Pathfinder Tales: "Nightblade" [RPG]

 NO SPOILERS

Nightblade is a standalone sequel to Liane Merciel’s earlier Pathfinder Tales book (Nightglass) and continues the story of Isiem, a wizard-priest of Zon-Kuthon who has rebelled against his faith and home country.  There are some great characters and descriptions in the novel, and it has a dark theme consonant with its subject matter.  I did find myself a bit bored by a very long sequence that amounted to the novel equivalent of a dungeon crawl, and it’s all in service to a Macguffin that’s not explained adequately and doesn’t seem to justify the costs involved in trying to obtain it.  All in all, I’d say Nightblade is a good novel, but not as near-perfect as its predecessor.

SPOILERS!

After the events of Nightglass, Isiem has had to flee Nidal and now resides in the Cheliax city of Pezzack.  There, he helps a band of rebels seeking to free the city from the subjugation of House Thrune.  Isiem is asked to join an expedition to find an ancient weapon to battle House Thrune called a nightblade—a weapon created by a legendary Nidalese wizard named Melandroth.  The expedition team includes a well-written Paladin of Iomedae named Kyril, some grudgingly accepted agents of the Aspis Consortium, and one of Isiem’s old frenemies named Ascaros.  This last character is great, and was introduced in the short story “Misery’s Mirror” (available for free on the Paizo website, and worth tracking down before reading this novel).  The problem that I referred to above is that we never get a good explanation for why a nightblade would be so important that it’s worth risking the lives of so many important figures in the rebellion, or (as we’ll see) have them teleport all the way to Molthune to try to find it.

Still, the first half of the book is great—excellent dialogue, some thought-provoking discussion on redemption, an exciting, well-described battle against the “Beast of the Backar Forest”, creepy “Splinter Men”, and more.  The second part of the book takes place in Fiendslair, which I think is a demi-plane, and it’s suitably dark and demonic—doors that are fleshy and alive and have to be hacked through each time one wishes to pass, for example.  The place is a labyrinth filled with all matter of threats, including monsters with the ability to take possession of intruders.  It’s not badly written, but it is a *long* sequence with little pay-off.  I don’t mind at all that the mission was an utter failure (that’s good Pathfinder!), but just that I never figured out what it was all about to begin with.  The epilogue is really well done.

Not every novel, even from a talented writer, is going to be a winner.  I’ve read enough from Liane Merciel that I’ll still eagerly look forward to whatever she comes up with next.