Customer Reviews

Sea of Swords: The Legend of Drizzt, Book XIII

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Salvatore brings back everyone's favorite Dark Elf for another installment of the Paths of Darkness series. The book itself was a fast read, as are most of Salvatore's works, but it left me wanting a bit.

To his credit, the author resolved and wrapped up many hanging treads left throughout the series.
The characterization of the pirates was wonderful, but the opponent Salvatore lined up for Drizzt came of as a shadow of Entrari. I felt that he could have completely left this character out or developed someone within the pirate crew to cover the need for a dramatic closing fight (Salvatore's greatest strength).

If Salvatore continues to write books with the Heroes of Mithiril Hall (which I pray he does), I look forward to seeing who or what he comes up with to challenge the party.

Bottom Line: A good book, and worth the wait. Even Salvatore's B work is better than 90% of the rambling epics on the fantasy market.

In reading this book, it looks like we're beginning to have a problem here. While it is apparent that Salvatore loves his characters, I got the distinct impression while reading this book that he would have rather been writing something else. Salvatore is falling into the category of the famous writer that has been typecast and is desparately wanting to do something different, but people are simply waving too much money under his nose to write more Drizzt novels. Sea of Swords is a book filled with over-dramatization, repeated phrases from his other books, and way too many adjectives. But that's not the problem. The problem is that Salvatore is better than this; he *knows* better than that. It's like before he wrote the book, he sat down and said "Well, a bunch of teenagers are going to read this, the not civilized adults who read my Demonwars novels, so I'd better write to the audience." Oh boy. The slow demise of Drizzt may have just begun. My advice to Mr. Salvatore: You were an excellent writer, and you still are. Follow your passion. If you want to dump Drizzt, then dump him. If you still want to make a lot of money writing TSR novels, fine. Write about Jarlaxle and Entreri. Use the second half of "Servant of the Shard" as a guide. You'll have fun, it'll be a *great* book instead of a *barely good* book like this one, people will buy it (I know I will), and you'll still make money. I would much, much rather read about Jarlaxle and Entreri than about a drow hero who is getting tired of himself, and whose very author is getting tired of him.

First off, let me say that I enjoyed reading this book a lot. I read it cover-to-cover yesterday and do not consider it to have been a day wasted. I read fantasy books because they are light fare, an easy break from the day-to-day stresses of the working world, and I read Salvatore's fantasy because it is exciting and well written. From that perspective, this book was absolutely terrific: a return of fantasy's most consistently exciting character without the "end of the world" motif that is such a common and overwhelming theme in the genre. It is very solid Drizzt fare.
Having said that, this book is not as good as the Crystal Shard. Shard contained a level of suspense and moral ambiguity that is missing here. The problem is common enough in any Wizards of the Coast setting (and can indeed be found in some of their computer games as well): as the characters advance in level and/or power, nothing in the story can really injure or threaten them. The protagonist becomes superhero - far outstripping his foes in both physical and mental prowess. This is problematic in a linear plot. Servant of the Shard was SO GOOD because it avoided this issue by presenting a vast set of interweaving difficulties and complex situations. In other words, the story could have logically ended in any number of different ways. Sea of Swords misses that critical element that Salvatore always has in his books that contain Jarlaxle: complexity.
I enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to Drizzt fans. It advances the characters emotionally, contains solid sarcastic wit in several places, and it is action-packed without having the action overwhelm. However, I also eagerly await the return of Entreri and Jarlaxe.

I don't understand. The plots in these books aren't very different from each other, the fight scenes go on too long and it's another "group of friends go adventuring book". Nothing original or anything here.

The problem is that I LOVE these books! RAS makes me care about the characters and what happens to them. Watching Drizzt evolve as a character is fascinating. Drizzt is the most evolving character I've ever seen in fiction. It's amazing. His relationship with Cattie-Brie keeps me at the edge of my seat.

I do find myself skipping over some of the more lengthy fight scenes, but other than that I'm hooked.

I don't particularly care about Wulfgar at all, but when the focus is on him I find that I do care. Same with Bruenor and Regis.

I just don't understand...

Drizzt and crew returns in a well crafted though not superb book.

In many ways, Salvatore hits the right steps with humor, action, and resolution. Old plot lines are finally wrapped up and the stage set for new adventures. Fans of the series will feel right at home with the characters and story.

One problem that is partially resolved is that Salvatore manages to infuse some sense of danger to some of the Companions though perhaps they are never as fully challenged as they were in the past. It's a thorny problem for the writer in how does one challeges such powerful heroes without losing touch of reality and simply create enemies nonsensical in their power. Fortunately, the problem is solved partially by a villain who with the proper planning poses an actual threat to the great Drizzt.

