The Verdant Passage: Prism Pentad, Book 1

The Verdant Passage

---

Jul 14, [Name Redacted] rated it liked it Shelves: Overall, I found this book surprisingly enjoyable! It captured the feel of the Dark Sun setting a brutal post-apocalyptic fantasy world in which unchecked magic has left most of the alient planet Athas a barren wasteland and sorceror god-kings rule the few remnants of cilization with an iron fist admirably, the plot was legitimately interesting, and the writing was unobtrusive ie: I noticed the story and characters more than the author trying to impress his readers.

I especially liked the wa Overall, I found this book surprisingly enjoyable! I especially liked the way Denning approaches the complex moral issue of magic-use. In the Dark Sun world all magic is fueled by ripping the life-energy out of a nearby living thing, usually plants; this is why the planet is a wasteland, as reckless sorcerors kept using the planet's life to fuel their conquests and internecine squabbles.

There's a middle ground, using only enough magic to fuel the desired effect, but leaving the living things enough energy to recover and flourish; this middle ground is less powerful however and magic-use in general is highly addictive sort of like potato chips or peanuts.

It seems as though the middle ground would be the "good" option, but Denning puts the characters in several situations in which their lives are spared by complete indulgence in unchecked sorcery and others in which the weakness of the middle ground imperils the characters. The three approaches to magic non-use, reckless use, and guarded use are presented as little more than amoral approaches to a natural phenomenon, their morality ultimately mediated by the morality of the individual using them.

However the author's style and characterization are also incredibly uneven. There were several points at which it felt like he was so desperate to move the plot along that he skipped important narrative points and I found myself flipping back through to see if I'd missed a chapter; the escape from UnderTyr and the journey to the Forest Ridge are effectively ignored, mentioned only in dismissive references.

The prologue involving the templar Tithian and sorceror-king Kalak was gripping, introducing us to the bloody, slave-driven theocracy of the city-state of Tyr and characters who are at once compelling and contemptible; these characters are fascinating and well-written throughout, especially Tithian. Denning does an excellent job of juxtaposing Kalak's seeming frailty and age with his terrible power and cunning, but Tithian is one of the most well-drawn characters i've encountered in literature. He's a priest to a god-king, not because he truly believes in Kalak's divinity but because, lacking the discipline and drive to pursue the ascetic path of psionics, he found that the ranks of the templars promised easier access to power, wealth and influence; once a member of the sorceror-king's theocracy he comes to realize how truly powerful and truly vicious his "god" is, and ultimately regrets the favor he finds in Kalak's eyes.

He is loyal to his old friend, Agis, but only insofar as it does not inconvenience or imperil himself -- he himself admits freely that he always does what he believes to be in his own best interests. Agis by contrast is a naive idealist, a man who possessed the discipline and strength of will to pursue asceiticism but who lacks the savvy and understanding of human nature which his childhood friend Tithian posseses; Agis truly believes that he can effect change in a theocracy through senatorial votes, and truly believes that by treating his slaves well he is doing better by them than he would be if he were to free them.

Indeed, his failure to understand the value of freedom to a slave costs him dearly. He fancied himself a champion of slaves and the downtrodden, but it is only after he finally becomes affiliated with an anti-slavery, anti-government terrorist cell called "the Veiled Alliance" that he realizes how hypocritical and naive he has really been. The slaves-gladiators Rikus and Neeva and their friends are written with attention to their different life experiences when compared to the nobility and templar's lives and the fact that they have been raised to kill or be killed.

Oh, and the gaj. One of the best and most interestingly alien characters I have ever encountered; it lacks all humanity, yet learns to communicate like a human, and there is something delicious about the way in which, when caught in a lie, it responds by simply stating that deception is useful.

Indeed, once Sadira and the other characters start traveling together, the book's overall quality dips drastically. It's clearly not that he can't write female characters -- there are at least three other, better-written, far more interesting female characters. It almost seems like he felt he HAD to include her, or saved her portions of the book for last and then just hurried through them without an editor or feedback.

As such she annoys and offends and dismays many characters with her polyandrous desires. But even that is only mentioned a few times. It really does feel like Denning forgot to develop the character and just stuck with a vague outline he'd created. This book could have been one, two, or three hundred pages longer and would likely have benefited from it. I understand that there are four more books in the series, but the second half of this volume suffers dramatically for the rushed pace and the temporal skips. I enjoyed it, but I hope the rest of the series will be more even and that the author will better develop many of the elements he unfortunately neglects in this one.

Denning really brings the Dark Sun world to life. This book acts as a great introduction to Athas and the city of Tyr. I look forward to the other novels in the series 5 in all. I, however, do not look forward to WotC refusal to use editors on their novels including ones that they have rerelased in a shiner more expensive version. Original pu Denning really brings the Dark Sun world to life.

