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Forgotten Realms - Publication Order
Spider and Stone
Lolth - patron deity of the drow, Spider Queen, regent of the Demon Web Pits - has once again stirred the dark elves into roiling aggression against the rest of Faern, reveling in the chaos born from her dark schemata. This is the Rise of the Underdark.
In Iltkazar, the last subterranean kingdom of the once resplendent dwarven realm of Shanatar, King Mith Barak faces a siege of drow soldiers, spies, and assassins looking to seize the powerful city and the ancient magical artifacts hidden there. Somewhere in the city, the Arcane Script Sphere - a mystical orb touched by Mystra, the long-dead goddess magic - calls out to heroes and adventurers, beckoning with whispers of power and knowledge. Mith Barak hears it and knows he cannot hold the artifact much longer, but fears what the drow may do with it.
Enter Icelin, Ruen, and Sull, Waterdavian wanders whose desire to understand their own spellscars sets them in search of Mystran mysteries - they hope to understand magic and thus understand its plague. As they move from town to town, city to city in search of knowledge, Icelin hears the siren call of the Arcane Script Sphere, and it draws the trio deep into rocks of the Underdark where they find themselves at the center of the struggle between the dwarves and drow.
Only King Mith Barak can initiate them into the mysteries they hope to illuminate. But first they must help him with a mystery of his own - a dark elf assassin, himself a seeker of the sphere, lies in Iltkazar's dungeons shrouded in the mystery and magic of Lolth. Icelin might be the one to see past that shroud and determine the true goal of the Spider Queen's schemes. As the dark elves intensify their attacks, the trio realizes their quest for knowledge has taken them into a new and dangerous realm...a realm dictated by the whims of spider and stone.
©2012 Wizards of the Coast LLC; (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
In Iltkazar, the last subterranean kingdom of the once resplendent dwarven realm of Shanatar, King Mith Barak faces a siege of drow soldiers, spies, and assassins looking to seize the powerful city and the ancient magical artifacts hidden there. Somewhere in the city, the Arcane Script Sphere - a mystical orb touched by Mystra, the long-dead goddess magic - calls out to heroes and adventurers, beckoning with whispers of power and knowledge. Mith Barak hears it and knows he cannot hold the artifact much longer, but fears what the drow may do with it.
Enter Icelin, Ruen, and Sull, Waterdavian wanders whose desire to understand their own spellscars sets them in search of Mystran mysteries - they hope to understand magic and thus understand its plague. As they move from town to town, city to city in search of knowledge, Icelin hears the siren call of the Arcane Script Sphere, and it draws the trio deep into rocks of the Underdark where they find themselves at the center of the struggle between the dwarves and drow.
Only King Mith Barak can initiate them into the mysteries they hope to illuminate. But first they must help him with a mystery of his own - a dark elf assassin, himself a seeker of the sphere, lies in Iltkazar's dungeons shrouded in the mystery and magic of Lolth. Icelin might be the one to see past that shroud and determine the true goal of the Spider Queen's schemes. As the dark elves intensify their attacks, the trio realizes their quest for knowledge has taken them into a new and dangerous realm...a realm dictated by the whims of spider and stone.
©2012 Wizards of the Coast LLC; (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
Audiobook
First published January 1, 2012
11 people are currently reading
180 people want to read
About the author
Jaleigh Johnson
34 books315 followersJaleigh Johnson lives and writes in the wilds of the Midwest. Her middle grade debut novel The Mark of the Dragonfly is a New York Times bestseller. Her other books from Delacorte Press include The Secrets of Solace, The Quest to the Uncharted Lands, and The Door to the Lost. She has also written fiction for Dungeons and Dragons, Marvel, and Assassin's Creed. Johnson is an avid gamer and lifelong geek.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 18, 2019
I forgot that my phone crashed when I was trying to write a little review about it.
Anyways, at least half the book involves some humans getting mixed up with dwarves, trying to get their hands on an artifact they believe will counter the side effects they were suffering from the Spellplague. Apparently it was a follow up to an earlier book, but it didn't feel like you were missing anything, so that was well handled.
