Good job, I'm keen to hear more about Salim in the future.Tangential: from reading your review, it seems that you enjoyed the book. My review is up and I lament the fact that I couldn't select 3.5 stars, which reflects my actual rating. All in all, a fantastic use of the variety of settings that Golarion has to offer, great characters, and a strong mystery make this one a winner. I don't want to spoil Salim's backstory (even in the spoilers section!), other than to say that it's gut-wrenching and unique, and explains why he hates the Church of Pharasma while simultaneously being obliged to help it. I'd feel much more comfortable running story lines in these settings now than before, as the novel makes them come alive in a way that prose descriptions can't always match. Salim is forced to work with the dead man's daughter, Neila, and their investigation takes them to the City of Axis, the Boneyard, the Maelstrom, and even the First World. No big deal: just resurrect him, right? Well, it turns out he's not only been murdered, but his soul has been stolen-from the afterlife! The Church of Pharasma has to call in a special investigator, a faith-hating native of Rahadoum named Salim, to try to solve the mystery. To sum it up, Death's Heretic is one of the best of the early Pathfinder novels and definitely deserves to be read by RPG and general fantasy fans alike.Ī Taldan nobleman who just placed the winning bid for the extraordinarily rare (and life extending) elixir of the Sun Orchid has been murdered. Finally, it's one of the few genre novels of the type that features a romance element that's done well. As a mystery novel, it works well as the solution makes sense but wasn't easy to figure out ahead of time. There's also a really interesting portrayal of Fey, an element of the campaign world I hadn't yet really wrapped my head around, as well as a "deep dive" into the faith of Pharasma (Goddess of the Dead). One of the other exciting things about this novel is that we get our first (chronologically speaking) glimpse of the Outer Planes of Golarion. The action scenes are uniformly great: tense, brutal, and fast-paced. His backstory is frankly fantastic, and the way it drives him forward fits perfectly. This tale centers around a murder mystery in Thuvia and features a pair of investigators, one of whom (Salim) is one of the most original characters I've seen in fantasy gaming fiction. I was expecting great things in this novel after falling head over heels for Sutter's Pathfinder sourcebook on Kaer Maga (City of Strangers), and Death's Heretic did not disappoint. ![]() What's not to like about Death's Heretic by James Sutter? Nothing that I can see. Sutter comes an epic mystery of murder and immortality, set in the award-winning world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Together, the two must embark on a tour of the Outer Planes, where devils and angels rub shoulders with fey lords and mechanical men, and nothing is as it seems.įrom noted author and game designer James L. There's only one problem: The investigation is being financed by the dead merchant's stubborn and aristocratic daughter-and she wants to go with him. But who could steal a soul from the boneyard of Death herself ? Enter Salim, whose unique skills should make solving this mystery a cinch. The only clue is a magical ransom note offering to trade the merchant's spirit for his dose of the fabled potion. ![]() Such is the case in the desert nation of Thuvia, where a merchant on the verge of achieving eternal youth via a magical elixir is mysteriously murdered, his soul stolen from the afterlife. A warrior haunted by his past, Salim is a problem-solver for a church he hates, bound by the death goddess to hunt down those who would rob her of her due.
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