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Forgotten Realms: Finder's Stone #1
Azure Bonds
Alias is an excellent warrior but she is in serious difficulties. One day she wakes up with blue, twisting and magical runes inscribed on her right arm, and with total amnesia about the circumstances that surround the tattoo. Ready to unveil the impenetrable mystery, Alias forms a group that integrates a series of heterogeneous characters. Ruskettle, halfling troubadour, magician Akabar and a strange, mute and introverted man-lizard whom Alias baptized with the name of Dragonbait. With the help of her friends, the warrior discovers that symbols hold the key to her own existence. Will she know the frightening secret of her origin? This is a new volume from the Forgotten Realms collection and, like all others, full of intrigue, adventure, and magic.
380 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
About the author
Kate Novak
22 books66 followersKate Novak graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a BS in Chemistry. She is a fantasy author primarily published in the Forgotten Realms and Ravenloft shared worlds. She is married to Jeff Grubb. Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb are co-authors of the best-selling Finder's Stone Trilogy, and collaborated on the book Azure Bonds. The success of the book resulted in the creation of the computer game, Curse of the Azure Bonds.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 159 reviews
June 29, 2016
I'm including this on my "Epic Fantasy" shelf even though it really isn't in the same class as The Lord of the Rings, The Deed of Paksenarrion and other epic fantasies it's more brain candy-ish than those.... Still it does fit into the "epic" template.
Our protagonist/heroine here wakes one morning with an amazing tattoo on her arm. It almost glows and seems to actually be under the skin.
And there are strange holes in her memory.
From there in the best Dungeons and Dragons style we put together an adventuring party and set out to solve the puzzle. Set in the Forgotten Realms the book is fairly fast moving and has a good plot and nice plot/character development.
There are places where the book seems to me to a little over written as in when internal dialogues go on and on but on the whole I'll go a low 4 stars. I can recommend it for fantasy fans. Enjoy.
Our protagonist/heroine here wakes one morning with an amazing tattoo on her arm. It almost glows and seems to actually be under the skin.
And there are strange holes in her memory.
From there in the best Dungeons and Dragons style we put together an adventuring party and set out to solve the puzzle. Set in the Forgotten Realms the book is fairly fast moving and has a good plot and nice plot/character development.
There are places where the book seems to me to a little over written as in when internal dialogues go on and on but on the whole I'll go a low 4 stars. I can recommend it for fantasy fans. Enjoy.
October 30, 2013
I read a lot. And when it comes to my reading in the Forgotten Realms, I want to be immersed in story and the rich setting that is Faerun. To my pleasant surprise, reading Azure Bonds was akin to sitting down at a gaming table and rolling dice through the story. Not in any way 'railroading' through the story, mind you, but an immersive journey through Cormyr, Shadowdale and Westgate.
Thanks Kate and Jeff... looking forward to The Wyvern's Spur!
Thanks Kate and Jeff... looking forward to The Wyvern's Spur!
February 28, 2009
Okay,
So I was totally dreading this book, and it turned out to be way better than I thought! Perhaps this is the point when the FR novels started to get good (early-mid ninties).
The characters were good and intriguing, the bad guys were not minor characters that were just there to kill everybody. The plot was maybe the most surprising...there was a mystery that I really couldn't figure out for more than half the book.
The biggest problem with this book, I thought, was that there were 5 villians, and all 5 were killed in the first book. I like it more when they last longer...it makes them seem more daughtning. There was a sorta lame part were the characters, who don't really show any amazing apptitude for adventure, defeat an evil god. But, I will say that the scene was awesome and pretty believable (for a fantasy novel i mean).
I'm looking forward to the next installment.
June 29, 2024
A sellsword with memory issues. A halfling thief with very sticky fingers. A magic user lacking self-esteem. A humanoid lizard who has a difficult time communicating. These four adventurers find themselves in a plot by a cabal consisting of an evil sorceress, a lich, an assassins guild, an imprisoned god, a mysterious halfling, and a forgotten bard. Who can help these flawed adventurers stop this cabal from creating a terrible weapon? How about an honorable red dragon?
When Alias wakes up with a series of strange blue tattoos on her arm, she sets off to find what happened to her and what this tattoo could mean. Plagued with holes in her memory she is pursued by assassins who don’t want to actually kill her, while being watched over by a strange silent lizard, who carries a bizarre sword and even deeper secrets. As Alias attempts to find answers the reader is brought into a classic Forgotten Realms fantasy story- there are quests within the overall story that need to be completed, a group of rag-tag adventurers who come to the group with their own motivations and desires but end with a found family. The characters are flawed so there is suspicion, self-doubt and betrayal but also forgiveness, friendship and self-sacrifice. Swords, magic, wizards, magical creatures, a dragon, a God, assassins, this story has so many fantasy elements combined with a magical mystery that makes it a fun, fast paced read.
The setting is early Forgotten Realms. The adventures take the group to many of the memorable place settings of the fantasy world. Alias wakes up in Cormyr, spends time in Shadowdale, and battles in Westgate. All well-known places within this fantasy setting.
The story is vintage 1980’s fantasy with many of the tropes of the genre. For me this is a four-star read, because Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb bring me to a world that I enjoy being in. When I read an early Forgotten Realms story I know what type of tale I am getting. I want the adventure, the tropes, the flawed heroes, the evil, the mystery, and all the magic. This story provides all that.
When Alias wakes up with a series of strange blue tattoos on her arm, she sets off to find what happened to her and what this tattoo could mean. Plagued with holes in her memory she is pursued by assassins who don’t want to actually kill her, while being watched over by a strange silent lizard, who carries a bizarre sword and even deeper secrets. As Alias attempts to find answers the reader is brought into a classic Forgotten Realms fantasy story- there are quests within the overall story that need to be completed, a group of rag-tag adventurers who come to the group with their own motivations and desires but end with a found family. The characters are flawed so there is suspicion, self-doubt and betrayal but also forgiveness, friendship and self-sacrifice. Swords, magic, wizards, magical creatures, a dragon, a God, assassins, this story has so many fantasy elements combined with a magical mystery that makes it a fun, fast paced read.
