The Captive Flame: Brotherhood of the Griffon, Book I

---

The City of Ravens. Island of the Elves. Night of the Hunter. Vengeance of the Iron Dwarf. Cold Steel and Secrets. The Temple of Yellow Skulls. The Eye of the Chained God. City Under the Sand. City of the Dead. Queen of the Depths. The Festival at Glenelg.

The Things That Crawl. How to write a great review. The review must be at least 50 characters long. The title should be at least 4 characters long. Your display name should be at least 2 characters long. After reading his Rogue Dragons and Haunted lands trilogies, I just had to get my hands on this series Im not a critic and I dont plan to be, but as an avid fantasy reader and lover, I have to say I really enjoy this book, the characters are alive and fun to read. I also love the dark worlds and plots that Richard always seem to create so well and pulls you in.

Its not breakthrough stuff, but it is as enjoyable as a good fantasy read can get. A quick read that was entertaining. The characters were fairly well developed and with the usual amount of "good verses bad" or in this case " bad verses badder " The dragon part needs some work but I liked the main charters All aspects of the story mesh very well. Audible Audiobook Verified Purchase. Many subplots and twists but Richard Lee Byers meshes them very well.

Couldn't put it down. Had to even get the audible version so that I can find out what happens during the drive home!! Richard Byer hit this series out the park. He created a series that drew me in with book I and I read each one and loved the adventure of the Brotherhood. I loved reading this series. From the first book to the last, I was captivated. See all 27 reviews. Most recent customer reviews. Published 1 year ago. Published on September 2, Published on April 14, Published on January 20, Published on April 23, Published on February 13, Published on January 11, Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers.

Learn more about Amazon Giveaway. Brotherhood of the Griffon, Book I. Set up a giveaway. Customers who viewed this item also viewed.

The Haunted Lands, Book I. Blades of the Moonsea Series 1. What other items do customers buy after viewing this item? Feedback If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us. Would you like to report poor quality or formatting in this book?

Click here Would you like to report this content as inappropriate? Click here Do you believe that this item violates a copyright? There's a problem loading this menu right now. Get fast, free shipping with Amazon Prime. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations. View or edit your browsing history.

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Captive Flame , please sign up. Lists with This Book. Nov 02, Robert rated it really liked it.

Disclaimer-If you read the review and feel there is a spoiler in it, please let me know and I will remove that section. The Captive Flame takes some of the characters from The Haunted Lands trilogy and continues their adventures. Aoth is having a hard time securing contracts for his sell-swords afte Disclaimer-If you read the review and feel there is a spoiler in it, please let me know and I will remove that section.

Aoth is having a hard time securing contracts for his sell-swords after a couple of bad contracts and so is stuck with searching for a killer in the land of Chessenta, a land that despises wizards. He is hoping to find this killer soon so he can have his brotherhood move the other lands that are threatening war with Chessenta. Other plots form from this one with an escort of some dragonborn back to their domain, a search for a lost dragon whom is reveled in Chessenta, and the ever impending threat of war from Threskel. Some subplots involve the characters Jhesrhi and Gaedynn as they learn more about each other, Jhesrhi's past, assassination attempts on Aoth, and a possible love interest.

The story moves quite well. There were a few times the pacing bogged down a bit, but none too badly. The characters were a joy to read albeit some of the scenes with Khouryn. I enjoyed most of them, but there were times when I couldn't connect with him as well as I would have liked. There is some good character development, especially with Jhesrhi's character. The novel does a lot of jumping around later and for those who don't like books that jump from scene to scene may have some difficulty with that aspect.

It didn't bother me at all and it kept the action going and thankfully Mr. Byers didn't have those jumps in the middle of the action like some authors do. So and so doesn't see the knife ascending upon him and then, jump to the next scene. I really would have liked more on the character Khouryn. He wasn't a bad character, but there just seemed to be something missing for me to really connect with the character.

I will say that I don't have the widest vocabulary and one thing Mr. Byers likes to do is use words that are not normally used. This is a double edged sword for me.

