The Companions by R.A. Salvatore

Book Synopsis

This latest installment in New York Times best-selling author R.A. Salvatore’s beloved fantasy saga, The Companions moves Salvatore’s signature hero Drizzt into a new era of the Forgotten Realms. As Drizzt’s fate hangs in the balance, he reflects on the lives of the trusted allies who stood by his side throughout his early life–the friends now known as the Companions of the Hall. Meanwhile, the first stirrings of the Sundering begin.

 

My Thoughts

The Companions by R.A. Salvatore is the first in the six book Sundering series, a realms sweeping event that will once again change the face of Toril.

I have been a longtime fan of R.A. Salvatore’s Drizzt series, following each and every adventure since the beginning.  Never once have I felt that the story dragged or had outlived itself.   Readers of The Last Threshold were left with a cliff hanger.  What would happen to Drizzt?  Had the series finally reached its end?  Had the mighty Drizzt finally reached the end of his adventures?  All of these questions ran through my head after finishing The Last Threshold.

I want to begin by saying that, in my opinion, The Companions represents Bob’s best work to date.  The book is filled with such heart rending emotion from both the characters and Drizzt’s signature introspection (which happen to be my favorite part of the Drizzt series). If you look back at my previous reviews you see that I mention emotion quite a bit.  This is an important factor for me.  I like books that make me feel what the character feels.  If I can cry when a character cries, feel his or her fury in battle, or laugh along with them, then I have experienced a great book.   Salvatore gave me this experience with The Companions more so than any other book he has written.

What would you do if you could live your life over again?  What things would you change?  What if you had a goal to work toward?  Something that could mean the life or death of a dear friend? All of these questions are asked and answered in The Companions and the journey to the end (or should I say a new beginning) was very entertaining.

I received a ARC through Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Release Day for THE GODBORN by Paul S. Kemp

The Godborn, Book 2 of The Sundering

Today is the release day of Paul S. Kemp‘s highly anticipated Forgotten Realms tale,  The Godborn.  I received a review copy from Netgalley which can be found here. The Godborn has been my favorite read of 2013 and I am looking forward to reading it again. This time around I plan on listening to the audio version which is available from Audible.

I don’t think anyone could be more excited than the author on the release day of their book, but I am pretty damn excited myself.  I have been waiting for this book for years and I can’t wait to have a signed copy grace my bookshelves.

Even if you are new to the Erevis Cale saga, The Godborn is still a perfect place to start and there is enough backstory to catch readers up on past events.

The Godborn is available today in hardcover, ebook, and audio formats.

The GODBORN by Paul S. Kemp

THE GODBORN

In the 2nd book of the multi-author Sundering series launched by New York Times best-selling author R.A. Salvatore, the shadow legacy of Erevis Cale lives on even as his old foe Mephistopheles seeks to stamp it out at any cost. Cale’s son Vasen—unmoored in time by the god Mask—has thus far been shielded from the archdevil’s dark schemes, alone among the servants of the Lord of Light who have raised him since birth.

Living in a remote abbey nestled among the Thunder Peaks of Sembia, Vasen is haunted by dreams of his father, trapped in the frozen hell of Cania. He knows the day will come when he must assume his role in the divine drama unfolding across Faerûn. But Vasen knows not what that role should be . . . or whether he is ready to take it on. He only knows what his father tells him in dreams—that he must not fail.

Enter Drasek Riven, a former compatriot of Erevis Cale, now near divine and haunted by dreams of his own—he too knows the time to act is near. Shar, the great goddess of darkness, looks to cast her shadow on the world forever. Riven has glimpsed the cycle of night she hopes to complete, and he knows she must be stopped.

At the crossroads of divine intrigue and mortal destiny, unlikely heroes unite to thwart the powers of shadow and hell, and the sundering of worlds is set on its course.

The Godborn by Paul S. Kemp  (published by Wizards of the Coast) is book two of The Sundering , an epic, world-spanning event in the Forgotten Realms. The first book is The Companions by R.A. Salvatore. Though both books detail events leading to the Sundering, reading the first one is not a requirement to enjoy and follow The Godborn.

