II (Forgotten Realms - Companions Codex) - Companions Codex

"Rise of the King" brings us to the 27th book in the ongoing Drizzt saga and the second installment in the recharged "Companions Codex" series.

Picking up right where "Night of the Hunter" left off, the Drow and Orc of Many Arrows have teamed up to lead an assault on the Silver Marches. Feeling an immense burden of responsibility for the current conflict, Bruenor leads his companions towards the battle to fight for the goodly races.

Rise of the King is 75% plot development with the final 25% being edge of your seat action. I anticipate that next March, when the third installment arrives, several big conflicts might finally come to fruition.

Some of our favorite supporting cast members return with minor and cameo appearances: Jarlaxle, Athrogate, Ivan Bouldershoulder, the dragon sisters and Dahlia. Then, other key players are blatantly absent which means the third novel should be exciting indeed.

I'm a huge fan of R.A. Salvatore's work and a big fan of the Drizzt series. After all these years, the saga and characters remain fresh and exciting. This is a solid entry in the Drizzt anthology and a very well written novel overall.

For new readers and those who are coming back from a Drizzt hiatus, check out my the store listmania list which shows the read order for the main series from book one to this latest installment. http://amzn.com/lm/R2JESL8JR0TPV2

A huge, huge thank you to NetGalley and Wizards of the Coast for providing me with a copy of this book to read for review.

It was okay could have been better. There was way too much happening and so different point of view changes that it took a lot away from the story especially since the book wasn't that long. Also it seems to me that most of the time the companions were so weak and as usual the enemy has a full picture of what's going on while all they do is blunder into tight spot with no type of knowledge. One of the main reasons I've always liked Drizzt do'urden books is because the Pov is steady and there isn't that much jumping around from character to character that you get too frustrated with the read which happens in this book. Well I'm a avid reader of these but so just going to Dait for the next one and hope it's better.

I've been enjoying this series overall, but MAN is it tough for me to keep all the background players straight. Remembering who did what and how they relate to Drizzt and company kept me on my toes. In all honesty, I like the time spent with the Companions the best and, for me, the rest of the action is just setup for Drizzt and his crew to kick butt and be awesome.

Because even when things look like there's no way out, those resourceful Companions find a way to make it work.

So. Dwarfs and Orcs. Yeah, things look bad. The kingdoms are in upheaval, the orc army has spread like a plague across the land, and the shadowy machinations of the drow continue. There is some serious craziness going on and the Companions keep finding themselves smack-dab in the middle. Well, wait. Actually, they sort of put themselves in the middle. You know, because they're good guys and they don't stand by idly when bad, bad things happen.

Enjoyable, I still find myself the most engaged in the story lines dealing directly with the Companions. They're just so... fun. Weird and offbeat and kinda bloodthirsty. You know, fun!

(I'm a little sad I don't get to make any "tangled web" spider jokes this review, but what can you do?)

-Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal

Originally posted at www.throatpunchgames.com, a new idea everyday!

Book-Rise of the King: The Companions Codex, Book 2
Author- R. A. Salvatore
Voice- Victor Bevine
Book- ~$14 here http://www.the store.com/Rise-King-Companions-Codex-II/dp/0786965150/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419984295&sr=8-1&keywords=rise+of+the+king
Audiobook- ~$20 here http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/Rise-of-the-King-Audiobook/B00NFO4TH8
TL; DR-Best Drizzit Book so far! 93%

Basics-The orcs are on the move! Can Drizzit stop the orc hoards with their drow puppeteers and grapple with the moral implications of orc right and wrong? Can Drizzit save the Silver Marshes or will the world fall into the clutches of Loth?

