The City of Towers

City of Towers is not only the first installment in 'The Dreaming Dark' series, it is also the fist book depicting a new campaign setting from Wizards of the Coast (think Forgotten Realms) entitled Eberron, written by newcomer Keith Baker who is also the apparently the creator of the setting and was chosen by WotC from a number of submissions. Apparently, at least two more novels are planned for 'Dreaming Dark', as listed within the novel, book II 'The Shattered Land' will is scheduled to be released in December of his year, the third novel 'The Gates of Night' a year after that in December of 2006.

I picked up City of Towers when I heard it was the first book in a new line, and had thumbed through it at a store and noticed several pages toward the end of the novel were dedicated to seemingly detailed information about the world (Eberron) its royal houses, political powers, religious bodies, environment details, and semi-biographical information of some of the characters. So because of my curiosity of the beginning new line and because of my affinity for detailed information I purchased City of Towers. Baker introduces us to a time in Eberron depicting the direct aftermath of a long terrible civil war, a war that ended with the catastrophic destruction of the entire Kingdom of Cyre. Of origins unknown, a gray mist spread across the nation and everything within the borders were either destroyed or transformed. This event is universally called the Mourning and turned the once seat of power (Cyre) into a wasteland, now the dwelling place of unimaginable horrors. Those aligned with Cyre who survived the war, and the Mourning, through either chance, luck, absence, or in some cases apparently fate, are called mourners. City of Towers chronicles one group of mourners, survivors of a military regiment, who head for the city of Sharn, the City of Towers, the largest city on the continent, and considered a modern wonder of innovation, not only architecturally but also a testament of what can be accomplished with the combination of skill and magic, and is also the setting for the overwhelming majority of the novel.

The inhabitants of Sharn, are numerous and varied. Humans, Elves, Dwarfs, Gnomes, Troll, Bugabears, Gnolls, Medussa, Goblins, Changelings, Halflings, and tons more, plus combinations (like I said WotC) call one of the many districts of Sharn their home. The diversity of the city is being added to by the mourning refugees, among them are the aforementioned group who are the focus of the story, and who are no less diverse themselves, both as individuals, as are their purpose for traveling to Sharn. This group consists of Pierce a Warforged soldier, which is a artificially created humanoid construct made of steel, wood, leather and stone which are given sentience though magic. House Cannith created the Warforged to be tireless and expendable soldiers during the war. Lei ‘d Cannith a human Dragonmark who was attached to the regiment to control the Warforged and was returning to Sharn to meet her bethroed Hadran d’ Cannith a wealthy and influential Dragonmark who resided in Sharn. Jode, a halfling, also a Dragonmark, blessed with an easy nature and a gift for gab, and finally Daine, who was the captain of the regiment, and although Baker tells the story of the groups adventures it is Daine who seemingly is the main character. He is the sword bearing male/human character, such examples I like to categorize as the Cloud-syndrome of the group (Final Fantasy fans begin to understand).

I mentioned that Jode and Lei are Dragonmarks, and this ties into the magic system employed by Baker, and a very important facet of City of Towers. The term Dragonmark is used with two related meanings on Eberron. The way I used it to describe Jode and Lei, is according to Baker, a slang term for one who bears a unique tattoo-like mark (the second definition) on their body which give the bearer a unique power according to what sign they bear. There are twelve different Dragonmarks known to exist, each exclusive to a particular bloodline. These lines, makes up very powerful, influential and wealthy families, who are masters of the specific abilities their inherent mark gives them. For instance Lei is of House d’ Cannath, and members of that bloodline can bear the Mark of Making, and gives them abilities in just that, for example the creation of the Warforged. Jode is of House Jorasco, (although he claims no House) whom bears the Mark of Healing and is gifted with abilities of healing. It most be noted that not all family members of these lines will bear a Mark, and that the size of the Mark is directly correlated with the innate power of the user. There are cases of individuals who bear marks outside of the Twelve that are called Aberrant Dragonmarks that are birthed from the union of two different houses. These marks are “warped” and are considered dark powers that have side effects both in mind and spirit to the bearer.

The “plot” events in City of Towers begin when the group arrives in Sharn after an arduous journey, and find that Lei has been deemed Excoriate, which can be described as being excommunicated from the family, having your name and titles forfeited and barred from all property owned by the family, and comes with the stigma of having all members of the family strongly urged to disassociate themselves with you completely. The other members of the group having literally no where else to go, commit themselves in aiding Lei, to find out what circumstance has occurred that caused her in essence to lose her very life. This leads into a sequence of events that allows Baker to introduce the major players and denizens of the city, like Flamewind, a Sphinx with oracle like abilities, Alina Lorridan Lyrris, a beautiful gnome wizard, and apparently something of a underworld lord whose couple of segments were to me the most entertaining in the novel, and are the examples of some of the scarce instances of worthwhile dialogue within the entire novel, where we the reader was actually given some part of storytelling, instead of taking what seemed like a guided tour of a new setting. We are also introduced to Lailin Callis, an augur, and friend of Lei’s whom Baker uses to give us a glimpse of one both the opulence of the high society life and a flying ship. There are many, many more. Mr. Baker introduces a tremendous amount of characters in City of Towers, while depicting the story of Lei trying to find her answers simultaneously as they work for Alina trying to locate a employee of hers that has been missing who was carrying a valuable commodity of hers.

I mentioned above my feeling of being on a guided tour as I read City of Towers. I could not throughout my reading of the novel knock the feeling that clearly this novels priority was to act as a tool to give more life to a campaign/gaming setting and this may very well have been the intent of Mr. Baker, and as such performs brilliantly, but in terms of offering a viable novel that can be enjoyed by a fan of fantasy, not just gaming, City of Towers falls short in my opinion. The sequence of events felt contrived to maximize how many elements in terms of factions/creatures/races Baker could introduce us into the 325 pages of novel, as to solely give some light to as may characters as he could and giving displaying their interaction in novel (the last 50 pages or so are dedicated to the appendix). The group literally episodicaly fell into one altercation after another; if they weren’t fighting within the city they were being led to another one. The instances Mr. Baker does give in regards to depictions of inner thoughts of the characters are perhaps the weakest aspect of the novel. I simply didn’t care what happened to any of the protagonists in the novel. Pierce, the Warforged, created solely for war, attempting to come to grips with his place in society now that that the war is over failed to grab me. Lei’s feelings of banishment from her House is not touched on in the depth it could be, beyond crying, and one instance of striking a family member. Daine, the swordsman with a “mysterious” past, both regarding family, and having worked for Alina in the past, failed to be written with and element that would make one care for this often used archetype, or end (it was resolved at the end) in any inspiring or imaginative way. After reading City of Towers, I can assure you that even fans will be sick of one thing, and that is the mentioning of adamantium edged knives in particular how easily they cut through steel, wood, whatever... is it really necessary to tell the reader this every time the knife is used?

I also am less than enthusiastic with the actual writing of the novel from a stylistic sense. The prose is simply not captivating at any point. For instance upon approaching Sharn, described as a “wonder of the modern age”, one would think a couple of pages would be dedicated on the observations and impressions of our protagonists, some vivid descriptive writing depicting a city. One would think such a city would be like a vision of grandeur to travel weary refugees, who had witnessed firsthand the Mourning, and before that combatants in a long, bloody civil war. But no, a total of one paragraph is dedicated to this moment and is turned into a a question of scientific query by Daine on the nature of the floating towers. There are also a couple (literally) of instances that don’t follow the group (or members of the group) all only a couple of pages long (the novel is extremely linear), and they depict some actions of the antagonists of the novel, and these segments are for the most part incoherent. This s explained why later in the novel, but from a reading experience perspective it seemed at the very least mishandled.

As I mentioned before I liked the character of Alina Lorridan Lyrris who at times felt like the only character with believable motivation. I also enjoyed the character of Rhazala, a female goblin, of indiscernible age, and ability although with youthful exuberance, and offers a nice change in tone not present in sequences shes absent from. The Magic system, in particular the Dragonmarks are interesting, but so spread out in possible application it seems strictly invented to offer variety for gaming purposes, it’s a bit like (admittedly very loosely) like a concept I read about in Lawrence Watt-Evan’s Obsidian Chronicles, but altered for gaming purposes. One instance that I did enjoy, that actually gave some real depth to the city itself was when Jode ran into a world famous Circus in Sharn, and the same could be said about Baker’s inclusion of The Race of Eight Winds, a race that includes champions of different districts, heavily gambled upon, and a source of pride of the denizens of the city both of wealth and those less fortunate. I also enjoyed the fact that a main character dies, however I withhold final judgment on my thoughts related to this as I have a bad feeling the character will be used as some mystical guide from the grave to aid his friends at times with timely advice, if this is the case this will turn into vast disappointment, as to me this was the only member of the protagonists group that was even mildly interesting. His demise was disappointing but to make a mockery of it would be insufferable.

City of Towers was roughly what I expected it to be, but in saying that I want to comment on something regarding some opinions I have read concerning this novel that at the very least I feel are irresponsible. Although I admit I am not exactly casting a positive light on City of Towers I try to be fair, and my conclusions come from the reading. I have read some reviews in which some overstate the overuse of the technology present (in respects to the flying ships in particular) in Eberron. This is absolutely a ridiculous notion. The fact that I think the technology presence actually adds to the enjoyment of the novel is irrelevant, the fact is that the presence of technology is very minimal in the novel. On only two occasions are the boats brought up and added together they are talked about perhaps for one no more than two pages. Excluding the boats the only element of technology that plays any role in the novel are the use of lifts (elevators) that allow the population of Sharn to travel between the many levels of their city. The presence of such things as sky coaches (flying taxis) is mentioned, but explained in a magical sense unique to the locale of Sharn. They do not play major rolls in the novel at all, and cannot possibly be a reasons or at least a valid reason not to have enjoyed the novel. If anyone is using this as their principlw issue for not liking the novel they are either incredibly anal or most likly haven't read the novel.

When trying to draw comparisons to other WotC efforts, The last two WotC authors I read were Paul S. Kemp, whose work I think is completely on another level than this (highly recommened BTW), nor is it approaching the grand feeling of being introduced to the Underdark in the bonafide classic 'Dark Elf' trilogy by RA Salvatore. The characters simply didn’t grip me, the setting (the City) had potential but the experience wasn’t complete or satisfying. Perhaps the next installment of the series their will be time prolonged visit into Eberron instead of having to settle for the tour. My final grade for Keith Baker’s City of Towers, Book I of his 'The Dreaming Dark' series is a 3.5.

Jay
The Bodhisattva

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