Once again, I am finding this a tough book to rate but I don’t find it tough to talk about it.

Again, the clumsy and clunky mechanics of 2E are coming out with the spells. I only mention this because since we don’t know what spells Sadira has in her spellbook, all we ever see is her having the right one that is needed or one that works for her purpose even if it isn’t the best one. It’s too bad that they didn’t realize how superfluous that components (specific material components like wax, amber pieces, etc.) are to the game and story. They should have been dropped a while ago.

Further, the author didn’t do a very good job with wounds and the game mechanics. It’s very tough to read about the realistic wounds, with infections and lingering wounds, such as limps or arms that don’t work due to injury, when that’s not the game mechanics. And, really, it’s not the best for a story. The main characters shouldn’t have to worry about something like that. No matter how much truth is in it, in terms of realism, I think it would have been better to have that happen to secondary characters and give the main characters another thing to do or worry about.

The last bad thing I have about the book is the conditions around the Pristine Tower. It’s way too restrictive that any open wound causes a mutation. It also doesn’t make sense, unless it requires blood for some reason, as there are a lot of ways for something like an infection to get into the body. Again, relating it to game mechanics, hit points don’t necessarily mean bleeding. In 4E, it’s easy to say something will happen past the bloody mark, but previous versions don’t have that. Further, does it have to be an open wound? What if it’s a bruise?

The rest of the book, including the story, is very well done. Again, I think these books are meant to be supplemental to the boxed set to give more background about Athas. I don’t know why they (game designers and TSR specifically) did that. The history that is in this book is something that should have been in the GM area in the boxed set because it’s so good! It gives us a LOT of good history here. It explains what happened to Athas and most of the why.

Further, I loved the details about defiling with Sadira. I loved reading her justify her action to defile and how it was worth it for a greater good. A very slippery slope but I thought she handled it well. I also liked how Denning managed to bring her father in it and help resolve those “daddy issues” without being too heavy handed with them all.

The background on the elves was also top notch. Again, Denning really fleshed out the elves into a very interesting segment of Athas. They are practical and have no morals. It’s like they decided to go back to fae origins more closely for this world by having the elves be almost beyond morality. It’s about survival first and foremost and enjoying yourself because there is nothing else. I liked it a lot.

The Halflings were also very interesting in what they were willing to do to get their property back. I liked how people are afraid of Halflings and for good reason.

I really enjoyed this story and think this is the type of story they intended to have be played at the table. There is power out there in the world of Dark Sun and it's available, and it’s not always direct power like this but the allegory works. The question then becomes what are the characters willing to do to gain power and what will they do with it when they get it?