Nightglass

De: Liane Merciel

Narrado por: Eric Michael Summerer

In the grim nation of Nidal, carefully chosen children are trained to practice dark magic, summoning forth creatures of horror and shadow for the greater glory of the midnight lord. Isiem is one such student, a promising young shadowcaster whose budding powers are the envy of his peers. Upon coming of age, he's dispatched on a diplomatic mission to the mountains of the Devil's Perch where he's meant to assist the armies of devil-worshiping Cheliax in clearing out a tribe of monstrous winged humanoids. Yet as the body count rises and Isiem comes face to face with the people he's exterminating, lines begin to blur, and the shadowcaster must ask himself who the real monsters are.

From Liane Merciel, critically acclaimed author of The River King's Road and Heaven's Needle, comes a fantastical tale of darkness and redemption set in the award-winning world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

©2012 Paizo Publishing, LLC (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

dark and twisted but compelling

imagine if harry potter went to a chaotic evil hogwarts. being brought up in a horrible culture doesn't mean it needs to define you.

Hellraiser Hogwarts

Ever wondered what an evil hogwarts looks like?
What a great read. Somehow turns into a western at the end, but quite a great journey. Perfect for any gm/dm out there who looks at Nidal/Zon-Kuthon and loudly wonders "what the hell do i do with this?"

Riveting

I found the writing to be Engaging, that is I felt that I was there and participating in the story

Good book and very well read

If you had played D&D or Pathfinder you will enjoy this book since you will recognize many of the spells, feats, monsters and classes from those games.

Even if not is nice to see a character that is not good nor evil and his view of the different situations he has to go through.

liked the story, but reader was odd.

voice had odd pauses in the middle of sentences or sudden stops of sounds at the ends of words like the mic cut off a milisecond after the word was finished.

Tired story

I really appreciated and enjoyed the story (dark, detailed, and intriguing) until it became that dances with the wolves, fern gully, pocahontas avatar story. I did appreciate how it did differ from those mentioned stories by avoid a romantic interest and focusing on character development, but not enough to get over how tired that repeated plot is.

A little too Dances With Wolves

I loved the first half of this book and the world building in Nidal. Merciel did a wonderful job fully realizing the cult of Zon-Kuthon. Once the book left Nidal into the badlands of Cheliax it lost momentum as the main character joins the strix natives in their fight against hellknights who seek to force them out of their land. It isn’t bad but it isn’t very inventive and smacks of “savages need a civilized outsider to save them” trope like in Avatar and Dances With Wolves.

slow burn that picks up toward the middle.

slow to get going, especially with all the world building but worth it. especially the riveting conclusion and how the stryx are portrayed as being more than one dimensional set pieces for the protagonist's whims. The narration at times is somewhat monotone and found it best to listen to in the background while doing other activities.

The protagonist isn't a morally upstanding character and that might turn some off. A kind of gray morality exists for everyone with all parties commiting morally dubious actions.

Not a bad read before the fifth book of Hell's Rebels.

Reminds me a bit of the pacing of Moby Dick. First two thirds of the book very much in the weeds of the setting with all of the standard heroes journey crammed into the back third.

If you are interested the setting of Nidal and it's courts - this is an interesting resource.