A party of characters, easily portrayed via the Pathfinder RPG rules set, sets out on a quest to save their friend from a vile curse dealing with old friends, enemies, and frienemies along the way. The plot is actually two seperate tales expertly woven together via interludes. The writing was smooth, and I notice no major plot-holes nor typos. The characters have relatable personalities, biases, and relationships, although they do occasionally feel more like caricatures than people. Maybe it was just me, but I found the authors style when describing combat a bit difficult to follow, but I prefer dialogue and substance to action at any rate, so it wasn’t a bit let down at all. Writing briefly as to not give away any spoilers, I will say that overall I enjoyed this book, even if nothing particularly jumped out as amazing or new in the fantasy genre. It is great for some light reading, but don’t expect the characters to become fantasy legends. If a sequel were written, I would pick it up and encourage others to do so; simple as that.

(I ripped into another book in the line and so thought I ought to share my positive thoughts on other Tales entries).

I liked this one much more than I thought I would. Yes, it's essentially the story of an adventuring band going to get the MacGuffin, but it's well-done and quite a bit better than I expect from game fiction.

Stelan's lands (in Taldor, per the map) felt only tangentially grounded in established Golarian lore, but ties to Galt were stronger. While Galt easily can fall into unimaginative "fantasy France" territory, I thought Jones did a nice job adding some depth to the Grey Gardeners. I also liked his handling of the Shadow Plane (and want to know more about these shadow mages) which oddly reminded me of several Jirel of Joiry stories from "Black God's Kiss." Hopefully his additions will be incorporated in future products.

Elyana was a little too obviously a Ranger with a capital 'R,' and I don't envy any author trying to write about a D&D-style bard [Opera-Man]"Making magic with song!"[/Opera-Man]. Elyana read a little a too human - I know, she's Forlorn, but I expected something a little more alien about her outlook. I really liked both Drelm and Arcil and wished both had more screen-time. The flashback interludes worked, and I'd eagerly buy a prequel story of the gang's old adventuring days ... or the survivors continuing escapades.

The book starts out a bit slow and pedestrian with your usual fare for fantasy. Stick through the first few chapters though because boy does it make up for the beginning very quickly.

Overall this was a fantastic, quick read that fits very well with the grittier atmosphere that Paizo foments for the Golarion setting. I cared about these characters, even the horses, and felt deep emotions as I was reading. I don't want to say more for fear of spoiling the fun for anyone else but the bottom line is that this is a must read for any fantasy fan.

Traidtional questbased plot tends to get quite stale after reading a fair amount of fantasy books, but it's nice to see even tie-in fiction picks up on modern "nihilistic" fantasy. Like the mortality rate, the backstabbings and shades of grey.

It has good pacing, the characters are interesting (except some of the baddies, who end up as fodder and seem quite shallow) and most factions seem to have an agenda and/or motivation which these books often miss.

However, I found a lot of areas and character relationships to be very shallow, and could've improved with just another 50 pages (like, the revolution place never broke concept and thus got stale and boring), but of course pacing would've suffered, which I guess is what tie-in is all about...

This book was right on the cusp of 3 or 4 stars for me. Ultimately, I went with 4, because the author was laboring under the constraints of licensed fiction.

I enjoyed this more than Winter Witch, which I found to be just OK. There are some twists along the way, and I think the author did a good job of showing the world through the eyes of a forlorn elf. I also found the main antagonist to be self-justified, which in my experience is too often overlooked in licensed fiction. All-in-all, worth the read. The author is no George RR Martin (yet), but it's hard to hold that against him.

Just don't feed your dogs those chicken bones! ;-) (****-)

I really enjoyed this book and the adventured contained with in. While it took a few chapters for this to get off the ground once it got started it shot for the stars. The over all story arc was very enjoyable and the characters are very easy to connect with especially Elyana, the story lead.

It was great to see Paizo have a tale in the line that returned to the standard adventuring party. And to be able to see the dynamics between the members in the party develop and not be assumed was really enjoyable. There were also plenty of twists to make this sometimes overdone story line interesting and it will keep you at the end of your seats at times.

While the writing style of the book, in particular the use of Interludes to bring in back story, took some getting used to they were always tied into the book very well and they didn't seem like a distraction which was my first fear when I saw they were there. The authors use of story specific humor was also very enjoyable and I often found my self laughing out loud at the slight turns of phrase used.

Overall I would highly recommend people pick up this book and I also hope to see Paizo extend this series because there are many ways I could see this developing down the road.