Buddy-Read with the most wonderful Branwen!Dave's Quick Judgement - THE DEFENSE - The three main characters are all fascinating in their own unique ways. - Salvatore's writing has matured, resulting in more depth than his previous work. - Salvatore's ability to write beautifully detailed action sequences extends to all aspects of the book this time around. - Book never stops being exciting from the first page to the last. - Enough humor is mixed in with the drama to make the book both fun and gripping to read. THE PROSECUTION - The main villain's actions don't make a whole lot of sense at times. - Some readers may be put off by the exploration of religious themes throughout the novel. - "Ho, ho, what!" Avelyn must say that at least 800 times throughout the novel. Seriously! If anything, I'm lowballing that number! THE VERDICTWhile I've enjoyed much of R.A. Salvatore's previous work, additional depth and multiple themes being explored make "The Demon Awakens" my favorite work by him yet! Dave's Much-Wordier Review Elbryan, the rangerEven at the age of 12, Elbryan Wyndon was already concerned with protecting his people. After a goblin is found near his home village of Dundalis, Elbyran tasks himself with keeping a lookout so he can warn the villagers of any potential threats. The villagers humor Elbryan, believing him to simply have an overactive imagination. But humor quickly turns to horror when a goblin army does indeed invade Dundalis, mercilessly slaughtering the villagers who foolishly wrote off Elbryan's warnings. Seemingly the sole survivor of the attack, Elbryan is discovered by a society of elves who take the young man in. There, Elbyran discovers a new world, a world full of enchantment, wonder, and most of all, purpose. Years later, Elbryan returns to the place of his childhood, once again determined to keep the villagers safe from harm, and once again finding himself the subject of ridicule from the very people he swore to protect. But with an ancient evil having awakened and sending a monstrous army to enslave all in its path, Elbryan will defend his people whether they want his help or not...It's been said nice guys finish last...that must be why Elbryan isn't finished yet! Jilseponie, the fighterJilseponie was known as "Pony" by her friends, but after a goblin army lays waste to her home of Dundalis, Pony now believes all her friends are gone. A lost soul unable to come to terms with the cruelty fate subjected her to, Pony wanders through a world that is now uncertain and terrifying to her. Refusing to ever be a victim again, Pony claws and scrapes her way through this new world, learning how to fight, and more importantly, how to fight back! Eventually, Pony encounters a man known as "The Mad Friar". This man describes a great evil that is poisoning the land and warns of a terrible attack that is coming, an attack that sounds all too familiar to the young woman. With an invading army marching towards her, an army made up of thousands of goblins and dwarves and giants, Jilseponie responds to the overwhelming numbers and impossible odds in the only way she knows how...she fights back!Many people resign themselves to whatever fate has in store for them...Jilseponie prefers her fate to be self-written! Avelyn, the believerRaised to put all his trust in God, Avelyn joined a monastery at a young age. Through hours of discipline and training, Avelyn is able to utilize the magical properties of the sacred stones of his religion, stones that are believed to be a gift from God. Due to the strength of his abilities and his faith, Avelyn is charged with a holy mission, to procure the magical gemstones that are falling from the Heavens themselves. But in trying to obtain the magical rocks, Avelyn sees a darker side to the religious Order he put so much trust in, a side that is willing to sacrifice and even murder anyone to keep these sacred stones out of anyone's hands but their own. Avelyn discovers that his monastery is not being guided by God, but rather by something that is the complete opposite. Realizing that a demon dactyl has woken up and is now corrupting the lives of everyone around him, Avelyn prepares to defend the world from the very people claiming to want to save it!He was taught to believe in God...now Avelyn must learn to believe in himself!Since Branwen and I first met each other while discussing an R.A. Salvatore book, we decided to go back to the very author who originally brought us together for our latest buddy read! As the lovely Branwen clearly looks like a warrior princess in her profile picture, in order to keep the theme going, I decided to adopt the look of a knight while reading this book, so I put on my finest suit of metal...I...I don't think I'm doing it right... To simply say I enjoyed this book would be like saying the sun is kind of warm. The truth is, I was completely blown away by this novel. While I have enjoyed the works of R.A. Salvatore in the past, I can't deny that there is a certain simplicity to his earlier works. The Drizzt novels are certainly a fun read, but there's no denying they often fall into the trap of "McFantasy", trotting out the same fantasy tropes that have already been used hundreds of times before. The Sword Of Bedwyr was an even greater offender of overly-simplistic