​Some books just make you giddy with anticipation.  As a long time Paul S. Kemp fan, I have been waiting for Vasen Cale’s story for a long time, and now after so many years the story is told.  While there are previous books that detail some of the events that lead up to The Godborn there is enough backstory to bring new readers up to speed on previous events and characters yet not bog down the story for veteran fans.

​Vasen Cale, son of Erevis Cale and Varra, is a very interesting character. Baring his father’s shade heritage, but raised in the legendary Abbey of the Rose, he serves Amaunator, the Lord of Light.  His dusky skin and yellow eyes set him apart from others, but does not shake his faith in the god he serves.

​We meet up with old friends, Drasek Riven, Magadon, Rivelin Brennus, and the Lord of Cania himself, Mephistopheles, and meet new ones as well. As much I as enjoyed reading and learning more about about Vasen Cale, I equally enjoyed the supporting characters.  Their stories added great depth to the book.  I want to keep this review spoiler free so I will avoid detailing any events, but I will say that they are rendered with Paul’s signature “darkness” that I have enjoyed in his previous books.

​The book is fast paced, with several different groups of characters caught up in a maelstrom of events that ultimately lead them to a final epic scene. The prose and pacing were tight and each chapter pulled me further into the story, making it impossible to put the book down. ​There are many sad moments in The Godborn. Scenes that are so heartbreaking they take your breath away, yet just as Vasen walks the road between shadow and light, there are moments of overwhelming joy.

I highly recommend Paul’s previous work.  To get the entire picture of how awesome Erevis Cale and company are you should read the series from the beginning starting with, Shadow’s Witness,  then The Erevis Cale Trilogy and finally The Twilight War (Shadowbred, Shadowstorm, and Shadowrealm). The Godborn will not be released until October 1 so you have time to catch up on the story thus far.  But as I stated earlier, none of these are a requirement to enjoy The Godborn.  It stands on its own.

​The Godborn is a must read for all Paul S. Kemp fans. He brings us the story that we have been waiting years to read. The wait is over, and trust me, it was definitely worth it.

My thanks to Wizards of the Coast for providing me with a review copy through Netgalley.

July Releases from Wizards of the Coast

July brings several excellent new titles from Eberron and the Forgotten Realms.

Skein of Shadows
Author: Marsheila Rockwell
Release Date: July 3, 2012
Format: ebook

Sabira is celebrating her Badge Day, when the party is interrupted by news of an important discovery in the expedition to Tarath Marad. However, the news is not all good. Tilde, sister to Sabira’s old flame, Ned, is missing. Sabira is designated as the leader of the rescue mission and sets off to meet her drow guide. But when a dragon attacks her wagons, and her guide acts as if he’s got something to hide, Sabira begins to wonder what she’s gotten herself into.

Prince of Ravens
Author: Richard Baker
Release Date: July 3, 2012
Format: ebook

After a hundred years, Jack Ravenwild—thief, sorcerer, scoundrel, and accidental hero—is released from a magical confinement, only to fall into the hands of the marquise Dresimil Chûmavh, ruler of an exiled drow clan who sees an opportunity in Jack. 
 
Through guile and subterfuge, the wily Jack escapes the drow to discover a new world waiting in his old stomping grounds, Raven’s Bluff, a city equally abounding in fortune and danger. Unfortunately for Jack, he is best at stirring up the latter. His former archenemy the Warlord Myrkyssa Jelan is at large, and she isn’t the type to forgive and forget. And worst of all, the drow aren’t done with Jack and they mean to get him back.

The Gilded Rune
Author:  Lisa Smedman
Release Date: July 3, 2012
Format: Mass Market Paperback and ebook

A plague has ravaged the population of gold dwarves of the Great Rift. It starts slowly, but the progression is devastating. One dwarf has eyes that have become hard and glassy like marbles; a second dwarf has skin that flakes off in sharp, hardened scales; the skeleton of a third is petrified and fused in place; a fourth wastes away with blood that has turned dark and muddy.

Clerical magic doesn’t help. Neither do herbal remedies, nor spells meant to break curses. And in all cases, death is always the same–the heart blackens, hardens, and eventually stops beating, killing each victim with a heart attack and turning the bodies to stone.

