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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The high quality once so common from Salvatore, October 25, 2009
The Ghost King completes the Transitions Trilogy, which started out quite slow and disjointed from the future scene that opened The Orc King to the more contemporary story of The Pirate King, taking place some eight years after the end of the second book in the series.
While Salvatore unites the disparate characters from his two Realms series once again, he does so more intimately, having Jarlaxle as the main focus of the antagonist's ire at the start of the book. Spanning a wide range of the canon of the Forgotten Realms, we see psionics in use, magic failing due to the spell plague, priestly magic failing as the Gods seem to have disappeared, but magic weapons and items seemingly unaffected. The story deals with the reincarnated Crystal Shard in a new guise, dissociated from the Lichs who created it in the ancient past, but united with the dragon whose breath destroyed it and a mind flayer. The three minds compete for dominance, so the foe serves as its own antagonist for some of the book.
The heroes are familiar, from the characters of the Cleric Quintet and their children, to the remaining Companions of the Hall (Wulfgar was split from them earlier in the series, for good it seems), to Jarlaxle and Athrogate. Artemis Entreri is mentioned but never seen, and it was noted that he was being hunted by the servants of the Shard so we might see another book or story featuring him in the future.
The heroes band together to face the evil, accompanied by extra-dimensional beings entering through a dimensional rift that replenishes the enemy ranks. Two of the Companions are laid low before any battle is fought and they only serve to distract the rest until their plotlines are resolved at the end of the book.
The title of the series, Transitions, reflects not only the changeover of the game system of Dungeons and Dragons, but also the changes that proceed in the lives of the primary characters as their world changes. The defeats and victories they have achieved and suffered in their lives are matched by their greatest challenge to date. The heroes show their mettle and the reader is rewarded for being patient in following the course of the action. This is not a pleasant story, as great changes are wrought both in the Forgotten Realms and in the lives of the characters we have grown to know and love. How they deal with these radical changes will have to wait to be revealed in whatever Salvatore delivers next.
Note that Salvatore has a long author's note to open the book, citing how difficult it was for him to write. It was not until the end of the book that this truly became clear to me. It is a pretty rare thing for a book to move me to tears, but this one accomplished that for the first time in a very long while. I cannot say enough good things about this book, though it did start a bit slow and some things were not explained terribly well and there were some consistency issues (such as Ivan retrieving his axe at one point, then not having it and using rocks, then suddenly having his axe again). However much I might not like such things, they are present and result in my not giving this a five star review.
This is a fantastic book that reads very fast, like the older books in the Drizzt line it is grand in scale and deals with the evolution in the life of this larger than life hero.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An epic finale, October 10, 2009
I wasn't enjoying this series as much as I enjoyed most of Salvatore's work, it seemed forced to me, and then I started this book.
Spoilers- Beware--------------
First, with the Spellplague about, me and many of my friends already thought that Catti-brie would be hit with it. Well, Salvatore wastes no time in afflicting her. That is what starts the entire adventuring group prepared to take action. Then Jarlaxle and Athrogate come in (which just took me on the book- Jarlaxle is my favorite character) and they get them to join them to go to Spirit Soaring.
What got me the most was that Drizzt really stopped being an annoyingly dispassionate character. He's often so full of philosophy that he is flat. But Catti-brie's plight motivated him so that he seemed more like a person than just a cliche hero.
The killing of three characters... I think everybody suspected. It was coming throughout the entire book. You can wish it isn't true, just like the remaining characters in the book, but it is what it is.
Needless to say I was crying my eyes out by the end. My heart was broken just as much as Drizzt's was.
For anyone wondering if this book was worth it, it is. It goes to those same dark places that the Dark Elf Trilogy and the Sellswords Trilogy took us. If the beautiful cover art by Todd Lockwood isn't enough to make the purchase, then the read is. Good job, Salvatore.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Teriffic, yet lacking, October 18, 2009
In the typical mind-blowing-action-and-heartstring-tugging-drama fashion that only Salvatore can pull off, this book takes Drizzt and company through the start of the tumultuous times known in Forgotten Realms as "Spellplauge," where most magic no longer works. We meet up with old friends and old enemies, so I would highly recommend reading (if you haven't already) The Cleric Quintet and the Sellswords Part II and Part III for background on Cadderly, Jarlaxle, Athrogate, and Artemis, that isn't necessarily covered in the other Drizzt novels. The premise of the story is that all the crazy things happening with magic has allowed the creation of a dracolich that wants to see the end of certain people that caused the dragon harm in life, including Drizzt and his friends. The book is pretty dark; we have all seen Drizzt and friends get in and out of tight situations, but the overall tone of the book to me is bleak and hopeless at just about every turn. Indeed, we have to say farewell to a few more of the characters that Salvatore has made us all love and laugh with over the years. Drizzt shows a bit more emotion than in previous books, unraveling yet another layer of the complex drow elf. The book paints vivid descriptions of the action sequences, and either I'm becoming more addicted to them, or they seem to be a little to short in this book. Sometimes the solution to conflicts in the book comes out of left field, almost to the point of incredulity (particularly with Cadderly's powers). There are a few loose ends that are left dangling, and far too much time is given to Cadderly's children in what is really a very bland sub-plot. I received the book in the mail and read it from cover to cover in about a day, much as I have done with all of Salvatore's books since I was turned onto them, but I do have to admit, this one seems a bit...off. I still heartily recommend the book to all Drizzt fans (not that a review would stop you, if you are like me at all).
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