The setting is early Forgotten Realms. The adventures take the group to many of the memorable place settings of the fantasy world. Alias wakes up in Cormyr, spends time in Shadowdale, and battles in Westgate. All well-known places within this fantasy setting.
The story is vintage 1980’s fantasy with many of the tropes of the genre. For me this is a four-star read, because Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb bring me to a world that I enjoy being in. When I read an early Forgotten Realms story I know what type of tale I am getting. I want the adventure, the tropes, the flawed heroes, the evil, the mystery, and all the magic. This story provides all that.
March 21, 2022
AZURE BONDS by Kate Novac and Jeff Grubb is widely considered one of the best Forgotten Realms novels of all time and with good reason. The novel is quite unlike a lot of Dungeons and Dragons novels in that it takes full advantage of how weird the setting can be. It's a book with clones, curses, ancient red dragons, liches, and halfling bards. Some of this breaks the rules of the game and it's all the better for it.
Alias is a fantastic character, a redheaded sellsword, who wakes up with a bad headache as well as a lack of memory of the past few weeks. Gradually, she finds the memories she does have are not to be trusted. Joining up with a merchant mage named Akabar and a halfling bard named Olive Ruskettle, they seek to find out what her true past is.
It's a really fantastic book and everyone should read it.
Alias is a fantastic character, a redheaded sellsword, who wakes up with a bad headache as well as a lack of memory of the past few weeks. Gradually, she finds the memories she does have are not to be trusted. Joining up with a merchant mage named Akabar and a halfling bard named Olive Ruskettle, they seek to find out what her true past is.
It's a really fantastic book and everyone should read it.
April 26, 2019
Pretty good old school fantasy novel. Be warned, however, that this is a very dense book. It feels like an entire trilogy crammed into one volume because there is just so much going on.
October 29, 2008
Excellent popcorn fantasy. Alias discovers blue markings on her arm that give her unpredictable power. But she can't remember how they got there. In fact, she can't remember much about her recent past, and comes to wonder if her more distant memories are even real. Who or what is she?
Various entities of evil vie for control over her and all come together in a rather exciting apex of carnage and mayhem. I do love to watch the fireworks when great powers collide.
As a Forgotten Realms book, it is pretty much PG-rated. But that makes the feat of entertainment all the more impressive, working with that constraint.
Various entities of evil vie for control over her and all come together in a rather exciting apex of carnage and mayhem. I do love to watch the fireworks when great powers collide.
As a Forgotten Realms book, it is pretty much PG-rated. But that makes the feat of entertainment all the more impressive, working with that constraint.
May 18, 2018
The adventuress Alias awakens one morning having lost her memory. The only clue as to what has befallen her is the glowing blue tattoo on her arm: a series of sigils that react violently to magic. Determined to unravel the mystery of the azure bonds, Alias joins forces with a mute lizard warrior, an exotic mage and a greedy halfling bard on an adventure that pits her against assassins, dragons, and worse.
The first Forgotten Realms novel by married writer duo Jeff Grubb and Kate Novak was certainly one of the more influential in the setting's early years. It would later be turned into both a pen and paper adventure and a CRPG, both named Curse of the Azure Bonds. Though not as iconic as Drizzt or Elminster, Alias found popularity as the first strong feminist (rather than simply female) protagonist to feature in a Realms novel. Remarkably, there is nothing embarrassing about the book's handling of gender at all. Less laudable is the use of "swarthy" to once again describe characters of darker skin, as well as a bizarre reference to "Jihad." Surely that's an anachronism?!
Certainly the strongest-written of five Realms novels (at the time of release), Azure Bonds weaves a tale of intrigue from the get-go. The amnesia plot propels the story forward - and thanks to the supporting cast, particularly the amoral halfling "bard" Olive Ruskettle, the novel attains new levels of character development for the setting, with character growth and change taking place in the course of the book. There's some genuinely amusing dialogue and witty banter between the party, who aside from the paladin lizardman, Dragonbait, are a more morally dubious bunch than the Knights of Myth Drannor or the Heroes of Icewind Dale. This fits nicely with the book's locales, which are primarily found on the Dragon Coast - a veritable nest of vultures and thieves, the most infamous city of which is Westgate (with which this humble reviewer is quite familiar).
New villains seem to pop up at every turn as Alias and her companions slowly get to the bottom of the mystery of the tattoo. The dark alliance between the various factions is somewhat improbable but provides a good excuse to introduce a handful of loathsome adversaries. In some ways there are perhaps too many villains, as few get enough attention to really stand out. Interestingly, the real "hero" of the story is arguably a great red dragon named Mist. Unusually for her kind, she maintains a code of honor which results in her assisting the heroes and eventually engaging in prolonged battle with a mad god that lasts dozens of pages.
Despite the wonderful set pieces, the descriptions of battle are where the book sometimes falters in comparison to earlier novels by Ed Greenwood or R. A. Salvatore. They lack the grandeur of the former or the high-octane drama of the latter. The ubiquitous magic missile is referenced several times: in fact, spells are often referred to according to their D&D name, which lacks a certain flair. The final battle is unfortunately a little overwhelming compared to the epic showdown between Mist and Moander earlier in the story, and this ultimately hurts the pacing.
Quibbles aside, Azure Bonds is a solid book. In fact, it strikes me as a very good candidate for a D&D movie adaptation (at least one set in the Forgotten Realms). The Crystal Shard is often mentioned as the obvious choice - yet there's a certain timeless accessibility to the mysterious amnesia storyline, as well as strong characters of both sexes to appeal to a modern crowd, without an excessive amount of out-of-gate weirdness and lore. Alias is certainly the Realms character with the most cinematic appeal to a more general audience - she's an attractive, strong female lead whose backstory nicely treads familiar sci-fi beats.
