Twilight Falling by Paul S Kemp (Wizards of the Coast)

Let me first state that Twilight Falling is actually part of a trilogy and is based in a so-called shared world, the Forgotten Realms setting in this matter. The Forgotten Realms setting originally started off as a Dungeon & Dragons campaign, a fantasy roleplaying game. The popularity of the Drizzt book by R.A. Salvatore set in the same universe as the D&D campaign actually boosted this success. After that initial success many different authors of the Wizards of the Coast brand tried their hand on writing stories mostly set on the continent Faerûn, where this story by Paul S Kemp takes place as well. For all of you that wonder, if have not read so much of the Forgotten Realms novels, apart from the first two Drizzt books (Homeland and Exile). The two Drizzt novels also took place under the ground, the Menzoberran setting and not so much on the surface like this novel, so this is my first time of really immerging myself in this shared world setting. This also means that I am not yet fully capable of judging how much of the elements used in the books are actually ‘Forgotten Realms cliches’ or are generally overused in the series. Therefore when I will review this work later on, I try to take this work as an individual piece of writing, part of three books that just happens to have a shared world setting rather than a work part of the entire Forgotten Realms heritage.
For all you who have not heard of Paul S Kemp before, he lives in Grosse Point, Michigan with his wife and two sons (twins), a dog and four cats! He is a graduate of the University of Michigan – Dearborn and the University of Michigan law school. When his mind is not wandering in the Forgotten Realms worlds, he practices corporate law in Detroit. If you wish to encounter him on fantasy message boards from time to time, you can catch him over fantasybookspot.com (link to the left side of your screen) or you can catch him over at his livejournal blog (link to the right side of your screen filled under ‘author blogs’). Right enough author pimping, let us explore this piece of work a bit deeper!

Twilight Falling is the tale of Erevis Cale, former assassin and wanted man. After a clash with a demon from the other world, Cale has only his new found devotion to Mask, patron of thieves and shadows, to hold on to. He serves as a butler in the house hold of the Uskevren nobles, but after evil forces in search of a mysterious artifact violate his home, he reverts to his old ways and has but one thing on his mind. Revenge. Yet the forces are too powerful to take own all alone, so Cale partners up with Jak, his halfling friend, and Riven, (former) rival and fellow assassin. Together the three must prevent that the artifact falls into the hands of Vraggen, a shadow adept and his band of mercenaries, because he plans to gain immortality by using the sphere to summon a Fane of Shadow. This Fane of Shadow only manifests itself infrequently on random places, but within lies great powers if one is to gain access to them.

Now I know this sounds like your typical dark fantasy storyline, but Paul S Kemp has enough twists and turns up his sleeve to make this all very interesting enough. In fact, the story is so fast paced, with nearly no soft spots, that it is keeping you as a reader on the edge of your seat all the time. The plot is full of action, featuring most notably the interesting confrontations of Erevis and his friends versus Vraggen and his band. Especially these scenes I found where the most fascinating, because that is where the author excels. The short but vicious dialogues and the particular choice of words getting the reader right back in the action all add to the suspense. The set up is not too pretentious, no overly long descrition of characters, their surroundings or multiple storylines supposedly adding to the vast scope, this is a story told straight to your face. There are some minor flaws discernable, mainly that the story is sometimes a bit too linear for my liking and thus making it in some instances a bit predictable. On the flipside this also speeds the pace considerably, because there are but two sides of the conflict. Also, in some scenes the presence of magic was a bit overused resulting in what almost felt like the use of a deus ex machina. The ‘evil side’ of the conflict, Vraggen and his mercenaries where not too challenging to read about, not very original in their ‘evilness’. This unlike Erevis Cale, who was refreshingly well written for a protagonist and the main ‘hero’ of the story. He is sort of the gray character, struggling between doing what his principles tell him to do and doing what is sometimes necessary to reach the goals he set himself. The inner struggle I found was particular interesting and added to the depth of the character. Also, his new found devotion to the mysterious patron Mask and the sort of rivalry between Erevis and Riven for his god’s favor plays a minor part, but exciting part in the plot. I would reckon we will learn more of it as the storyline progresses.

Overall, I think the positive points I mentioned really did make up for the minor flaws of the novel. The plot is packed full of action, more than enough to keep you interested right till the end. It is a bit of a linear, unpretentious read but nonetheless exceedingly fun to read. You could do much worse than picking up this installment of Paul S Kemp. In addition, Twilight Falling is a short novel around the 300 pages in paperback format, which means you can easily finish it in six hours of reading. After reading this I would not be surprised if Paul S Kemp is to be considered one of the top fantasy authors of the Wizard of the Coasts brand. If you want to read a bit more of Erevis Cale’s background, you could pick up The Halls of Stormweather, which goes more into detail of Erevis’ past or you could just move on to Dawn of Night, part two of the Erevis Cale trilogy! I know I will. I would rate this effort a solid:

Eight out of Ten