Depths of Madness is Erik Scott de Bie’s second full length novel et in the Forgotten Realms. His first being Ghostwalker which is part of a series of stand alone novels in the Fighters series. Mr. de Bie also has two short stories in anthologies set in the Forgotten Realms universe. Those two stories can be found in Realms of Dragons II and Realms of the Elves. Much like Ghostwalker, Depths of Madness is also a part of a series of stand alone novels. Depths of Madness launches the series titled The Dungeons.

Much like his first novel, Mr. de Bie pushes Wizards of the Coast’s standard of writing novels that would fall no higher than a PG-13 rating. There is plenty of gore in this book and some of the scenes remind me of the Saw movie franchise, and that is not meant in a bad way at all. Even with the amount of blood in this book, it never feels forced or like it was put in the book as a shock factor. It always seems to be well placed and have a legitimate purpose.

The plot of this book, at least on the surface, is rather straight forward. A group of adventurers (I hesitate to call them heroes) finds themselves deep in a dungeon with no idea how they got there, or how to get out. Pretty linear plot when written like that, not so much when you actually read the book. The adventurers don’t know each other – nor do they necessarily trust each other. This dynamic plays out throughout the novel, in some predictable ways, but also some not so predictable ways. Along the way of exploring this dungeon they have been thrust in, the adventures discover things about themselves, the others with them, and more importantly the dungeon. Make no mistake about it, this plot is far from simple and linear.

Fans of the Forgotten Realms who have read Mr. de Bie’s story in Realms of the Elves titled ‘The Greater Treasure’ will recognize the lead character of this book, Twilight. She plays a very prominent role in this novel. There are also several other characters that I believe most fans will enjoy, Slip and Gargan come to mind. You do not need to have read ‘The Greater Treasure’ to understand or enjoy this book. It’s a nice addition, but certainly not necessary. One of the things I enjoyed most about this book was the vast difference in all the characters. Each one seemed to have a distinctive ‘voice’ and way they acted. Yet, at the same time, none of the characters seemed like clichéd characters that permeate the fantasy genre right now. It’s refreshing to see an author put forth some obvious effort to have both a solid plot and interesting characters.

I do have a couple minor criticisms about this novel. There were a few times where the perspective of the book jumped from character to character, and while some of that is good – at least one time the shift didn’t seem to be at the right time and it ended up pulling me out of the story. A few of the shifts didn’t seem to be totally needed either, but I understand that may be a personal bias too. Secondly, it was evident that the story was supposed to focus mostly on Twilight – yet, I never felt I was able to develop the strong connection to her as (I believe) Mr. de Bie was hoping for. The last thing I was hoping for was a bit more description of the setting. There were some wonderfully written descriptions, yet there were also a few scenes where I really wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be ‘seeing’.

With all that said, I think Wizards of the Coast made the perfect decision in having Mr. de Bie pen the first novel of this series. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he also had the best Fighters novel as well. His fight scenes rival those of any of the top names in the genre today and his wit is quite evident during various scenes. All in all this was a very good book and I enjoyed reading it. It’s one I can easily see myself recommending to others looking for a dark fantasy novel.