A Dragon's Ascension

Band of Four #3

by Ed Greenwood

A Dragon's Ascension - A Band of Four novel

Aglirta is known as the Kingless Land. Once a prosperous and peaceful river valley, it has fallen into lawlessness, and its feuding baronies are engaged in a constant state of war. But the land is kingless no more, for the Sleeping King of legend, King Kelgrael, has been reawakened by the efforts of the valiant Band of Four:
- Hawkril, a bold and brave warrior gifted with great strength and fortitude
- Craer, the crafty and clever thief
- Sarasper, the learned and wise healer and last but not least
- Lady Embra Silvertree, the mystical Lady of Jewels, a powerful sorceress

Yet peace has not returned. In The Kingless Land, high magic and wizard kings stood in the way, while in The Vacant Throne , civil wars and backstabbing barons resisted the restoration of order.

Now, a powerful warlord comes to the front to take control through military might, while the diabolic minions of the Serpent move into position for a climactic battle that will scar the Band of Four forever.

Genres: Fantasy, Dragons, Forgotten Realms, High Fantasy, Audiobook, Adventure, Sword and Sorcery

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Ed Greenwood is the creator of the Forgotten Realms fantasy world, which became the setting for his home D&D game in 1975. Play still continues in this long-running campaign, and Ed also keeps busy producing Realmslore for various TSR publications.

Ed has published over two hundred articles in Dragon magazine and Polyhedron newszine, is a lifetime charter member of the Role Playing Game Associaton (RPGA) network, has written over thirty books and modules for TSR, and been Gen Con Game Fair guest of honor several times.

In addition to all these activities, Ed works as a library clerk and has edited over a dozen small press magazines.

Invented the character Elminster from the popular Forgotten Realms RPG series. Currently resides in an old farmhouse in the countryside of Ontario, Canada.

Reviews

[Koen Crolla · Rating 2 out of 5]

You think the Forgotten Realms campaign setting is as bad as it is because it's this agglomeration of hundreds of different novels and adventure modules by dozens of different authors that all need to be worked into a coherent canon somehow, but no, it's just how Greenwood's writing was from the start. This actually isn't a Forgotten Realms novel, though it took me an embarrassingly long time to realise that. (Apparently the ~powerful sorceress~ named Lady Silvertree is not any of the several powerful sorceresses named Lady Silverhand, also created by Greenwood.) It is, however, hyper-generic, zero-effort throwaway fantasy emblematic of the worst kind of D&D filler writing.

I've already forgotten the entire plot of this book.

[Liana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun read, but nothing overly spectacular IMO. The story does however, make me want to play some D&D right now. :)

[Ryan Dennehy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Aglirta is a failed state if ever there was one. If I were the king or regent or whatever variation of ruler Greenwood decided to put in this installment, I'd just murder all the Barons and the wizards and, frankly, everyone else for that matter. This book made me want to do violence. This series is exhausting, but has just enough hints of fun that I keep getting sucked back into it.

Time to finish this fucker.

[Charmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice fun and quick adventure read for any vacation. The climax was surprisingly thin considering the pages spent illustrating the pre battle battles. And cliché in fantasy books there are always love scenes which this author chose to clump together at the end. The format could have done without. But like I said overall a quite enjoyable vacation read.

[Chip Hunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should know better than to expect anything more than mindless and immature nonsense in an unoriginal fantasy setting from Greenwood, but somehow I keep thinking he'll eventually come up with something worthwhile. Don't get me wrong, A DRAGON'S ASCENSION is somewhat better than the previous book, in that it actually progresses the overall plot of the series in a significant way, with the rise of the Serpent and Saraspar's unbelievable transformation. Unfortunately, the book still suffers from all the same problems the rest of Greenwood's book do. Silly, inane, and pointless-feeling, its just hard to take any of these books seriously. They may serve as a distraction for a while, but are completely lacking if you're looking for anything remotely serious. There are many, MANY, better books out there for those looking for a good fantasy. Not recommended.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent book. I had a hard time following some of the earlier passages but that may be due to my not having read the other Band of Four novels. I am going to give the first one a shot and see if some of the things in this novel get cleared up a mite. Overall it was entertaining and I enjoyed the climax of the book.

[Erikat · Rating 5 out of 5]

GREAT BOOK.

[Harm · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stopped reading when I was at about 60%, did not like that the book goes from fight to fight with almost nothing else in between.

[Reading · Rating 3 out of 5]

A flawed fantasy story. There are many others published that are far, far better.