Windwalker

Starlight & Shadows #3

by Elaine Cunningham

Liriel has achieved her goal: her drow powers are hers to command wherever she might go. Her companion, Fyodor of Rashemen, has mastered his out-of-control berserker rages. The future seems bright for the companions as they set out to return the Windwalker amulet to the Witches of Rashemen, for Fyodor has reason to believe that Liriel will be welcomed in his homeland.

But Liriel's enemies follow her still. Chief among them is a drow goddess whom Liriel, whether she knows it or not, continues to serve...

Genres: Fantasy, Forgotten Realms, Fiction, Dungeons and Dragons, High Fantasy, Magic, Adult

375 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.


Elaine Cunningham is an American fantasy author.

Reviews

[Espresso · Rating 5 out of 5]

More masterwork story writing from this author. I am still praying for another book to the series.

[The Shayne-Train · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful, bloody series. And what a satisfying, bittersweet ending. My heart was broken; my heart was healed. Just as it was promised, so was it to be.

[Travis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Windwalker by Elaine Cunningham- This is the third and last book in the Starlight & Shadows trilogy. The first book is Daughter of the Drow and the second book is Tangled Webs. The events in this book take place directly after Tangled Webs.

The book continues the story of the drow wizard Liriel Baenre and her friend/ lover Fyodor on their travel back to Rashemen, which is Fyodor's homeland. Along the way, the duo encounter old and new friends along with old and new enemies. Upon arriving in Waterdeep, Liriel gets a summons to go meet with Qilué (who is the high priestess of Eilistraee, the drow goddess of good) in which Liriel inadvertently unleashed the power of Lloth (or Lolth, the Spider Queen, the goddess of the drow) causing her to be thrown out and forced to make Fyodor's and hers way to Rashemen. However, with the new friendships of Sharlarra Vindrith, an elf wizard and thief, and Thorn, a mysterious elf, they make it to Rashemen. But Liriel's past and Lloth isn't so content to let her go. Between Lloth, two old rivals, her father, and her aunt does Liriel and Fyodor have what it takes to live out their lives in Rashemen?

A Word Of Warning: I do have a few spoilers ahead. These are unavoidable in this circumstance. I apologize about that.

Negatives:
1) Rushed. The whole story, from start to finish, doesn't let you take a moment to understand what is going on. With the earlier stories, there were some chapters of "down-time" where you could sort things out and follow what was happening. But in this book, everything is just coming at you quickly and it just does not give you a moments rest. There are a few reasons why everything feels rushed. The first being a huge lack of character development from the new characters. You barely get to understand why these characters are either helping or trying to stop Liriel from going to Rashemen. For example, take Sharlarra. You meet her in a quick manner, not really thinking that she will become this big character in the story, but then suddenly, and quite unexpectedly, she becomes a somewhat main character. Their was no real motivation given or reason why this is. Heck, Danilo Thann (whom Liriel and Fyodor met in Daughter of the Drow) was more believable than Sharlarra to help them out. She never even met the duo. What I'm trying to get at is that the characters were just thrown at you, and just had to go with it. Another reason it felt rushed was the dialogue. In the earlier books, the dialogue between characters seemed natural and believable. Here, however, it felt forced and at times really, really rushed. There were parts in which the dialogue didn't even seem to try to match up to what was happening and going on. It just made everything feel chaotic.
2) "Mysterious Backgrounds." This is something that, after a while, really got to me and severely annoyed me. You have two new characters; Sharlarra and Thorn. Two elves. Simple enough right? Wrong. What goes on is that they are some "sub-race" of elves (sort of like how there are moon elves, drow, sea elves, etc.). This isn't a problem really, but their mysterious backgrounds get strung out throughout the story and you soon feel very, very annoyed and just uninterested. With Thorn, nothing seems to really add up. *Warning Spoiler ahead* Thorn is basically portrayed as Eilistraee's champion, a non-drow follower who has "tall, with moon-white skin and sleek ebony hair. ...Her eyes were a strange shade of golden green, and a streak of silver hair" (page 28). So you are thinking that she sounds like a fairly typical elf. While later this build up of mystery with Thorn, and how Liriel has to be unconscious when being transported into "her people's land" to avoid Lloth corrupting it. This made me thing she was a star elf (a really rare and almost unheard of elf). But no. !!!SPOILER!!! She's a lythari, which are elves that can transform into wolves (they are not werewolves, however). Sort of is a let down really. She was really built up as a huge mystery to what she is and it turns out she's just a lythari elf. With Sharlarra, it's pretty much the same case. However, you never really learn what kind of elf she is a HUGE let down. It's hard to explain why I think it's a let down but after the bigger build up with this character (more so then with Thorn), not finding out what she is just doesn't feel right. I don't even think she knows what she is. Oh wait, that's right. She doesn't know. So where is the fun in that mystery?
3) Anti-Climatic. The whole huge battle at the end was just a let down. Things happened to fast to understand what was going on. It was as though, one moment you were in a circle of people, the next you are for some reason calling ravens and Eilistraee followers, then you were summoning some gigantic woodland creature. It just doesn't make sense and it really was a head ache inducing moment. Then you have the lackluster final battles, yet again. The biggest disappointment is with Brindlor, a deathsinger (More on him later), and what happens to him. I felt cheated. Especially when you thought that he was just there to observe. Basically, the ending just fell flat in my opinion.

