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4.2 out of 5 stars
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Hunter
3.0 out of 5 stars Engaging reading, but a bit unsatisfying
Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2014
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This story is about two main characters. One is a poor bard who is caring for his crippled mentor and gets in trouble with a local crime boss. The other is a traveler from a fantasy version of the orient who is searching for information about a trading expedition from his homeland that was lost to a pirate attack. The two team up after a short while. The setting is a shabby port city during the winter which is a bit gloomy.

The story is well written with good pacing and reasonably interesting characters. It kept my interest and there were occasional fun twists, but it was ultimately a bit unsatisfying. I think that this is because although the confrontation between the heroes and villains was good, there was nothing in the setting or story that was very appealing.

This story makes a good effort at portraying a bard as a main character and at showing bardic magic, but it falls short by not quite showing what makes bardic magic unique from other magic and it does not show the bard's life or outlook as being unique either.
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Neso
4.0 out of 5 stars Different and interesting
Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2007
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Bassingwaithe's style and especially the way he handles dialogues are real refreshment on the FR novel scene. The dialogues are colorful and witty, and the author does not suppress his obviously great sense of humor. Usually, the humor in FR novels is limited to one comic relief character (a dwarf more often than not), and it lacks the spark. In this book, every single character can draw a chuckle or two. The characters (almost every single one of them) are different and memorable. They have their share of flaws and merits, and they are far from being overly powerful, as we often see in FR novels. The author does a great job of describing the xenophobic people of Altumbel, as well as the architecture and climate of the setting. The plot is pretty simple, but still strong and interesting. The book is intense throughout its course and you flip page after page without even noticing. It is a small story of a small man, and does not involve armies, dragons and such things.

On the downside, I really didn't like the way author handled the culmination. I expected something different from such an unusual novel. Otherwise, I have no more complaints.

Since this is the last book from the "Rogues" series I'm reviewing, I'm going to take a second to reflect on the series as a whole. I'm a bit disappointed, to be sincere. I really expected more of books that deal with maybe the most interesting of life-styles: the one of a rogue (be it an entertainer, thief, spoiled brat or a bard). Mathematically, the series get an overall score of 2.75, which is slightly below average. It features two very good books (Alabaster Staff and Yellow Silk), a pretty boring one (Black Bouquet) and a disastrous one (The Crimson Gold). It seems that less experienced FR writers (Bolme and Bassingwaithe) did a better job than their senior counterparts. Maybe it is time for a change at Wizards of the Coast publishing.
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todd booth
5.0 out of 5 stars fun
Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2018
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Best of the rouge series..
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Pdxnative83
3.0 out of 5 stars Not as rogue-ish as the rest.
Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2014
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It arrived quickly and undamaged, I just wasn't fond of the book. Too slow of pace for me and the characters just weren't as likable or relate-able as I like / am used to. And the story seemed more loosely related to rogues than the rest, which saddened me a little.
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B Gunstrom
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2015
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ok
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J. Stoner
VINE VOICE
4.0 out of 5 stars The long forgotten rogues - Bards!
Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2004
I thought this book was great simply because it focused on an often overlooked character class in the written world of fantasy and D&D (especially the Forgotten Realms). Bards are a huge part of any fantasy world with taverns and inns with common rooms, but I cannot remember the last time I read any mention of one in a FR book. Bards play an important role in any fantasy community, as illustrated in the first few chapters at the tavern of choice.

The storyline and plot was good also, although at points it was very vague on the motives behind one of the foreign characters to the city of Spandeliyon. But it was vague because the foreign character was keeping something from everybody else, but of course, it all becomes clear. While mentioning this person, Li, it seems strange to me because there seems to be a race in this book that I am unfamiliar with and could not understand if they were from Faerun or somewhere else, or just some obscure part of the Realm. This "race" just seemed to be humans with an Asian or oriental decent - which of course is fine but it is just hard to grasp what exactly this persons decent was from a stand-alone book. Maybe I'm just not as well-read as I should be. I just kept conjuring this image of stereotypical samarai warriors who somehow keep getting confused as elfs?! I guess the city is not very well-cultured. Li is also insanly impulsive and just goes nuts sometimes. It seems almost out of character, but I suppose it's not. These couple things, while simingly minor, haunted the back of my head while reading "The Yellow Silk," and thus is the reason for four stars instead of five.

Another highlight of this book is the halfling mob boss that everyone either criminally works for or is afraid to cross. He has an eye patch and is a pig/warthog hearder. It makes for a very interesting mental picture of all these minions serving this 2.5 foot halfling conducting business in the pigstys. Classic.

Good book. Great characters, good story, confusing cultural background. This book has its moments where it clearly and classically utilizes the talents of a bard. I found it almost as interesting and as entertaining as some of the battles of barbarians and the thefts of the other rogues in various FR books.
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Skychrome
3.0 out of 5 stars Ungewöhnlich (nüchtern)...
Reviewed in Germany on December 1, 2007
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Yellow Silk ist vom Gesamtstil her schon eher ungewöhnlich. Man spürt regelrecht die Kälte (und Misere) des Ortes. Bei allen positiven Aspekten des Buches ist es mir insgesamt doch etwas zu nüchtern. Ich lese FR Romane, um in eine phantastische Welt einzutauchen. Hier herrscht aber etwas zu sehr "harte Realität" und man ist regelrecht froh, nicht auf Faerun leben zu müssen.
Die Charaktere sind jedoch wirklich hervorragend gelungen.
Der beste "Rogues"-Roman bleibt für mich nach wie vor The Black Bouquet.
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Carol
5.0 out of 5 stars yellow silk
Reviewed in Canada on December 7, 2013
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I really enjoy reading these books and enjoy the
many hours of all the books from this author. Would recommend all the books
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