Title: Excellent, but with a significant catch...
Product review: First let me say, when I first picked up this book, I thought it was one of the finest Forgotten Realms branded books to come out it years. I had been reading fantasy for 10 years, and this was one of the best that had that unfortunate company brand upon it. The plot was excellent, the characters interesting...Until I read "The Fountainhead", by Ayn Rand.This series is virtually the EXACT SAME thing! Honestly, the similarities are astounding...Ivar Devorast IS Howard Roark in a tunic. There is a scene that is grotesque in its slavish devotion to Rand's original: where Phyrea meets Devorast = where Dominique meets Roark.So, while Athans is excellent, the sheer disgust I now feel at his blatant crime is overwhelming. If "The Fountainhead" set in the Forgotten Realms sounds appealing, by all means go ahead, he does a splendid job of adapting and simplifying the tale to the setting...but know that he adapted, he did not create.
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