Customer Reviews

Annihilation

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

This is - in my opinion - the WORST book in the series. Be warned!

Where previous books were maintaining a clear and consistent tone in terms of charactes, this one is just WAY off.

The characters seem to converse in much different manner, more simplifieg, often childish, lacking the depth and substance that the in the previous books.

Nearly ALL conversations are broken up - it's very annoying, tiring, and makes the story hard to follow.

Quenthel telling Pharaun "I hate you" close to the beginning of the book dispels the magic that the previous four books have successfully woven together.

This book is filled with this type of "gems" that made me wonder if author actually read the previous ones before sitting down and writing it.

The characters also are reacting and thinking differently, almost as if they had personality changes.

While I understand different authors' styles, this book has offered the least consistency in the character department.

After blazing my way 4 books back-to-back, I have lost interest in the story because of this single book.

The book also has several continuity issues that have not been quite addressed. Those of us that do remember what happened in the previous parts of the storey, can spot those easily.

Honestly, it makes me wonder whether this was a first attempt of the author into writing, it was so bad. ARGH!

I must say I was quite annoyed in the very drastic way some characters changed in this book. I was overall disappointed the way characters acted in battles giving me often the impression they are novices of their trade.

The battle with Gromph and Dyrr in particular is just utterly pathetic, not only does it stretch itself trough the whole book but it also fails to keep the suspension, dramatic and epic feeling up while leaving the impression both characters repeat their actions (mostly using rings or wands all the while levitating and flying around) time and time again in every chapter.

Characters like Triel, Vhok or Horgar are totally neglected and barely even mentioned. The whole siege loses it`s dramatic importance giving us no insight of the struggle of the other Matron mothers and their houses while the author focuses on confusing and drastic changes for Danifae...suddenly able to teleport to whereever she wants to go to with her ring and other things that are just too much to list here...

All in all the book ain`t totally bad but the tranistion from one author to another and the changes that come with that are so drastic and disturbing that in my opinion the editors really failed to do their job

Benny

SPOILERS IN HERE:

Ryld.. What more can I say? TO see my favorite character die was more then disappointing. Had to skip through the rest of the book to see if it was true or not. I Thought Jeggard was going down, that is how it should have been.

He dies for no reason. Somehow his powerful sword with magic dispelling properties got cracked with some humans axe? Not likley. He could have contributed to this series. I cant believe Mr salvatore let this happen.

Hopefully the next author fixes this grievous problem. Because that is what it is. As a writer myself that act was a bad decision ;concering plot formation/ the crecendo of such a large event.

Obviously Phillip Athans had no grasp of the impact Rylds pointless death would have.

If your going to kill off a character it is common sense to do it for a good reason.

You would have thought the other authors would have stoped this mistake...

I think he did a good job with the other characters. Not great.

On a bright note I still liked this book, and am looking forward to the 6th.

It seems as though the author didn't read the other books. Characters' physical descriptions are inconsistent with the other books. Kaanyr Vhok was red, now he's blue. Jeggred was immune to fire, and now his fur gets burned. The dialogue is overly simplistic and is awkward to read. Almost all of the spoken dialogue is broken up: "Hey," said Valas, "don't go in there." instead of "Don't go in there," warned Valas. The overly simplistic dialogue dilutes the characters' personalities as well, so they all come off as bland.

The climactic events in the story seem very anti-climactic because they are interrupted by extremely minor events and the effect these climactic events has on the party and the rest of the world is never fully explained. Also, some of the tactics in the battles make little sense. It's almost as if the characters forgot how to fight. Skim this one and pray that the final book isn't this bad. Mel Odom is writing it, so I have high hopes.

Terrible.

No other way to say it. The fourth book was written beautifully, the characters were well-developed and progressed intelligently through a fast-paced story and then this book happened...

I was fortunate enough to read the fourth book and immediately start the fifth book and the contrast was stark and potently disappointing.