Characters-I've written about Drizzit before. He's not my favorite fantasy character, but this one doesn't just focus on him. He's here in this book, and he's in the spot light just the right amount. This book is truly an ensemble cast with both enemy drow and distant humans all taking a turn in the spot light. It's a well done book with lots of different characters. A character might only get five pages of screen time, but you do feel like that person is a whole. It's not perfect, but it's done really well. 4.5/5

Setting-It's R. A. Salvatore and Drizzit. Of course the Realms gets a great treatment. The Silver Marshes and Sword Coast are being dragged through the mud, but it's still well done Forgotten Realms. 5/5

Story- Here's where everything comes together. Salvatore is using lots of different characters to tell lots of different perspectives on the same story. He's using the best show don't tell I've seen from him in a while. Instead of letting Drizzit monologue about "Can orcs be good?" he's got lots of people running around as a giant plan is coming together. What hamstring all this is that the book is set in the past. Drizzit and his creator Salvatore are both telling another side of the history to a DnD encounters season. It's well done, but you know Drizzit will win, the Sword Coast is ok, and his friends will be fine. But, it's still a fun ride. 4.5/5

Summary-Honestly, it's taken me a bit to love the Drizzit story. I stared reading Salvatore because he writes for the realms. I love the Forgotten Realms, and to know what's going on, I had to read his stuff. But, now after books like this one, I have to say, I'm pretty happy I stuck it out. This might not be the best place to start reading Drizzit books, being the middle of a series and all, but this book made me the happiest to read. I'm now on board with this series and Salvatore's writing. I can only hope the next one is just like this one! 93%.

Audiobook Extra- Victor Bevine has to cover a ton of ground for this one. If a book only has one character, then a reader only has to cover one voice. Salvatore wrote a bunch of different characters, and Victor rose to the challenge. Well done! 5 /5

RISE OF THE KING is the second book in the Companions Codex, which features the reincarnated Bruenor, Regis, Catti-brie, and Wulfgar rejoining Drizzt Do’Urden. It is also the 26th book in the Legend of Drizzt saga.

RISE OF THE KING picks up right after NIGHT OF THE HUNTER. There’s not a lot of recap from the first book, so I was a bit lost at first since I couldn’t remember a lot of what happened. Essentially, the drow are bringing about war in the Silver Marches, using the orcs of Many Arrows to do their dirty work.

THE GOOD:
–R.A. Salvatore writes some great action scenes, and there are lots of them in this book, both small and large scale. The gang fights groups of orcs and goblins, and they also help the besieged town of Nesmé.

–The book doesn’t just follow the Companions, which helps show the impact of war on the entire area. There are scenes from others, including Afafrenfere, Jarlaxle, Kimmuriel, and “common” people. I was personally hoping for more from the drow, especially Quenthel Baenre, but she wasn’t very present in this book.

THE BAD:
–The first third or so of RISE OF THE KING is a real slog to get through. I typically read about 400-450 words per minute, and I was down to 200 for the beginning of this book. What I’m trying to point out here is the writing is so … obfuscated. I can’t remember how many times I had to reread sentences and paragraphs to figure out what the author was trying to say. Sometimes it felt like I was reading fanfic. After battles started, the writing became clearer, as if Salvatore found his stride (or maybe I just got used to it).

–Yes, there are a lot of battles in RISE OF THE KING, but overall, the book mostly moves characters around, putting them into place for a showdown in the final book. When I finally finished reading, I wasn’t left with the impression that a whole lot had happened.

Overall, RISE OF THE KING is very much a middle book, functioning as more evidence for “all orcs are evil” and furthering the war in Luruar. I’ve skipped a lot of the middle books in the Legend of Drizzt saga, but I get the feeling this book is going back on a lot of what happened. Oh well. Even though I wasn’t blown away by RISE OF THE KING, I’m still looking forward to seeing how everything ends.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I've been reading the Drizzt Do'Urden novels since I was about 8 years old, and I was probably about 16 when I realized they were the novel equivalent of junk food. And like any good junk food, they're popular and addicting.

Salvatore's been through some ups and downs with the books over the past couple years, and it often felt like maybe there was some outside pressure pushing him to write things he didn't really believe in. A "corporate agenda" if you will. Rise of the King feels like Salvatore is finally stepping back into the stories he really wants to tell, the ones where the good guys always win, following your heart has its own rewards, and the influence of one good person can have positive repercussions that reverberate throughout an entire world.

It may be a little corny, but it's obvious that that is where Salvatore's heart lies, and you can feel it in this book that really seems to have more of Salvatore's own heart in it than I've seen in a while.