Positives:
1) Brindlor. Oh boy was he an interesting character. Now, a deathsinger is a drow bard that comprising songs upon a person's death. The Dragon Horde merchants, now under the command of Gorlist, have changed tactics to find and kill Liriel, which Gorlist is utterly obsessed over. So Gorlist hires Brindlor to tell of their triumph and Liriel's death. However, the scenes he is in really reminds me of another famous drow, Jarlaxle. His personality is the main reason for this comparison. He is humorous and at the same time practical and pragmatic like Jarlaxle is. Brindlor really does steal the show early on and does so up until the "climax."
2) Fyodor. The story seemed to revolve more about Fyodor this time then anything else. You get more background as to way he was "cast out" of Rashemen and he really grows in this story more so than I felt he did in the earlier books. You really got to see how much he cares, trusts, and respects Liriel and at times it was touching and wonderful. Then seeing how he acted upon returning to his family and friends was something special and unique as well. There were some deep moments about him. It really was nice to get more information and development on the other main character in the story.
3) The Ending. There are two things I liked about this ending. First, it was sad. You wouldn't have expected what happened to happen but at the same time you knew it was going to happen. That's all I'm really going to say about it. That part was wonderful. The second is the closure between Liriel and Shakti. While, at times it didn't really make sense (at least I thought it didn't) it felt right and perfect in its own way. I mean, I honestly thought Liriel would rip Shakti's eyes out and bash her skull in but no, it still worked.

Side notes:
1) Brindlor= homosexual? It was subtly alluded to Brindlor being a homosexual, seeing as it mentioned that he didn't like being in the company of women. First, before anyone gets mad at me... I think this was wonderful. I would have never expected there to be a homosexual character in a Forgotten Realm novel and then bam, there is one. And it really worked. It made the character so much better in a way that I can't really explain.
2) The ghost horse. I have honestly no idea... Anyone care to enlighten me about this utterly crazy turn of the story?
3) The HORRIBLE image of Liriel on the cover. I mentioned this in the Tangled Webs review. It's awful. She looks... scary and just so very unattractive. Liriel is really thought to be one of the most beautiful drow around and this is the best Todd Lockwood could do? Before anyone says anything, I do like his work. He really does do a great job with his artwork, but here, it's just a failure. Why couldn't he just stick with the Tangled Webs version of Liriel?

Overall: 2/5
Final Thoughts:
The whole story was a huge drop off of how the first two in this series was told. The whole rushed feeling of the story and the utter confusion this caused made it hard for me to read the first time I read it. It was however, easier to read it this time through, but still it was just confusing. It just didn't have the spirit and fun the first two had.

[Ugur]

Windwalker is the third and last book of Starlight & Shadows series, which was written by Elaine Cunningham in 2003.

It’s easy to read whole series, but I could not like it. I like Fyodor of Rashemen and Liriel Baenre characters, but there is no depth for them. It is just like reading a story and what is happening in this story. There are not enough dialogs.

The plot is not well defined in the story, our characters are working to achieve something but could not feel their motivations. Also could not find any interesting parts in the setting, it is like a well-known definition of the Forgotten Realms world.

