The Edge of Chaos

by Jak Koke

Book Overview

Explore the unexplored - enter The Wilds of the Forgotten Realms(R) On the border of a dangerous, magically unstable area called the Plaguewrought Lands, the leader of a cult seeking the spread of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786951893
• ISBN13: 9780786951895
• Release Date: August 2009
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
• Length: 309 Pages
• Weight: 0.31 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.3" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

The Edge of Chaos by Jak Koke

The Edge of Chaos by Jak Koke- This is the third book in The Wilds series of stand-alone novels set in the Forgotten Realms universe. The first novel is The Fanged Crown by Jenna Helland, the second novel is The Restless Shore by James P. Davis, and Wrath of the Blue Lady by Mel Odom is the last. This is Jak Koke's first foray into the Forgotten Realms, he as written other novels in different settings. The story is about an elixir that could help prevent death from exposure to the Spellplague, a storm that caused magic to go wild and either kills things it touches or scars them, giving the individual powers. We are introduced to a monk named Slanya and a rogue named Duvan, who embark to recover some plaguegrass for the elixir to work. In order to recover the plaguegrass, the duo must travel into the Plaguewrought Lands, a place were the Spellplague is contained. It's almost certain death. However, the elixir as drawn interest from parties that want it to be able to unleash the Spellplague again. Does the duo recover the plaguegrass, come out of the Plaguewrought Land whole, and uncover the plot to release the Spellplague and stops it? Negatives: 1) Cliché Main Characters. Slanya and Duvan are extremely cliché and it can get bothersome. Duvan is like any other rogue, a mysterious person who is bitter and cynical of everything. He doesn't have many friends (actually he has none), likes to do things on his own, and can be a little headstrong and bitter. Slanya wants to change this mysterious person (am I starting to sound like every movie made about a love story yet?). Then you realize that the two become in "love" (love is used loosely). Seriously sounds like almost every love story doesn't it? While these characters themselves are interesting and engaging, the whole clichéd premise of it does become really distracting and annoying. 2) Errors. I usually won't put something like this in a negative spot, I'd just mention it. However, the whole book is plagued (get it?) with editing overlooks and grammatical errors. I know I may not be the best at grammar, but when a comma is in place of a period and the next word isn't capitalized, the whole sentence becomes drowned in confusion. But that's not the worst part. The editing mistakes are just horrible. There was a sentence in which it reads something like, "change and make and." Now at first glance, that may not be a problem. But then you realize that either "change" or "make" would work in the sentence. So then you come under the understanding that whomever added whichever word meant to take out the first word but forgot to take out the first word. Yes, my previous sentence may be hard to read, but that's what it felt like. It was confusing and just lazy. This has to be the first book that the errors really bothered me. You have an editor for a reason right? 3) Predictable Ending. While the story up until the ending is wonderful and not all that predictable, the ending just gets bogged down in know

Beware the Plaguewrought Lands

First off, I would like to welcome Mr. Koke to the Forgotten Realms. The Edge of Chaos is his first novel in the FR setting and the third in the stand alone series called The Wilds. The first was The Fanged Crown by Jenna Helland, the second, The Restless Shore by James P. Davis and the forth, Wrath of the Blue Lady by Mel Odom is due out in December. The main plot of The Edge of Chaos revolves around the border of The Plaguewrought Land near Ormpetarr. People are talking a pilgrimage to the town in the hopes of becoming spellscarred and thus receiving magical abilities. The only problem is that the chaotic nature of the spell plague lands mostly results in death. There is a better chance of survival here though since an alchemist named Gregor has an elixir to make people immune to the fatal effects. Vraith, the leader of the Order of Blue Fire has plans for the elixir. Then there is the main protagonist, Duvan, who works freelance acquiring things. Mostly he works for Tyrangal who is head of the Copper guard. Duvan is joined by Slanya who journeys with him on a quest. There are subplots of a couple of the characters pasts, and evil ambition, and an eventual love interest. Like all new FR novels, this one takes place 100 years after the spell plague events. The plot takes a different approach to the spellscarred people. Usually people who have become spellscarred are shunned or prejudiced against, however, in this one the people are looking to become spellscarred. The pacing was done very well. It never bogs down and moved nicely from one scene to the next and kept me interested. The book also flowed quite well even with a few hiccups here and there. I cam across 12 mistakes which could have been taken care of with some good editing. I won't claim to know the ins and outs of creating a book, but I have noticed lately that there are a lot of mistakes in the FR books. More so than before. I still enjoyed the book very much otherwise. Mr. Koke does a really good job of developing the characters. Each one had their own voice and they all had flaws adding to their realism. Vraith was about the only character that I really didn't care for. I just couldn't connect with her and as the main antagonist, she didn't feel that threatening. Aside from a couple, the secondary characters, I felt, could have added a bit more to the story, especially at the end. This story runs in at 278 pages. In order to get it to over the 300 page mark, WotC put in a long excerpt to a forthcoming novel. These pages could have been used to provide some more background of a couple characters or added more the ending battle. Those are just my thoughts. Some Criticisms 1. I would have liked more about Vraith. I feel a little more depth to her character could have enhanced her and made it easier to connect with her. 2. ]The climax at the end could have had more to it. Also it was mostly predictable. Sometimes I like it when I can predict the outcome of certain events, however