Lisa Smedman's effort comes up a little short for me. Coming off the tidal wave that ended Condemnation, I had high expectations for this book. While it had some strong points and highly entertaining moments, I felt overall it was a bit unorganized and somewhat "soft".First i'd like to point out, it was very noticeable that this entry was written by a female, because the book has a sort of sentimentality and soft side the other books did not. This was good for telling the story of Hallistra and Ryld, but bad for other things. The drow in this book didn't have quite that same overall negative feel they should have, and that the other authors held onto. There are also some events of the book that go somewhat unexplained and are told haphazardly. For example: (no spoilers, dont worry!) there is a part where Quenthel and Jeggred are instantly underwater with the aboleths without explanation. I suppose Smedman wanted us to assume Pharaun did that with his "do it all" magic? You will also notice in this entry that Pharaun's magic seems to be of archmage status... getting the expedition out of virtually any situation and saving his hide every time. That was somewhat hard to believe at times.The book was not without its good parts though! On a positive note, I really like how Smedman wrote both Hallistra Melarn, and Gromph Baenre. We really got to see a new side of Hallistra in this book, and I feel Smedman had the sentimentality to write the female drow well. I also like how she handled Gromph, as she seemed to capture his nature and personality well.One must question the more weak willed role Quenthel Baenre is taking in the series though.I dont know if this is deliberate, or if its just how Smedman portrayed her, but it seems with every book she becomes less of a leader and more of a fumbling ill-willed priestess who relies on her vipers for advice more than her own instinct.There were many enjoyable parts of the book, but given its shortcomings, I could not give this book 4 stars. Its not a bad entry to the series, but I feel its been the overall weakest thus far.
2.5 stars for the 4th book in the series. Smedman weaves a well-written tale as she follows the diverging paths of the dark elf groups from the previous 3 books; however, I just felt that I was not reading a novel about dark elves.This novel felt "lighter" and a bit out of place in the War of the Spider Queen series. The dark elves start to exhibit more noble qualities like trust, honor, love, and self-sacrifice. The drow are supposed to be innately evil. Drizzt Do'Urden (Salvatore's highly popular dark elf character) is an anomaly, a unique being to his race - but if we keep seeing other dark elves become good, it negates the specialness of Drizzt. I found Gromph's (archmage dark elf) storyline the most entertaining to follow, wondering how he was going to solve each of the predicaments he found himself in. Hallistra's character arc would have been more compelling but for the fact that she was a dark elf and I just didn't buy it. Perhaps I need to accept the fact that dark elves are simply not innately evil anymore?The main party's story gets very redundant - "Hey, we need to get to the Abyss!"... umm... didn't we just come from there? Now I have to sit through this all over again? They go from point A - fight a big baddie, to point B - a group of baddies, then point C - another big baddie. It's been a regurgitating circle for a while now. Had this not been the 4th book in a series I may have forgiven it, but it's getting old.In the introduction to my collectors edition, Salvatore said he wouldn't sign off on the project unless there was "a story to tell." Well I believe there is a great story in here, but I'm beginning to think it may have been told better in fewer books. I hope Athans can salvage the turns this book has taken in the next novel, Annihilation, but I'm afraid it may have strayed too far.
What do You think about Extinction (2004)?
The “babies” that have escaped from Lolth’s egg sack are attacking one another, until there is only one. The strongest one will survive, from the thousands. Hallistra is questioning her faith to Lolth, since their recent trip to the Demonweb Pits in the Abyss. She is charged by Quenthal to return to Menzoberranzan, and report what answers they have for now. Hallistra finds her calling to the goddess Eilistraee. Soon the goddess charges her to retrieve the lost Crescent Blade. The weapons master Ryld, joins her, as their love and relationship becomes one like those from the World Above. But, he runs into a boy, who is a werewolf, and this complicates matters with the priestesses of Eilistraee. In the meantime, the remaining adventurers will return to the Demonweb Pits for more answers to Lolth‘s silence, but with a better guide this time. They learn of a demon ship of chaos that they can sail to the Abyss. Unfortunately for one, the ship must be feed a soul in order to make the journey. Valas finds himself in “deep water”, as the team travel to the city of Zanhoriloch to recover the ship of chaos. The city of Menzoberranzan is pinned between the tanarukk and duergar armies. To Menzoberranzan’s advantage, Gromph makes his escape/reappearance, but at a price.
—Jimmy
What can I say, other than I'm a -bit- of a drow fangirl, and to finally have the opportunity to read a series where a group of dark elves are, y'know... acting like drow, instead of centering on one goodie-two-shoes individual, made me squee with delight.I loved the politicking and conniving done by, and general unpleasantness of, the characters in this whole series, to the point that I was more than willing to forgive a couple of plot holes and narrative errors, not to mention the sudden changes in select character traits when each new author picked up the series.
—Heather Carter
Wow! What a ride. Lisa Smedman takes this series and injected a jolt of intensity that it really needed. She has a way of writing that feels very immediate and exciting. The subject (our group of drow splits up, follows paths all over the place, and gets even deeper into trouble) is nothing really special, but Smedman presents it in a way that really made me feel for the characters and kept the pages turning.I especially loved the way she worked the minutiae of Dungeons and Dragons lore into the story. I've been a D&D fan for a long time now, and we never worry about most of that little stuff in the games we play, but Smedman worked things like spell component collection, the use of those components in spell casting, and in just the descriptions of the various items the characters use into the story. But in a way that flowed naturally, rather than becoming a grocery list of completeness.I was very very impressed with this book. And I'll be looking out for more Smedman in the future. I think she's an author to watch!
—Steven Cole