The characters, their dialogue, their actions are so dramatically different in this book, it's almost as if someone started over. I can sympathize that writing a novel with a predetermined plot line and characters that have been fleshed out by someone else would be difficult under the best of circumstances, but since the novelty of the different authors on a single story was the cornerstone of the series, the editors should have insisted on consistency and smooth transitions. It's one thing for subtle changes in characters to occur, but the laundry list of problems is expansive; side-plots mysteriously disappear, characters flip-flop on behaviors and wildly shift even basic, bed-rock personality traits.

In my opinion the blame for this failure sits not with Phil Athans, but with Wizards of the Coast and the management of the series. Putting out shoddy work that fails at the central pivot of the idea itself (consistency and quality) is a shameless fleecing of fans that looked at the series with eagerness and hope.

Shame on Wizards and shame on the editors of the series.

I give the book high remarks. Remember what we're dealing with here: drow and their capricious demon goddess, Lolth -- both of whom are innately evil and chaotic.

It helps while reading this book if you try to divorce yourself from the typical fantasy book, if you can. Think of this story from a Dungeons and Dragons game rules perspective just for a moment (yes, the book's events takes place in the D&D game universe, not some fantasy world without published game rules).

[Spoilers]

Indeed, as other reviewers have noted, Ryld does die in this book. He's killed by Jeggred -- who is following orders from Danifae (Jeggred's new mistress and controller).

From a balance of power perspective for Valas and Pharaun, Ryld's demise is unfortunate. But remember who caused it and why: Danifae, who acts the way any jealous, vengeful and cunning drow priestess still loyal to her silent diety would act. Again, think of the way drow are portrayed in the latest D&D game rules; in R.A. Salvatore's drow books; and even way back in Gary E. Gygax's original D&D modules (D1, D2, D3 and Q1: Queen of the Demonweb Pits), and this drow behavior makes sense.

Thus it doesn't surprise me that someone in the original drow party, Ryld in this case, dies. Drow are evil and chaotic, and the author depicts this very well.

Despite them needing Ryld's expertise and sword arm, he was a pawn to be played like all others in the drow party, and the author (and the others in the series) describe this well, too.

Side note for D&D fans: if you look at the D&D game rules, half-demons like Jeggred (a draegoloth) are TOUGH! Yes, a master fighter like Ryld is tough, too, but Jeggred is stronger, and gets lucky (by breaking Ryld's greatsword). The author kept the tension high during this battle scene.

The excellent and extensive spell combat between Dyrr (the lich) and Gromph (a high-level wizard and Master of Sorcere) was exciting and followed the D&D rules quite well (it was fun reading the spell combat descriptions and trying to figure out which spells were used from the D&D Players Handbook during the spell combat. And yes, high level spells like "Wish" and "Mordenkainen's Disjunction" were used during combat -- much to my satisfaction as a Dungeon Master).

I found it interesting that the author suggests Lolth had left the 66th plane of the Abyss (i.e, the "Demonweb Pits") to form her own plane elsewhere. This book doesn't go into much detail about where her new plane of existance will be, aside from indicating that it's no longer in the Abyss. So I'm looking forward to reading about this in the next (and final) book in the series.

As a long-time D&D player, I knew the Demonweb Pits are in the "Abyss," this is nothing new (starting with Gary E. Gygax's "Q1 - Queen of the Demonweb Pits" adventure module, circa 1979?), but I'm curious where Lolth will take herself and her demonweb from here.

Perhaps, thanks to the author's efforts here, the D&D rules on cosmology (i.e. the outer planes) may need to change a bit with this book's turn of events (perhaps requiring yet another issue of the book, Manual of the Planes, -- Marketing 101 in action, no doubt). The fact that the D&D Forgotten Realms fiction universe/cosmonlogy is evolving -- whereby Lolth moves from one plane to another -- seems to indicate at the very least, a living, evolving game system, not a static or dying one (with no modifications or evolution to the fiction world whatsoever).

