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tale of Radovan and the count, This time set to the events of the wrath of the righteous adventure path,
The story takes a slow start and in the beginning I had a
hard time getting into the book, But the second half of this book was a rollercoaster,
The count, Radovan are send into the worldwound a country with a gate to the abyss, and thus infested with demons for the not pathfinders to find a specific book.
To do this they have to work together with Operal who was also present in the previous book, Along the way all three of them do undergo some character changes and learn a thing or two about themselves,
In a way it feels like all the past adventures of Radovan and Jeggare have been leading up to this book, We have Count Varian Jeggare, the aloof, perceptive, genius wizard from Prince of Wolves who has come to understand his heritage, his allegiances, and his heart over the course of his journeys.
We have Radovan Virholt, the bruiser with a literal touch of Hell about him, who has unraveled his fiendish family line, awakened fell powers within himself, transformed his body and reverted to his wisecracking, ladykilling original form.
We have their allies: Arnisant the faithful hound, Oparal the remote paladin, and the Red Carriage,
We have their enemies: the vampire prince Kasiya, the demons threatening the world of Golarion, and the foul geography of the Worldwound itself,
King of Chaos starts with a bloodpumping chapter where the paladin Oparal charges, atop her unicorn mount, into a horde of fiends, The action rarely lets up, Varian and Radovan know who they are in this novel mostlythere are still some surprise revelations to be had, They're confident in their abilities and their relationship, Their banter has that easy, familiar feel you get around lifelong friends, Even without the headers at each chapter I could easily tell whose "voice" I was hearing,
The solidity of the characters is necessary in this book, a book that holds up a heavy plot, A rare book, the Lexicon of Paradox, could turn the tide of the endless battle against the demons of the Worldwound, Varian's ultimate mistress, Her Infernal Magistrix Queen Abrogail the II, wants it, So does Queen Telandia Edasseril of Kyonin, whom our heroes met in Queen of Thorns, So does Queen Galfrey of Mendev, heart of the crusade against the Worldwound, Oh, and so do the Pathfinders, the group of explorers and historians to which Varian might still belong,
Together with their allies, Varian and Radovan must track down the tome and decide what to do with it, Without their history and experience, this sort of quest could be doomed from the start, But Varian and Radovan are both older and wiser since their adventures first began, and with their talents casting spells and busting heads, respectively and allies in place, they might just stand a chance.
This is a great book full of vivid characters, action, horror and pain, redemption, and a truly magnificent ending, Demon Apocalypse
After a century of imprisonment, demons have broken free of the wardstones surrounding the Worldwound, As fiends flood south into civilized lands, Count Varian Jeggare and his hellspawn bodyguard Radovan must search through the ruins of a fallen nation for the blasphemous text that opened the gate to the Abyss in the first placeand which might hold the key to closing it.
In order to succeed, however, the heroes will need to join forces with pious crusaders, barbaric local warriors, and even one of the legendary god callers, Its a race against time as the companions fight their way across a broken land, facing off against fiends, monsters, and a vampire intent on becoming the god of bloodbut will unearthing the dangerous book save the world, or destroy it completely
From bestselling author Dave Gross comes a new adventure set against the backdrop of the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path in the awardwinning world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
The return of roguish bodyguard Radovan and Pathfinder Varianand, uh, Oparal, an elven paladin who was apparently in Queen of Thorns, I confess I didn't remember her and thus was a tad disconcerted by her receiving POV every third chapter, Cool setting: the Worldwound, an opening to demon realms, and the tainted monsterfilled lands surrounding it, Lots of action and some cool magic and character developments Varian and Radovan both level up, Some nice humour, too, especially between Radovan and the unicorn,
Fave chapter: The Five Devils, Mr. Gross took a risk with King of Chaos, the latest Varian and Radovan novel in the Pathfinder Tales line, in adding a third firstperson point of view to this story.
Oparal, the unicorn riding paladin depicted on the cover, emerges as a main character perhaps the main character after being introduced in the previous installment, Queen of Thorns.
Oparal is a fantastic character, one whose journey is heartfelt, and certainly worthy of seeing in print again, However, for most of the novel her pointofview chapters seemingly intrude upon the jaunty rhythm that makes a Varian and Radovan novel work, We are accustomed to seeing things through the eyes of the snooty Varian, then through his earthy bodyguard, and back again, Previously, reading a V amp R novel has been like watching a good tennis match between players who are evenly matched but have disparate styles, an ebb and flow that aids in pacing and plot.
Oparal, now a leader of men and burdened by the responsibilities of leadership that VampR would blithely shrug off, crashes the party every time we see a portion of the story through her eyes.
Despite my affection for the character, her pointofview chapters threatened to derail this novel, Thankfully, we are in deft hands,
As I said, it was a creative risk, Mr, Gross took, a device that was not working for me as a reader until Chapter, As the story approaches its climax, however, seeing the story through Oparal's eyes finally pays off and in a big way, It's what makes the ending work, what gives this novel four, and makes her the chief protagonist, And it's done so that Varian and Radovan's own contributions are also heroic, Mr. Gross is honing his craft as a storyteller,
The fact is, this novel is packed with strong character arcs, and for a standalone tale, it's near to bursting, Mr. Gross peels away another layer of Varian, a character who, despite being immensely old, is still finding out the truth of his identity, I have never found Varian sympathetic his nose being perpetually upturned but I have found him intriguing, Moreover, Mr. Gross' exploration of Varian has been natural, never forced, a contrast to Varian himself, whose whole identity seems to be an artificial veneer, Radovan has a devils of a problem, an ancestral tick that is ever amusing and entertaining, To borrow a phrase, men want to run away from him, women want to give him the runaround, and devils want to just run him down, In addition to Oparal, there are two other strong female supporting characters, Alsase, the godcaller, and Jelani, the stalwart trooper, A vampire prince serves as one antagonist, who while not being the sharpest pencil in the box, is one of the most persistent adversaries we've seen in this novel line.
And he isn't even the big bad, Suffice it to say that the principal power in a city so close to the Worldwound, the heart of all demonkind in the realm, would be expected to be a really bad actor, and she is.
The novel, an action tale told as a part of a product line for an adventure game, always delivers on this score, Mr. Gross, a former editor of Dragon magazine, is wellinformed in setting up good action scenes, In game terms, it means "encounter building," and anyone playing the Pathfinder adventure game would have great fun in playing characters in the encounters that are presented here.
The fight on the river early on is stupendous in how the action is conveyed, But that isn't the only welltold sequence, There is some secreting around, many a smartlydirected magic spell and a welltimed rescue that lacks only for a bugle call,
I heartily recommend King of Chaos, .