Vampire of the Mists

DNF'd
UGH. I was hopeful. I really wanted to read a book set in Ravenloft/Barovia, which is my favorite D&D setting, but when this started in Waterdeep/Forgotten Realms, I knew I was in trouble. I hate generic fantasy, and the Forgotten Realms is as generic as it comes: it lacks personality and “feel” because it takes the “kitchen sink” approach to content. On top of this, the book is just poorly written. Maybe I was expecting too much from 90s tie-in fiction, but I had my hopes. Unfortunately, at every turn this thing was cringe inducing or took the approach of tell-don't-show. But the WORST part (this is a very, very mild spoiler) is how the main character is a vampire who is more experienced as a vampire than Strahd himself.

Strahd is meant to be a dark force to be reckoned with, a Dracula-like, super-genius monster in human form, but in this book the author takes every opportunity to undermine Strahd's presence and character. It's utterly bizarre since “I am the land” is a major theme of Strahd's character. It's just a terrible book and I'll admit that I didn't finish it, but I read 1/3rd of it, which, I think, is giving more than its fair shot. Also, if you're at all familiar with the Ravenloft setting or Strahd, the twist will be visible from a thousand miles away. I'd avoid this one. One of the worst books I've ever picked up.

I expected a bad story, I got a bad story. No more, no less. In that sense, it was OK. No deal breakers, just a barely readable D&D story, set in the world of Ravenloft.

The characters are one dimensional, the prose is “flat”, the plot is linear and predictable. The protagonist is a frustratingly “good guy” that lives with a monster and does nothing about it.

the subplots and side characters and cardboard depictions of what you would expect them to be. There is a cleric and a werewolf that I remember.

So, a fantasy book about vampires. A couple months ago I wouldn't of been interested at all, but after finishing the Weis/Hickman main storyline of Dragonlance, I wanted to delve into another Dungeons & Dragons franchise, so I chose to read the first Ravenloft book. I gotta say, I was pleasantly surprised.

This book was awesome, the right amount of adventure, the right amount of mystery and the right amount of horror. The main character, a elf turned vampire called Jander Sunstar, really makes you feel for him and really makes you feel how cheated and robbed of a normal life that he was.

So yeah, I'm gonna read this series because the whole idea of a realm that takes broken and evil people and offers them redemption is really cool. Forget those flipping vampire-romance novels and read Ravenloft!