William Ray reviewed Blighted City by Scott Kaelen
Review of 'Blighted City' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Scott Kaelen's The Blighted City is a tale of fantastic adventure full of ancient ruins, strange monsters, horror and intrigue. It's like a classic tabletop module in literary form -- the heroes meet up in a bar and are set upon a dangerous quest that becomes more and more complicated as they go. It's an exciting read, and I highly recommend it.
The take on the undead menace is clever, the characterization is all really lifelike, the world is intriguingly detailed with all sorts of interesting tidbits hinting at an expansive realm that extends far beyond the pages. It's full of the sort of fantasy tourism I love.
The monsters and other threats are all interesting and different. The 'blind pygmies' were a particularly creepy danger that felt like the sort of thing that would really frustrate a party in D&D. There's a lot here to really fall in love …
Scott Kaelen's The Blighted City is a tale of fantastic adventure full of ancient ruins, strange monsters, horror and intrigue. It's like a classic tabletop module in literary form -- the heroes meet up in a bar and are set upon a dangerous quest that becomes more and more complicated as they go. It's an exciting read, and I highly recommend it.
The take on the undead menace is clever, the characterization is all really lifelike, the world is intriguingly detailed with all sorts of interesting tidbits hinting at an expansive realm that extends far beyond the pages. It's full of the sort of fantasy tourism I love.
The monsters and other threats are all interesting and different. The 'blind pygmies' were a particularly creepy danger that felt like the sort of thing that would really frustrate a party in D&D. There's a lot here to really fall in love with -- If you love fantasy, you should check this out.
It should be five stars, but for one issue that nags at me. Much like the movie version of Lord of the Rings, it has way too much ending. Usually when you say a story has a problematic ending, it's because that ending leaves too much unresolved, or is otherwise unsatisfying... but The Blighted City suffers from the opposite problem. Everything is well resolved. Several times. It feels like the last 20% of the book is almost superfluous. Any of those scenes could have been a solid ending, but instead we get all of them.
Unfortunately there's not really a lot added by the prolonged ending. Certainly after an epic tale it can be interesting to learn where characters end up afterward and how they cope with their survival, but much of that can be indicated pretty briefly. None of the resolution is particularly shocking, and yet a hefty chunk of book walks you through nearly every detail of the aftermath. It's a nice long story even without that final 20%, so it's not like the author needed to pad out the page count to justify his cover price. I still very much recommend you pick up a copy and check it out, I just think that if you get into those final few chapters and feel like you've pretty much hit the end of the story... you probably have, and won't be losing much if you stop early.
That caveat expressed, the main part of this book is really great, I loved the main story arc, and I'll be keeping an eye out for Kaelen's next tale of adventure.