It turns out that there are drow with their eyes on the same artifact, with the main drow character, Zollgarza, on a mission to retrieve it for the matron he serves.
He's an interesting character, with a hell of a mystery surrounding him.
I had A Lot Of Mixed Feelings about the mystery when it was explained/resolved and I've still not really been able to sort them out.
But it was an interesting trip, even if I'm half side-eyeing it still.
Anyways, at least half the book involves some humans getting mixed up with dwarves, trying to get their hands on an artifact they believe will counter the side effects they were suffering from the Spellplague. Apparently it was a follow up to an earlier book, but it didn't feel like you were missing anything, so that was well handled.
It turns out that there are drow with their eyes on the same artifact, with the main drow character, Zollgarza, on a mission to retrieve it for the matron he serves.
He's an interesting character, with a hell of a mystery surrounding him.
I had A Lot Of Mixed Feelings about the mystery when it was explained/resolved and I've still not really been able to sort them out.
But it was an interesting trip, even if I'm half side-eyeing it still.
October 25, 2024
“Faerûn’s heart beat all around her. She felt it in the swaying oaks and in the cool earth, where fabled cities of light and dark spread deeper roots beneath her. They were little more than tales to her, legends spoken of by firelight, but Icelin liked to imagine the people moving about above and below. Movement and life reminded her in turn that she was alive, that she took part in it all. A vast, lively, and aching world. Icelin drifted off to sleep thinking how all the tales spoke truth.”
—
“The drow leaped forward, wrapping his arms around Ruen’s waist. They hit the floor, but Ruen had the drow in strength. He flipped them, putting the drow on his back. The drow’s head cracked against the floor, leaving him stunned for a breath. It was enough. Ruen reared back and drove his fist into the drow’s chest. He poured all his pent-up energy into the strike and felt it reverberate through the drow’s armor, a wave that passed through flesh, shattering ribs and breastbone. The killing wave reached the drow’s heart, and through his spellscar, Ruen felt the drow’s death a breath before the drow did. The coldness, the cracks in the drow’s life force, spread out from that one central point where his fist made impact. The warrior’s eyes widened, he opened his mouth, and then his gaze became a fixed stare. His rapier clattered to the floor.”
—
“A vast ocean of darkness enveloped them, broken by starlight and misty threads of cloud. On the horizon, the darkness lightened, reminding Icelin of the times she’d watched the light change over Waterdeep harbor, or the early mornings when she sat on the roof of her great-uncle’s shop and waited for dawn. The dragon swam in an ocean of starlight, and Icelin rode his memories, tasting each image as if it were alive.”
This novel was a very welcome shift in quality from Mistshore. Jaleigh Johnson’s unique style is much more present in this one, and I was much more invested in every aspect of this story.
The plot is amazing. We don’t get many dwarf-centered stories, so setting this book entirely in a dwarven city was a treat. The story is also very character-centered since Icelin wants to find the Arcane Script Sphere for her own reasons, although the scope does broaden as the story progresses, which is nice. I loved how the plot with the Sphere was also directly connected to the drow invasion of Iltkazar, it made the personal and the grand plot threads mesh really well.
The two major plot twists (that Mith Barak is a dragon and that the seneschal is the Arcane Script Sphere) weren’t very shocking persay, but they did develop the world of the story and the scope of the plot. I really enjoyed how everything played out with the dwarven plotline because of that.
The characters were also top-notch. I would have liked a bit more development all around, but each character was unique and fleshed out. Icelin was a great protagonist, and following her internal journey and struggles with her wild magic was really fascinating, and I loved how her arc culminated in her brief encounter with the living memory of Mystra through the Arcane Script Sphere.
The dwarves were also great. Mith Barak was a standout, of course; Joya and her complex relationship to the dwarven religion provided a complex character with great insight into dwarven culture; and the side plot with Ingara and Arngam also shed light on the dwarven culture, and I think they’re would be really interesting characters to look deeper into (although I am a sucker for smiths).
