Master of Devils again sees Radovan and Jeggare split. While Jeggare's story is a bit of a slow-burn, Radovan's had me captivated from the start and only slowed down at the point that Jeggare's picked up. What was especially cute was a third storyline running throughout the novel, told from the perspective of Arnisant, Jeggare's faithful hound. At the moment the three meet up, it was non-stop action. All in all a very enjoyable read.

Paizo doesn't cut corners or make a hash out of selling their campaign setting; this is particularly true with any major new contributions they bring to the setting - such as the continent of Tian Xia. Master of Devils complements the Jade Regent adventure path, along with the campaign setting and primer for the Dragon Empires.

The novel features Count Jegarre, his hellspawn bodyguard Radovan, as well as a slightly unlikely third companion, the hound Arnisant. Jegarre and Radovan's adventures have graced Pathfinder fiction in various forms previously - most notably in the novel Prince of Wolves. As such, avid followers of Paizo stories can enjoy the new exploits and developments in the characters, which lends the novel a certain degree of authenticity. The characters do not merely exist as cardboard cut-outs for the story, but have the luxury of depth and extended development.

The story itself takes place in Quain, a nation of heroes in the continent of Tian Xia - the Dragon Empires. The word "hero" needs to be taken with a pinch of salt (as the novel points out on more than one occasion) and is more intended to mean "warrior of great renown or infamy" - well suited to a nation of warrior monks. As such it should not come as a great surprise that a particularly powerful hero, who calls himself Burning Cloud Devil, creates the main impetus in the story. He uses the quivering palm strike to literally hold the life of Radovan in his hands and uses this to pressure the hellspawned to comply to his demands. At the same time Jegarre and the dog Arnisant each have their own story to follow with many characters and intrigues to fill the pages. All three characters ultimately serve their respective comrades in a way that draws everybody together for the climax of the novel.

The author chooses to tell the story from the first-person narrative; which can be slightly jarring to the reader when he switches between characters. Each chapter is dedicated to a particular character, either Jegarre, Radovan or Arnisant, and consequently narrates in the "I" perspective. Once this becomes apparent to the reader, the flow of the story becomes swift and quite enjoyable - as Dave Gross manages to believably inter-mingle the events between the three main protagonists in such a way that thoughts started by one character get completed by another in a different chapter. Seeing the metaphorical footprints of the various characters in the other characters' storylines creates an enjoyable recognition and makes for an exciting and believable story.

Another feature that draws comment and praise is the change in prose that the author introduces for each protagonist. The first-person narration is intimate and lends itself to a much deeper insight into the psyche of the characters that are portrayed when compared to other styles of narration. In this case the arrogance of Jegarre, the flippant nature of Radovan, and the simple canine thoughts of Arnisant each uniquely color and flavor the chapters in which the respective characters lead - but at the same time make it vividly clear that each of the characters is complete and complex individual. What makes this a particularly appealing proposition is that of introduction: all three of the characters are foreigners in the strange lands of the Dragon Empires. That means each of the three gets introduced and digests a different perspective of the quasi-Asian setting that Paizo has developed, and in the process the reader is naturally given access to these lands as well.

The story is strong and fast-paced, in spite of taking the time to flesh out the flavors and thoughts of a strange continent. I would have thoroughly enjoyed even more of Dave Gross' palette as he brings the world of Tian Xia to life without ever needing to tell the reader "hey, pay attention now, this is what the world is like". His rendition of the capricious Monkey King, his treatment of the disparate and sometimes truly bizarre nature of the kami (a form of spirit), and the sometimes unexpected wisdom of warrior ascetics, to name but a handful, truly colors a rich tapestry - and the subtle nature by which the author does this is worth emphasizing: the story flows naturally, in pleasant swirls and eddies and yet still carried along swiftly to its ultimate conclusion.

I've only had the pleasure of two books in the Pathfinder Tales range - the other being Death's Heretic. Perhaps I am biased, for my love of Eastern stories, but although both are very enjoyable stories, I favor "Master of Devils": the plot and characters are more complex and the various threads are interwoven more richly to produce a thoroughly satisfying story that I do not hesitate to recommend.

The sequel to Prince of Wolves takes place in Tian-Xa (think a fantasy China/Japan setting). This book is heavily influenced by Chinese cinema, so you have monks that fly (like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) and weapons that act impossibly (at one point cloth is used as a weapon). Fights (lots of these) are described very cinematically. This is a very fun book with some very strange characters in it. If I knew more asian mythology, I might understand them better, but that did not detract from my enjoyment or understanding of the book in any way. Under the MPAA rating system, I would call this book PG. It is appropriate and enjoyable for anyone from teens to adults.