This is a fun adventure embroiling us in the war started by the drow. The orc are the major force with giants and 2 dragons. The war spreads and is focused around Luaur (hadn't heard of this city until this series started) and Nesme.

Salvatore starts going into the grey areas of the war and shows us holes in the drow attack; introducing two copper dragons to potentially go against the whites.

The Kummeriel and the Arch Mage (his name escapes me as I write this. I know it starts with a G) show the potential for a different facet of the war. Magic Users have always had this higher spiritual belief in things. Wars come and go, but to learn a new power or attain immortality seem to be the main objectives. I'm interested to see where this goes :-).

The Drizzt books have gotten better since the Nevrewinter saga, but they still aren't as good as the old ones. I love Forgotten Realms, and the Drizzt books got me started on my FR craze, but after reading other FR novels, I noticed that sometimes RAS seems out of touch with the rest of the Realms. It's like he's playing in the same sandbox but doing his own thing, which is both refreshing, and at times disappointing, because his books don't have the same feel as other Realms authors.

This book was decent, and I would encourage any Drizzt fan to read it, however I would also encourage them to branch out to other FR novels, too. The title and description are a little misleading. I thought it was going to be about Bruneor reclaiming his place as king in Mithril Hall, but he doesn't even go there until the very end.

Jarlaxle was as magnificant as always, though I missed seeing Valas. The dynamics developing between Gromph and Kimmuriel are also interesting. This book had the usual boatload of battle scenes one can expect from a RAS novel, and there was a lot of destruction. I am curious to see what happens next. I am glad the Companions of the Hall are back in action, and Drizzt is his old self.

Not familiar with R A Salvatore, I found out by research that this is the 27th novel of its kind which means that I’m coming in a little late!

It’s the second in this series and the first chapters are inundated with names of characters, places and creatures which makes for a highly confusing story at first. It probably helps if you’re already familiar with them all but it meant nothing to me. There are frequent references to past events, no doubt from previous books, but these had to remain unexplained. However I persisted. The books ends on more cliffhangers so the reader is expected to get the next book in the series.

Dwarves, Elves, Giants, Ogres, Trolls, Goblins, Dragons and Orcs abound. This is very much a book for the D&D generation: it’s all action and very little characterisation.

I prefer my fantasy with more originality and depth.

Fans of the author and the genre will no doubt be satisfied with this novel and I recommend it to them.

In this second book of the Companions Codex, we continue the story with the reincarnated Companions of the Hall, with a large war looming with Orcs (again) instigated by the Drow (again).

Honestly while reading the first part of the book, I was pretty sure I had read this book before, so similar is the plot theme to the Thousand Orcs (right down to the bickering of the goodly folk). While in Realm time a century has passed, in real time it's only been some years since the previous Orc war and it feels like an old hat.

Personally, I also find it very irritating that given all the effort given in the previous saga into 'Orcs-are-people-too', now the whole line of Obould and his dream of a real Orc kingdom is swept aside and the whole race is again evil-because-we're-evil. Similarly the conversion of Tos'un back into evil feels forced, almost if the author wanted to drop all the developments done in the past to return things to the way they were - the Companions are young and on the road again, and the only person allowed to be good among the evil races is Drizzt.

This aside, the story flows smoothly, if predictably, and the main characters are themselves. Of special note is Regis, who is finally given things to do and Wulfgar, who is still being given the short stick.

All in all, it's yet another Drizzt book but that is not all a bad thing. I've been reading these for 20 years now and definitel ywill be reading the next one when it comes out. I just wish we got another book like the Companions in the Sundering series - more character development, less descriptions of perfect parries.

I was generally surprised with how much I enjoyed this novel, my major complaint with the Companions was that it was not really adding anything to the story of the Sundering. This book is free form that story and able to stand on its own. The action is compelling and while I am tired of Drizzt the return of other characters especially Jaraxle taking a much larger role in the story then in the previous novel really drive the narrative. It was nice to see the restored companions but I looked forward to the chapters dealing with Jaraxle working his particular brand of chaos. A good read and once the story hits its stride you will be hard pressed to put it down.