The first Forgotten Realms novel by married writer duo Jeff Grubb and Kate Novak was certainly one of the more influential in the setting's early years. It would later be turned into both a pen and paper adventure and a CRPG, both named Curse of the Azure Bonds. Though not as iconic as Drizzt or Elminster, Alias found popularity as the first strong feminist (rather than simply female) protagonist to feature in a Realms novel. Remarkably, there is nothing embarrassing about the book's handling of gender at all. Less laudable is the use of "swarthy" to once again describe characters of darker skin, as well as a bizarre reference to "Jihad." Surely that's an anachronism?!
Certainly the strongest-written of five Realms novels (at the time of release), Azure Bonds weaves a tale of intrigue from the get-go. The amnesia plot propels the story forward - and thanks to the supporting cast, particularly the amoral halfling "bard" Olive Ruskettle, the novel attains new levels of character development for the setting, with character growth and change taking place in the course of the book. There's some genuinely amusing dialogue and witty banter between the party, who aside from the paladin lizardman, Dragonbait, are a more morally dubious bunch than the Knights of Myth Drannor or the Heroes of Icewind Dale. This fits nicely with the book's locales, which are primarily found on the Dragon Coast - a veritable nest of vultures and thieves, the most infamous city of which is Westgate (with which this humble reviewer is quite familiar).
New villains seem to pop up at every turn as Alias and her companions slowly get to the bottom of the mystery of the tattoo. The dark alliance between the various factions is somewhat improbable but provides a good excuse to introduce a handful of loathsome adversaries. In some ways there are perhaps too many villains, as few get enough attention to really stand out. Interestingly, the real "hero" of the story is arguably a great red dragon named Mist. Unusually for her kind, she maintains a code of honor which results in her assisting the heroes and eventually engaging in prolonged battle with a mad god that lasts dozens of pages.
Despite the wonderful set pieces, the descriptions of battle are where the book sometimes falters in comparison to earlier novels by Ed Greenwood or R. A. Salvatore. They lack the grandeur of the former or the high-octane drama of the latter. The ubiquitous magic missile is referenced several times: in fact, spells are often referred to according to their D&D name, which lacks a certain flair. The final battle is unfortunately a little overwhelming compared to the epic showdown between Mist and Moander earlier in the story, and this ultimately hurts the pacing.
Quibbles aside, Azure Bonds is a solid book. In fact, it strikes me as a very good candidate for a D&D movie adaptation (at least one set in the Forgotten Realms). The Crystal Shard is often mentioned as the obvious choice - yet there's a certain timeless accessibility to the mysterious amnesia storyline, as well as strong characters of both sexes to appeal to a modern crowd, without an excessive amount of out-of-gate weirdness and lore. Alias is certainly the Realms character with the most cinematic appeal to a more general audience - she's an attractive, strong female lead whose backstory nicely treads familiar sci-fi beats.
December 29, 2014
Why do I keep reading these?
Azure Bonds is not a bad book, as such. It's just not a very good book either, and has little to distinguish itself. It has something of a classic's position in the canon of the Forgotten Realms, being one of the first Forgotten Realms novels (fourth, unless I miss my mark, being preceded by Darkwalker on Moonshae, The Crystal Shard and Spellfire) and one of the few among the initial rush that was not aggressively bad. It is also one of the few that made it in during the first-edition era, pre-Time of Troubles, six months before the Avatar trilogy kicked off.
Admittedly, the status might also have something to do with the cover. The chainmail does have a story reason, for what it's worth.
It ties in with the second of the Gold Box games, Curse of the Azure Bonds, but in a twist on the usual pattern, the game actually follows from the events of the novel instead of the novel creating a canon interpretation of the game's events. There's also an award-winning role-playing game adventure based on the game, with the same title. This was something that happened a lot in the early days of Forgotten Realms. The original Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy also has a tie-in series of adventure modules, and the Avatar trilogy that updated the Realms for AD&D 2nd Edition has a module trilogy where the player characters can follow along the events of the novels.
That last one isn't regarded very highly.
So, Azure Bonds comes with an interesting pedigree. It also has some interesting ideas, but they do not carry the length of the novel. Though the exploits of Alias, Dragonbait and Akabar bel Akash are interesting to follow, at around the halfway point of the novel, it devolves into a seemingly interminable cycle of capture-and-rescue by a series of villains who in turn seem like an interesting bunch if they were given more room to develop. It would also help if they weren't depicted through the eyes of one of the most annoying protagonists in the history of the Realms, the halfling bard Olive Ruskettle who commits the double offense of grabbing her behavioral cues from Dragonlance's kender and "not being a real bard" because the game rules say so, with exceptionally poor rationalization in the story.
Azure Bonds kills time without killing brain cells and has an interesting position in the history of tie-in fiction, but that's the beginning and end of its virtues.
Azure Bonds is not a bad book, as such. It's just not a very good book either, and has little to distinguish itself. It has something of a classic's position in the canon of the Forgotten Realms, being one of the first Forgotten Realms novels (fourth, unless I miss my mark, being preceded by Darkwalker on Moonshae, The Crystal Shard and Spellfire) and one of the few among the initial rush that was not aggressively bad. It is also one of the few that made it in during the first-edition era, pre-Time of Troubles, six months before the Avatar trilogy kicked off.
Admittedly, the status might also have something to do with the cover. The chainmail does have a story reason, for what it's worth.
It ties in with the second of the Gold Box games, Curse of the Azure Bonds, but in a twist on the usual pattern, the game actually follows from the events of the novel instead of the novel creating a canon interpretation of the game's events. There's also an award-winning role-playing game adventure based on the game, with the same title. This was something that happened a lot in the early days of Forgotten Realms. The original Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy also has a tie-in series of adventure modules, and the Avatar trilogy that updated the Realms for AD&D 2nd Edition has a module trilogy where the player characters can follow along the events of the novels.
