Reviews
This was a very great start to the Drizzt series.
We really hit the ground running with this start to Drizzt's story. It was a bit silly at times (the villains are almost... cartoonish?), but perhaps it is a product of its time in the genre. I hope that this will improve with later books.
The characters are memorable and interesting and I am easily attached to them, and there is a constant stream of exciting things happening. It was hard to put the book down - "Just one more chapter!" I'd say. But I did occasionally need a break, because it can get tiring when things never slow down and our protagonist is always suffering.
If you are interested in drow lore, then this book in particular covers a lot of it. That said, it does not pull its punches, and handles quite a few heavy topics with no amount of grace. It can be upsetting for people with relevant triggers, especially if they aren't prepared.
This screamed, "Women don't pay attention to me in the way I like, so I'm going to write an entire book about how all women are power-hungry man-haters to fulfill my magical thinking on how I think the world is to me." Men who can't write interesting AND sympathetic AND complex AND evil women in their books? Massive levels of cringe.
An excellent story with some great characters. Salvatore is definitely more of a serious fantasy writer in my opinion - there isn't even a hint of humor in this book. I'm thankful that Salvatore didn't feel like the book needed foul language or sex to present a good story. Although I will say that I wanted a bit more in terms of twists and turns. This book seemed to progress in a predictable pattern without any surprises -- which for me isn't necessarily bad, but it does keep it from getting 5 stars.
I was a little hesitant going into this book. I'm a fan of fantasy reads, but I tend to be very picky about worlds I get wrapped up in. I'm also a little wary when I read books recommended to me because there's always that worry of ending up hating it. This is especially true since R.A. Salvatore is my boyfriend's favorite author and he is the one that bought me the book, heh. I know he probably wouldn't care two figs if I hated it, but, still... Welp, I don't have to worry about that scenario. This book was absolutely enthralling! I was sucked into the story from page one. I mean, it starts out with a freakin' battle, after all! How was I supposed to resist? It helps that the writing was pretty fantastic. Admittedly, not the best writing I've ever come across, but really freakin' good! And the story was what really got me. So many twists and turns and such rich characters! I'm very excited that the boyfriend got me the next 5 books in this series, as well. I can see that I will be vigorously devouring them in the near future!
