The Alien Sea

Dragonlance: Champions #2

by Lucien Soulban

The great poison of the World Gash spreads through the oceans of Krynn, killing all in its path. Led by Apoletta of the Dargonesti and Utharne of the Dimernesti, the two great aquatic races of sea elves convene a Conclave to address the mysterious, urgent crisis.When undead attack the Conclave, Apoletta and Utharne must unite both their species, brave the storms of the World Gash and confront the ghosts of their past. What they discover will forever change their oceanic world and the fate of their two peoples.

Genres: Dragonlance, Fantasy, Fiction, Dungeons and Dragons

308 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 8, 2006

About the author

I hate bios - it's the only time I have writer's block - but, in a nutshell, I was:
1) Born in Saudi Arabia
2) Lived there for 12 years
3) Went to school in Hell… er… Houston, Texas for 8 years.
4) Moved to Montreal, Quebec and in doing so, found the glove that fit my hand.
5) I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

So instead of those dry boring tidbits, I present the Frequently Asked Questions concerning Lucien Soulban. You know you've been waiting for it! The following questions come from the patient folks who frequent my Live Journal as well as some of the questions I've heard in my lifetime.

Reviews

[Jim C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual rating 3.5 stars.

This book is part of the world of Dragonlance. In this one, an evil is spreading throughout the oceans and a party of sea elves journey to scout out this new evil.

We have all read this fantasy trope where an evil is gathering and a small party travel to discover this threat. This book does a twist on this trope by putting all of the book underwater. It is a different world under the sea and this author portrayed it thoroughly. In fact, I believe he went a little too far with his world building. The first half of the book concentrated on this and it got to be too much as the author added fantastic creature after fantastic creature. The world building was well done but there wasn't much plot drive to really entice me. When the author switched gears and concentrated on plot, this book was amazing. From character growth to the twists and turns, the pace was terrific and I was totally invested in the proceedings. The final hundred pages went by in a blur as I could not stop reading.

This book is enjoyable. But beware. It does take some reading to finally reach that state but when it does, it will be hard to put down.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished reading The Alien Sea and the entire Champions series. Set after the War of Souls, we find Apoletta of Istar struggling to unite the efforts of Dimernesti and Dargonesti elves against the growing World Gash and its poisoning of the oceans. I really enjoyed the setting, which was entirely underwater, and Apoletta and her companions were interesting and engaging enough, especially Utharne with his religious/philosophical thoughts. My main complaint with this book was that the pacing felt very rushed, especially at the beginning where all the characters are thrown at us and the main conflict is hurriedly explained. Probably the length of the book hindered a more relaxed development of characters and setting, although it was in line with the length of most other Dragonlance books from this time. I also had a minor issue with some of the dialogue as it felt too modern and out of character for the elves and sea creatures speaking it. However, this book was really interesting and I’m now going to find and read two related short stories by Soulban, “Song of the Mother” from Dragons of Time and “Marine Skies” from The Search for Power.

[E J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Middle section was a bit of a bore; it was mainly a sightseeing tour that could've been better expressed via comic or movie. Just imagine vistas from Vashj'ir. The diplomatic scenes were much better. I was pretty clueless about the relationships, both political and personal, between the various characters so the emotional pull of the story was largely lost on me. I think there are a few prelimary short stories from other books that would've helped had I read them beforehand. This kind of info really should be prefaced before in an introduction or something. I mean, come on. Do you or do you not want your readers to like your stories?