A long-awaited & much anticipated return to the Companions of the Hall, Jarlaxle, & even the drow. Throw in some dragons, Afafrenfre, Ambergris, & Athrogate, along with cities in Siege & orcs attacking, & you have one of the best books in the Companions series in a very long time!

Pardon my fan-girl squee because Drizzt is back in this book! This book seemed particularly hard to put down. As always, lots going on, some of the same villains are back with some of the same friends. The Companions are here of course, but Jarlaxle and Connerad play their parts, too. Lots of orcs and goblins to defeat. The only quibble I have is that some characters are left in pretty dire straits at the end and I need to know when the next book is coming out. Great fun. Received free copy for review.

Wonderful new adventure with all you could want and ask for in another Drizzt and his friends. It's so such going on with each battle at all the different locations and close ends with fighting. Tiago is getting closer to hunting down Drizzt for his attempt to claim glory. This is one battle I'm really looking forward to. With so many serious ending, it's going to be hard waiting for book 3, Vengeance of the Iron Dwarfs.

Can Drizzt PLEASE do something new? Seriously, this plot line is as old and tired as it can get. I thought we had the beginnings of a new series when there was all sorts of banter about which Goddess Drizzt truly serves. But nope, drawn back into the Drow crap we've read 3 times already. And why does Wulfgar all the sudden become a rag doll? Does Salvatore just not like him anymore? Anyone else out there find it a little weird that Drizzt rides around on a unicorn with bells in it's hair? Come on, the Realms toughest badass rides around on a unicorn that has jingling bells in his hair. Good God Salvatore, you are better than this. Can't Drizzt at least learn a couple ranger spells or something? Give the guy a new dynamic. My prediction is Drizzt winds up with Tiago Baenre's scimitar . You heard it here first.

I've been enjoying this series overall, but MAN is it tough for me to keep all the background players straight. Remembering who did what and how they relate to Drizzt and company kept me on my toes. In all honesty, I like the time spent with the Companions the best and, for me, the rest of the action is just setup for Drizzt and his crew to kick butt and be awesome.

Because even when things look like there's no way out, those resourceful Companions find a way to make it work.

So. Dwarfs and Orcs. Yeah, things look bad. The kingdoms are in upheaval, the orc army has spread like a plague across the land, and the shadowy machinations of the drow continue. There is some serious craziness going on and the Companions keep finding themselves smack-dab in the middle. Well, wait. Actually, they sort of put themselves in the middle. You know, because they're good guys and they don't stand by idly when bad, bad things happen.

Enjoyable, I still find myself the most engaged in the story lines dealing directly with the Companions. They're just so... fun. Weird and offbeat and kinda bloodthirsty. You know, fun!

(I'm a little sad I don't get to make any "tangled web" spider jokes this review, but what can you do?)

-Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal

Originally posted at www.throatpunchgames.com, a new idea everyday!

Book-Rise of the King: The Companions Codex, Book 2
Author- R. A. Salvatore
Voice- Victor Bevine
Book- ~$14 here http://www.the store.com/Rise-King-Companions-Codex-II/dp/0786965150/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419984295&sr=8-1&keywords=rise+of+the+king
Audiobook- ~$20 here http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/Rise-of-the-King-Audiobook/B00NFO4TH8
TL; DR-Best Drizzit Book so far! 93%

Basics-The orcs are on the move! Can Drizzit stop the orc hoards with their drow puppeteers and grapple with the moral implications of orc right and wrong? Can Drizzit save the Silver Marshes or will the world fall into the clutches of Loth?

Characters-I've written about Drizzit before. He's not my favorite fantasy character, but this one doesn't just focus on him. He's here in this book, and he's in the spot light just the right amount. This book is truly an ensemble cast with both enemy drow and distant humans all taking a turn in the spot light. It's a well done book with lots of different characters. A character might only get five pages of screen time, but you do feel like that person is a whole. It's not perfect, but it's done really well. 4.5/5

Setting-It's R. A. Salvatore and Drizzit. Of course the Realms gets a great treatment. The Silver Marshes and Sword Coast are being dragged through the mud, but it's still well done Forgotten Realms. 5/5

Story- Here's where everything comes together. Salvatore is using lots of different characters to tell lots of different perspectives on the same story. He's using the best show don't tell I've seen from him in a while. Instead of letting Drizzit monologue about "Can orcs be good?" he's got lots of people running around as a giant plan is coming together. What hamstring all this is that the book is set in the past. Drizzit and his creator Salvatore are both telling another side of the history to a DnD encounters season. It's well done, but you know Drizzit will win, the Sword Coast is ok, and his friends will be fine. But, it's still a fun ride. 4.5/5

Summary-Honestly, it's taken me a bit to love the Drizzit story. I stared reading Salvatore because he writes for the realms. I love the Forgotten Realms, and to know what's going on, I had to read his stuff. But, now after books like this one, I have to say, I'm pretty happy I stuck it out. This might not be the best place to start reading Drizzit books, being the middle of a series and all, but this book made me the happiest to read. I'm now on board with this series and Salvatore's writing. I can only hope the next one is just like this one! 93%.

Audiobook Extra- Victor Bevine has to cover a ton of ground for this one. If a book only has one character, then a reader only has to cover one voice. Salvatore wrote a bunch of different characters, and Victor rose to the challenge. Well done! 5 /5

RISE OF THE KING is the second book in the Companions Codex, which features the reincarnated Bruenor, Regis, Catti-brie, and Wulfgar rejoining Drizzt Do’Urden. It is also the 26th book in the Legend of Drizzt saga.

RISE OF THE KING picks up right after NIGHT OF THE HUNTER. There’s not a lot of recap from the first book, so I was a bit lost at first since I couldn’t remember a lot of what happened. Essentially, the drow are bringing about war in the Silver Marches, using the orcs of Many Arrows to do their dirty work.

THE GOOD:
–R.A. Salvatore writes some great action scenes, and there are lots of them in this book, both small and large scale. The gang fights groups of orcs and goblins, and they also help the besieged town of Nesmé.

–The book doesn’t just follow the Companions, which helps show the impact of war on the entire area. There are scenes from others, including Afafrenfere, Jarlaxle, Kimmuriel, and “common” people. I was personally hoping for more from the drow, especially Quenthel Baenre, but she wasn’t very present in this book.

THE BAD:
–The first third or so of RISE OF THE KING is a real slog to get through. I typically read about 400-450 words per minute, and I was down to 200 for the beginning of this book. What I’m trying to point out here is the writing is so … obfuscated. I can’t remember how many times I had to reread sentences and paragraphs to figure out what the author was trying to say. Sometimes it felt like I was reading fanfic. After battles started, the writing became clearer, as if Salvatore found his stride (or maybe I just got used to it).

–Yes, there are a lot of battles in RISE OF THE KING, but overall, the book mostly moves characters around, putting them into place for a showdown in the final book. When I finally finished reading, I wasn’t left with the impression that a whole lot had happened.

Overall, RISE OF THE KING is very much a middle book, functioning as more evidence for “all orcs are evil” and furthering the war in Luruar. I’ve skipped a lot of the middle books in the Legend of Drizzt saga, but I get the feeling this book is going back on a lot of what happened. Oh well. Even though I wasn’t blown away by RISE OF THE KING, I’m still looking forward to seeing how everything ends.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I've been reading the Drizzt Do'Urden novels since I was about 8 years old, and I was probably about 16 when I realized they were the novel equivalent of junk food. And like any good junk food, they're popular and addicting.

Salvatore's been through some ups and downs with the books over the past couple years, and it often felt like maybe there was some outside pressure pushing him to write things he didn't really believe in. A "corporate agenda" if you will. Rise of the King feels like Salvatore is finally stepping back into the stories he really wants to tell, the ones where the good guys always win, following your heart has its own rewards, and the influence of one good person can have positive repercussions that reverberate throughout an entire world.

It may be a little corny, but it's obvious that that is where Salvatore's heart lies, and you can feel it in this book that really seems to have more of Salvatore's own heart in it than I've seen in a while.

