Review - The Road to Neverwinter... A Road Less Traveled.

Image credit: Random House Worlds

This will mark my first review of a book outside of the annual reviews that I've been doing. Those have been fun, but I believe that they don't fully encompass the heart and soul that many of these authors have poured into their work.    Jaleigh Johnson's The Road to Neverwinter gives us a glimpse at what life was like for Edgin and Holga in the lead-up to the Dungeons & Dragons movie. We knew that Edgin was a thief, we knew that he was a father, and we knew that he was friends with Forge prior to meeting him again in the film, but we might not know to what extent all of these things fell into place.
 The Good
The narrative of Johnson's work is certainly one of its strong points. We are introduced to Edgin, a father who is struggling to make ends meet for his baby daughter. He meets Holga, an exiled barbarian just looking for a place to call home.    The unlikely pair work together to raise Kira over the years, doing small-time thieving in order to make ends meet. Edgin uses his experience as a former Harper, and Holga uses hers as a brute force to be reckoned with. Together they are able to pull off just enough to get by, but that changes once Forge enters the scene. This guy comes in as the charismatic, yet underhanded, conman that we know well from Hugh Grant's portrayal. Forge's caring nature, whether real or not, is on display when he does what he can to help Edgin and Holga pull off some heists of a bigger nature until they get in over their heads enough to warrant securing a fledgling sorcerer at their side. And thus Simon, the final member of the party, falls into place.    With a massive score looming on the horizon that should be enough for all of them to retire on, these adventurers do their best to keep everything in perspective as they face down whatever challenges come their way.
    The bonds that develop between these characters is certainly another plus in Johnson's bucket. She knows how to weave a story with a few conflicts, tying them together by the ending in a way that resolves this story while still setting us all up to watch more conclusive material in the movie.
The BadThere's not much to be said here. Johnson has moments here and there where the story lags a little, but for the most part it propels the reader forward as a quick read.    My main qualm would perhaps be the fact that there isn't as much lore brought in as I would have hoped. I think that an even stronger connection to the world of Faerun could have helped to really bring about a compelling story here that could have gone down next to The Crystal Shard in its brilliance.A Solid PartyOverall, I think that Jaleigh Johnson does a compelling job of tying in the characters of her book to the grander picture seen in Honor Among Thieves. Things could have been a bit better, overall, but it was fun to see a bit more of these characters as they got to know one another before their biggest adventure.7/10Good EnoughTo see some of my own ventures in the fantasy realms, check out Severance.