Minor problems are lack of total development of some characters though with the multitude introduced this is no real crime. Most have nice hooks that makes them memorable. In the future, more length and depth would be appreciated

This book is good. The battles are well done but nothing that hasn't been seen before. All the characters are developed but there is no strong villian. Le'Orinel is HORRIBLE! I won't spoil it for you but its SO predictable, she has no fighting power either. How can Salvatore spend an entire book on the 2 best villians of all time (Entreri and Jarlaxle) and then have no reference to them at all. The problem with Salvatore is that he has created such spectacular but HUMAN characters. Drizzt will outlive them all unless he suddenly creates a way for Catti-Brie, Entreri and Wulfgar to live on. My personal suggestion is to make them both half-elf. They both obviously never knew their own parents, and to even make it better why shouldn't they be related? That could be AWESOME, also why leave such a cliffhanger for Jarlaxle and then not explain it at all. The only reason the book is 3 stars is because its the Companions of The Hall. There is never a danger of anyone being killed by mere ogres and pirates and the fight scenes cannot be as astounding with such pathetic fighters too much of the book is character development with nothing happening. Regis becomes a hero, Drizzt and Catti-brie develop farther but Salvatore does not make it clear how much. Overall I didn't like the development but it is Drizzt and I can't disagree with that

First of all, I am a Dutch reader. This doesn' t mean anything to you but 1. English is not my native language 2. Every book I want to read I have to order abroad (e.g. at [Amazon.com]/expensive).
Nevertheless I own every book Salvatore has written.
This is by far the worst book he has written. The characters are flat, Wulfgar is at his annoying best, the story is two or maybe one-dimensional and I think Savatore made this story up while eating turkey at Thanksgivingday at his parents (boring) place.
I rated this book two stars but I'm thinking it even deserves those two stars.

Roger van den Heuvel

I honestly wondered if R.A. Salvatore could pull off another book about Drizzt Do'Urden. After all, with fourteen previous books in the series, who was left for the scimitar-wielding ranger to fight? The Crystal Shard was shattered, Drizzt's malicious family was long dead, Artemis Entreri had recovered from his obsession with the drow ranger, and the demon lord Errtu had been banished to the Abyss for a century. (Though if the series runs long enough, Drizzt may eventually have to face Errtu once more!) And with Salvatore's last two Forgotten Realms books focusing on the tormented barbarian Wulfgar and the aging assasin Entreri, it seemed that Drizzt's days had perhaps come to an end. But fourteen books prove, if nothing else, that Drizzt cannot be kept down.

The book opens with Drizzt and his friends chasing down highwaymen in the frozen reaches of Icewind Dale. When one of the surviving bandits is found with the mark of Aegis-fang, Wulfgar's magical hammer, Drizzt decides to discover what has become of his missing, tormented friend. The hammer is actually in the hands of Shelia Kree, a ruthless pirate chief. Wulfgar, meanwhile, pursues Kree aboard Captain Deudermont's pirate-hunting ship, conflicted between his old life as a warrior and his new roles as a husband and a father. And while Drizzt hunts for Wulfgar, a mysterious moon elf named Le'lorinel hunts Drizzt, obsessed with killing the drow ranger.

These seperate plot threads could result in a tangled mess, but Salvatore weaves them together well. Mixed in with the main plot are scenes with dozens of minor characters from previous novels: Captain Deudermont and the wizard Robillard, Morik the Rogue and the owners of the Bloody Cutlass in Luskan, Lord Feringal, Lady Meralda, Priscilla, and Terimgast at Castle Auckney, and others. A large portion of the book's appeal comes from the growth of these lesser characters: Robillard's transistion from crusty curmudgeon to crusty mentor, for example, and Morik the Rogue's altrusitic side comes to the top once again, despite his best efforts.

"Sea of Swords" does start out slowly, with Drizzt and companions seemingly having nothing better to do than harass highwaymen. But the pace soon picks up, and how do the pages fly! Five stars.

The first half of the book is pretty good actually, focusing more on Wulfgar being affected still by the tortures of Errtu. He becomes a liability on Deudermont's Sea Sprite with Robillard and Deudermont arguing over what to do with him. As they pursue pirates looking for Sheila Kree, we actually get some tension as Kree sends a team to kidnap Wulfgar's new woman and adopted child.

Then the tension is ratcheted downwards. Rather than have the supreme tension of Kree holding hostages as well as Aegis Fang, the kidnap attempt fails. Drizz't, Cattie-Brie, Regis and Bruenor go north in search of Kree and perhaps Wulfgar. At this point we have a very bad technical lapse on Salvatore's part. Wizard Robillard is used more than once as the hand of the author to move Wulfgar around. First to prod him to find his friends and Kree, and secondly to actually teleport Wulfgar to his friends, and then scout Kree's hideout for them. Yeeesh, you get the sense the story had to be wrapped up quickly so the convenient wizard was used to move it along.

On the good side, Drizz't and Cattie-Brie finally move towards some sort of relationship with glacial slowness and there are some nice fight scenes, though the last one with the companions vs. The Entire Pirate Crew & Ogre Friends is a little unbelievable. The mysterious elf sub-plot is wrapped up very quickly and easily. The book should probably have been longer to address these problems.

Not as strong as the previous two which dealt with character issues and political intrigue, and a definite step back to predictable dungeon romps. At the end, everyone is back together almost as if the reset button has been hit.

Thank God, the Paths of Darkness series is over. The Legacy of the Drow and The Dark Elf Trilogy are the best books I have ever read! That being said...I dredged through this whole series cause it was so boring. I love Salvatore, but he needs to realize that Wulfgar is the most BORING character conceived! There is nothing there for the reader to be emotionally attached to him and actually care what happens to him. I couldn't wait to finish these books so I can start The Thousand Orcs. Trust me when I say that reading this series is not vital and really boring. The Servant of the Shard was a nice departure cause Artemis and Jarlaxle are awesome. But, three other books devoted to cry-baby Wulfgar and his boring character are enough to make me want to scream "Tempus" and toss Aegis-Fang at him and be through with his wallowing self-pity!