That last one isn't regarded very highly.
So, Azure Bonds comes with an interesting pedigree. It also has some interesting ideas, but they do not carry the length of the novel. Though the exploits of Alias, Dragonbait and Akabar bel Akash are interesting to follow, at around the halfway point of the novel, it devolves into a seemingly interminable cycle of capture-and-rescue by a series of villains who in turn seem like an interesting bunch if they were given more room to develop. It would also help if they weren't depicted through the eyes of one of the most annoying protagonists in the history of the Realms, the halfling bard Olive Ruskettle who commits the double offense of grabbing her behavioral cues from Dragonlance's kender and "not being a real bard" because the game rules say so, with exceptionally poor rationalization in the story.
Azure Bonds kills time without killing brain cells and has an interesting position in the history of tie-in fiction, but that's the beginning and end of its virtues.
Read
September 23, 2023Fun fact: I was leafing through my copy of this in megaselling author Linwood Barclay's house as a lad (he was still in the newspaper business then) and he mocked the cover as emblematic of the tastelessness of teenaged boys.
I mean, he wasn't wrong, but it was a pretty classless thing to do to a guest in one's house...
I mean, he wasn't wrong, but it was a pretty classless thing to do to a guest in one's house...
July 2, 2013
http://www.rantingdragon.com/review-o...
Azure Bonds, written by Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb, was published in 1988 and tells the story of a sell-sword named Alias who awakens one morning to find a mysterious tattoo on her arm with no memory of how it came to be there. Her quest to uncover information about the symbols inscribed thereon leads to battles against powerful magic users, assassins, undead Liches, and even a God, all of which leaves her questioning her very existence.
You awake in a tavern...
All right. I know I’ve mentioned before that a lot of Forgotten Realms novels read like Dungeons and Dragons modules, but this one is a little out of hand. Not only was this another Realms novel written by authors who started off creating game modules for TSR, it has pretty much the exact arc that a gaming module would. The party leader has a mystery that needs solving, so she assembles a party, sets out to overcome obstacles one by one until the final encounter is met, and afterwards everything pretty much just ends. Heck, a character even levels up in this book, about as explicitly as you could portray it without the Final Fantasy victory music playing in the background.
It’s no coincidence that shortly after this book was published, the PC game Curse of the Azure Bonds was released, and it basically follows the plot of the book. The ease with which it does this goes to demonstrate just how like a gaming module the story turned out to be.
Of course, that’s not necessarily a bad thing
Don’t get me wrong, this was still a great book for the exact reasons it sounds like I’m criticizing above. The thing about gaming modules is that they are exciting! They are fun! They keep you engaged! The reason you play Dungeons and Dragons isn’t for the Mountain Dew, it’s to put yourself in the middle of incredible events and get through them. You can feel the level progression throughout the story as they work their way through the weaker minions of the forces of evil, have a boss fight or two along the way, and fight a final epic battle full of cutscenes. And it’s awesome.
There is and always will be something to be said for some good old-fashioned ass kicking, complete with villains monologuing, “you’ll never take me alive”-ing, and all those great tropes of storytelling. Sometimes that’s exactly what you want in a story, and Azure Bonds delivers in spades. It’s actually quite gratifying to see respectable authors publish respectable fiction that is basically the same kind of stories you told yourself with action figures in your bedroom on a Sunday afternoon.
Continuing to set the stage
An obviously recurring theme in most of these event reviews is that these early works helped to pave the way for future fantasy (and not just Forgotten Realms fantasy). They helped to bring a lot of things into the mainstream that weren’t previously considered “valid” fiction by a lot of people. While most of the characters and settings in Azure Bonds don’t actually go on to impact much of future Forgotten Realms fiction, it did later grow into a trilogy, which also spawned several connected novels afterwards that were among some of my personal favorites in the Realms.
The conversion of the story into the PC game also went a long way toward bringing PC RPGs into the wider public eye. The “Gold Box” Dungeons and Dragons games (starting with Pool of Radiance, just before Curse of the Azure Bonds) had a huge impact on the future of RPG gaming. These games led to arguably the best PC RPG ever made, Baldur’s Gate from Black Isle Studios. Its emphasis on storytelling, dialogue trees, nested options, and alignment/reputation systems could be easily suggested to have inspired the entire Mass Effect generation of RPGs, actually adding the same role-playing you would have done around the dining room table into a single-player experience.
Why should you read this book?
You should read this book because it tells a great, engaging story of struggle and overcoming odds. You should read it because it is an early instance of fantasy that has a strong female protagonist who solves her own problems and don’t take no crap from no one. You should read it because it laid the foundation for some of the best things fantasy literature and gaming have done in the past 30 years. You should read it because it has a lizard man who smells like freshly baked bread when he’s angry (no I’m not kidding).
Most of all, you should read it because it’s an excellent story, and learning about it by playing the PC game would be murderous. I mean, those graphics have NOT aged well at all! But in all seriousness, as a child and early teen, I must have read this book a dozen times, and the action and pacing keep it engaging every time, even when you know how it ends.
Azure Bonds, written by Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb, was published in 1988 and tells the story of a sell-sword named Alias who awakens one morning to find a mysterious tattoo on her arm with no memory of how it came to be there. Her quest to uncover information about the symbols inscribed thereon leads to battles against powerful magic users, assassins, undead Liches, and even a God, all of which leaves her questioning her very existence.
You awake in a tavern...
All right. I know I’ve mentioned before that a lot of Forgotten Realms novels read like Dungeons and Dragons modules, but this one is a little out of hand. Not only was this another Realms novel written by authors who started off creating game modules for TSR, it has pretty much the exact arc that a gaming module would. The party leader has a mystery that needs solving, so she assembles a party, sets out to overcome obstacles one by one until the final encounter is met, and afterwards everything pretty much just ends. Heck, a character even levels up in this book, about as explicitly as you could portray it without the Final Fantasy victory music playing in the background.
