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Series: The Rogues
Title: The Alabaster Staff (Book 1)
Author: Edward Bolme
ISBN: 0-7869-2962-6
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 309
Overall Concept 7
Execution 8

As most of you may have gleaned by now, I am an avid Fantasy reader as well as a 'gamer'. The Forgotten Realms novels, by Wizards of the Coast, are a great amalgam of these two interests of mine.

This book, The Alabaster Staff, is one of the large number of Forgotten Realms novels that have been published thus far.

This book is the kick off book in the concept series that WotC have started releasing, each series of four books focusing on one of the four archetypal classes from the DnD roleplaying game; rogue, cleric, fighter and wizard. Though each of these books are complete stand alone novels, the theme of the archetypal class is what ties them together. Essentially each book shows a different facet of the same class, so as to represent the robustness and variation that can exist amongst said classes.

This novel deals with the world of rogues, thieves and scoundrels and does so in the Forgotten Realms city of Messemprar, a large coastal city in the disputed territory of Unther in South Eastern Faerun.

The prologue of the novel gives a quick yet detailed overview of the slaying of the God king Gilgeam of Unther and its subsequent occupation by the nation of Mulhorandi. This gives us a fair understanding of the turmoil of the region and the general attitudes of its peoples.

During the coarse of the novel the author does a fair impression of letting the reader know that the closest Earth analogy to Unther would be Babylon, which he does by explaining its attire, laws, and overall geographical features. This is most important, as it helps us to understand the harsh militant rule that hangs over the land and the risks that those who thieve take should they ever get caught. There also several mentions of the Untheric quality of stoic acceptance of hardship or pain.

The main protagonist of the story is a young native of Unther who grew up under the despotic rule of the God king and his priests, and is now maturing in a world that is constantly on the edge of war or invasion. She is not a rogue in the truest sense, yet she has many of the qualities of a good rogue; quick wit and even faster hands, lithe, dexterous and ingenuity and cunning.

The story starts with her plying her trade of sleight of hand in a public courtyard, trying to gain a few coppers with which to feed her hungry belly and find her a roof for the night. Due to a series of unfortunate events, and the actions of a cruel member of the thieves’ guild, she is coerced into stealing an item of magic from a local merchant.

The story goes on from there as one event leads to several more and the protagonist gets ever more and more entwined in the large scale politics and powers of this land on the verge of war.

Mr. Bolme has done a very good job of reflecting the ideas that rogues are as much con artists and opportunists as they are simple thieves. He has also admirably set up the various cast members with their own personal ambitions and very often people are not at all what they initially seem to be. Additionally he has done a great job of blurring the lines between good and evil and altruistic and selfish, as again, people aren't what they seem to be.

All in all this is an excellent book and I would heartily recommend it to anyone who either likes fantasy or is a fan of the Forgotten Realms.