I’ll rate the book in details soon.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

The third book of three culminates with Liriel and Fyodor returning to Fyodor's land of Rashemen with the Windwalker amulet in hand with drow following unbeknownst to Liriel. Loose ends are tied up and a confrontation with hated rival Shakti Hunzrin ends in an unexpected way.
My favorite part of this novel took place early on when Shakti meets up with a Yochlol in the abyss and a pact she makes with this particular "Yochlol" bringing her back to the realms. Quenthel Baenre's return via a soul bubble on the floor of the throne room of Matron Mother Triel Baenre.
Many characters reside in this novel and a handful of major deaths occur as well. A good ending to a decent story focusing on a female drow escaping the chains of her evil birth city.
I found this book in hard cover at a Half Price Books after reading the first two in paperback edition. For some reason I started it 3 years back in 2017, got to page 94, and quit reading it. I returned to it again this year and finished it. I had heard about Quenthel's return, but didn't realize it happened in this novel.

[Mads · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not a perfect book, nor a perfect series by any means, but there is so much in it that I came to love and really affected me much more deeply than I anticipated.

I wish it were longer, I wish there was more, I wish I had a Lord of the Rings-esque film trilogy to watch of it, but despite all of that I am deeply satisfied with everything.

There are those who think, and those who dream and I dream of a world where I get to follow Liriel and her new sisters on their adventures beyond.

[Maya Mint · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why does it end like that? I liked most of the book but the ending seems so unearned... I'm not sure I understand what happened here for it to feel this rushed.

Sharlarra and Thorn seem to become really
important all of a sudden but I don't really know too much about them and I didn't have enough time to really care about them either. Their presence is not felt as strong as other characters. More important than that they don't really get to develop a relationship with Liriel.

Gorlist is an okay antagonist but I was expecting a different ending for him, a mutiny was teased earlier and it was such a missed opportunity it ended up being a nothing burger.

It's hard to not compare Brindlor to Jarlaxle, both are extremely charismatic and they eat every scene they are in, I expected his ending to be at least more dramatic. So bad that books don't have sound!

Fyodor's ending was sad and moving but I think the timing felt also rushed, interrupted and mixed with other stuff.

I loved the character development here and how Liriel seemed to actually try to find her place in the world. I enjoyed the series overall, but the first two books were definitely better than this one

[Donovan Goertz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I trudged through this trilogy series - I liked the main characters, one of which is going through a serious and convoluted Alignment change. The plot is overall, as the second book title, Tangled Webs.
But I felt lost in a lot of places - maybe bits were too metaphysical or philosophical, trying to make sense of the magiks or motivations. Side characters came and went, were small or supremely important somewhat randomly. Some encounters were bewildering to try to picture - with characters that weren't necessarily present suddenly participating in the conversation.
Use of local culture development was impressive, though hard to define. Use of, and justifications for monsters, on their own or at someone's behest, was good!
I'd recommend readers keep notes on all encountered characters, alive, dead or referred to, to keep track of who's who.

[elsie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book comes only second in my most-disappointed list. The end to this trilogy was sloppy, badly written and made little sense. Characters behaved very out-of-character for no apparent reason and I got the distinct feeling a deadline had either passed or was looming for this to be the end to this otherwise good series.

[PRJ Greenwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

An entertaining mess, and there's signs this novel was written and edited quickly, perhaps as another reviewer mentioned, to meet a publishing deadline. The narrative is all over the place, as are the myriad of characters, some of whom add nothing to the story - Sharlarra? What's she meant to be, exactly? And the character arc of Ibn, a nasty individual from the previous stories, is simply terminated. Not killed, just suffers Chuck Cunningham syndrome.

Jarring shifts of scene abound, and the distance between Rashemen and Waterdeep - thousands of miles if the maps are accurate, becomes inconsequential. It's all a mess, and a major mess. Not a great way to conclude what started as a promising series.

[SiriRainbow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Drowka Liriel dospela na konec dalsi cesty a s sebou pritahla i potize. Zpretrhala vazby s Temnymi risemi a zjistila, ze vse nemuze byt takove, jake ona chce.
Odehrava se zde mnohe, nikterak pomalu, presto se u jistych veci zda, ze se vlecou. Nechybi obcasny pohled jinych postav. Ohledne magie a zajmu bohyne a podobnych pohnuti sil, vladne barvity a zajimavy, lec znacne matouci popis. Hlavni akce se opet odehrala na poslednich strankach. Nektere linky jsou neukonceny, jine se nahle objevily bez uspokojive motivace, nektere konci prilis rychle a jednoduse.
Ac se ma jednat o uzavreni trilogie, je zde naznak, ze elfi dobrodruzstvi nekonci usazenim se v kraji. Celkove se autorka dopustila kličky, ktera eventuelne pribeh Povrchu a Temnych risi muze pozvednout na novou uroven.

