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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Goonalan" data-source="post: 8463594" data-attributes="member: 16069">#145 Insurrection by Thomas M Reid (War Spider Queen 2) Read 17/11/21 to 20/11/21[ATTACH=full]147011[/ATTACH]And still everything is better with drow, hence it only taking three days to read this one.Also, as I've said before, I'm reading a 'normal' novel between each FR offering- so Umberto Eco's Baudolino (a great book) got demolished in just three days between this one and the last from the War of the Spider Queen series. I needed to get back to it.So, Ched Nasad- what a place, and keep in mind that I had no idea about the locale- other than the name, that's all the information I had before picking up this one.There's a bit of- Wow! going on at the start, but that's just me grinning to myself and wondering what it would be like to DM my guys around this terrifying/crazy place- spider's webs turned to stone for thoroughfares, the great houses- and all of the other buildings built on the webs/walls etc. It's a shame that we don't get to spend longer in some of these places, Ched Nasad is a place I want to know, although... at the end.Is it entirely destroyed, or does some version of the ruins get propped back up again? What's left there?Then there's the Guardian Spiders, as enemies go- I like them, and the fact that with Lolth gone the Matron Mothers have no control over the massive terrors. In fact the entire situation/operation runs like a high level (hefty- a thick book) scenario, particularly the end game when our gang of kick ass drow (et al) have to make it out of Ched before the big whoops. It's a nice climax, a lot of running around and fight after fight- so many, and I love this stuff, that even I started wishing (a little) for the end. But the finale in the Dangling Tower is just superb.There's stuff here that I like less than the last one, but... not much, the away team are just glorious, particularly with the Alu Demon- Aliisza, and Jeggred has shaped up- I wouldn't say that the Draegloth is a team player but, he comes good in this one. As does Quenthel.Perhaps its Pharaun then that disappoints (but only a very little) in comparison with his previous incarnation. He's the central character, the MVP, and yet even he is short of quips, and needs to get rescued every now and then in this one. I'm not sure why I was a little less impressed with his performance here, early on in the novel he was his usual chipper self- bedding Aliisza and smirking and smarming his way through every encounter. Then... it all just got as lot less smart, a lot more fighty and a lot busier. Pharaun didn't get as much chance/space to shine, or else to sound too cool for skool while doing so.Don't get me wrong, there's nothing bad here, it's just that if the last one was a 9.5/10 then this one was only a 9/10. That's the limit of my complaint.Great book, everything is better with drow, duergar, demons, draegloth and damned big spiders.Read.Stay safe and well you lovely people.Cheers goonalan.</blockquote>

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