Book Review: Pathfinder Tales: Starspawn by Wendy N. Wagner

Starspawn by Wendy N. Wagner
My 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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Book Review: Pathfinder Tales: The Crusader Road by Michael A. Stackpole

The Crusader Road by Michael A. Stackpole
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was my first time reading a Pathfinder Tales novel, and I have DNFed this book before, mostly because I didn’t have to read it. But this book was kinda homey and good, nothing to run home about.

It’s about a family who’s been kicked out of court, and they are moving someplace in the woods to start over. It has a boy named Jerrad who is called “mouse” all the time, and he’s basically training to be a wizard, even though he didn’t think there were magic users in his family. In this book, we see Jerrad grow from the so-called “mouse” he was called multiple times by his sister, to someone who’s learning magic and would defend his family from the usual goblins and ogres. Even in the book, he kept putting himself down each time someone called him a hero, saying that he’s not like his father, who turns out, is a Broken Man (he doesn’t know it yet). He does fall in love with a girl named Nelsa Murdoon, and he saved a sprite from a cage. Honestly, I liked Jerrad’s growth, but throughout the book, he started to get on my nerve about “not being a hero” when he’s learning and doing these incredible things, but at least he stood up for the village to Lord Blackstone, and everyone got the whip (ow).

His sister, Serrana, got on my nerves as well. She complained the first part of the book, wanting to go home, believing that she doesn’t belong here. But after the goblins attacked, everything just…changed for her. She stopped complaining, picked up a bow and arrow, and became an archer. She fell in love with Creelisk’s son, and the two are becoming leaders in their own right.

Lady Tyressa, the star of the book in my eyes, is more of a leader than the two people that tried to over throw her. She took everything seriously, thinking of her people as they settled in Silverlake. She thought about everything carefully, and fought hard. She thought about her husband in this book as well, even though he came at the end of the book, but the way she took out the ogrekin was beautiful.

Now that bad guys were sneaky, typical bad guys that only wanted to take the Vishov family down. One kept lying, but he died in the goblin attack, and another was a lord that got the Vishov family lands who got poisoned by another lord (Lord Blackstone). All in all, this was a okay book, and I enjoyed it. I wish that Jerrad did more magic in the book, and I wish there was a book two, to see how the family is doing, but other than that it was good and I enjoyed it.

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