3/5 stars.
Paperback, 376 pages.
Read from September 02 to 16, 2015.
If someone had told me 10 years ago when I first picked up this series that I’d still be reading it, I would have called them liars. This is the 16th book in the Legend of Drizzt series , and the third and final book in the Hunter’s Blade Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore. What’s mad, is that I’m only part way through this series! Not sure if this is true, but I was told that Salvatore would have ended the series ages ago but because all the rights are owned by Forgotten Realms so if he stopped writing it, then they would have just had someone else to write it for him. Needless to say, even without that knowledge, you have to give it to Salvatore for keeping the quality of this series consistent and enjoyable.
Drizzt, a righteous and kind dark-elf, is alone and in mourning as he believe that all of his friends, Bruenor the dwarf and King of Mithral Hall, and his two adopted step-children: Catti-brie, a feisty human warrior, Wulfgar the Giant, and Regis, aka Rumblebelly the halfling, are dead from the battle in previous book. Innovindil, a moon elf, has been helping Drizzt learn what it means to be an elf and to help him deal with his grief and his remaining feelings for Catti-brie. With the fight going on against the orcs, Innovindil’s dead lover’s pegasus’ was captured so the two of them are out to reclaim it. Meanwhile, a massive war wages at Mithral Hall where Bruenor is on death’s doorstep and his two step-children are alive and waging, what appears to be a losing battle, against Obould and his orc army. Drizzt’s quest with the pegasus will eventually lead him back to Mithral Hall and the staggering odds against the orcs.
I found myself trying to race through the chapters in hopes that Drizzt would soon be reunited with his friends and that he would finally get a chance to express his feelings to Catti-brie, which is something reader’s have been anticipating since the beginning of the series.
As with many of Salvatore’s books, this book is pretty predictable, but that’s not really why I read them. Out of all the books that I read, I have to admit that this series is my guilty pleasure. They are always an easy read with wonderful characters that you look forward to following on whatever adventure they partake in. I believe that you don’t even need to enjoy fantasy novels to find pleasure in this series as Salvatore does such a great job with his character work. Another solid story by Salvatore!
The Pluviophile Writer 