Kadomi reviewed Pathfinder Tales: Prince of Wolves by Dave Gross
Review of 'Pathfinder Tales: Prince of Wolves' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
This is the first book of the Pathfinder Tales, tie-in fictions for the official campaign world of the Pathfinder RPG, Golarion. Now, in my time, I have read tons of tie-in fiction. When I used to play AD&D, I pretty much bought every Forgotten Realms book published, and same with the Dragonlance books. A lot of this tie-in fiction was bad or disappointing. I know people love R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt do' Urden books, but I despised them. They were bland, generic, and Drizzt is just such a special snowflake. Eventually I moved on to what I consider real fiction. I mean, come on, I even read Dragonlance fiction by Richard Knaak, the guy who brought us Rhonin and other disappointments in WoW fiction. This all should explain why my expectations for Pathfinder fiction were really really low. I am very happy to say that I was very pleasantly surprised.
Prince …
This is the first book of the Pathfinder Tales, tie-in fictions for the official campaign world of the Pathfinder RPG, Golarion. Now, in my time, I have read tons of tie-in fiction. When I used to play AD&D, I pretty much bought every Forgotten Realms book published, and same with the Dragonlance books. A lot of this tie-in fiction was bad or disappointing. I know people love R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt do' Urden books, but I despised them. They were bland, generic, and Drizzt is just such a special snowflake. Eventually I moved on to what I consider real fiction. I mean, come on, I even read Dragonlance fiction by Richard Knaak, the guy who brought us Rhonin and other disappointments in WoW fiction. This all should explain why my expectations for Pathfinder fiction were really really low. I am very happy to say that I was very pleasantly surprised.
Prince of Wolves is set in Ustalav, Golarion's version of Romania or maybe Transsylvania, settled by a group of people called Varisians. It's a country ravaged by war against the Whispering Tyrant, a powerful lich and is still suffering from that today. The story has two protagonists and is told from the first person perspective in alternating chapters. Count Varian Jeggare is an elven Venture-Captain in the Pathfinder society, a powerful faction of explorers. He has lost contact to one of his Pathfinder agents and travels to Ustalav to find her. He is accompanied by his bodyguard Radovan, a tiefling with devil blood, but also Varisian roots. Early on, they get attacked and separated. Count Jeggare ends up in the clutches of cultists of Urgathoa, the goddess of undeath, whereas Radovan ends up with a group of werewolves who are Sczarni and who believe he is the Prince of Wolves that was foretold to them. Inevitably, they end up together again, both searching for the Lacuna Codex, an evil book of spells that the Urgathoa cultists are only too eager to get their hands on. The book is a strange mix of humor, a bit of a Victorian feel because Count Jeggare and Radovan were a bit like Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, with the count being very much snooty upper class, and classic gothic horror, sometimes a lot more creepy than I really expected. Above all, it was extremely true to the world of Golarion and pretty much oozed Pathfinder spirit at all times. I am not the only one surprised at this level of quality from a series of tie-in novels, as you can see in Aidan Moher's interview with James L. Sutter, one of the Paizo developers and in charge of the line of novels.
My rating: 4.5 stars