It’s called the Stoneplague. It’s terrifying. And it’s spreading.

Spinner of Lies by Bruce Cordell

Memories of his past incarnations haunt Demascus, even as he searches for stolen portraits that contain the trapped souls of demigods. Meanwhile, drow creep beneath the city of Airspur, intent on precipitating war between Akanûl and a rival nation. As Demascus attempts to win freedom from the ghost of his murdered lover, he agrees to thwart the drow’s secret scheme, sending him on a trail that stretches between the Demonweb, Airspur, and an island that appears on no map.

Spinner of Lies is the sequel to Sword of the Gods and takes place a few months after Sword of the Gods. We meet back up with the cast of the previous book, Demascus, a divine assassin known as the Sword of the Gods, Riltana, a wise cracking windsoul genasi who steals from the wealth of Airspur, and Chant Morven, a pawn shop owner with a network of informants that keep him abreast of events in the city.  There is a new addition to the group, Jaul Morven, Chant’s son.  Their relationship is not on the best of terms and this provides a great side plot to the story.  I really enjoyed group’s interactions, especially Riltana’s scathing comments to Demascus in the heat of battle.  Bruce’s crowning achievement is his characters. He is able to weave a tight story but at the same time you get to hear the character’s inner monologues describing their hopes and fears.  Things like Demascus’s fear of losing his identity, Riltana’s hopes for her estranged lover, and Chant’s worry for his son, helped draw me in and really feel a kinship with the characters. Readers of Bruce’s Abolethic Sovereignty  will be happy to see Captain Thoster, the captain of the Green Siren, again.  There is also a reference to the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons module, Tomb of Horrors, that longtime players will notice.  (I really enjoyed the reference).

There are lots of things going on in Spinner of Lies.  The first is Queen Arathane’s  request for Demascus and company to discover the reason communication has stopped to a mine on a secret island that left unchecked could lead to war with Tymanther, next is Demacus’s murdered lover that has come back to haunt him, then stolen paintings that hold the souls of demigods, and finally a potential drow invasion.  That is a lot of ground to cover in just one book but Bruce takes these plots and spins them (no pun intended) into thread that reaches a very satisfying conclusion.

Central to the plot are the drow.  The drow have been a favorite race of mine since I first read R.A. Salvatore’s Drizzt series years back.  Why are they lurking in Airspur and who are they in league with?  Spinner of Lies  is part of Wizards of the Coast’s Rise of the Underdark, an event that will have bold, sweeping ramifications across (and under) the Forgotten Realms.

Even with multiple plots going on there is still time to focus on the main character, Demascus.  He is a divine assassin, the “Sword of the Gods”, an instrument of divine retribution.  These words are inscribed on Demascus’s sarcophagus:

“Agent of Fate, Emissary of Divine Judgement, Cuttter of Destiny’s Thread. You died as you lived, and you will live again, Demascus, Sword of the Gods.”

Yet he is still only a shadow of his former self and without his artifact, the Whorl of Ioun,  he is more human than divine agent of vengeance.  But is this necessarily a bad thing?  Demascus wants to be more human, and not a tool of the gods, to control is own destiny.  He can feel the other part of himself, the part that revels in destruction, waiting to take over, and has to fight to keep it in check.  It would be so easy to let that part take over but it would truly cost him his humanity.  There is a scene where Demascus seeks divine counsel and things do not go well.  The dialog that occurs during that scene is fantastic.

I am ashamed to admit it, but I normally do not think on how well the title of a book fits a story,  I concentrate on the characters and the story itself, but this time the title really stood out to me.  Spinner of Lies is a very apt title as it perfectly describes the parallel plot lines in the book.  I will not go into detail as to spoil it for other readers, but it was very well done.

I have been a longtime reader of Bruce’s work and he continues to write books worthy of any fantasy reader’s bookshelf, and Spinner of Lies is no exception.  I give this book 5 stars and highly recommend it.

Spinner of Lies will be available in ebook on June 5, 2012 at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

This review was of an ARC from NetGalley.