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Forgotten Realms: The Nobles #6
The Simbul's Gift
The perfect gift.
Is it the one given or the one received?
The Simbul, Storm-queen of Aglarond, is unhappy. Though she has triumphed over her enemies, she lacks an heir to the throne—a child to love and nurture. But now she's found the perfect father for her child: Elminster, the old mage of Shadowdale. All she has to do is win his consent.
And she has the perfect gift with which to accomplish this: A mysterious colt called Zandilar's Dancer.
Unfortunately, the colt belongs to Ebroin of the Cha'Tel'Quessir. And getting it away from him won't be easy, even for the Simbul...
Is it the one given or the one received?
The Simbul, Storm-queen of Aglarond, is unhappy. Though she has triumphed over her enemies, she lacks an heir to the throne—a child to love and nurture. But now she's found the perfect father for her child: Elminster, the old mage of Shadowdale. All she has to do is win his consent.
And she has the perfect gift with which to accomplish this: A mysterious colt called Zandilar's Dancer.
Unfortunately, the colt belongs to Ebroin of the Cha'Tel'Quessir. And getting it away from him won't be easy, even for the Simbul...
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 4, 1997
About the author
Lynn Abbey
147 books197 followersLynn Abbey began publishing in 1979 with the novel Daughter of the Bright Moon and the short story "The Face of Chaos," part of a Thieves World shared world anthology. She received early encouragement from Gordon R. Dickson.
In the 1980s she married Robert Asprin and became his co-editor on the Thieves World books. She also contributed to other shared world series during the 1980s, including Heroes in Hell and Merovingen Nights.
Abbey and Asprin divorced in 1993 and Abbey moved to Oklahoma City. She continued to write novels during this period, including original works as well as tie-ins to Role Playing Games for TSR. In 2002, she returned to Thieves World with the novel Sanctuary and also began editing new anthologies, beginning with Turning Points.
In the 1980s she married Robert Asprin and became his co-editor on the Thieves World books. She also contributed to other shared world series during the 1980s, including Heroes in Hell and Merovingen Nights.
Abbey and Asprin divorced in 1993 and Abbey moved to Oklahoma City. She continued to write novels during this period, including original works as well as tie-ins to Role Playing Games for TSR. In 2002, she returned to Thieves World with the novel Sanctuary and also began editing new anthologies, beginning with Turning Points.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
August 12, 2026
Lynn Abbey is probably best known as co-editor of and contributor to the multi-author shared-setting Thieves' World anthology series. She's written some books on her own too, many of them licensed IP like this one. I read the Thieves World series in my 80s teen years and again in the 90s, and what I remember best is confusion. As a younger reader I didn't properly understand that published books could be "not good" and when faced with such I often thought I just didn't get it. When I reread the Thieves World books I started to realize that they just weren't that great. Some characters and a couple specific stories still live in my memory, but overall the series lacked clarity and smoothness of story progression overall, even within each author's pet character's stories across multiple volumes.
I bring this up because this book is also not good. I can't pin all my poor impressions of Thieves World on Abbey (her then-husband and co-editor Robert Lynn Asprin deserves an equal portion), but aside from certain IP-related constraints it's all on here this time. This book is about ... well, it's unclear. As the book opens, it could have been a coming-of-age story about a half-elf struggling with his identity and place in the world, and probably should have focused on that because that was the only potentially worthy story thread, but, eh. The titular Simbul's gift (the Symbul is the name given to the leader of the nation of Aglarond, a 600-year-old wizardess and one of seven sisters who are the "Chosen of Mystra", the goddess of magic) was a horse that she meant to steal and give to Elminster so he would put a baby in her (eww) and the book was a bit about that, but that horse was A) incredibly boring, and B) eliminated from the story entirely half-way through, and the Simbul wanting to have a baby was another dropped thread. She did have non-procreative sex with Elminster, who is thousands of years older than her, earlier in the book, and as a reminder this is Elminster:
I suppose when you're 600 years old, there aren't many age-appropriate options, so a 2000-year old guy might not be that far off. But then she also has sex with the 19-year old confused half-elf boy, so what the fuck lady?
Oh, and that boy, who should have been the story's focus if not protagonist: His name is Bro. Literally. "Bro, what's the matter?" "Bro made his way through the forest." "Why can't you see Bro is suffering?" His name's Bro, bro.
Ultimately I think the story is about archaic history of gods of the Yuirwood and elves and half-elves in this specific part of Faerun, since material revealing all of that seems to be what the book's main events are for, but all this receives little time on the page and affects the characters not at all.
