The Forest King

Dragonlance: The Anvil of Time #4

by Paul B. Thompson

The surprising history of Balif has finally come to light...

The Journeyman is charged to use the ancient Anvil of Time to travel back along the river of time and find the lost stories that fell between the pages of the history books.

One of the most intriguing figures in Dragonlance (R) is that of Balif, the elven general who was an intimate of Silvanos, the first Speaker of the Stars. Balif founded the city of Balifor, granted the kender a homeland, was an advocate for the wizard Vedvedsica, lived under a curse, was altered by the Graygem--but no one elf could do all those things. Or could he?

Genres: Dragonlance, Fantasy, Fiction

309 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 2, 2009

Reviews

[Joel Norden · Rating 2 out of 5]

On my chronological order read through of dragonlance, there is only one word for me to describe this book: Ugh.

I was severely disappointed with the Forest King. Usually, anything Paul B Thompson touches is gold. But I really struggled to get into this one.
Possible spoilers:

The characters didn't seem to fit and I couldn't really build up a liking to them. Just finishing the Barbarians trilogy I was excited to read on about Balif, but seemed to find him a different character. There were many mess ups for an example: Balif tells someone he gave the humans bows and arrows. Even though in book 3 of the barbarians trilogy its a large plot-line near the end that Balif is trying to steal the bows from the nomads so the elves can learn to make them.
Besides that the timeline is a little off I believe, as vedvedsica was outcast before book three of the barbarians which takes place before this book. At the beginning of this book is vedvedsica's trail and then I believe the rest of the book takes place directly after that. Balif mentions fighting under Nianki, which couldn't have happened yet because it happened AFTER vedvedsica's trial.

The plot didn't really draw me in either-but that may have just been personal preference.

On the positive, it was really cool how the author explains the different forms of Balif. Some thought he was kender and some he was an elf. Very cool.
While it didn't draw me at the beginning or middle, I found the ending very good.

[Jim C · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book set in the world of Dragonlance. In this one, nomads are entering the realm of elves. Balif and several of his associates are sent to check this out. During this mission we discover there is more than meets the eye with Balif and we also learn of the origins of kender.

The character Balif has appeared in other novels from this world and there are different variations of this character. I give credit to the author for working out this problem. I also liked the story about the kenders and their origins. Unfortunately these two positive aspects were not enough to carry this novel. My main problem with this book was the characters. They were bland. I didn't care for their dialogue and I did not care about the secrets that characters were hiding. The main story never landed for me and the only reason I finished this book was the minor story about the kenders and why I gave this book a generous two star rating.

I can only recommend this book to the die hard fans of this world. There is some nice background information but as entertainment this book missed the mark.

[Todd R · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Pros - The first 3 (4) chapters, Discussion of early Human and Kender migration and how the Silvanesti deal with it.
The Cons - Everything else

A terrible book, boring in almost every aspect, with very few points of interest. Balif is a bore as are his fellow characters who feel aimless, pointless, and about as fed up with the lame premise as the reader.

[Michael T Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was just confusing and meandered too much and I eventually gave up - I made it like 2/3 of the way through the book and realized I didn't really care about anything going on.

I really enjoyed the prologue & wanted more with Vedvedseca and his ... Dr. Moreau plot. And apparently we DO get that because it's revealed that practically none of the main characters are what they appear to be, but it's done so haphazardly I kind of assumed it was a lie, but then it's not, and then we're off on a different adventure, and ... like, I couldn't even recall the original reason the characters set off. To see the kender threat close-up? As a distraction? I just didn't care.

It just felt like anything could happen & it would be mentioned in such a blase manner that it would matter as little as everything else in this book.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was good, but the author kept mixing up who he was talking about. Very often they would put "he" when it should have been "she" or even said Treskan when it was Mathi that was talking. Got confusing at times.

[James Mullins · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book goes from terrible to bad over the course of the story. There were continuity errors between this novel and the Barbarians Trilogy set some 1200 years earlier. An in acceptable failure on the part of the author and editor.

[Mikaël · Rating 3 out of 5]

War hero discovers the furry fandom, gets banished from polite society and goes into a spiral of degeneracy until he inevitably fucks a cat

[Tom Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just fine. Baylif is cool

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

For fans of Dragonlance and the unexplored lore of the world’s history, this book explains a lot. The Journeyman learns of the true reason for the rift between Balif and Vedvedsica, the original appearance of kender on Krynn, and Balif’s retreat from Silvanesti and historical record. I mostly enjoyed the story, although some of the writing just felt a little off. For example, the revelation of Mathi’s true nature, while expected, wasn’t revealed in a dramatic way. It was just sort of mentioned a third of the way in without fanfare. I had assumed that it was originally kept a secret to be uncovered dramatically but not so. Anyway, since I recently read many of Thompson’s other books (most written with Tonya Cook), I loved all the threads of connection with those Dragonlance books specifically: The Barbarians trilogy, Riverwind the Plainsman, and the Elven Exiles. That’s one of my favorite things about Dragonlance; i love how authors carve out their own unique looks at Krynn that can be followed throughout their selection of books and short stories.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author/editor gave up any attempt at proof-reading about half way through the novel. In addition to frequent spelling and grammar errors, the main female character was repeatedly referenced as "he" "him" and "his" for the remainder of the book. A decent story, but very sloppily produced.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was an OK story, not great, but not horrible. It was interesting to see some of the earliest encounters of Kenders. Paul B Thompson did a good job of showing how structured the Elvin society is but also how elegant as well. No big surprises in this book, but still enjoyable.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This might be my favorite book of the Anvil of Time series.

[Kyle K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally an explanation on the seeming discrepancy of Balif the elf general, or Kender general. His mission, his curse and his fate.