Wow! I need to check the official list of upcoming books a bit more often than once every 3 months! This looks interesting. I enjoyed Certainty when I read it sometime last year, though I remember it being rather bleak.
I like stories of redemption, though. Redemption is always good!
finally something about Nidal, tough I've seen this type of story before
Definitely looks cool!
Heeyyy how did I not see this until now.
I like that mock-up art a lot; it actually works pretty well for the book.
Ooh. Gonna be a long wait 'til June. Having read Heaven's Needle I can say that Liane + Nidal is a combination I'm very eager to read the result of.
(Also, nice mock-up cover.)
Are these the winged humanoids going to be strix?
Based on the seminar at last year's PaizoCon (which I, purely by happenstance, was listening to this saturday morning), I'd say odds are they're strix.
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Yup, strix.
Turned in the revised manuscript last night.
I think this was the most fun I've had writing a book. I'm not promising it'll be any GOOD, mind you, just that I had fun scribbling on it.
I like Nidal. <3
Yup, strix.
Turned in the revised manuscript last night.
I think this was the most fun I've had writing a book. I'm not promising it'll be any GOOD, mind you, just that I had fun scribbling on it.
I like Nidal. <3
I will purchase and read this book. I not promising that I'll ENJOY it, mind you, just that I'll read it and write a review.
:D
This will be my first experience reading this author's work, so I'm looking forward to it.
-Aaron
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For those of you who've been waiting to see Nidal, I can safely say that Liane was the perfect author to tackle it. I think you'll all be quite pleased (and perhaps a little freaked out) by her portrayal of Pangolais...
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I will purchase and read this book. I not promising that I'll ENJOY it, mind you, just that I'll read it and write a review.
:D
This will be my first experience reading this author's work, so I'm looking forward to it.
-Aaron
You can actually get a look at her work here for free
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Yup, strix.
Turned in the revised manuscript last night.
I think this was the most fun I've had writing a book. I'm not promising it'll be any GOOD, mind you, just that I had fun scribbling on it.
I like Nidal. <3
No, no, no Liane. You're supposed to say "This is gonna be AWESOME."
It's not self-aggrandizement . . . it's marketing.
Looking forward to it.
Final product description and cover are now up.
So... there's gonna be shadow-thingies in this, yes?
(Also, who is the cover by?)
Durn! I should have learned to recognise his stuff by now.
I LOVE THAT COVER
I will tell you a secret: I've never actually liked any of the covers my books have gotten. UNTIL NOW.
(And yes, there will be shadow thingies. I'm told they are getting their very own special Bestiary entry in an upcoming product.)
I kinda liked the one for Heaven's Needle. Bitharn looks like she means business.
I am so looking forward to this! Finally! N I D A L!
Oh, and shadowcaller. Is that a neat-o superflavorful version of Golarion's summoner?!
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Ah, this should be fun. I've always loved shadow magic. Looking forward to the "shadow thingies."
Ah, this should be fun. I've always loved shadow magic. Looking forward to the "shadow thingies."
Agreed!
The technic league and then shadow magic, right after each other? I'm in heaven.
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I've been curious about the role of the strix since I ran council of thieves. This book was quite good. The most wizardy book in the pathfinder line so far, and done very well.
Though I feel the Scrysphere was kinda just dropped as were other things. It seems generally you introduce those sorts of things to create plot points of interest later in the story, here they were just used to illustrate what a wizard in the position would actually cast/do.
-> A very good read.
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Generally the rule is that if it's not on the page then it's not in the story, but since I can't resist the temptation to over-explain...
(1) It's a pretty useless spell to actually spend time and money learning, since you only need to cast it once to graduate and most wizards aren't going to want to cast it too often, seeing as it costs a body part every time you make a sphere. This is even more true for sorcerers, and we know through Ascaros that there are at least a few sorcerers in the Dusk Hall.
So there is a demand for Scrysphere scrolls, and it is through exploiting that demand that Isiem racks up enough money to buy the priest for the Festival.
(2) It's through the Scrysphere that he figures out what's going on with Helis and the demon in the library. Other scrying spells might have been detected by the target, but Scryspheres are specifically noted as not registering to most forms of detection. Therefore, it's Isiem's best method for spying on a fellow wizard.
I didn't notice an unusual number of errors, but I was reading like I typically do (at a high rate of speed, scanning rather than. reading. every. word. individually. :)
I do recall there being one where a character's name was wrong in a sentence and I had to read it several times before I figured out it was a typo rather than me completely misunderstanding, but that was minor overall.
Nothing like when I read Masterminds of Mars and there were several pages that were a duplicate of the previous several pages (and therefore several pages were outright missing), and which was NOT a printing error (since it started repeating in the middle of a page) but was some kind of horrific editing error.
Yes, I also remember that sentence where the character's name had been obviously swapped with another, but I cannot remember where exactly.
Some minor typos can be found too.
Nothing that has stopped me from giving it a five star review.
@Snapdragon: Don't ever read Gerald's Game. Just sayin'.
Another error I noticed was at the bottom of page 46. Written about a one-armed woman: "She raised her other hand..."
That and the one gbonehead and snapdragon mentioned were the two biggies. In both cases, I had to go back and re-read a little bit to make sure I hadn't missed something. Once I realized it was just an editorial gaffe, I happily went on reading the book (which I gave a 5 star review - I thought it was amazing). But for those two instances, my immersion was disrupted. Punctuation mistakes don't take me out of the story like that.
That said, I can't say enough good things about this book. I've read all of the Pathfinder Tales, and this and Death's Heretic have been my two favorites. I really, really hope Ms. Merciel writes for the line again!!!
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Another error I noticed was at the bottom of page 46. Written about a one-armed woman: "She raised her other hand..."
That threw me as well.
but...
That said, I can't say enough good things about this book. I've read all of the Pathfinder Tales, and this and Death's Heretic have been my two favorites. I really, really hope Ms. Merciel writes for the line again!!!
I also agree completely with this.
This is a wonderful book. The prose is elegant and poised, the characterisation believable and intriguing.
The magic is especially good, I could recognise most spells that were cast but they still felt like natural products of Isiem's training and were never awkward.
At the end, I couldn't help comparing it to Homeland (Salvatore's Drizzt origins story), both are tales of people raised in evil societies and expected to be impressive members of that society who instead reject it and seek an opportunity to escape. However, Isiem is a more conflicted and believable character, his redemption less neat but more satisfying and his relationships more intriguing.
After two books in the line that left me hesitant (the central character in Song of the Serpents was utterly unlikable, City of Fallen Sky was poorly written) Pathfinder Tales has been completely redeemed and hit a real winner with Nightglass.
I really, really hope that Liane Merciel writes more for Paizo, she is my second favourite Pathfinder Tales author, narrowly pipping Laws, Sutter and Jones (equal third) and only falling behind Gross because of his light, deft, playful wit.
You know what would be awesome?
If this book actually showed up at one of the bookstores in my city. Chapters has the release date as tomorrow. When it's been out since what, the 3rd or so?