If the number of pages dedicated to a specific thing is an indicator of what the book is meant to be about, then this book is actually about squabbling, constantly plotting Red Wizard zulkirs (head wizards dedicated to each magical "school" within D&D's magic system of the time, e.g. invocation, enchantment, illusion, necromancy), because that's what took up 60% of the book. There are 4 POVs from Red Wizard characters, all of them essentially interchangeable for all their constant paranoia and scrying and ephemeral uses of magic and vying for position without actually interacting with each other or doing anything remotely interesting or relevant to the rest of the story. There's a little bit of interaction with the Simbul at the book's climax, but this had nothing to do with the half-elf boy or the Simbul's supposed aims or the Yuirwood stuff. I swear, it's like the author came up with the rest of the story, realized it would only take up 100 pages, then took inspiration from Ed Greenwood and stuffed all the banally evil-for-evil's sake obscurely plotting Ming the Merciless-grade villains she could until she hit the minimum required word count.
The Red Wizard portions were confusing because they frequently referred to events in their collective recent past that purportedly had a significant impact on them, individually and as a group, but I have no idea where those events are supposed to have played out for the reader. They are not part of any prior Forgotten Realms books. Maybe they were the basis of a prior game module for tabletop D&D? I have no idea, but the number of times they came up was irritating without this prior context. I theorize that this book was meant to be the second part of a trilogy, but the first book fell into the abyss during TSR's bankruptcy. This book was published in 1997, during which Wizards of the Coast purchased the flatlined company and kept D&D alive. I know other books in this line were quashed during that transition, so my theory has some merit.
The book was bad in other ways too. The writing was occasionally confusing, and the entire thing was dreary. Now, all Forgotten Realms books in my publication-order read have been quite bad for a long time, but they're each bad in different ways, some of which can be entertaining in their badness. This one was simply joyless, it lacked intention, and it was meaningless in terms of character development and Realms lore. Any intended emotion was flat, most notably the supposed big moment at the end when the Simbul suddenly sees her lover from 100 years ago that she thought was dead as he appears out of nowhere and then Uno-reverses the bomb he was strapped with back to the Red Wizard who sent him out, the culmination of many meaningless pages prior. She was like, "What OMG? Oh well so much for that, I'll never think about it again, reaction over." Where's the adventure? Where's the thrill?
Yes, yes, the Simbul's "gift" could have many meanings: the horse she meant to lure Elminster to creampie her, any of the various magical items she gave to other characters, taking the 19-year-old's virginity, supposedly leading him to his new life but keeping his younger half-sister who she basically kidnapped and magically drugged weeks ago and nobody ever mentioned her again, so many meanings.
Abbey here unfortunately cribbed from Greenwood's frequent writing flubs. She focuses on ultra-powerful characters with endless magic to draw on and countless secret spells, the ability to just cancel out all lesser magic with no effort, and all the resources they could ever use, rather than relatable characters for whom struggle is realistic. It's never interesting to read about god-level characters, nor conniving villains with no personality beyond "evil, power, I'm the greatest!". It's not interesting to dwell on the ancient lore of anything for lore's sake. And it's always the wrong choice to paint Greenwood, I mean Elminster, as a sex object.
I bring this up because this book is also not good. I can't pin all my poor impressions of Thieves World on Abbey (her then-husband and co-editor Robert Lynn Asprin deserves an equal portion), but aside from certain IP-related constraints it's all on here this time. This book is about ... well, it's unclear. As the book opens, it could have been a coming-of-age story about a half-elf struggling with his identity and place in the world, and probably should have focused on that because that was the only potentially worthy story thread, but, eh. The titular Simbul's gift (the Symbul is the name given to the leader of the nation of Aglarond, a 600-year-old wizardess and one of seven sisters who are the "Chosen of Mystra", the goddess of magic) was a horse that she meant to steal and give to Elminster so he would put a baby in her (eww) and the book was a bit about that, but that horse was A) incredibly boring, and B) eliminated from the story entirely half-way through, and the Simbul wanting to have a baby was another dropped thread. She did have non-procreative sex with Elminster, who is thousands of years older than her, earlier in the book, and as a reminder this is Elminster:
I suppose when you're 600 years old, there aren't many age-appropriate options, so a 2000-year old guy might not be that far off. But then she also has sex with the 19-year old confused half-elf boy, so what the fuck lady?
Oh, and that boy, who should have been the story's focus if not protagonist: His name is Bro. Literally. "Bro, what's the matter?" "Bro made his way through the forest." "Why can't you see Bro is suffering?" His name's Bro, bro.
Ultimately I think the story is about archaic history of gods of the Yuirwood and elves and half-elves in this specific part of Faerun, since material revealing all of that seems to be what the book's main events are for, but all this receives little time on the page and affects the characters not at all.
