Pathfinder Tales: "The Dagger of Trust" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

If you like bards, you are going to love The Dagger of Trust.  The novel is full of bards--the singing kind, the storytelling kind, and even the puppet-show kind!  I'm pretty sure the characters reflect various Pathfinder class archetypes.  The book does an impressive job matching the game effects of bardic powers like inspire courage, and various spells like rope trick, into exciting and colourful descriptions that correspond.  With the strong use of world lore, this isn't one of those RPG tie-ins you read and think "no 'real' adventuring party could every do that!"  There are some sections of the book that are a bit repetitive, and the resolution of a mystery plot isn't 100% satisfying.  Overall though, this was an enjoyable read.

SPOILERS

The protagonist, Gideon Gull, and the other "good guy" main characters are students at a bardic school called the Rhapsodic College in the nation of Taldor.  But there's a secret "school within the school" there called the Shadow School which trains select students into becoming professional spies and assassins for the Lion Blades.  Gideon is one such student, and the book starts with a fun opening training sequence of his having to simultaneously take part in a public debate and stop a mock assassination without revealing himself.  Gideon soon gets wrapped up in a mystery involving appearances across Taldor and Andoran of a supernatural fog that seems to turn some normal people into crazed killers.  Unravelling the origins of the fog leads Gideon into a complicated intrigue plot that involves everything from druids to submarines (I know!) and beyond.  I honestly got a bit lost between all the twists and turns, and I thought the middle portion of the book was a bit slow and repetitive.  Still, the ending is really sweet and heartfelt--you care about the main characters and what happens to them.

I don't think the plot is necessarily top-notch, but I do recommend the book for its characters and expansion of setting flavour around Taldan-Andoren relations, the Wildwood Pact, and the Shadow School.  Perhaps with a little better editing and some selective trimming here and there, this could have been in the top ranks of the Pathfinder Tales books.