[Mia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like the storyline; moving from dark to light and from isolation to connection. The plot is amazingly well-thought, brilliantly woven together. Very fun to read. However at a certain point the editing drops way off; words so badly misspelled as to lose their correct meaning entirely and names spelled inconsistently, as well as occasional same-word overuse (along the lines of using 'summarily' three times within as many lines of narration). I've read the book twice and on the second read the poor editing didn't bother me much at all. I only Really noticed it when I had to think about what the correct word Should be.

[Travis Cook · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really wanted to enjoy this book since the first two had me really looking forward to it. I found the book to be rushed im sure it wasent but 345 pages didn't donit justice. Most forgotten relms books are about the same page count and, are alot like comic books so you have to buy the next to get the next small part of the story. Unlike tad williams, brian lee durfee, brent weeks and even Tolkien. This writers make the stories as long as they want which is great for eighty percent of all fantasy. I like Elaine as a writer and will continue to look for her books and read them. I was just wondering if the publisher pushed her hard to get it finished like most publishers try and do.

[Kalliah · Rating 2 out of 5]

The closure between Liriel and Shakti is really good and unexpected. But the rest of the books is rushed and Thorn and Shalarra are so profoundly uninteresting yet they seem to show up to drive the story all the time. Brindlor is a much more interesting character. I have mixed feelings about killing off Fyoder at the end, it seems like a bit of a cop out honestly. But I did really like the character development once they got to Rashemen, that was good. At the end though, even though the book wasn't as good as the others, it did change the DnD mechanics and it's the reason my drow can use her magic on the surface so thanks for that Liriel

[Iain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadly, I found this title slipped a bit with respect to the prior books in the series. Up until 30 pages or so before the end I might have given it a 5, but the ending seemed rushed and deeply disappointing. In the end perhaps the series started to bow under the weight of all the characters, leaving me feeling that it short changed the ones I cared about.

A good book that could have been so much better.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the book but it wrapped up a bit too quickly. I guess there is always room for more books to be written. The author really likes elves and bards. The story includes drow from all alignments, high elves, moon elves, lythari, star elves and sea elves. There were also three kinds of bards; the flamboyant dandy, the gruff skald and the sadistic deathsinger.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've glad to have finished the series. I found the Starlight & Shadows trilogy a fun read with lots of nice references to The Forgotten Realms.

I have to say that the ending took me by surprise. I was convinced that Liriel was going to get some form of a happy ending but really it felt very 'real' and honestly very sad.

Her good-bye to Fyodor had me in tears. 🥲

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The whole series was excellent. However, it was this book the final in the series that stood above the rest. Can it be read alone? I don't suggest it. They're is so much tied into it. Still it is a book that tells a moving story.

[Tina Chandler · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very sad ending! Literal loses everything, the favor of Eliastree, Fyodor, but finally loses Lloths binding hold. I first read Daughter of the Drow back in the 80s but prepare tissues. You're going to need a LOT of them

[Ben Arispe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic ending to the series. Liriel has grown so much as a character since that first book. I found it interesting to see so much of Rasheman and their culture. I definitely would like to see more of Lireil on future stories.

[Marianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't enjoy as much as book 1 and 2, but a decent conclusion.

[Roberto Rho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una stella in meno per la brutta fine. Tante pagine scritte in fretta a mio parere per chiudere la trilogia.

[King · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the story interestingly enough. Kind of lost me in a couple spots but picked back up. I liked the 1st book in the series better. Worth buying a used copy cheap and reading it.

[Benjamin Hesdorf · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was intense. I really liked it. Perhaps, so would you? I recommend the series.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cried at the end… and i hated it.
But I’m not surprised, it must’ve been done, it was so clear since the beginning.
Loved reading it but never again.:)

[Lenakoko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Etwas anderes Ende als ich erwartet habe. Aber insgesamt OK.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was really disappointed with the way the story developed in this book.

[Tony · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars, The dark elf Liriel struggles to get out from under the hold of the evil spider-goddess Lolth, while traveling with Fyodor to Rashemen, a land of witches and berserkers.