If the number of pages dedicated to a specific thing is an indicator of what the book is meant to be about, then this book is actually about squabbling, constantly plotting Red Wizard zulkirs (head wizards dedicated to each magical "school" within D&D's magic system of the time, e.g. invocation, enchantment, illusion, necromancy), because that's what took up 60% of the book. There are 4 POVs from Red Wizard characters, all of them essentially interchangeable for all their constant paranoia and scrying and ephemeral uses of magic and vying for position without actually interacting with each other or doing anything remotely interesting or relevant to the rest of the story. There's a little bit of interaction with the Simbul at the book's climax, but this had nothing to do with the half-elf boy or the Simbul's supposed aims or the Yuirwood stuff. I swear, it's like the author came up with the rest of the story, realized it would only take up 100 pages, then took inspiration from Ed Greenwood and stuffed all the banally evil-for-evil's sake obscurely plotting Ming the Merciless-grade villains she could until she hit the minimum required word count.
The Red Wizard portions were confusing because they frequently referred to events in their collective recent past that purportedly had a significant impact on them, individually and as a group, but I have no idea where those events are supposed to have played out for the reader. They are not part of any prior Forgotten Realms books. Maybe they were the basis of a prior game module for tabletop D&D? I have no idea, but the number of times they came up was irritating without this prior context. I theorize that this book was meant to be the second part of a trilogy, but the first book fell into the abyss during TSR's bankruptcy. This book was published in 1997, during which Wizards of the Coast purchased the flatlined company and kept D&D alive. I know other books in this line were quashed during that transition, so my theory has some merit.
The book was bad in other ways too. The writing was occasionally confusing, and the entire thing was dreary. Now, all Forgotten Realms books in my publication-order read have been quite bad for a long time, but they're each bad in different ways, some of which can be entertaining in their badness. This one was simply joyless, it lacked intention, and it was meaningless in terms of character development and Realms lore. Any intended emotion was flat, most notably the supposed big moment at the end when the Simbul suddenly sees her lover from 100 years ago that she thought was dead as he appears out of nowhere and then Uno-reverses the bomb he was strapped with back to the Red Wizard who sent him out, the culmination of many meaningless pages prior. She was like, "What OMG? Oh well so much for that, I'll never think about it again, reaction over." Where's the adventure? Where's the thrill?
Yes, yes, the Simbul's "gift" could have many meanings: the horse she meant to lure Elminster to creampie her, any of the various magical items she gave to other characters, taking the 19-year-old's virginity, supposedly leading him to his new life but keeping his younger half-sister who she basically kidnapped and magically drugged weeks ago and nobody ever mentioned her again, so many meanings.
Abbey here unfortunately cribbed from Greenwood's frequent writing flubs. She focuses on ultra-powerful characters with endless magic to draw on and countless secret spells, the ability to just cancel out all lesser magic with no effort, and all the resources they could ever use, rather than relatable characters for whom struggle is realistic. It's never interesting to read about god-level characters, nor conniving villains with no personality beyond "evil, power, I'm the greatest!". It's not interesting to dwell on the ancient lore of anything for lore's sake. And it's always the wrong choice to paint Greenwood, I mean Elminster, as a sex object.
March 23, 2024
The Nobels is a series of standalone books in the Dungeons and Dragons genre, Forgotten Realms. This book is about the Queen of Agarlond, known as the Simbul who is several hundred years old and a young boy named Bro (yeah I said Bro) to include his horse. The antagonists, the Red Wizards of Thay--enemy of Agarlond. They have been spying on the Simbul and each other of course. They figure out where she is headed--to see Bro for his colt and try for an ambush... She escapes via magical means to the nearby and magical Yuirwood with Bro, his sister and the Horse! The crazy part so far, the Simbul only wanted the horse as a gift so a famous wizard will give her a baby--she could have just asked him otherwise Bro's parents might still be alive! Uggh, but now She has to leave Bro behind in the wood and bring his sister to safety. Then the sister is written off so the Simbul can figure out how she was spied. Meanwhile, Bro conveniently happens upon his biological father in the forest who drags him into another Red Wizard plot and dad isn't what he seems...In the background, the Red Wizards spy on one another filling out the book. As the book started to veer away from Bro, it became confusing and left me feeling sorry for Bro and his family. Overall the Simbul is one of those people who leaves a wake when she strolls through. One quote from the book, "...the worst thing that could happen to a man was when a god took an interest in his life." That about sums her up and she doesn't seem to care until it is too late and tries to fix it all. It ends with a truce between her and another Red Wizard but Bro, the missing sister, his PTSD'd father and the horse (I got lost where that went, into the ground of something) did not get any resolve and I didn't see any GIFT other than misery :( But the author succeeded in making feel sorry for Bro and his family...Get that kid some therapy please and away from the Queen of Agarlond! 🧐
August 9, 2022
Abbey does a great job making realistic characters in fantastic situations. The gods of the Yuirwood of Aglarond are some of the best in Faerun, and Abbey does a good job dealing familiarly with things like Thay and the Seven Sisters.