This is a fun adventure embroiling us in the war started by the drow. The orc are the major force with giants and 2 dragons. The war spreads and is focused around Luaur (hadn't heard of this city until this series started) and Nesme.

Salvatore starts going into the grey areas of the war and shows us holes in the drow attack; introducing two copper dragons to potentially go against the whites.

The Kummeriel and the Arch Mage (his name escapes me as I write this. I know it starts with a G) show the potential for a different facet of the war. Magic Users have always had this higher spiritual belief in things. Wars come and go, but to learn a new power or attain immortality seem to be the main objectives. I'm interested to see where this goes :-).

The Drizzt books have gotten better since the Nevrewinter saga, but they still aren't as good as the old ones. I love Forgotten Realms, and the Drizzt books got me started on my FR craze, but after reading other FR novels, I noticed that sometimes RAS seems out of touch with the rest of the Realms. It's like he's playing in the same sandbox but doing his own thing, which is both refreshing, and at times disappointing, because his books don't have the same feel as other Realms authors.

This book was decent, and I would encourage any Drizzt fan to read it, however I would also encourage them to branch out to other FR novels, too. The title and description are a little misleading. I thought it was going to be about Bruneor reclaiming his place as king in Mithril Hall, but he doesn't even go there until the very end.

Jarlaxle was as magnificant as always, though I missed seeing Valas. The dynamics developing between Gromph and Kimmuriel are also interesting. This book had the usual boatload of battle scenes one can expect from a RAS novel, and there was a lot of destruction. I am curious to see what happens next. I am glad the Companions of the Hall are back in action, and Drizzt is his old self.

Not familiar with R A Salvatore, I found out by research that this is the 27th novel of its kind which means that I’m coming in a little late!

It’s the second in this series and the first chapters are inundated with names of characters, places and creatures which makes for a highly confusing story at first. It probably helps if you’re already familiar with them all but it meant nothing to me. There are frequent references to past events, no doubt from previous books, but these had to remain unexplained. However I persisted. The books ends on more cliffhangers so the reader is expected to get the next book in the series.

Dwarves, Elves, Giants, Ogres, Trolls, Goblins, Dragons and Orcs abound. This is very much a book for the D&D generation: it’s all action and very little characterisation.

I prefer my fantasy with more originality and depth.

Fans of the author and the genre will no doubt be satisfied with this novel and I recommend it to them.

In this second book of the Companions Codex, we continue the story with the reincarnated Companions of the Hall, with a large war looming with Orcs (again) instigated by the Drow (again).

Honestly while reading the first part of the book, I was pretty sure I had read this book before, so similar is the plot theme to the Thousand Orcs (right down to the bickering of the goodly folk). While in Realm time a century has passed, in real time it's only been some years since the previous Orc war and it feels like an old hat.

Personally, I also find it very irritating that given all the effort given in the previous saga into 'Orcs-are-people-too', now the whole line of Obould and his dream of a real Orc kingdom is swept aside and the whole race is again evil-because-we're-evil. Similarly the conversion of Tos'un back into evil feels forced, almost if the author wanted to drop all the developments done in the past to return things to the way they were - the Companions are young and on the road again, and the only person allowed to be good among the evil races is Drizzt.

This aside, the story flows smoothly, if predictably, and the main characters are themselves. Of special note is Regis, who is finally given things to do and Wulfgar, who is still being given the short stick.

All in all, it's yet another Drizzt book but that is not all a bad thing. I've been reading these for 20 years now and definitel ywill be reading the next one when it comes out. I just wish we got another book like the Companions in the Sundering series - more character development, less descriptions of perfect parries.

I was generally surprised with how much I enjoyed this novel, my major complaint with the Companions was that it was not really adding anything to the story of the Sundering. This book is free form that story and able to stand on its own. The action is compelling and while I am tired of Drizzt the return of other characters especially Jaraxle taking a much larger role in the story then in the previous novel really drive the narrative. It was nice to see the restored companions but I looked forward to the chapters dealing with Jaraxle working his particular brand of chaos. A good read and once the story hits its stride you will be hard pressed to put it down.

