Let me preface this by saying that I love the world Baker has created. It is excellent. There is a great deal of detail in the world, a good deal of mystery, and to me the more important thing is a move away from the more traditional worlds, while still feeling familiar and not entirely alien. My only real complaint about the world was that it seemed very much like a comic book to me. It felt like everyone and their monkey had some sort of super power to me, and by the end of the book I wondered why the main character didn't have some superhuman ability (though I'm making a guess that he will in a future book). This to me was distracting, I don't want my fantasy book to feel like a superhero book, and it did to me a little. I like the ideas that Baker had, but think he may have gone a bit overboard with how many ways there are to become a super hero.

For the book, I didn't really feel it was that great, though considering it was Baker's first book I think he did a pretty good job. Many authors struggle in their first foray into the field of fantasy and I don't think Baker is an exception to this. This doesn't mean he won't do good in the future, it just means he isn't there yet.

The plot was good, but I think the interludes spread throughout the book took away from it for me. I think it would have been a lot better going through it from the point of view of the main characters and not knowing what was going on with the characters, and discovering it for myself. I think it would have made the mystery portion of the book that much greater. I realize that empowering the reader with information the characters don't know is a popular writing technique, it just didn't work well here. I almost felt like Baker himself didn't want the interludes but his editor forced him into it. They just didn't feel natural.

The characters were good. I liked them all fairly well, though the halfling felt a tad forced. It seemed that Baker may have been trying to get the reader to like him a little too hard, but he was still a decent character (although maybe overly mysterious as the previous reviewer has mentioned).

I agree with a previous reviewer... the editing of this book was atrocious. There were issues all over this book with grammar and spelling. I don't blame Baker particularly that much, though he should have looked over the book himself more, but he obviously did not have a very good editor going over the book.

Despite having been a gamer for decades, I generally avoid RPG-based novels like the plague, just because as a rule they're simply awful. However, I've been reading up on Eberron preparatory to starting a campaign, and decided to pick this upon a lark, just for background noise, and was very pleasantly surprised. Not exactly Lord of the Rings, of course, but really a remarkably fun and surprisingly well written fantasy with mystery overtones. Especially remarkable in that it's the first novel by Keith Baker, creator of the Eberron game world. Reasonably complex plot, nice characterizations, good description without being overly wordy, a nice quick read. Genuinely worth a look, and I look forward to checking out its sequels.

Ebberon is a new world to me, and I bought this book just to test the waters (I'll be buying more in the future). I was surprised at how quickly and completely I became absorbed in this book. The world of Ebberon is a masterfull blend of pure fantasy (with gnomes, goblins, elves, and ogres) and science fiction (from flying ships and buildings to teleportation and sentient robots). As Daine, Jode, Lei, and Pierce explore the great city of Sharn, the wolrd of Ebberon is introduced in a manner which allows for no prior knowledge of the settings to fully appreciate the story. The characters are complex and each have somewhat mysterious pasts that will be explained in following books. The storyline is intriguing and I can't wait to read the next two books.

I was very impressed with the world of Ebberon, a world in a dark age in which powerful forces combat with magic and technology. This first book gives a glimpse into a world which promises to hold plently of mysteries and wonders. Can't wait for more.