Starspawn by Wendy N. WagnerMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book is totally different from The Crusader Road. How was it different? It has treasure hunters, sea monsters, it does have spiders in it, and also an eldritch horror. NEED I SAY MORE?! This book was hella different from Crusader Road, and it’s one of my favorite books out of the Pathfinder Tales. I loved the action, I loved how caring the crew was to each other, and I also loved how the crew looked after one another, and also I loved Kran. Kran was basically the star of the book, right next to his mother, Jendara.
First off, the book starts on Jendara’s birthday, and how she was waking up and was a bit excited to celebrate her birthday-until a huge tsunami hit, destroying almost everyone and everything on the island. Jendara tried to get everyone, including her son, his dog and his friend, to high ground. Once the tsunami was over and the Milady came ashore, Jendara’s husband, Vorrin, tells her of an island not far from her homeland, and that they had treasure there. Jendara agreed, and the crew set off on this island of gold and treasure.
When they get there, well…they are swirled up in action, adventure, and a ritual to summon an Lovecraftian horror known as Starspawn. They tried to stop it, with Jendara’s speech-disabled son Kran (who is the best boy and needs to be protected at all times) and his dog Fygla (who is the best dog, fight me) throughout the novel. They also witness some animal cruelty with the poor dolphin getting sacrificed to the god, but also they fought spiders. I do have a fear of spiders, so yes, I did take a break after those chapters. But holy shit the way they were falling and nearly dying and having to kill one of their crew when the spider’s poison was close enough to kill her-oof.
We meet the ulat-kini, who are “ a race of fish aquatic humanoids incapable of reproducing without human partners” according to the glossary in the back of the book (which is really thoughtful, thanks Paizo), and they are trying to summon the Starspawn (but why?) and they do succeed…using a scepter and an astrolabe. Turns out..that it was the wrong time to summon the horror, and Jendara sent the Starspawn right back to sleep.
I really enjoyed this book-its my favorite out of the two I read. I am planning on getting more soon, once I get a chance, because this was different but fun at the same time.
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