A long-awaited & much anticipated return to the Companions of the Hall, Jarlaxle, & even the drow. Throw in some dragons, Afafrenfre, Ambergris, & Athrogate, along with cities in Siege & orcs attacking, & you have one of the best books in the Companions series in a very long time!

Pardon my fan-girl squee because Drizzt is back in this book! This book seemed particularly hard to put down. As always, lots going on, some of the same villains are back with some of the same friends. The Companions are here of course, but Jarlaxle and Connerad play their parts, too. Lots of orcs and goblins to defeat. The only quibble I have is that some characters are left in pretty dire straits at the end and I need to know when the next book is coming out. Great fun. Received free copy for review.

Wonderful new adventure with all you could want and ask for in another Drizzt and his friends. It's so such going on with each battle at all the different locations and close ends with fighting. Tiago is getting closer to hunting down Drizzt for his attempt to claim glory. This is one battle I'm really looking forward to. With so many serious ending, it's going to be hard waiting for book 3, Vengeance of the Iron Dwarfs.

Can Drizzt PLEASE do something new? Seriously, this plot line is as old and tired as it can get. I thought we had the beginnings of a new series when there was all sorts of banter about which Goddess Drizzt truly serves. But nope, drawn back into the Drow crap we've read 3 times already. And why does Wulfgar all the sudden become a rag doll? Does Salvatore just not like him anymore? Anyone else out there find it a little weird that Drizzt rides around on a unicorn with bells in it's hair? Come on, the Realms toughest badass rides around on a unicorn that has jingling bells in his hair. Good God Salvatore, you are better than this. Can't Drizzt at least learn a couple ranger spells or something? Give the guy a new dynamic. My prediction is Drizzt winds up with Tiago Baenre's scimitar . You heard it here first.

Awesome, hurry Bob I need the next one already! This new, yet old, path of the companions is great. I have read everything Bob Salvatore has put in writing and his companion books are my favorite. In fact anything within this realm is my favorite From Jarlaxle, to Cadderly, anything. But this new series would also be good for a newcomer to this world.

Huge fan of Drizzt but I think Salvatore used a very cheap out bringing back the Companions of the Hall so I'm not a big fan of this whole story arc. Not a huge fan of GRRMartin but at least he's not afraid to kill his popular characters.

As with most books by Bob, he does a horrible job of introducing characters. If this book is about Drizzt, and the companions, why can't Bob open with them, introducing, the time, scene etc? Bob always starts with someone evil we know nothing about and it takes 20-50 pages to finally find out where the main characters are which gets really old. Then we have a stupid cast of thousands, I mean thousands of evil people. Really? We need to have 10 matron mothers all fighting? 10 other drow all evil, plus orcs and evil dragons and Gromph and Jaraxle and three other dwarves besides Buenor? Really Bob we need to follow 30 different people and see what happens, talk about confusing! Why not just focus on the companions, one or two evil drow, one evil Orc and an evil dragon and let the action/war/scenes just play out? Why did we have to wait until the last third of the book to get any action? Come on Bob, we aren't rocket scientist trying to interpret your books, even with a cast of thousands, but please we need more action less character. Your not George Mertin. I hate his books anyways, k.i.s.s. Keep it simple stupid, were the people buying your books. We want to escape not wrack our brains trying to figure things out or not understand 29 different characters. Next book, leave all those matron mothers out. This isn't war of the spider queen books about menzoberrazan.

This is the first really big disappointment from Salvatore. The crystal shard and the underdark books were amazing. This book is a rehash of A thousand orcs. It's a case of been there, done that. And the ending, or lack of an ending is just a slap in the face. In all of his past books he was able to resolve whatever the main conflict was in the book and still set up a sequel. He gave us a complete story before setting the stage for the next story. He doesn't even try in this one. It just cuts off. I can't give up on characters I've loved for a very long time but I definitely don't have the same anticipation for the next one that I did for this. Maybe it actually is time to kill these characters off, because lazy books like this kill the characters off in a much more painful way.

You have to stop charging so much (publishing house or whoever) for these digital books! I know it is very subjective and they let them set the price but I cannot justify buying these ebooks for hardback prices.