February 9, 2026
This was confusing to read and doesn’t really have an ending for the characters.
April 2, 2019
I have just one question: where's The Simbul?
The author didn't show the principal character very well. It's a boring book. I really wanted to see The Witch-Queen, the most powerfull sorceress of Faerun, a strong and fierce woman but a altruistic one too. We have a numb and insecure one in this book. The central plot is nonsense, the secundary plots is more interesting but they were not worked.
I could spend all the talking about what I hated in this book...
DO NOT SPEND YOUR TIME READING THIS BOOK!
The author didn't show the principal character very well. It's a boring book. I really wanted to see The Witch-Queen, the most powerfull sorceress of Faerun, a strong and fierce woman but a altruistic one too. We have a numb and insecure one in this book. The central plot is nonsense, the secundary plots is more interesting but they were not worked.
I could spend all the talking about what I hated in this book...
DO NOT SPEND YOUR TIME READING THIS BOOK!
May 14, 2010
re-read this one again. Liked it just as much the second time around.
November 21, 2012
I liked it, I know people didn't but I thought it was quite enjoyable.
September 29, 2023
Partly really well written, there's potential for the intrigues to be tense, for fleshing-out of big names from Realms lore, for a few action-packed sequences. I think it's mostly ruined by bad pacing and structure, nothing going on for tens of pages, then fast and unsatisfying resolutions, including the final one in the end.
But for franchise fiction it is still pretty good.
But for franchise fiction it is still pretty good.
November 17, 2017
Very close to five stars on this one. Now I remember why Lynn Abbey was so good. Worth getting through the first five in the series to this one. I am impressed. Kept me guessing to the final page.
November 7, 2019
The Yearwood Dances Tonight with Hope. We learn about the Yearwood and the Older God who live there. The forester who walk the Yearwood, the Hope's of Half Elves and children the Red Wizards. Highly recommended.
July 20, 2017
"The worst thing that can happen to a man was that a god took an interest in his life."
July 23, 2026
Great story, seems a little shoehorned into the nobles series. Ending seems to have b3en written with a follow up in mind, nut it never came.
December 15, 2010
This is the second book I've read by this author. This one was better than the first, but still rather lacking.
Abbey stated in her first book that she was more concerned with 'character' than 'plot'. In my opinion, it did not workout well in the fantasy genre. Her characters where too real to make them any fun in a world where there is magic and monsters...
However, in this book the plot was much better...but not great. And I could still feel her trying to impose nonfictional (as in fairly common) problems on her characters. This process just rips the reader out of what should be a fantastical story.
The story itself has too many side plots that do not come together smoothly, a lack of action (I wanted to read about spell battles, I mean it's about one of the most powerful spellcasters in the forgotton realms cannon), and some of the characters were simply too blah...Seriously, who ever heard of a elf ranger accidently falling out of a tree and breaking his neck...could she really not think of something better?
Anywho, she did write some good history of the realms into the book, and I always appreciate that.
Abbey stated in her first book that she was more concerned with 'character' than 'plot'. In my opinion, it did not workout well in the fantasy genre. Her characters where too real to make them any fun in a world where there is magic and monsters...
However, in this book the plot was much better...but not great. And I could still feel her trying to impose nonfictional (as in fairly common) problems on her characters. This process just rips the reader out of what should be a fantastical story.
The story itself has too many side plots that do not come together smoothly, a lack of action (I wanted to read about spell battles, I mean it's about one of the most powerful spellcasters in the forgotton realms cannon), and some of the characters were simply too blah...Seriously, who ever heard of a elf ranger accidently falling out of a tree and breaking his neck...could she really not think of something better?
Anywho, she did write some good history of the realms into the book, and I always appreciate that.
February 20, 2013
I really wanted to love this book, as the Simbul was one of my favorite Forgotten Realms characters. However, it did not live up to my expectations. I felt it was written almost as a casual story to share in the way you might share an amusing tidbit about the cat and dog while in line somewhere.
January 24, 2015
Notes for an examination,
Written by Mehgrin, apprentice at Candlekeep,
placed, by accident, in Cirian's Concise History
and filed with it
(The day was very dreary, and the headache very bad)
April 24, 2011
Not as good as I was hoping as the Simbul is one of my favorite characters from the Forgotten Realms. Still, some interesting background information that could be useful.
June 2, 2016
Interesting book. Always with a twist. Gods are strange beasts.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews