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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dark Jezter" data-source="post: 1198421" data-attributes="member: 1015">Early yesterday afternoon, the copy of The Lone Drow from R.A. Salvatore arrived at my house.  A little over 12 hours later, I finished up the epilogue of the book (I literally couldn't put it down).  This thread is for others who have read this book, and be warned that it contains MASSIVE spoilers.  I won't be using the spoiler tags here, since the whole thread is centered around spoilers and it would be irritating to have to highlight everything that everyone says.  However, I will leave some spoiler space........All in all, I enjoyed the book.  It was very suspenseful; and I couldn't stop turning pages until I'd finished the entire thing.  Here are a few observations about it (once again, you've been warned about spoilers)...<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">  I'm liking King Obould Many-Arrows more and more as a villain.  In The Thousand Orcs it was looking like he'd be yet another dumb, brutish orc warlord like we've seen in countless other fantasy novels.  However, in this book, Obould discusses things like logistics and economics and comes up with brilliant military strategies.  He also aquires the divine blessing of Gruumsh, which sounds like he has Bull's Strength and Cat's Grace permanently cast upon himself.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">  The heroes are really taking a beating in these books.  Bruenor spends most of the book in a near-death comatose state, Pikel Bouldershoulder loses his arm in battle,  and Tarathiel and Shoudra are both killed by King Obould.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">  Regis is really beginning to show his stuff!  He continues his trend of heroism that he started in the last book by taking up a mantle of leadership as the Steward of Mithral Hall.  I know that many RAS fans (myself included) have seen Regis as a "worthless" character from time-to-time.  I happily retract everything bad I've ever said about the halfling.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f60e.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":cool:" title="Cool    :cool:"  data-smilie="6"data-shortname=":cool:" /> </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">  R.A. Salvatore is very good at writing drow and dwarves, but for some reason, whenever he tries to write (non-dark) elves, they tend to be rather flat and uninteresting.  Much like Elbreth and Shayleigh from The Cleric Quintet, I found myself not really caring about the characters of Innovindil and Tarathiel.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">  Speaking of elves, it looks to me like RAS is setting up a romance between Drizzt and Innovindil.  It seems a little strange to me that Innovindil is acting so intimately around Drizzt (holding him, kissing the top of his head while he rests, wearing revealing nightclothes around him) mere days after she watched her husband get cut down in battle.  This could cause complications when Drizzt finds out that Catti-brie isn't dead at all. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">  This is the first R.A. Salvatore book where Eilistraee is mentioned, which surprised me a little because I recall RAS commenting that he didn't care much for a goddess of good-aligned drow (he feels that she makes the drow less scary).  When Eilistraee was mentioned by Donnia, I was fearful that RAS would be introducing a Liriel Baenre-like character, but luckily he didn't.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">  I should comment that I breathed a sigh of relief when Bruenor awoke from his coma.  If RAS kills off any of his main characters, it should be Catti-Brie (I never have liked her much, and she seems to be getting even more annoying as time goes on). <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">  I can't believe that we have to wait a whole year for the next book in the series!  With Mithral Hall under siege from all directions and a rising body count among the good guys, I can't wait to see how the good guys escape.  I have a feeling that the final book in the series will bring about some major changes for Drizzt & company (assuming that they all make it out alive, that is).</li> </ul>So, there are my thoughts on the book.  I gotta admit that I was really surprised that Shoudra got killed; I thought she'd be playing a larger role in the series.  I wasn't so surprised when Tarathiel got killed, though, as I knew that he was doomed as soon as he engaged Obould in combat.Now, I want to see what other people think of this book!</blockquote>

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