Guardians of the Flame: The Warriors by Joel Rosenberg
Guardians of the Flame: The Warriors pleasantly surprised me. I’ll admit that going into it I was somewhat dubious: it looked like an obvious cash-in on a clichéd premise. Joel Rosenberg, however, turned out to be a more skilled author than I had anticipated, weaving a fun, fast-paced, often grim series that did exactly what it needed to. The Warriors is an omnibus volume consisting of the first three GUARDIANS OF THE FLAME novels: The Sleeping Dragon, The Sword and the Chain, and The Silver Crown.
The Guardians of the Flame series has a fairly basic conceit. A group of college students are playing a role-playing game transparently based on Dungeons and Dragons with a professor as dunge... Read More
Honored Enemy & Murder in LaMut by Raymond E. Feist, William R. Forstchen & Joel Rosenberg
Raymond E. Feist has always been notable for his willingness to share the world of Midkemia. In all his acknowledgments and dedications, Feist notes that from its very inception the world has been a collaborative effort. His Empire trilogy was a collaboration with Janny Wurts, and the computer game Betrayal at Krondor had to be shared, by its very nature. He has returned to the tradition of collaborative effort in his Legends of the Riftwar series.
Tak... Read More
More books by Joel Rosenberg
Metsada Mercenary Corps — (1984-1990) Publisher: Elwere — city of rainbows, where the fortunes of the planet Oroga are concentrated in the grasping hands of the privileged few. To David, stolen from Elwere as a baby and raised as a thief of the Lower City, it is a dream of paradise, a treasure trove to which he must find the key, no matter what the cost… And Eschteef — a schrift of the jewel-and-precious-metals schtann, twice the size of a human, more than twice as strong, with frightfully glowing eyes and rows of needle-sharp teeth. It, too, has a dream, a dream of which David has suddenly become the crucial focus. And once a schrift has chosen, nothing can change its path. Elwere or the Alien — two different roads to the future, leading to either wealth and power — or death…




D’Shai — (1991-1994) Publisher: In feudal D’Shai, your birth determines your status — and your own special magic. There is the Way of the Warrior, the Way of the Runner, and fifty other kazuh. Thus has always been.The Way of D’Shai. Kami is twice trapped by this rigid caste system. He is a peasant in love with a beautiful daughter of the upper classes. And he is an acrobat with no magical talents for acrobatics. But when he is falsely accused of a nobleman’s murder, Kami must defy tradition and find his own special power — and neither he nor D’Shai will ever be the same!


Keepers of the Hidden Ways — (1995-1998) Publisher: There are Hidden Ways built into the structure of existence — linking the New World and the Newer… dating back to a time before time. When he brought college friends Maggie and Ian home to North Dakota, Torrie Thorsen anticipated a carefree vacation — not werewolves, Norse gods and inconceivable worlds. But the Thorsen destiny leads them all to where the family’s history began — through secret portals into a place of legend and peril. For here, where the blade of Torrie’s father once loyally served the House of the Sky, son and father both must suffer for ancient transgressions. And with war clouds gathering above the Middle Dominion, an unlikely champion will raise his sword in defense of captive friends… to prevent the fiery coming of the End of All Days.



Paladins — (2004-2005) Alternate Arthurian Legend. Publisher: In the seventeenth century, in an alternate universe where Mordred defeated King Arthur (now known as Arthur the Tyrant) and founded the Pendragon dynasty, much of Europe, Asia, and the New World are part of an Empire ruled from England. The Order of Crown, Shield, and Dragon, originally founded as Mordred’s personal bodyguard, has become a legion of special agents for the Crown: special emissaries in time of peace, and invincible warriors in more violent times. They carry special weapons: swords, each of which contains the soul of someone of great power. White swords are inhabited by the souls of saints¿and red swords by those who were anything but saints. Even in the hands of a knight of the Order, even wielded in the cause of righteousness, a red sword is terribly dangerous to its owner and all around him. In more evil hands, a red sword is the most dangerous and powerful weapon known to mankind. Now, three knights of the Order have just tracked down a previously unknown red sword which was found on a Grecian shore, and which shows all signs of having been recently forged. Worse, the mind encased in the sword remembers that it was only one of many which were cached in the hold of a mysterious sailing ship, origin unknown…