writing, where the main character pretty much finds the magical artifact that leads to him becoming the Crimson Shadow entirely by chance. Indeed, the way Salvatore characters just happened to stumble upon the very thing they need is so convenient, it harkens back to the early days of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, when enemies would often be held in the library, because apparently all high school libraries have cages these days...OK, Whedon, I'll let you off the hook for this...but not for Dollhouse! Never for Dollhouse... But in "The Demon Awakens", Salvatore's writing has become much more ambitious. Clocking in at over 600 pages (about twice as long as any of his early Drizzt novels), Salvatore spends much more time developing the backstories for the main three characters. And this ambition pays off big-time. Because the characters have so much depth and pathos to them, they resonated with me in a way his previous creations (yes, even Drizzt) never did. This larger scale applies not only to the characters, but to the story as well. While Salvatore's past work often follows a pattern of having the heroes "walk, fight, repeat", this time around the story is much more diverse and unpredictable. For part of the novel, Elbryan, Pony and Avelyn all find themselves going in different directions, and I truly didn't know where their journeys would take them at times. Along with the more traditional "sword and sorcery" aspects of the fantasy novel, Salvatore also takes an opportunity to explore religious themes, addressing both the good and the bad that is done in the name of a deity.While Salvatore's writing may have matured, that doesn't mean he didn't deliver on some things he could always be counted on in the past. One thing I've always admired about his work is the way Salvatore can so beautifully describe action sequences, to the point where you more feel like you're watching the fight instead of reading about it. Salvatore's incredibly detailed fight scenes are in full force again this time around, but in addition, his fluid descriptions extend to the very setting itself. Everything in the book is beautifully detailed, from the lights in the sky to the joy of a first kiss. And despite all the tragedy that befalls our heroes from time to time, Salvatore's trademark humor offers some much-needed comic relief at just the right moments. With such detail, excitement, drama, and humor, I can honestly say I was not bored once in all 600+ pages.Now, while this wasn't a deal breaker for me, there was one minor nitpick that I had with the story, and this was in regards to the lead villain. Quite frankly, the demon dactyl's actions sometimes didn't make sense to me. It is implied throughout much of the book that the demon is growing stronger as his influence is growing, so I didn't find it odd that he spent so much time behind the scenes. But then later in the book, he is seen flying throughout the land and tracking some of his enemies. So it seems odd when, after displaying these abilities, the demon simply tasks his minions to track the heroes for him and goes back to sitting on the sidelines. The book explains the demon's behavior by stating that he is so confident, he doesn't feel the need to confront his enemies directly, but once the heroes keep defeating his soldiers and interrupting his plans, you would think the demon would just seek the heroes out himself and destroy them once and for all (especially since we're lead to believe he's pretty much all-powerful by this point). It reminded me of the Thomas Jane "Punisher" movie (yes, I sat through "The Punisher"...don't judge me! Actually, go ahead, I deserve to be judged for that!), in which the lead villain's assassins kept coming at the Punisher one at a time, which begged the question, "Why the hell don't they just send everyone at him if they know where he is?!?" Well, actually it begged the question, "Why the hell am I still watching this?!?"The Punisher...punishing audiences three movies in a row now! Still, when I'm having this much fun reading a book, I'm willing to forgive a loophole like this. Now, since I love my GoodReads friends and followers, I feel obligated to point out a potential problem some of you may also have with this novel. Readers who don't like getting peanut butter in their chocolate may also not enjoy the exploration of religious themes. Granted, the religion in this case is one unique to the novel's setting of Corona, but all the talk of a monotheistic God could be frustrating to people who would rather not have religion mixed in with their literature. Also, one final grievance I had, and that would be Avelyn's catchphrase of "ho, ho, what"! I admit, I kind of liked it at first, but when it gets to the point where Avelyn incorporates it into just about every single conversation he has, it did grate on my nerves after a while. It was possibly a mistake for me to read this so close to Christmas, since now I cringe so much from hearing "Ho ho", I'm liable to punch a store-Santa in the face! Just kidding, kids, Santa abuse is never cool!Fans of Salvatore's earlier works will most likely love this one as well. And if you didn't like Salvatore's prior work, this one may just make a fan out of you. Recommended for any fantasy-lover!