This book may have been better appreciated if I had more extensive knowledge of the Forgotten Realms universe and Cunningham's other work. Many of the characters including the Seven Sisters had poor development. The Seven Sisters are supposed to be supremely powerful, but I did not get that impression throughout the novel. Perhaps they were more developed in other FR novels; but in Windwalker, they were just lackluster.

I've read many Forgotten Realms novels (mostly by Salvatore) and I still can't get a handle on how magic works. Characters memorize spells for wizardry and call upon gods for clerical, but I don't understand the limits each has, as it seems Liriel always has a spur of the moment spell that can get her out of anything.

Another complaint about the FR universe in general is that once a character is dead, they're not really dead - they go to the Abyss, and therefore, are able to come back. So when a character "dies," the reader doesn't know if they are truly dead or just going on a little trip. There is a character returned from the Abyss in this book with little or no explanation.

The novel had a few strong themes that could have been developed more; Liriel's faith change, one characters return from the Abyss, fewer characters with more character development. Cunningham went with quantity over quality on this one. Sometimes less is more.

While the conclusion of the Starlight and Shadows trilogy was a light, easy, mildly fun read, there was nothing that kept me thrilled about it. I'd recommend it only if you are a fan of Cunningham or Forgotten Realms lore in general.

If you're a fan of Menzoberranzan and the drow, Daughter of the Drow is really the only book in this trilogy that focuses heavily on that; which is why I read the series. And now I'm on to Passage to Dawn, which takes place next chronologically in dark elf history!

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first two book of this trilogy was really quite good, in line with the drow lore established by R. A. Salvatore and others. The previous had a definite plot, a good build-up of intrigue, and an excellent finale. The third book was quite disappointing. The plot was quite weak and story meandered throughout until it started to pick up a bit, but by then it was the finale.

I believe this third book was aimed at setting Liriel up for future adventures with her new traveling companions; to give a plausible reason on how her ties to the Underdark and House Baenre were broken, and to put an end to the threads that seemed to start tying her down away from a life of adventure. I can accept that - I just didn't like how it felt reading through it. The pace of the book was rather slow and the build-up evident in the previous two books was noticeably lacking. I was more than three-quarters through the book before it felt like things started picking up. It felt like there was a lot of filler material that didn't really matter, uncharacteristic and pointless actions (all those "forest walks" is plain ridiculous), as well unresolved issues that would really have been nice to expand on (Anya's mother for example, and that Moonstone). And just to nitpick, proof-reading issues: "Arach Tinileth" instead of the correct "Arach Tinilith", and "Algorand" instead of the correct "Aglarond."

I was tempted to put a single star (a shocking rating for Elaine Cunningham's work) but the redeeming factor was the finale fight. The way it was written and the way it read was very awe-inspiring and really builds up excitement just reading it. And the ending (not the cliffhanger-style resolution and epilogue) was touching and again, beautifully written. If only the earlier parts of the book were set at a more exciting pace, this third book would've made for a good ending.

[Richard Poffenberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally the tale end with the Windwlaker; I say, meh! Don't get me wrong Cunningham has defiantly gown as a writer sense The Daughter of the Drow. I almost never have to re-read any of her paragraphs to get what she is saying, nor am I complaining about her writing structure. Everything is well portrayed. From the smallest blade of grass to the biggest of earth elementals, I can see just about everything she is telling in my head perfectly.

The only qualms I am having with this one of the three is that I felt in some areas of the book that she speed plot lines up too fast. Even in some areas it sounded like she wanted to write about something else but she needed to tie up whatever end was needed tied up. Their was a lot of new information in this one so you had to pay close attention or you would get lost easily. She also had a small problem of writing a lot of information about certain parts of the plot line in great excess. The whole book is about Leriel and Fyodor getting form Ruathym to Rashemen, and it seem to take longer then it should.

But this book out of the three explores one of my favorite areas of the land of Faerun; Reshemen, and she has hammered down my love for this fictional country. Nestled under the steely gaze of the Red Wizards of Thay, Rashemen is a land of vast forests that has been touched by the spirit world. Cunningham brings the land itself to life and defends her from the evils of the Underdark. Adding her some of her own touches to this enchanted wildlands such as the house spirits that when you are kind to them, do some of your house work.

All in all it is almost sad that the trilogy is over. But I can say with all sincerity, that these are some of the greatest characters I have ever had the pleasure of forming in my own mind. So I raise a glass of Jhuild (firewine) in Mrs. Cunningham's name. Thank you for writing such amazing books.