Carrie Bebris' Pool of Radiance: The Ruins of Myth Drannor reviewed by jseger9000

Here's a review I posted a little while ago.

I didn't run it through the reviews reviewed process first because honestly I felt the review is too mediocre.

But I would like to punch it up some and make it shine as much as I can. Please be as harsh as you feel the need to. I don't mind rewriting parts of the review if that is needed. I just don't know where to start.
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Pool of Radiance: The Ruins of Myth Drannor is a novelization of the D&D computer game of the same name, which is a sequel to the classic Pool of Radiance PC role-playing game. No familiarity with the original Pool of Radiance is required (or at least I was able to follow the story without having played the original game or reading its novelization).

Kestrel is an independent thief operating in the city of Phlan. One night while sneaking to her stash in the ruins of an old tower, she spies a fight next to a newly formed pool of amber-colored liquid. One of the combatants stumbles in to the pool and rots away before her eyes. The Pools of Radiance, which were destroyed years ago, are reforming.

Before she knows it, she is being dispatched with a group of strangers to the ruins of the old elvish capital, Myth Drannor. A cult has been spotted there and it is believed they are behind the reappearance of the pools. The party that had previously been sent to investigate never reappeared...

The writing was okay. It wasn’t amazing by any stretch, but Carrie did a competent enough job describing what was going on. Scenes of battle were handled very well. They were clearly written and exciting. Description wasn't over-written, but I was always able to form a clear picture of what was going on

I appreciated that Kestrel, the star of the book, was not the leader of the party of adventurers. She is a selfish, but still likeable character which isn't always easy to pull off. She resents being shanghaied into this adventure and does not share her companions starry-eyed optimism about their mission.The uneasy group dynamic was in fact the best handled part of the book.

I also think she did a good job of adapting the D&D rules to a novel. The spellcasters tended to use the same spells repeatedly, rather than having a spell for every occasion. And though she did a good job representing the D&D rules, it didn’t read like a ‘how to’ guide or intrude in the story.

The biggest problem I had and the one that would keep me from recommending the book, is that it is too faithful to the video game on which it was based. Though she did a good job of unobtrusively following the D&D rules within a novel, the book felt like an adaptation of a video game.

The characters ran through an endless series of fed-ex quests (get request from character A, retrieve object from dungeon B return object to character A and so on). These are necessary in a video game where the player has to feel like they are always on the verge of accomplishing something while they pursue the larger quest. But in a book it just felt like muddy, ‘everything and the kitchen sink’ storytelling. In fact, often I wasn’t quite clear why they were looking for the Ring of Binding or the Gem of the Weave or whatever other object they were chasing in this particular twenty page segment. The storyline would have been better served if Carrie had streamlined some of what the game contained, eliminating some of the side quests. it made the pace feel sluggish.

In the end, the unfocused storytelling really drags the book down. I can't say for sure if this was from editorial pressure or if Carrie just needs to work on the flow of events in a novel. All the other strengths of the writing would convince me to give her a second chance, but I could not recommend this particular book.

"share her companions starry-eyed optimism" needs a possessive apostrophe, "companions'".

Have games got simpler and more linear in recent years? Don't the players have multiple quests in parallel, and have to take on quests while totally unprepared, but pick up useful knowledge and artefacts in the course of lesser quests?

Thanks for the catch. I'll add the apostrophe.

As for the games and their linearity, I think it depends on what you are playing. Two of my favorites from not too far back are The Temple of Elemental Evil and Fallout 3 and both offer multiple quests at the same time. From what I remember, simpler games like Diablo tended to focus on one quest at a time.

Not sure how Pool of Radiance: The Ruins of Myth Drannor works as I haven't played it yet (though I do own it).

The problem with the book though, is that all of the side quests were incorporated into the story in a clumsy way, making the book's video game origins too clear. Video games don't tell a story in the same way a novel does and a too literal translation will not make for a good book.

That's the thing about this one. I actually liked the author's writing style It was the tale she told that was disappointing. Not sure if that is the fault of the author or the editors though.