It’s no coincidence that shortly after this book was published, the PC game Curse of the Azure Bonds was released, and it basically follows the plot of the book. The ease with which it does this goes to demonstrate just how like a gaming module the story turned out to be.
Of course, that’s not necessarily a bad thing
Don’t get me wrong, this was still a great book for the exact reasons it sounds like I’m criticizing above. The thing about gaming modules is that they are exciting! They are fun! They keep you engaged! The reason you play Dungeons and Dragons isn’t for the Mountain Dew, it’s to put yourself in the middle of incredible events and get through them. You can feel the level progression throughout the story as they work their way through the weaker minions of the forces of evil, have a boss fight or two along the way, and fight a final epic battle full of cutscenes. And it’s awesome.
There is and always will be something to be said for some good old-fashioned ass kicking, complete with villains monologuing, “you’ll never take me alive”-ing, and all those great tropes of storytelling. Sometimes that’s exactly what you want in a story, and Azure Bonds delivers in spades. It’s actually quite gratifying to see respectable authors publish respectable fiction that is basically the same kind of stories you told yourself with action figures in your bedroom on a Sunday afternoon.
Continuing to set the stage
An obviously recurring theme in most of these event reviews is that these early works helped to pave the way for future fantasy (and not just Forgotten Realms fantasy). They helped to bring a lot of things into the mainstream that weren’t previously considered “valid” fiction by a lot of people. While most of the characters and settings in Azure Bonds don’t actually go on to impact much of future Forgotten Realms fiction, it did later grow into a trilogy, which also spawned several connected novels afterwards that were among some of my personal favorites in the Realms.
The conversion of the story into the PC game also went a long way toward bringing PC RPGs into the wider public eye. The “Gold Box” Dungeons and Dragons games (starting with Pool of Radiance, just before Curse of the Azure Bonds) had a huge impact on the future of RPG gaming. These games led to arguably the best PC RPG ever made, Baldur’s Gate from Black Isle Studios. Its emphasis on storytelling, dialogue trees, nested options, and alignment/reputation systems could be easily suggested to have inspired the entire Mass Effect generation of RPGs, actually adding the same role-playing you would have done around the dining room table into a single-player experience.
Why should you read this book?
You should read this book because it tells a great, engaging story of struggle and overcoming odds. You should read it because it is an early instance of fantasy that has a strong female protagonist who solves her own problems and don’t take no crap from no one. You should read it because it laid the foundation for some of the best things fantasy literature and gaming have done in the past 30 years. You should read it because it has a lizard man who smells like freshly baked bread when he’s angry (no I’m not kidding).
Most of all, you should read it because it’s an excellent story, and learning about it by playing the PC game would be murderous. I mean, those graphics have NOT aged well at all! But in all seriousness, as a child and early teen, I must have read this book a dozen times, and the action and pacing keep it engaging every time, even when you know how it ends.
November 24, 2013
So the thought process was to widen my love for the Forgotten Realms by going back to the infancy of the realms and reading as many of the books, that I can. The task I've started is going to be rough if there are more books out there as tedious as Azure Bonds was to read. I appreciate the humble beginnings and I've probably become spoiled as most of my experience is from reading classics from Salvatore and Kemp, among others. This isn't an attack on Jeff Grubb, because I don't think it's as much the writing as just the inclusion of so much the feeling of reading the outcome of a role-playing adventure.
Another review I read about the book was absolutely spot on. It reads like an introduction adventure in role-playing. From making sure to set watch at camp, to a mage having to make sure and study his spellbook each evening. The adventure itself has a decent plot...but quickly spirals into something almost absurd. A humble, lightly skilled, unknown mage somehow ends up destroying a god, while riding a dragon. It just becomes too much for my personal taste.
Take a breath, remember that this is only an introduction to a vast, complex world, that eventually will get it's act together. Now push through the rest of this series.
Another review I read about the book was absolutely spot on. It reads like an introduction adventure in role-playing. From making sure to set watch at camp, to a mage having to make sure and study his spellbook each evening. The adventure itself has a decent plot...but quickly spirals into something almost absurd. A humble, lightly skilled, unknown mage somehow ends up destroying a god, while riding a dragon. It just becomes too much for my personal taste.
Take a breath, remember that this is only an introduction to a vast, complex world, that eventually will get it's act together. Now push through the rest of this series.
February 19, 2009
Probably the best AD&D adventure story. That's not ringing praise, I know, but I enjoyed this book as a child and found deeper than any other book of the style, as evidenced by it being the only such book I remember.
March 22, 2013
Forgot how awesome this was - from dragon flight battles, to rogue gods, halfling bards and tattoos that just don't want to leave you alone.
April 17, 2021
I read the 2012 Kindle version of Azure Bonds of this 1988 work originally published by TSR. This book has a potentially interesting story to tell. Sadly, the idea is executed poorly and has too many flaws to be a noteworthy book. It is not Ed Greenwood bad, as Grubb and Novak present their own bevy of problems in this novel. Azure Bonds is a predictable sword-and-sorcery tale tied directly to D&D. It also harbors overwrought an mystery trying to be a story of personal discovery. Despite this high aspiration the book fails on many fronts.
It has flashes of good writing, but ultimately it feels more like an extended blog of someone's personal gaming group. The voice and tone of the characters sounded uninspired and very little creativity was given to the conversations and dialogue of the characters. When they do speak or think, the language is in modern terms and it never allows the reader to get into the story. It is too jarring. The worst offender is when the main characters says, "Read, me!" as if she's speaking over a radio. I did not not hear characters in a medieval fantasy novel talking. I heard nerds around a table trying to be clever with their tired quips.
The point of view changed way too much, sometimes from sentence to sentence. It was maddening to experience the jump from character to character. This issue is my least favorite part of the book. It is far from smooth and makes reading the book bumpy and interrupts prosody.