Master of Devils by Dave Gross continues the story of Count Jeggare and his hellspawn bodyguard, Radovan in a fantastic tale of East meeting West. This time their travels take them to the far East (obviously) where the two get separated one again and become strangers in a strange land. Both enter martial tutelage, one at a monastery, the other alone under the strict eye of a master seeking vengeance through his newest pupil. The book is a quick read, containing quite a bit dialogue, that captures the oriental flavor of the setting well and translates it equally well to the reader. Normally my brain tends to shut down while reading combat scenes, but the descriptions of the battles contained within are amusingly reminiscent of the wire fighting martial arts movies that I love so very much. The narrative is written in first person and switches between three perspectives; Jeggare, Radovan, and their faithful hound, all with distinct personalities and styles. I thoroughly enjoyed the novel, perhaps the most out of what has been written thus far, but I do have a notable complaint: There are several pages near the center of my copy where the ink is so light (perhaps the printers needed a change?) it was impossible to read a thing and I ended up missing some of the story and having to skip ahead to a legible portion of the book. Thankfully these pages were few and I was able to piece together what I missed. But, unfortunately, this necessitates that I drop my rating from good to merely average. I look forward to reading more from the author.

Having seen some of the reviews about the changing of perspective like in the 1st novel, I was ready for the style of writing. I never had an issue with not being able to tell the difference since the style of writing changed with the person's or dog's point of view.

Another great read set in Golarion.

This book is painful enough that I didn't bother finishing it. It's bad enough that the author keeps shifting back and forth between Radovan and Varian, but then you throw in the stupid dog, and it's just too much. It reads like a bad kung fu movie and is just as insipid. Don't waste your time.

Dave has done it again this novel is fast paced and very funny. The characters are memorable and as reader I was sucked whole into Tian-Xia.
It was like reliving great chinesse fantasy movies such as "Crouching Tiger Hiden Dragon", "House of Flying Dagers" and "Hero".
However, the ending comes through as a bit rushed and without the final judgement I was expecting and hoping for.

I'm not against character progression. In fact, I prefer it, as most readers do. What I am against is radically altering characters to the point that they are barely recognizable. Gross does a great job of portraying the exotic locale of Tian Xia, and this book is a must read for any player/GM looking to venture there. But I felt like two of my favorite characters were rather abruptly railroaded into completely new personas. This wasn't the case in Prince of Wolves, where those characters visited another foreign land, Ustalav, but still retained their essential personalities. Also, pretty early on, a third non-humanoid character suddenly gains almost-human sentience, without so much as a knowing wink.
So I guess this novel surprised me in a lot of ways. Not all of them bad. My advice would be: Read it. Enjoy it. And, above all, go with the flow. You're in for a wild, unpredictable ride.

Dave Gross hit another home run with Master of Devils. This next full length novel adventure of Radovan and Count Jeggare takes things to a whole new level. The book sends them to another continent, where they must not only deal with the challenges before them, but with an entirely different culture, deriving from a very different fantasy tradition than the western fantasy roots that they are used to.

This is true not only for them, but for most readers (myself included.) While I know some of the basics of Asian fantasy and mythology, I'm unfamiliar with most of the details. That being said, Master of Devils did a wonderful job of taking the unfamiliar, and making it both accessible and exciting. By having the main characters be fish out of water as well, it allowed them to voice some of the common reactions that a reader more familiar with western fantasy would. When Radovan realizes that his mentor/companion Burning Cloud Devil's use of the word "heroes" doesn't match the definition he's used to, he says so, just like the reader does. It's like having a guide to the land of Tian Xia who is learning about it and confused by it along with the reader, but has to make sense of it to get along. Master of Devils seems to hit all of the main tropes I'm familiar with, from hopping undead, courtly intrigue, acrobatic martial arts using many exotic weapon (monk's spade for the win!), nature spirits, supernatural martial arts powers with poetic names, and more.

Also, Dave again does an exemplary job of staying true to the game mechanics of the RPG, without them being intrusive to the story, and seeming to simply be a natural part of the world. For game based fiction, this is a huge plus, and really helps add to the verisimilitude of the world and game, both in the novel and when playing the RPG.

This novel also sees the continued use of the alternating POV characters each chapter, like its predecessor, Prince of Wolves. While some are put off by that, for me, it allows a more intimate view of the main characters, and gives the reader twice the insight as to the situation they're in. Also, in this book, a new 3rd POV character is presented, which was a great surprise, and is now my new favorite character. I don't want to spoil the surprise, but Dave nailed the POV perfectly - I kept wanting to speed through the Radovan and Jeggare chapters to hurry to every 5th chapter for more of this character and their adventures. While I do like the different POV chapters, the one thing that is missing is having more time when Radovan and Jeggare are working together. They spend almost the entire book separated. I hope the next book (there will be a next one, right?) has more time with them together, but alternating the POV, since they make such an interesting team, with very different perspectives and approaches to life.

Strongly recommended!

Dave Gross seems to have the surest touch of the writers for the PF novels line. He writes well, does good action, and the pacing is generally good (although I'd say this is a bit less pacy than Prince of Wolves). The structure is similar to the last novel, in that Radovan, Jegarre (and the dog, in this instance) all get separated and have individual adventures before meeting up for the finale. (I'm not sure if this will really work for yet another novel, though.) A fun and entertaining read, and frankly pretty damn good in the otherwise often lamentable field of RPG tie-in novels.

I'm surprised by some of the negative comments about the shifting of the 1st person narrative between characters: he did it in the last novel, he hardly invented the idea so it really shouldn't be mind-blowingly unusual to deal with, and it simply isn't true to suggest it is hard to work out who is talking - it takes about a sentence into each chapter. It maybe requires the reader to think a teeny bit, but that should be a good thing, right?