Sunday, February 24, 2008  Crypt of the Moaning Diamond by
Rosemary Jones  I have finished the highly entertaining CRYPT OF
THE MOANING DIAMOND by Rosemary Jones. This novel is the first
Forgotten Realms novel I've read in many years. The last trilogy
I read in that fantasy world was the Dark Elf Trilogy about the
drow ranger Drizzt Do'Urden, by R. A. Salvatore. (Incidently,
Tor sent me another Salvatore novel just last week, The
Ancient.) Nothing in particular drove me away from reading the
novels. I simply had started reading other things.  It is my
belief that many fantasy readers have spent at least some time
playing role-playing games. And if you've played role-playing
games, you've probably at least tried Dungeons and Dragons. This
novel is like reading a fictionalization of someone's role-
playing game. Fights. Traps. Magic items. Undead. Puzzles. And
of course, monsters. Weird ones along with the standard-issue
ones.  But that's not all. The reality is like D&D rules as
well. In D&D (or at least in the