The story is predictable and vapid. Characters mow their way through challenges without much reason for the reader to care. Insufficient reason is provided to care about who Alias is and and a poor job is done showing us why we should invest in her. As a main character I found her uninteresting, shallow and one-dimensional - which was the total opposite of what the novel wants to accomplish. So much time is wasted on too many antagonists that it left little room to develop Alias and Akabar. Thankfully, the character issues are saved with Dragonbait's treatment and the formula used to develop him is better: not great, but his story is more compelling. Olive Rustkettle is so badly written I despise her as a character; not as a concept, but how she is written.
Azure Bonds finds high points in Dragonbait as noted above. It also provides good glimpses into eastern Cormyr and the Dalelands as the characters travel the region. While the Moander arc is borderline stupid (a garbage heap as a god, really?), the potential in Cassana and Zrie Prakis as foils is understated by too much other sloppy and over-long story minutia.
I giveAzure Bonds two stars. It is perfect for the RPG-Lit crowd. Serious fantasy readers should avoid it. Poor writing, too much interweaving of too many plot points, and an uncompelling cast of characters make for a below average read.
It has flashes of good writing, but ultimately it feels more like an extended blog of someone's personal gaming group. The voice and tone of the characters sounded uninspired and very little creativity was given to the conversations and dialogue of the characters. When they do speak or think, the language is in modern terms and it never allows the reader to get into the story. It is too jarring. The worst offender is when the main characters says, "Read, me!" as if she's speaking over a radio. I did not not hear characters in a medieval fantasy novel talking. I heard nerds around a table trying to be clever with their tired quips.
The point of view changed way too much, sometimes from sentence to sentence. It was maddening to experience the jump from character to character. This issue is my least favorite part of the book. It is far from smooth and makes reading the book bumpy and interrupts prosody.
The story is predictable and vapid. Characters mow their way through challenges without much reason for the reader to care. Insufficient reason is provided to care about who Alias is and and a poor job is done showing us why we should invest in her. As a main character I found her uninteresting, shallow and one-dimensional - which was the total opposite of what the novel wants to accomplish. So much time is wasted on too many antagonists that it left little room to develop Alias and Akabar. Thankfully, the character issues are saved with Dragonbait's treatment and the formula used to develop him is better: not great, but his story is more compelling. Olive Rustkettle is so badly written I despise her as a character; not as a concept, but how she is written.
Azure Bonds finds high points in Dragonbait as noted above. It also provides good glimpses into eastern Cormyr and the Dalelands as the characters travel the region. While the Moander arc is borderline stupid (a garbage heap as a god, really?), the potential in Cassana and Zrie Prakis as foils is understated by too much other sloppy and over-long story minutia.
I giveAzure Bonds two stars. It is perfect for the RPG-Lit crowd. Serious fantasy readers should avoid it. Poor writing, too much interweaving of too many plot points, and an uncompelling cast of characters make for a below average read.
March 21, 2021
This is a solid 3.5 stars that I've rounded up to 4.
The novel concerns Alias, a swordswoman with a fuzzy memory and a set of mysterious tattoos. She forms an adventuring party with Dragonbait (a sword-weilding lizardman), Akabar (a merchant and mage), and Olive (a sticky-fingered bard), in order to figure out what's happened to her.
While the plot of this book is a bit predictable, it's a solid adventure with some great characters, Dragonbait being my favorite. He's a bit mysterious at first but we learn more about him in the last third of the book.
A LOT happens in this story, and I'm surprised it wasn't stretched out for the entire series. I'm curious to see what's left to happen. There's some funny moments, some familiar faces , and you learn some interesting lore. I'm looking forward to the rest of this series.
The novel concerns Alias, a swordswoman with a fuzzy memory and a set of mysterious tattoos. She forms an adventuring party with Dragonbait (a sword-weilding lizardman), Akabar (a merchant and mage), and Olive (a sticky-fingered bard), in order to figure out what's happened to her.
While the plot of this book is a bit predictable, it's a solid adventure with some great characters, Dragonbait being my favorite. He's a bit mysterious at first but we learn more about him in the last third of the book.
A LOT happens in this story, and I'm surprised it wasn't stretched out for the entire series. I'm curious to see what's left to happen. There's some funny moments, some familiar faces , and you learn some interesting lore. I'm looking forward to the rest of this series.
February 4, 2024
9/10: Pues me ha molado. Según las guías, "Los reinos olvidados" empiezan a leerse con este libro que narra las vicisitudes de "héroes" de lo más variopinto.
Todo empieza con una mercenaria que despierta, con una importante amnesia, con un extraño tatuaje en el antebrazo, que le confiere ciertos poderes arcanos, aunque incontrolables.
En su camino por entender quién es se cruzará con hombres lagarto, magos, sabios, brujas, dragones, halflings (hobbits para los amigos) y unas cuantas criaturas más de la fantasía más o menos tradicional.
La historia es notable, y los personajes son mejores aún, derrochando personalidad en un relato lleno de imaginación.
Siendo de 1989 esperaba menos, así que pronto seguiré con la saga.
Todo empieza con una mercenaria que despierta, con una importante amnesia, con un extraño tatuaje en el antebrazo, que le confiere ciertos poderes arcanos, aunque incontrolables.
En su camino por entender quién es se cruzará con hombres lagarto, magos, sabios, brujas, dragones, halflings (hobbits para los amigos) y unas cuantas criaturas más de la fantasía más o menos tradicional.
La historia es notable, y los personajes son mejores aún, derrochando personalidad en un relato lleno de imaginación.
Siendo de 1989 esperaba menos, así que pronto seguiré con la saga.
April 14, 2024
An absolute delight.
April 20, 2021
One of the first D&D novels ever written, this is a tale that faithfully depicts the way a D&D adventure was outlined back in the day. Alias and Dragonbait are considered minor iconic Forgotten Realms characters and their adventure in the Dales is recounted in this book. The novel features also another important character, Olive Ruskettle, who will take more prominent place in the next novels.