8/10Ένα ακόμα βιβλίο από τον Salvatore αλλά αυτή την φορά με τους δικούς του κανόνες. Η ιστορία είναι στα κλασικά μοτίβα της επικής φαντασίας με ένα μεγάλο κακό για την υπόθεση και τους ήρωες να σώσουν τον κόσμο.Αν και αυτό μπορεί να είναι λίγο κλισέ η υπόλοιπη κοσμοπλασία είναι αρκετά καλή, ίσως θα μπορούσα να πω και ελαφρώς πρωτότυπη έχει μοναχούς που χρησιμοποιούν πέτρες μαγείας, τα ξωτικά είναι λίγο σε στυλ νεράιδας και οι νάνοι εδώ να είναι η κακιά φυλή), όπως επίσης και η γραφή του είναι καλή.Συνολικά, το βιβλίο αυτό έχει τα πάντα μέσα με μπόλικη δράση και θα μπορούσε άνετα να διαβαστεί μόνο του καθώς είναι ψιλο.
What do You think about The Demon Awakens (1998)?
This was an absolute chore to get through.The first half is setting the scene, introducing characters and the tedious route they take to where they're useful enough for the next leg.It picks up slightly then becomes another yawn-fest as they head out to the boss level.Predictable, uses most of the fantasy stereotypes going, and the characters aren't all that interesting during any stage of the book.There was another book in the same universe called The Highwayman (set at a later date if I remember correctly) which was a better read.
—Brian Turner
First thing's first, it took me about a month to read this book because there is just so much going on I had to take my time with it or risk missing something and having to backtrack. Really, there's so much going on here that I think it could have been easily chopped into two books that would have been a lighter read, but I think this one worked out pretty well.So here we are introduced to Salvatore's world of Corona. Corona is little different from our world during the Medieval ages: there are knights, castles, kings, and little villages that don't often have much contact with the wider world for months at a time. There are a few differences between Corona and our world however, in the fact that this world is freely inhabited by goblins and giants in the north, prowies in the oceans, and elves hidden in the forest, hiding for so long they are viewed more as fantasy than reality.And he brings us to a small village called Dundalis and two dear friends Pony and Elbryan, who are unknowingly celebrating the last few days of their childhood before their home is destroyed by goblins and giants, and the two friends are separated for almost ten years before being reunited in love and purpose. Both experience trials and tribulations along their path back to each other, but each seem to walk parallel paths that mold them into the warriors they become, capable of taking on a great darkness that rises far to the north.To the east we are introduced to a young monk by the name of Avelyn. A man strong in the faith of his god, but weak in the faith of humanity, young Avelyn is quickly faced with a crisis of faith when the superiors in his church show themselves to be corrupt, murderous, and full of greed. Grief stricken, the young monk steals some priceless treasures -stones with magical properties that are considered a gift from God- from the monastery he had called home and flees into the west, eventually crossing paths with young Pony and inadvertently guiding her back to Elbryan.Along the way of these three finding each other and becoming friends, far to the north, along all these years, in a mountain that spews ash and molten rock, a great demon awakens and bands together the evil goblins and giants of the northern mountains to attack the villages of the south. Calling forth also evil sea-faring dwarves called prowies, the demon -'dactyl' as he is called- is able to summon up a fearsome force indeed with the intent to destroy and rule the world.However the three comrades, Pony, Avelyn, and Elbryan, along with a centaur, a handful of elves and a score of human refugees, recognize the threat in the north and set forth to end the war before it really begins.So how's that for a plot?Like I said, lots going on, could have been broken down into two books to make for easier reading, but other than that I think it was done very well. The only 'problem' I have is that the ending was kind of absolute. Unless you know there's a sequel out there, it's a little hard to imagine where else the story could go. Obviously, Salvatore had something in mind to extend the saga as there are several more books set in Corona, and I for one am looking forward to seeing how he opens up the second book.Enjoy folks.
—Forgotten Realms Queen
Surgi du pass�, le mal s'�tend de nouveau sur les terres de Corona. Un d�mon s'est �veill� et r�pand d�j� le malheur et la mort. Ses arm�es de gobelins et d'effroyables g�ants ravagent les hameaux des fronti�res, telle petit village de Dundalis, o� elles laissent deux orphelins bris�s, Elbryan, un jeune gar�on, et Pony, son amie de toujours. Adopt� par les elfes, Elbryan va recevoir l'entra�nement qui fera de lui un r�deur, un h�ros intr�pide �pris de justice et de paix. Loin de l�, une pluie de gemmes s'appr�te � tomber sur les rivages d'une �le au sable noir. Elles portent en elles un incroyable pouvoir : elles sont la cl� de tout ce qu'il y a de bon, comme de mauvais, au monde... Priez pour qu'elles ne tombent pas entre de mauvaises... griffes.
—Clicque
