NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Goonalan" data-source="post: 9109284" data-attributes="member: 16069">#198 Sacrifice of the Widow by Lisa Smedman (Lady Penitent 1) Read 21/8/23 to 26/8/23[ATTACH=full]293491[/ATTACH]Who knew it? The Drow are a bunch of backstabbing two-faced bastards- actually, everyone knows this, what am I talking about, however what was not known was that they are also capable of all of the good stuff, but even then there's an undercurrent. So, this one picks up where our last visit to the Drow left off in the War of the Spider Queen, and I've just skipped back there to confirm my suspicions- I loved the Lisa Smedman entry in that series too. This one is a cracker.The himbo (the thinking female drow's draft excluder) Q'arlynd (he's a bit of alright) is out to see what he can make of himself, and let's just take a moment to congratulate the author on turning the tables. That's right- the ladies have dominion in this one, more so than in many of the other Drow novels) and so the eye-candy is male, get Boris Vallejo on the blower, we have a Drow mage with a six-pack and a silver tongue, and he's prepared to sell it all to get ahead. Nice work.Anyway, it's great- do we get to see Flinderspeld the Deep Gnome again, because I love that little feller? Anyone?Q'arylnd is in search of power, the faithful of Elilistraee are trying to make sense of the new order- Lolth's back, although the goddesses themselves are content to push their pieces around the sava board, it's all just a game. The rest, like in 'Extinction', Smedman's entry in the War of the Spider Queen series, is all adventure, intrigue, sweet sweet chatter and epic battles. The bad guys are suitably mad, bad and dangerous, but also believable (y'know- in a D&D world) and I love the fact that people die, as in good guys- they pay the ultimate price. I've railed about this in other books here, authors seem to be very precious with their spawn, not Smedman. Kill 'em all, let the Fugue Plain sort 'em out. Love it.The other thing she does is mystery, there are so many things at the end of this one that are still to resolved, its twisty-turny, its violent, its thoughtful and clever, and the secret is so obvious when you see it (right at the start) that by the time the real bad thing happens (the invasion of the Promenade by the Selvetarm that, well- I'd forgotten all about the odd egg-shaped magical stones that had been found 250 pages earlier.The return of Halisstra (in her new primordial spider-drow form) is great, and at the end another loose end that the author can have fun chasing down, then there's Selvetarm himself, and Lolth's spider fortress (that takes me all the way back to DMing Q1). It's... just a cracker, the story spins on as we dance from scene to scene, and so very well stitched together- just enough of one tale to set the pulse racing before we pick up a separate strand to play with, the author is having a dalliance with the reader.The only thing I didn't like, or else liked less was the sava game that tops and tails this one... I am therefore presuming that this game is going to be the top and tail of all of the books to follow. I'll live with it, and it's not dire but... done so very many times before.Again, and as stated previously, there are lots of new (or old) places to see in this one, and I  do so love a good look around, the same for people and places to see and hear. I stopped myself from reading this one in a rush, I put it down when I had fifty or so pages done, to give me something good to look forward to for the next day.So, at the end of this one the sneaky bastard worshippers of Vhaeraun are all (mostly) defeated, as are their partners in crime- driders, choldrith, aranaea et al it's semi-spider-fest; the demigod himself is offed (off-page) by Elilistraee herself. Selvetarm, champion of Lolth, he gets chopped too, and the talking dancing blade is back. It's all kicking off.More of the same to come, fingers crossed.Read, bloody good. Smedman is in my top five, top three- maybe (probably) so far.Stay safe and well you lovely people, I get top start the next one tomorrow.Cheers Paul</blockquote>

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