This is FR9: Bloodstone Lands (1989). As you saw earlier this week, halfway through the H-series modules, Bloodstone went from being generic to being tucked into the Forgotten Realms, near the Great Glacier. This is penned by none other than novelist R. A. Salvatore (one of fairly few game design credits for him, at least relative to his fiction output—I can only think of this and a credit on Menzoberranzan); weirdly, the back cover says this book includes Icewind Dale, which…is nowhere near Bloodstone.

Anyway, this is a sourcebook, like most of the FR-series, dedicated to filling in details on the region (we’ll look at more of the series later in the year). This one is a bit unusual for having so much information already out there in the H-series, so it concentrates on the canon fallout from those modules (toned down somewhat, though I believe Orcus’ defeat in H4 is a plot point in Monte Cook’s Planescape campaigns, which details Orcus’ return) and details some neighboring regions as well. It’s fine, certainly no more dry than the average Realms region book, but it does feel a little bit more exhausted of potential in the wake of the H-series events.

Love this Larry Elmore cover painting, ooo-eeee, do I ever. Always rooting for the priests of Orcus. Interior art credited to Uttam, who I know nothing about and who is probably fine, though I have trouble parsing the images printed on the faux-parchment texture.