Original published in the 's the book suffers from some clear and at times glaring errors. In a section where a character is looking at a creature and describing it to the reader it talks about the nose, eyes, and the creature's "month". I believe this was meant to be "mouth" but perhaps it is a form of monster anatomy I am not familiar with.

There were several other instances of this throughout the book. Barring those errors I would have given the book 4 stars for sure, but some of them just took me right out of the moment, which is a shame given Denning's talent as an exceptional action, magic, fighting writer. Dec 06, Michael added it Shelves: Apr 10, Skip rated it really liked it. I originally read this for background on a game world I DM'd for. My players used to swear TSR was bugging our game sessions - and I admit, it was uncanny. Years later after our group had split up, never to be heard from again, I re-read the series.

It was just I originally read this for background on a game world I DM'd for. It was just as good all over again.

iTunes is the world's easiest way to organize and add to your digital media collection.

Maybe good memories of our heroic deeds under the Athasian sun swayed my opinion - but this series was a good time. Even the follow-ons by Simon Hawke were pretty good Tribe of One series. This book was probably the most challenging of all because of some of hte surprises the reader discovers about King Hamanu. Jun 05, Jon rated it really liked it Shelves: Hadn't read this since I was maybe Was fun to revisit. I'm sometimes nervous re-reading beloved childhood reads, as if the magic might dissipate, and, with horror and disappointment, I realize the book isn't actually that good.

That does happen, and I admit that The Verdant Passage is not nearly as well-written as teenage me thought. It's quite clunky, sometimes even just bad.

What is Kobo Super Points?

It could use some proofreading as well; plenty of typos that a professional outlet of this size should never allow. But this remains a functionally efficient piece of fantasy literature. Typos and formatting errors aside, the clumsiness and rather obvious and over-explained world and characters serves a valuable function: Sure, this means that, as literature, these books aren't amazing, serving a more supplemental function than lit people might want. But they beat reading dry technical manuals and tutorials. It's a different way of showing rather than telling, splitting the difference between creative writing and tech manual.

So the character descriptions are overdone. The mechanics of the world, character relationships, and such are all overwrought. But they're making sure that readers of all ranges can see exactly how worlds are built, what aspects of character, scenario, politics, magic, etc. Martin--they overshare how their worlds work through lengthy exposition that bogs down narrative propulsion and demystifies the world. It becomes world building for world building's sake, where the author is amazed at their own attention to world-building detail, which they desperately want us to notice.

It's essentially boring, gutting the worlds of mystery and discovery. The imaginative, creative, mystery goes out of the thing and it often feels like an extended technical manual more suited to scientists, business majors and politicians than creative artists. Instead of revealing a world through narrative and character action showing they offer reams of pages of exposition telling. And they don't have the excuse of creating tutorials for readers to become skilled Dungeon Masters and players. Their oversharing is just bad writing, where, despite their many skills and talents, they never figured out how to merge world and character development with narrative action something Mad Max: And despite the excessive descriptions, The Verdant Passage is refreshingly stripped-down and direct.

The entire Prism Pentad clocks in at fewer pages than two Robert Jordan books. Speaking of story, this one is still a fun yarn. It's harsher, more post-apocalyptic, and savagely cruel than Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance. The differences are in the particulars, but the broad parallels still resonate. And I appreciate how magic is connected to the natural world in a way that feels uncomfortably relevant in our current moment of environmental degradation and climate crisis.

We see lots of implications and room for further learning, but this single volume is not interested in creating some sprawling global epic. It's instead rather focused: No grand cosmic stakes.

No Saving The Whole World. Just straight-forward adventure in one city among many. Certainly there will be more to this story--it's part of a series and a world, after all--but it's not trying to do too much. And the structure of future entries in the series maintains a pretty good focus that is a breath of fresh air when compared to other series with casts of hundreds, and thirty different narrative strands all interwoven and bouncing around. All that convolution is exhausting, and the payoff far less than we really think. Such works are the all-you-can-eat buffet of fantasy lit and I'm rarely impressed by it.

The Verdant Passage , however, is solid fun. Aug 28, Bruno Fernandes rated it liked it. Re-reading for my Dark Sun PF campaign. Excellent as a setting supplement. I've finally gotten around to this after years spent wanting to know more about the blasted, post-apocalyptic wasteland of Athas: A ruined world destroyed by the wanton overuse and abuse of magic rather than technology is a great idea and brought to life here really well, at least as a setting.

