The Inquisitives

As an aside, I just finished the fourth book of The Inquisitives series, a 4-book series of Eberron novels. Like The War-Torn series which I reviewed here years ago when it was still relatively new, it really isn't a series at all; it's four stand-alone books with completely different characters, all written by different authors. I've had a rough relationship in many ways with D&D fiction. Ten years ago when I was reviewing The Crimson Talisman it was a pretty scathing review, and I even was kind of harsh on The Orb of Xoriat and Claws of the Tiger even though I liked them. (I can't find my review for Blood and Honor. I know that I read it, but maybe I never wrote one for some reason.)

I don't know if this series is better than that one, or if I'm just more mellow in my older age. Ten years sometimes will do that to a guy. But I actually don't much hesitate to recommend these novels, at least to D&D players. Sometimes the specifics of the mechanics show up more than I'd like, or rather; a lot of stuff that's implied about the setting in the rules features prominently. That's probably not actually a complaint, although I complained about in the past; stuff like the magical healing and some of the very specific magic items and spells, etc. I mean, c'mon, every fantasy setting's gotta have some of that, right, and if in Eberron's case that resembles the rules of D&D to a great degree, even in the novels, that really shouldn't be too surprising. I guess my problem is that I don't really love the implied setting of D&D all that much, which is why I guess I was so motivated to "fix" Eberron, or rather, remix it into something else.

I guess maybe my vision of Eberron is just different than the creator's. And that's OK. Check out, for example, this synthwave remix of The Outfield's "Your Love" which I found a few weeks ago. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the original, especially if you're a guy my age who was in middle school when it came out, but this synthwave remix is amazing, because it replaces the original 80s pop with a kind of retro-futuristic view of the 80s that never really existed, but which at the same time distills the tone and feel of the 80s in a way that almost feels more 80s than actual 80s music does. I guess that's how I always felt about Eberron; it was too hampered by being D&D when it was really trying to be a really cool swashbuckling setting in some other system. (Not to hype my own past work, but if you're interested, here's the Eberron Remixed stuff. It requires access to the original 3.5 Eberron Campaign Setting book to use.)

Anyway, all of the four Inquisitives novel feature mystery plots that unfold in Eberron. The first one, Bound by Iron was probably the weakest, but the next three are all actually pretty fantastic. Night of Long Shadows, the second one, was my favorite. Curiously, there's a sequel to it, but it's not the next book in this series. I imagine it's because the main character and his side-kick are probably the most likeable characters of all that we're shown, and have the most charisma and chemistry between them, but the characters of Legacy of Wolves and The Darkwood Mask are pretty cool too. The last one, unfortunately, ends on a slightly unresolved cliff-hanger about a bunch of things, and as far as I know, there was never any follow-up to tie that off in a sequel or anything. A little disappointing. 

However, I think any D&D fan would enjoy these novels. I certainly did, more than I expected to. I have certainly mellowed over the years in my criticisms of game fiction, but that may be only because I find regular fiction to be really bad these days, so older game fiction from a decade or two ago is pretty good in comparison. But it's hard to say. I got to a point where I wasn't really reading very much for fun any more for many years, and now that I'm back doing a fair bit of it (sort of) again, I'm finding that the lighter fare is actually pretty fun. 

I don't know if you can even find this stuff any more. I don't think any Eberron novels have been in print for many years, and these were originally published in 2007-8 or so, if I recall. It looks like they're not too hard to pick up on Thriftbooks for about the same price they would have retailed at new, however. I don't think that they're super collectible, just out of print and ultimately meant to be fairly forgettable. But I enjoyed them, and recommend them to you.