Writers On-Watch: Rich Baker (Novelist)

A well-written work by Rich baker, albeit with some bland uninteresting characters...

Someone once told me, “Sometimes I like to drink British Milk Tea, and sometimes I just wanna drink some Coke.”  And that simple comment really explains just about everyone’s need to read both popular fiction and high-lit value fiction.  I read high profile writers like Neil Gaiman, Ursula Le Guin, Orson Scott Card – and some geniuses like Rudyard Kipling and Isabel Allende.  But occasionally, I just want to just relax, and I then take up that most reviled of book series by literature enthusiasts… the realm of shared universes.

And among these, Forgotten Realms is particularly infamous.

Elves, Dwarves, Dragons, and Evil Sorcerers – seemingly smuggled straight from middle earth, with just one exception… these are written not by one man, but by nearly a hundred different writers with differing writing skills and techniques.  The result is a garbled shared universe that none but the most dedicated readers could understand.  Much like Marvel comics and the numerous editors it went through, shared universes are infamous for the so-called “RET-CON” which practically changes some of its own fictitious history in order to fit and repair some ‘consistency’ problems.  They have, after all a hundred different writers, a hundred different ideas, and a hundred different writing styles to contend with.  One day a writer would write one thing, while another would contradict it.

Yes, shared universes are a pain.  Its like a never ending crossover.

But despite all these, I can safely say that I am quite impressed with one writer they have in general… Rich Baker.  He’s a writer, a roleplayer, and a game designer – with several things under his belt like Forgotten Realms novels, and a handful of roleplaying supplements.  And he’s pretty darned good at it.  I have thus far, read three of his novels – City of Ravens, Forsaken House, and  Condemnation – and I can safely say that his command over the english language is far superior than any FR writer I’ve encountered.  But what separates him from other Forgotten Realm novelists I’ve read (even big names like Salvatore, Cunningham and Greenwood) is his mastery over his character’s demeanors, growth, attractiveness, and utter believeability.

In Condemnation, his gentle handling of the characters of Hallistra, Reid, and to a limited extent Pharaun’s irritability – has placed these characters to my favorites list. Equal parts humor, and equal parts drama – the transformation of the two, and their genuine need for affection in an unaffectionate world is something that would have been much better written had it been printed in another genre.

In City of Ravens, he has made Jack Ravenwild a hilarious offset from the normal fantasy characters we always see in the pages.  A comedic antihero that is part-James Bond, part-Jim Carrey … the result is plain and simple:  Insane Hilarity.  While his writing in this piece is not as well done as his later works… this was still a thoroughly enjoyable work – with enough fun and memorable characters to give me a smile.  The Lady Swan and Lord Fox moments were etched forever in my mind as one of the funniest and most clever scenes I’ve read in an FR novel.

And last but not the least, his Last Mythal series may be the best written he’s done thus far.  From the every first chapter, as he describes the final bloody war between elves and their evil cousins – into his skillful manipulation of plotlines, character building, and reaching its inevitable twist-climax … this would remain one of my fave books, and I shelfed it besides my The Alchemist and Memoirs of the Geisha (my all time fave books)  While the characters werent as interesting as that in Condemnation,  some well shaped characters – like Ilsevele and Seiveril Miritar, is enough to make me forget of the irritating protagonist Araevin.

His writing doesn’t go beyond the standard shared universe staple, however, so don’t expect any heavy stuff hidden between the pages.  This is not another Dark Elf Trilogy (Salvatore’s masterpiece, imho) and it doesn’t try to.  But it is in the writer’s use of description that makes his works a worthwhile read.  Instead of borrowing spell slots and other shared univ staples, Baker managed to make the DnD magic system actually sound interesting and plausible – translating the spells per day idea into the more accessible and believeable trope of magical fatigue.

What Rich Baker’s writing does pretty well, however, is tell a swashbuckling (and often humorous) adventure with a cinematic flair that almost makes you see the characters in a widescreen, then sprinkle it with some bittersweet emotion to make sure they remain believeable and human.

It’s very effective.  And he’s definitely in my Writer on-Watch list.