#erevis cale

The Erevis Cale Trilogy

Despite not reading this series as first in the chronological order, it turned out to be very enjoyable to discover and better understand the characters from later books. I think a person can totally skip this series to The Twilight War, which I did and loved it without the feeling that I missed some major facts about the characters. While Erevis Cale was still the main character in The Twilight War, the events in this trilogy happened beyond his persona, so the book was more focused on the story, while The Erevis Cale Trilogy is very strictly focused on his development and his bond with his comrades. Reading it in the chronological order would surely enrich the connection between the reader-character and make you understand who these characters are in later books.   

Regarding one of Cale’s friends, I have to say that I feel there is a gap in Magadon’s character between the series. In this trilogy, he is quite OP with his psionics abilities, general intelligence and an eye for details. Also here he uses a bow and arrows in combat, instead of a mind blade. Nonetheless, I love him and care for him. I’m glad this series provided me with more takes on his characters. 

The antagonists of this series were really funny, in a good way. 

My rate 8/10

The Twilight War

I absolutely love this series. It has almost everything I would expect from a fantasy book. Every character with a more major role was enjoyable for me to read, no matter their allegiance. I liked how they standed out. But as I mentioned this trilogy is way more complex, lots of events happen that are beyond just the main characters. We have a glance at politics in part of Faerun, Sharrans culture, another perspective on Tanthul members that appear in other books, lots of fights and affairs of beings beyond the material plane. A good portion of lore for dnd freaks. This book really made me hate Shar. But the hatred is respectful. She is an amazing villain, wonderfully evil.  

Prince Brennus Tanthul… This man gave me butterflies in my stomach and made me more eager to read about Telemont Tanthul and the whole family. I usually don’t fall for characters in a way that I personally would like to date them, but he is one of the rare exceptions. I want to kiss him really bad. He’s my mysterious dark prince and I want to be mom to his two homunculi.

My heart also goes to Magadon, who is such a baby that needs protection in this trilogy. He is really being kicked in this series like no one else.  

Mephistopheles! Och, his characterization by Paul S. Kemp is absolutely a cherry on top for me. This is the Mephi I have in mind when I talk about him. It matches the energy of his portrayal from Neverwinter Nights as well. My obvious take is only that, there were not enough scenes with him! I want more! Although to be fair, I don’t feel like there was much more space for him. Maybe one more clearer dream Magadon could have had with him, but that’s all. In Godborn there were definitely way more opportunities for scenes with his presence. 

My rate 9/10

Godborn

I enjoyed this book, but I think I would have dropped it if I wasn’t crazy about Mephistopheles and didn’t read The Twilight War before, that made me care for the other characters involved. It was good read but I kept waiting for the appearnce of my fav characters from the previous stories. The first two series felt grand in the matters of changing places, the events happened on a bigger scale. In this book, the action is focused in one area and there is just lots of ‘walking’ from the perspective of different characters. I think the whole plot of this book takes action during 3 days at most?

The biggest issue I have with this book is that lots of space was taken for the introduction of a new character named Gerak. While he isn’t necessarily the worst written character, I expected his role to be far more important by the end. I was wondering why the writer writes so much about him and his wife, why does he want me to care for him? I’m honestly pissed off, that a character that wasn’t crucial in any way for the plot, took so much space, at the expense of the characters I already cared for. This character arc feels like a filler to make this story longer, or because the writer had no idea how to give other characters more scenes. And I’m mainly angry about the lack of Prince Brennus, Mephistopheles and Magadon. Like how can it be that Magadon, who played such an important role in each of these books, doesn’t have his epilogue scene, but some new character that was just a drag-along does? Disappointing.

I craved to see Mephistopheles curling his tail before Asmodeus' throne. A showcase of his rage after he was devoid of what he craved for. I resent this book for the lack of this scene. I rage.

The only thing I like about the ending is that while it closes all the events regarding this story, it leaves an opening to most characters' futures. It makes me wonder, how they fare in the coming years of Forgotten Realms.

My rate 5/10

Some general points.

Paul S. Kemp doesn’t know how to write romance. He writes nice sentences, but these moments seem so shallow, unconvincing, so basic as if the editor forced him to put some loving scenes. I don’t buy this “I feel like we are connected to each other” explanation. Varra, Cale’s romance ‘interest’ appeared in all of these series and she is so bland, devoid of personality she seems to exist only to… I’m not sure. Only so Erevis Cale has a girlfriend. 

I picked these books for Mephistopheles, but I grew fond of the dnd lore, story and characters as a whole. @drownedrow said that Erevis Cale reminds them of Batman, and as a big fan of Batman it would explain why I’m also so fond of this character. If you don’t like Batman, this ‘dnd version’ most likely won’t be to your taste either.

But if you would like to get some more lore on Netherese, Shar and Shadovars, The Twilight War and Godborn are worth reading.

[[ Above is one of the official paintings released by WotC with the publication of The Sundering novels. The labels for the characters had their accuracy verified by official sources. While some of these characters are first-time appearances, the others are established and/or significant figures within the Forgotten Realms.

Drizzt, Guenhwyvar and Catti-brie don’t require much explanation. The Companions, as the first book in The Sundering series, is the only novel in the Drizzt franchise that isn’t part of a trilogy. 

Vasen Cale, Erevis Cale and Drasek Riven appear in The Godborn. Vasen is a new character in the Erevis Cale storyline, which began with the Sembia series. Erevis Cale gained momentum and went on to feature in The Erevis Cale trilogy and The Twilight War trilogy.

Farideh and Dahl Peredur appear in The Adversary, as well as other books in the Brimstone Angels series.

Anton Marivaldi, Stedd Whitehorn and Umara Ankhlab appear in The Reaver. There are no other books that contain these three characters, with the exception of a brief cameo by Stedd in The Adversary.

Kleef Kenric, Arietta Seasilver and Malik appear in The Sentinel. Like the characters of The Reaver, these three characters from The Sentinel do not have any other books that contain them.

Storm Silverhand and Elminster appear in The Herald, but both have extensive legacies spanning many novels, sourcebooks and digital media.

Fan art of Erevis Cale from Forgotten Realms.  Character by Paul S. Kemp.