July 31, 2023
So, I learned a few things from Azure Bonds. The first is that Dragonbait is the best boy, and the second is that Olive Ruskettle is a trash panda. Bards really are the mosquito bites of any D&D session, don't @ me.
The only other Forgotten Realms novel I've read is The Crystal Shard and although I ultimately enjoyed it a little more, this one is still plenty of fun. It gets a little convoluted, but it still has the edge of a decently compelling mystery at it's core. Plus, there are female characters! Even outside of our protagonist, Alias.
Speaking of Alias, she's a decently interesting main character, (Even though she spends the second half of the book practically incapacitated.) I wouldn't exactly say that I found her compelling, when divorced from her mysterious origins. To be honest, she kind of strikes me as a generic, amnesiac JRPG protagonist. (Cloud Strife comes to mind, although I'm sure there are others.) However, it's refreshing that she never needs to have her clothes ripped off or seduce a man to get out of any hairy situations. Maybe my joy at having that sort of content absent from the media I enjoy makes me sound like a pearl-clutching Christian mom, but I've never seen/read a scene like the one I described and thought, "Nice, that definitely made the story more enjoyable." Just have some taste, will you?
Anyway, there's a tiny bit of Lovecraftian horror that's pretty fun, and one of the antagonists early on turns out to be more important than just a one-off threat. (No spoilers, though.) So, there's plenty of narrative creativity to spare outside of just the central mystery. There are very few dropped or forgotten threads, so far as my smooth brain can tell.
However, due to the story's convoluted nature, there are a few too many moments where things grind to a screeching halt so a character can "Think through," their motivations and feelings so us readers can say, "Oh, that's why they don't _____." Unnecessary for me, but I'm sure somebody needs it. There's also quite a few moments where story moments are given a bit more gravitas or drama than I think they need. Like, "Oh my God, Dragonbait has a toothbrush? Ruskettle would need to consider this betrayal and weigh it against blah blah blah." Again, I'm sure this is critical for some people, but I found it tiresome.
The interludes with Giogioni Wyvernspur were comical, and every time I saw his name on the page, "Yakety Sax" would play in my head and I thought, "Oh, here we go!" Time for boobery!
Yeah, this is a Dungeons & Dragons novel or whatever, but you wouldn't really know it if no one told you. You prerequisite for understanding/enjoying this is a basic knowledge of fantasy conventions. Do you know what a mage is? How about a dragon? Cool. That's all you need to enjoy this, really. And I did enjoy this. There were lots of cool moments and it was written well enough that I was rarely (if ever,) taken out of my enjoyment by any grievous prose, cumbersome story-telling or noxious attempts to be anything more than a fantasy story with a mysterious twist. Sure, you couldn't teach a novel with this book, it's not a high-minded affair, but It's no Star Wars Expanded Universe novel, and just like the last D&D book I read, this kept me interested and entertained to read it cover to cover with zero fatigue.
The only other Forgotten Realms novel I've read is The Crystal Shard and although I ultimately enjoyed it a little more, this one is still plenty of fun. It gets a little convoluted, but it still has the edge of a decently compelling mystery at it's core. Plus, there are female characters! Even outside of our protagonist, Alias.
Speaking of Alias, she's a decently interesting main character, (Even though she spends the second half of the book practically incapacitated.) I wouldn't exactly say that I found her compelling, when divorced from her mysterious origins. To be honest, she kind of strikes me as a generic, amnesiac JRPG protagonist. (Cloud Strife comes to mind, although I'm sure there are others.) However, it's refreshing that she never needs to have her clothes ripped off or seduce a man to get out of any hairy situations. Maybe my joy at having that sort of content absent from the media I enjoy makes me sound like a pearl-clutching Christian mom, but I've never seen/read a scene like the one I described and thought, "Nice, that definitely made the story more enjoyable." Just have some taste, will you?
Anyway, there's a tiny bit of Lovecraftian horror that's pretty fun, and one of the antagonists early on turns out to be more important than just a one-off threat. (No spoilers, though.) So, there's plenty of narrative creativity to spare outside of just the central mystery. There are very few dropped or forgotten threads, so far as my smooth brain can tell.
However, due to the story's convoluted nature, there are a few too many moments where things grind to a screeching halt so a character can "Think through," their motivations and feelings so us readers can say, "Oh, that's why they don't _____." Unnecessary for me, but I'm sure somebody needs it. There's also quite a few moments where story moments are given a bit more gravitas or drama than I think they need. Like, "Oh my God, Dragonbait has a toothbrush? Ruskettle would need to consider this betrayal and weigh it against blah blah blah." Again, I'm sure this is critical for some people, but I found it tiresome.
The interludes with Giogioni Wyvernspur were comical, and every time I saw his name on the page, "Yakety Sax" would play in my head and I thought, "Oh, here we go!" Time for boobery!
Yeah, this is a Dungeons & Dragons novel or whatever, but you wouldn't really know it if no one told you. You prerequisite for understanding/enjoying this is a basic knowledge of fantasy conventions. Do you know what a mage is? How about a dragon? Cool. That's all you need to enjoy this, really. And I did enjoy this. There were lots of cool moments and it was written well enough that I was rarely (if ever,) taken out of my enjoyment by any grievous prose, cumbersome story-telling or noxious attempts to be anything more than a fantasy story with a mysterious twist. Sure, you couldn't teach a novel with this book, it's not a high-minded affair, but It's no Star Wars Expanded Universe novel, and just like the last D&D book I read, this kept me interested and entertained to read it cover to cover with zero fatigue.
November 12, 2014
A short take:
This book is so much friggin fun! As compared to some contemporary fantasy I have read, the density of this book's plot is ridiculous: you get dragons, demons, the undead, assassinations, gods, rites, swordplay, magical duels, mystery, prophesy, characters that win your sympathy, and a story that *actually ends at the close of the book*. That's it; finite; I have reached the end and I don't have to find another handful of books to reach the conclusion. Hot damn!
