James W. (jamesw) reviewed on 6/20/2013 + 9 more book reviews

The Savage Caves is the first novel in the 2002 series introducing archetypical "iconic" 3.0 Dungeons & Dragons characters in literary terms. These novels were apparently designed to support the 3.0 launch by inserting players handbook characters into actions and/or quests that D&D fans could both understand and enjoy.

I found the first novel very enjoyable and a fast read. Several facets of this book make it a great starting point in the series of ten. First, the four characters represent the four core classes in D&D: Regdar the Fighter, Jozan the Cleric, Lidda the Thief, and Naull the Magic-user. Second, the foes are classic first level type creatures: Goblins, Giant Spiders, and Hobgoblins. The best part of the book though, was that the characters acted like beginning adventurers - they make mistakes, generate extra noise when they shouldn't, show too much light, etc...its great! Finally, characters actually act like mortals rather than gods that never make a mistake, never miss a blow, etc...Good stuff!

Eventually a total of ten books were written for this series by various staff writers in the WOTC stable. All ten used the psuedo-name "T.H. Lain" to grant continuity between the books. Each adventure looks like it features different iconic characters and as I read them I will post reviews for all, along with which characters were present. My hope is that the story line is pulled from one book to another but that is never a sure thing with multiple authors. It will be disappointing, for example, if Regdar and Naull have to "meet" again, since they seemed to be working on a budding romance between them.

If you like this review please give me a thumbs up, it would be nice to know it was helpful to someone! Also, check out my other reviews for this series (as I get them read) and others I have done previously. Thanks!

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