Top 5 Pathfinder Tales Novels

So far I have been struggling with my writing challenge. It has been several weeks since my last post and I really didn't have ideas about what I wanted to write about on here. My ever supportive wife suggested I make a post about something that interested me. I said books. She then told me to make a list of my top books. I decided to take it one step further and made a list of my top Pathfinder Tales novels. So that's what I did; plus I wrote a little bit of what Pathfinder is.



For the last seven years or so I have been playing Pathfinder, a tabletop role-playing game that was developed and based on the 3.5 rules edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Since 2010, Paizo, the publishing company that makes Pathfinder, has been releasing novels based in the Pathfinder world on a bi-monthly basis.

To date, there have been 31 Pathfinder Tales novels released, and I have read the first 30 (No. 31 is the next book in my reading queue). There have been many different authors who write these stories about various characters, so I decided I would compile a list of my personal favorites. So here it goes, in no particular order:

My Top 5 Pathfinder Tales Novels/Series

  1.    Radovan and the Count novels by Dave Gross

The Dave Gross novels are definitely the cornerstone of the Pathfinder Tales line, and by all rights they should be. Varian Jeggare is a high-class noble who is a member of the Pathfinder Society, an organization that sends agents all over the world of Golarion to seek out lost artifacts and knowledge. With him always is his bodyguard Radovan, a former street gang member who has (maybe more than) a touch of demon blood running through his veins. As the focus of five novels (only four are pictured, the fifth is on loan), the duo find themselves at the center of many adventurous plots and at the same time learn many things about themselves. A must read series for fans of fantasy.

  2.    The Crusader Road by Michael A. Stackpole

This novel centers on a noble family from Ustalov that is exiled to the River Kingdoms to start a new community. I really liked the whole feel of this book, especially how some of the chapters felt like short stories on their own, but at the same time kept the main story moving forward. Everything was brought together smoothly, and I found it quite enjoyable to read. I am looking forward to seeing more Pathfinder stories from this author.

3.    Death’s Heretic/The Redemption Engine novels by James L. Sutter

I’ll admit that there were parts of Death’s Heretic that I was lost and confused about, but The Redemption Engine made up for that and more to land on this list. Salim is an agent for Pharasma, the goddess of Death, and his task is to hunt down any wayward souls that have escaped her judgement. His journeys not only take him to different locations on the planet, but also to Heaven, Hell, and places in between. The fact that Salim comes from a nation that has outlawed believing in the gods to working for one is intriguing in itself. I found myself pondering over a lot of the ideas and concepts that were written in this series.

4.    Liar’s Blade/Liar’s Island novels by Tim Pratt

Tim Pratt actually has four Pathfinder novels out (to date) but two different sets of characters. I chose the Liar’s books because I found Roddick more personable, which comes as no surprise considering he is a con man after all. His best friend is Hrym, a talking magical sword made of ice who believes he used to be a dragon. Driven by their mutual passion for gold, the pair scheme their way into, and out of, trouble. Great stories about a couple of “heroes” with questionable morals.

5.     The Pirate’s novels by Chris A. Jackson

I had never read a nautical book before Pirate’s Honor, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. There certainly is a lot of nautical terms that I’m not familiar with, but the novels are written well enough that I could visualize most of the actions of Captain Torius Vin and his crew aboard their ship. He is not your typical pirate; he cares for his crew like they are his family, and he is very much opposed to slavery. His love interest is the ship’s navigator, Celeste, who is a lunar naga (think of a serpent with a woman’s head). The pairing seem like a bizarre concept, but it surprisingly works.

So there you have it, my top five.