The story itself, however, is fairly pedestrian and doesn't make nearly enough of the components it moves around through a pretty standard, "escape slavery, find magic item, kill overlord" quest plot. I in I've finally gotten around to this after years spent wanting to know more about the blasted, post-apocalyptic wasteland of Athas: I intend to continue with the series, but I do so in the hopes that the stories told are more compelling than just four more excuses to knock about within an interesting setting without saying anything meaningful.

Mar 05, Thomas rated it liked it. This is an enjoyable book, if you are an avid fan of its genre. The setting and characters do sell it however, and are colourful and interesting enough to see past any issues it may have. I won't This is an enjoyable book, if you are an avid fan of its genre.

I won't spoil anything here, but it ends on a satisfying note, and I look forward to finding and reading the next novel. Nov 08, Louis rated it liked it Shelves: This was my first foray into the Dark Sun universe. I've read plenty of Forgotten Realms in the past and Troy Denning has written a bunch in that series. So I knew what kind of writing style to expect when I picked up Verdant Passage.

All in all, I have to say that this novel was pretty enjoyable. It was rushed a little bit towards the end but as a first book in a 5 book series, it was a pretty solid start. Mar 01, Mike rated it it was amazing.

Defining literature of our time. Aug 13, Adnan rated it liked it Shelves: Finally started the pentad, although I read a lot about of Athas from the game supplements. Well written, but lacks the depth of overall world. But worth the time: Dec 22, Joe rated it it was ok. May 12, Steve Howarth rated it liked it Shelves: An enjoyable yarn when younger.

I always enjoyed the harshness of Dark Sun. Feb 06, David Sarkies rated it it was ok Recommends it for: Well I did, and I did sort of enjoy it, but looking back on it from this point in my life I do actually wonder whether these books are really all that fulfilling, or simply publicity stunts. What I remember about this book is that it is about a slave who escapes slavery, hides in the mountains, befriends some ravenous halflings, and then returns to the city of Tyr with a rag-tag army and defeats the sorcerer king.

It does sound somewhat like a quest, however while it is a quest, I am not convinced that many, if any, of the Dungeons and Dragons related books can really be described as quest books in the truest sense of the word. This concept, that I have outlined, is that a young boy is thrust into a quest, and through the quest becomes an adult. While it is not necessarily something we all face, the quest narrative can be allegorical for not only our rise to adulthood, but also a journey to come to understand ourselves.

It is not that slavery is endorsed it never is and while a number of other worlds do have slavery such as the drow and the mind flayers, though the mind flayers tend to use their slaves more as cattle than as a work force generally it was something that sat in the background that nobody really thought about, unless the adventure involved busting open the ring as with one series of adventures.

Obviously we do not wish to condone it, since we like to think that we have moved on from that rather distasteful period of our history. However, slavery, I might argue, is still alive and well. There is obviously actual slavery, which tends to involve kidnapping people usually from developing countries and selling them to the highest bidder.

There is also a form of slavery where people are promised a new life in a developed country, but upon arriving there, they discover that the smugglers have yoked them with a huge debt and force them to work in substandard conditions for little pay. One could also argue that unless we are working for ourselves, we are slaves to our employer, but I will argue otherwise.

The difference between an employment contract and being a slave is ownership. A contract is a mutual agreement of obligations. We agree to perform duties for our employer, and our employer agrees to pay us. Our employer does not own us slavery involves property but has an agreement with us, and both of us are expected to hold to our end of the bargain the law of contract makes sure of that.

This does not mean that bargaining power is always equitable, that is not always the case, but it is not ownership. A slave cannot simply hand in a letter of resignation and walk away. However, there is also the concept of debt. We may not be indebted to our employer, but we may be indebted to others, such as the bank. While the bank does not own us, we are in a contract with the bank, and are expected to uphold our end of the bargain such as paying back the loan , and refusal to do so can result in civil penalties.

The Verdant Passage: Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Sun: Prism Pentad, Book 1 (Unabridged)

Fortunately though, debtor's prisons have long since been abolished. Joar, das Buch war ok. Irgendwie nicht schlecht aber irgendwie hab ich auch sofort wieder alles vergessen, was drinstand. Und ich kann mir ums Verrecken die Namen der Hauptfiguren nicht merken. Hab das Buch vor ner Weile gebraucht gekauft - es war in einem Bundle mit drin und ich musste es nehmen, um ein anderes Buch zu kriegen. Naja, vielleicht les ich den zweiten Band trotzdem noch. Feb 29, Timothy McNeil rated it liked it Shelves: I last read The Verdant Passage in so I was either 15 or Denning does not do an appreciably good job of bringing the strange flora and fauna of Athas to life, or rather he struggles to find meaningful ways to describe but a few of the strange creatures it helps to have h I last read The Verdant Passage in so I was either 15 or But what he does do is find a way to introduce seven meaningful characters -- not all of whom survive -- who are largely static in their depiction, but in such a way that Denning uses it as an aid to moving the story along.

The five major characters are important throughout the series though at least two don't make it to book five , and Denning's initial depiction of them allows for the subsequent changes and developments to have greater depth. At the same time, Denning does a decent job of presenting the Dark Sun setting as one that is not going to yield the typical fantasy heroes. This set uses one another in some instances, owning other characters , are almost always self-interested first whether they want to admit it or not , and perform their heroic acts more out of desperation than a sense of duty.

It is a kind of mature story, and I have a better sense as to why it appealed to adolescent me as much as it did. Still, this isn't anything approaching high literature. As a diversion, it is fine. I will note that even with the introduction of all the weird even for fantasy creatures, Denning keeps the books an easy read. He doesn't do this by dumbing down his language, but rather by not stepping off the path of the story he is telling with needless diversions or extra needless background information. This isn't a book that a would necessarily recommend to people in part because tastes in fantasy vary even amongst die-hard enthusiasts , but it certainly is more focused than some of the Dragonlance novels of the same era.

And it does serve as a fine introduction to the fantasy setting. May 16, Slobodan rated it really liked it Shelves: The world of Athas is basically Australia. It's damn hot and if sunstroke doesn't kill you, then you'll die from some god-awful poisonous creature. Going to my local book store, which also supplied all things 'nerdy', I was enticed by Brom's amazing and unique artwork for the covers.

Thankfully the book has more merits to go on than a pretty picture. Due to his tyrannical ways, an underground movement called "The Veiled Alliance" is plotting his assassination. After having his slaves confiscated for the Kings works by the High Templar and childhood friend Tithian, Agis of House Asticles meets with other members of the Senate in an attempt to rally opposition against King Kalak's latest decree.

By happenstance he ends up bidding for a slave girl Sadira - who is a member of the secret society. After being freed by her new master, Sadira decides to take Agis up on his offer to support The Veiled Alliance in their plot to do away with the King. Sadira was also appointed with the task of recruiting Rikus - a gladiator who has fallen in love with her, to the dismay of Rikus's fighting partner Neeva. Together they all set off in search for the 'Heartwood Spear' which they have been told is crucial in killing the King.

After the initial antagonistic demeanor between the nobleman and gladiator, the group learns to work together and decide to go along with the plan of assassinating the King during the Gladiatorial Games, which the king is throwing in celebration of the completion of his Ziggurat, a stepping stone to his ultimate goal; his transformation into a dragon. I've always had a soft spot for the Dark Sun novels and was glad to hear that some new ones were written not too long ago after a long hiatus. From the Trade Paperback edition. Leia mais Leia menos. Prism Pentad, Book 2. Prism Pentad, Book 3.

Prism Pentad, Book 4. Detalhes do produto Formato: Reprint 27 de setembro de Vendido por: Compartilhe seus pensamentos com outros clientes. Tente novamente mais tarde. Pra quem gosta de fantasia um prato cheio Se for fan de Dark Sun Vai querer jogar uma aventura na hora! Strong start but seemed very rushed trough the end, coud have been better developed, many oportunities to further describe Athas. This book is very well-written and free of a lot of the issues that generally come with authors in the fantasy genre.

In my own personal view, I didn't think the story was that novel or interesting. The one thing I did like is the political facet, but not too much is made of that. The characters who have roles that operate at the political level rather quickly just get caught up in being "party members. Few books really do that it's generally one or the other.

Also, you should know I really didn't know much about the Dark Sun world. If I really enjoyed the world before coming to this book, I might have appreciated the story more. In sum, it's not a bad book, especially in a genre that is absolutely littered with bad books. I just didn't get very caught up in the story.

I read this series when I was a teenager and now mid thirties want to relieve this great adventure. Only con to this version is I'm not sure the process of conversion from physical to digital but there are a lot of grammatical errors in this version which I bet greatly were not in paperback. Sometimes simple Things like "and" instead of "the" or "salira" instead of "sadira" but sometimes not simple things like "rain" instead of "ram" so by the end of the sentence your left thinking that makes no sense.

All in all I absolutely love the story and characters, will buy the rest of the series and give it the max 5 well deserved stars.

• MUSIC, MONEY & MADNESS - The Bizarre Life & Times of a RocknRoll CEO
• Follies of East Sussex (Follies of England Book 12)
• Moliere--Four Plays: Bourgeois Gentleman, Doctor In Spite of Himself, The Affected Damsels, The Mise
• WANA GI YATA
• Aunties: Thirty-Five Writers Celebrate Their Other Mother
• The Color of Credit: Mortgage Discrimination, Research Methodology, and Fair-Lending Enforcement: M