More thoughts:
I remember being a teenager looking at the cover of this book, nested in a wire rack (damn I miss those wire racks full of TSR paperbacks), and thinking, "What a stupid cover! Larry Elmore and Dragonlance rule, Forgotten Realms can suck it!" Poor, poor me: I could have been caught up in the awesomeness this book has to offer so much earlier in my life.
On the bright side, it was wonderful to be back inside of a fast-paced, entertaining fantasy book that spins crazy doings at a feverish rate. This book is on a perpetual sugar-high compared to some of the doorstoppers that now define the genre. And I have to say, there is still a place for this kind of storytelling in fantasy fiction. Sure, the authors lean on traditional tropes and a shared world concocted by others; but, boy, do they make good use of this material, hinting at side-stories and tangents that tantalize for the few moments they are on the page before the main tale hurtles into the next conflict. And not all is combat and craziness: Grubb and Novak leave some room for character reflection and growth, and these dynamics play out well without overdoing the desired sentiment. This is good fiction done well.
This book is so much friggin fun! As compared to some contemporary fantasy I have read, the density of this book's plot is ridiculous: you get dragons, demons, the undead, assassinations, gods, rites, swordplay, magical duels, mystery, prophesy, characters that win your sympathy, and a story that *actually ends at the close of the book*. That's it; finite; I have reached the end and I don't have to find another handful of books to reach the conclusion. Hot damn!
More thoughts:
I remember being a teenager looking at the cover of this book, nested in a wire rack (damn I miss those wire racks full of TSR paperbacks), and thinking, "What a stupid cover! Larry Elmore and Dragonlance rule, Forgotten Realms can suck it!" Poor, poor me: I could have been caught up in the awesomeness this book has to offer so much earlier in my life.
On the bright side, it was wonderful to be back inside of a fast-paced, entertaining fantasy book that spins crazy doings at a feverish rate. This book is on a perpetual sugar-high compared to some of the doorstoppers that now define the genre. And I have to say, there is still a place for this kind of storytelling in fantasy fiction. Sure, the authors lean on traditional tropes and a shared world concocted by others; but, boy, do they make good use of this material, hinting at side-stories and tangents that tantalize for the few moments they are on the page before the main tale hurtles into the next conflict. And not all is combat and craziness: Grubb and Novak leave some room for character reflection and growth, and these dynamics play out well without overdoing the desired sentiment. This is good fiction done well.
October 25, 2017
This holds up surprisingly well.
I first read this as a teen and checked it out again after explaining the SSI Gold Box games to a friend. Story is still engaging. Characters are still fun. One word: Dragonbait.
I first read this as a teen and checked it out again after explaining the SSI Gold Box games to a friend. Story is still engaging. Characters are still fun. One word: Dragonbait.
January 12, 2018
This is the first fantasy book I ever read; I picked it off the shelf at Coles when I was around 10 years old. After reading it, I was hooked on the Forgotten Realms series and have been ever since. It was cheesy, with names like "Moulder" - a god who infects victims with spores that turn into flowers growing out of their ears (as a kind of mind control); a character who communicates with smells; creatures from multiple dimensions; etc. All that aside, the Finder's Stone series is well written, easy to read, and entertaining. I can forgive cheesiness in a book that I've never forgotten and that I've read cover to cover a half dozen times. It's a great book for someone getting into fantasy novels or for someone who can see past the corny plot and take the book for what it is - an escape from the real world.
July 15, 2023
Our heroine "Alias" suffers from severe memory loss or so she believes, all while being shadowed by a silent and armed lizard-creature named "Dragonbait" who himself only speaks via grunts and exuding different smells from his body. Compound this with a mysterious tattoo or sigil and some companions (a young wizard and halfling bard), we're off to discover what its all about! As it turns out, all is not what it seems with the sigil and especially, her! To my surprise this book is the first in a series called the Finder's Stone trilogy that I found out about years later and had to purchase for my want to read list because of reading this Azure Bonds! Overall it made me concerned for Alias thanks to her memory loss and Dragonbait for shadowing her--for a time anyway. I liked the action and deep plot. I have the next two in the series and look forward to the series!
December 31, 2011
I just reread this at age 33... having read it a few times as an adolescent. [At this point I will confess that the cover played a pretty big part in me selecting book initially.] But it is a truly great read and a classic D&D/fantasy book filled with a really interesting group of characters grappling with a very interesting dilemma - someone waking up with no memory and a strange tattoo.. who starts to behave strangely and has to get to the bottom of it. I only hope that the authors got some royalties from the movie A Long Kiss Goodnight which borrowed very heavily from this book's awesome plot
October 30, 2013
Shockingly good for gaming fiction, especially of such an early vintage. Grubb & Novak do a great job of creating interesting characters and laying out a compelling mystery as well. They're also rather masterful at the way they evoke the feeling (and details) of the Realms, without ever feeling like those details are unnecessary clutter.
Overall, a fine fantasy story, both when I read it as a teenager and when I reread it recently.
Overall, a fine fantasy story, both when I read it as a teenager and when I reread it recently.
October 3, 2009
A classic Dungeons & Dragons adventure story with a mystery element that slowly unravels as more and pieces are uncovered. The characters are interesting and not stereotypical at all, with complex relationships that get more complex as the plot goes on.
April 27, 2012
I read this one 20-25 years ago, but its probably the only Forgotten Realms book I remember anything about, and still occasionally think of. I highly recommend it for any Swords and Sorcery /fantasy fans.
August 31, 2012
So many Forgotten Realms trilogies were being written and printed during this period.... I enjoyed them all and since AD&D was popular I played it alot. These books helped with the playing experience. Great book though.
May 30, 2010
I loved this book when it first came out and have re read it several times since. For a forgotten realms book, this is topflight, a fun enjoyable read with very good characters.
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