Reward Yourself

On one hand, it breaks the flow of the book for me because sometimes I have to stop and look the word up, but on the other hand, it does help me to expand my vocabulary. Minor gripe on my part. This book is pages and yet there are only 12 chapters. I am not a fan of long chapters but a caveat to this one is even though they were long, they never really felt that long. There was so much going on that before I knew it, I had finished reading each chapter.

Audio Editions

It is really hard to put this book under one main plot as there are multiple plots, but they all work nicely together and keep the story moving and each one feels like it should be there. Having so many plots could have caused confusion or just been done poorly, but Mr. Byers handled them all exceptionally well. The characters were wonderful.

They were well written and each seemed to have their own voice and was easily distinguishable from each other. There was some nice development as well with some of the characters. Byers can invoke real feelings from the reader.

Join Kobo & start eReading today

This is really prevalent at the beginning with the discrimination against magic users in the city of Luthcheq. I actually found myself becoming angry with those people. With all being said, this was a solid read and I really look forward to Whisper of Venom. Every plot line had a purpose and filled the pages nicely. If you have not read The Haunted Lands trilogy, I would definitely recommend that one before starting this one.

The Captive Flame

For those who have read it and liked it, you will really like this one. If you had read the previous trilogy and may not have cared for it, I recommend giving this one a try. You may find this one is a bit better. I know I have. May 16, Travis rated it really liked it Shelves: The second book is titled Whisper of Venom and is due out in November of The third book is titled The Spectral Blaze and is due out in June He has a collection book titled Dark Kingdoms.

Vampire, On a Darkling Plane, and Wraith: He has written a number of Forgotten Realms novels as well; Sembia: He's also contributed a vast amount of short stories to various anthologies. Aoth Fezim's mercenary band called The Brotherhood of the Griffon hasn't been in that good of shape since we last saw them in The Haunted Lands trilogy. The Brotherhood has come across a string of bad luck and are fortunate enough to find work in the country of Chessenta, who are notorious in their hatred of magic and mages.

That makes things a little difficult for Aoth, a war-mage, and his lieutenant, Jhesrhi, as they encounter distrust and hatred for their magical abilities. It doesn't help that a series of murders have been committed in the capital city of Luthcheq targeting prominent 'wizard haters'. The only clue is the killer leaves behind a green hand print, which singles out the wizards of Chessenta who are forced to have one of their hands tattooed green. But that can't be why the Brotherhood is hired for Chessenta could it?

After finding out the who's responsible, the Brotherhood is placed in a town named Soolabax by the border of Threskel to help prevent raids by Threskel into Chessenta, but also are tasked with a secret mission.

The Captive Flame by Richard Lee Byers

That mission, lead by Jhesrhi and another of the Brotherhood's lieutenants, Gaedynn, is to find Chessenta's lost ruler, a red dragon named Tchazzar. At the same time, the Brotherhood sent a small group to help accompany a group of dragonborn on their way home to Tymanther. After finding out that Tymanther is being attacked by some ash giants, another of the Brotherhood's lieutenants, a dwarf named Khouryn, decides to stay and help out for a few weeks.

But it soon becomes apparent that the ash giants are more organized than the dragonborn thought. However, back in Soolabax, it seems that someone or something is trying to assassinate Aoth. What does Khouryn learn? Are Jhesrhi and Gaedynn able to find Tchazzar? Who was behind those murders in Luthcheq and what connection does it have with Aoth and the town of Soolabax? For the most part, the story's pacing was fairly good. For the most part, it was fast, but yet not fast enough to rush everything by to quickly. However, there were parts that really bogged the story down.

These scenes really only happened in the first one hundred pages and mostly concerned political matters.

Product details

I don't know why, but I just felt like they dragged on a little too long. It just wasn't interesting and it felt like padding, even if it actually is relevant to the plot. Yes, another pacing problem. There were scenes that were rushed and confusing. There were only two scenes that had this rushed feeling in them. These scenes took place with Khouryn's journey with the dragonborn and could have been interesting, if not for the rushed pace of the dialogue.

• Reign of the Nightmare Prince
• Lindas Memories
• The Titan [with Biographical Introduction]
• Remaking
• The Book of Enoch