Title: Critical Role: The Mighty Nein – The Nine Eyes of Lucien
Author: Madeleine Roux
Publisher: Random House Worlds
Publish Date: November 1, 2022
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
Pages: 320
Format: Hardcover

Delve into the mind of Critical Role’s most charming villain in this original novel that chronicles Lucien’s early life and his fateful meeting with the Mighty Nein.

Lucien has always been able to spin a bad situation to his advantage. From his childhood on the dangerous streets of Shadycreek Run to his years living off the grid and learning blood magic from the Claret Orders, the charismatic blood hunter will find a way to get the upper hand.

When Lucien is on a job in the frozen wastelands of Eiselcross with his fellow mercenaries, a rough-and-tumble crew called the Tombtakers, fate leads him to a mysterious journal in the ruins of an ancient city. The book speaks of the Somnovem, nine beings who can grant Lucien power beyond imagining—if he is able to find them and free them from captivity.

Intrigued by this opportunity, Lucien pores over the journal—but the more he reads, the stranger things become. The nine whisper to him in dreams and waking visions. Time slips away, along with Lucien’s grasp on reality. And tattoos of red eyes begin appearing on his skin. . . .

With the ability to reshape the world within his grasp, Lucien ignores all warning signs. He has always bent fortune to his will, and nothing—not even death—will stop him now.

Written by New York Times bestselling author Madeleine Roux, Critical Role: The Mighty Nein—The Nine Eyes of Lucien explores the meteoric rise and fall of one of Critical Role’s most notorious and tragic figures.

I love Critical Role and the fun Dungeons & Dragons campaigns that they’ve run so far – and are still running – but my favorite campaign thus far has been campaign two about The Mighty Nein. In this novel in particular we follow Lucien, an eccentric tiefling man before the time he joined the group, from when he was a child into his early twenties. During this time we see the rough living he had growing up in Shadycreek Run, stealing to make a pretty penny, and the friend he had that stuck by him all the time, Cree.

I love being able to read about the backstories of characters, especially ones that I myself had grown attached to, so to be able to read about the varies trials and tribulations that Lucien underwent in his time before joining the Mighty Nein was exciting to me as it added an extra layer of depth to an already very mysterious character. In the campaign you learn that he had died previously and doesn’t remember his life before he died, so to actually be able to get a glimpse as to what that was? Yes, please and thank you.

Lucien is a fairly clever young man who knows how to flaunt himself in a way that could favor him, but there are always consequences to actions that could lead to a lot of trouble. I found that he wasn’t quite as eccentric as the version of him we meet in the campaign (Mollymauk), but that this was a much sharper, cunning version that strove to get what he wanted no matter the cost.

And it would cost him dearly.

Throughout the story we follow Lucien on his journey to helping an important member of the Cerberus Assembly, a university of mages of varying power, influence, and capabilities, along with Cree and a number of people he otherwise wouldn’t have ever teamed up to go on this journey to the frozen wastes of the north and find an ancient fallen technologically advanced city – Aeor.

I found the pacing to be fast, but not so fast that you miss out on important aspects of his life – even the parts in his earlier childhood into his teenage years. Even though they weren’t the focus, there was enough there to make you understand Lucien and to see his motivations just for surviving in the world. It kept me engaged and wanting to know what happened next, and boy was I in for a treat.

If you happened to follow campaign two of the show, then you know a lot of what happens already in this book, but the way leading up to it was vaguely mentioned in the show itself, so seeing it fleshed out on paper made it that much more interesting and devastating when reflecting back to the show itself. I found myself on more than one occasion wanting Lucien to succeed, yes, but as things progressed to slow down and think for himself for a minute. To really think about what it was he was reading and seeing and how it could affect him later on.

Though, that leads to a major catalyst in the Mighty Nein’s campaign, and it’s quite juicy.

I find that this book is definitely written for the fans of the show, and that if you followed The Mighty Nein then you’d definitely want to pick this book up just to get a further glimpse into the character we thought we knew. However, I think that anyone can still pick up the book and enjoy it, though you may not get the full nuance of the story without further knowledge of the campaign, which seems a shame, to be honest.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. It kept me engaged throughout, wanting to see how everything would actually play out. To learn about Lucien’s harrowing past with his family was tragic (as many backstories are of characters in the D&D world), and to learn and see how aspects of his life that were important to him left him or changed him in ways that would be irreversible was tangible and consuming.

Definitely read this book if you enjoy CR, or if you’d like to dip your toes into a fantasy adventure set in a D&D world.

★★★★☆