I really appreciate the author's literary attempt here. True, he won't win the Pulitzer prize for with this work. But I have enjoyed this series overall, and I found this to be a rather-tight, good, action-packed book made for D&D and Forgotten Realms fans anywhere who enjoy reading about the despicable drow.

I found this book better than book 4 -- I'm not too interested in "George Lucas-quality" love scenes and dialog -- and more on par with the great books 1, 2 and 3, in the series.

CAVEAT: If you read this book without keeping drow nature (and even perhaps the game rules) in mind, you may not enjoy it as much as I did because some drow behaviour may appear confusing, counter-productive, or even internecine (e.g., Why are the drow faithful to their evil yet silent goddess? Why are they so conniving?) regarding drow nature and culture.

Like R.A. Salvatore before him, the author gives yet another great look into the dark world of the drow elves.

I look forward to the next (and final) book. Kudos to the author for keeping me interested in the series!

Definitely the worst of the series. Can't believe what Athans did to all characters: none was the same as in previous books.

I finished this book beacuse my sadistic mind kept telling me this was just a bad dream of Jeggred who finally awakes at the end! (Yes, that would have been a better plot!)

And I agree with many others: (spoiler coming.....) Ryld's death is pointless, stupid, inconsequential, ilogical and, worst of all, boring.

The worst is you can't skip it and go directly to book 6.

PD. I'll never buy another book by Athans.

Up to this point I was excited about the series. Than somehow Philip athans writes a book and does not lead off of ANYTHING the previous authors had done. It is like this is a standalone book. A bad standalone book. I read 1 book a week up until the end of this one than I just stopped. It took 6 months for me to become bored enough to finish the series. Athans left the next author Paul kemp almost nothing to use. It was like they were running a relay race and athans just threw the race and left kemp to try and finish. Very disappointing. This book is not a recommended read.

This book in the series is somewhat difficult for me to review. There are many parts I enjoyed, namely the ongoing battle between the lich drow Dyrr and Gromph Baenre, but also parts that weren't good and seemed to just "fill up space". First off I feel this book makes for the largest departure in character personality and attitude. A certain degree of character difference is to be expected from different authors in such a series, but this book took some of the characters even farther out of their pre-written element. The first 4 books managed to maintain a certain character consistency that didn't seem to hold in this entry. Pharaun and Danifae in particular seemed to be the largest examples of this.

As for the actual meat of the book and its place in the series, the first 3/4 of the book, while enjoyable, seemed to be sort of a filler rather than a true and necessary part of the story. This changed near the end though, when big and important events unfolded that will undoubtedly come to fruition in the final book, Resurrection.

On the brighter side of things, I felt Athans did a good job of telling the story of Hallistra Melarn and her "new way of life". In contrast to some of the other reviews here, I believe it was not to far fetched and made perfect sense for the alienated priestess of House Melarn and the ruined Ched Nasad. I also thouroughly enjoyed the battle between Gromph and the lich drow. It was handled well and allowed for many a different spell and incantation to be unleashed, showing us the true power (and weakness) of the archmage of Menzoberranzan.

All in all I think it was a pretty good book, but could have made more of an impact than it did. Having read it, I can't help but feel half of the book was unnecessary in the telling of this epic story! If I could rate this book 3.5 stars I would, but it was tough for me to give it the benefit of the doubt, when considering other books I've given 4 stars were better. I am looking forward to Resurrection though, as im sure there are big events to come!

Ok, who is really not going to read this one having slogged through the other four books? You have to if you want to be set up for the last book.

And sure, all these characters, except Halistra, are evil. But, after a while, you begin to appreciate some more than others, even rooting for them. We all have our favorites here. That said, there should be a pretty good reason for killing off a character that has been with us for four books.

Spoiler. Do not read further if you don't want to know.

This book kills off one of the best characters, in a way that is totally depressing, and for no good reason really.

I really liked this character, and I think the last book will suffer without him/her. I don't see how he/she can be reasonably brought back. Let's hope the next author will carefully weight the pros and cons of who survives this saga and who doesn't.