I would have liked a bit more development with Ruen and his spellscar, though. His story was vastly interesting, and his reason for not wanting to touch Icelin caused a really interesting conflict within the novel. After his near-death experience, he realized that he really is in love with Icelin, which makes sense, but he doesn’t seem to struggle with touching Icelin afterwards. I think it would have been much more interesting if he admitted his love for her but they still couldn’t touch, thus renewing Icelin’s resolve in finding the Arcane Script Sphere.
The way that the drow are handled is interesting and odd. Their general demeanor is consistent with Salvatore’s lore, except Johnson doesn’t focus on the racial aspect at all. The drow in this book are still dark elves with gray/black skin, but the color of their skin is never mentioned. She uses them simply as an intelligent, cunning species who is manipulated by their evil goddess. Because religion is a major theme in this novel, Johnson played into the idea that the drow are evil because of Lolth, which I vastly prefer to them simply being inherently evil.
Zollgraza was a very interesting and complex character. At first I was off-put by their queerness, seeing as they and their partner were presented as evil throughout the book and the only two queer people in the novel being the villains didn’t send a good message. But Zollgraza isn’t evil, or doesn’t turn out to be. They’ve been indoctrinated into drow society since they were born, but once they learn the horrors of it, they have a change of heart. They don’t fight for the dwarves, but they do betray the drow.
Zollgraza presents a really interesting foil and parallel to Drizzt. Both are drow who end up forsaking and betraying their society, but they go about it differently. Zollgraza wrestles with the loss of their religion more heavily than Drizzt, and their betrayal of the drow has much more to do with a loss of identity. They need to discover who they are without Lolth, and their need to unlearn the drow propaganda to do so.
Overall, this was such a great fantasy novel. It’s one of the better books in Jaleigh Johnson’s library, and thus it’s a true standout in the Forgotten Realms as a whole.
—
“The drow leaped forward, wrapping his arms around Ruen’s waist. They hit the floor, but Ruen had the drow in strength. He flipped them, putting the drow on his back. The drow’s head cracked against the floor, leaving him stunned for a breath. It was enough. Ruen reared back and drove his fist into the drow’s chest. He poured all his pent-up energy into the strike and felt it reverberate through the drow’s armor, a wave that passed through flesh, shattering ribs and breastbone. The killing wave reached the drow’s heart, and through his spellscar, Ruen felt the drow’s death a breath before the drow did. The coldness, the cracks in the drow’s life force, spread out from that one central point where his fist made impact. The warrior’s eyes widened, he opened his mouth, and then his gaze became a fixed stare. His rapier clattered to the floor.”
—
“A vast ocean of darkness enveloped them, broken by starlight and misty threads of cloud. On the horizon, the darkness lightened, reminding Icelin of the times she’d watched the light change over Waterdeep harbor, or the early mornings when she sat on the roof of her great-uncle’s shop and waited for dawn. The dragon swam in an ocean of starlight, and Icelin rode his memories, tasting each image as if it were alive.”
This novel was a very welcome shift in quality from Mistshore. Jaleigh Johnson’s unique style is much more present in this one, and I was much more invested in every aspect of this story.
The plot is amazing. We don’t get many dwarf-centered stories, so setting this book entirely in a dwarven city was a treat. The story is also very character-centered since Icelin wants to find the Arcane Script Sphere for her own reasons, although the scope does broaden as the story progresses, which is nice. I loved how the plot with the Sphere was also directly connected to the drow invasion of Iltkazar, it made the personal and the grand plot threads mesh really well.
The two major plot twists (that Mith Barak is a dragon and that the seneschal is the Arcane Script Sphere) weren’t very shocking persay, but they did develop the world of the story and the scope of the plot. I really enjoyed how everything played out with the dwarven plotline because of that.
The characters were also top-notch. I would have liked a bit more development all around, but each character was unique and fleshed out. Icelin was a great protagonist, and following her internal journey and struggles with her wild magic was really fascinating, and I loved how her arc culminated in her brief encounter with the living memory of Mystra through the Arcane Script Sphere.
The dwarves were also great. Mith Barak was a standout, of course; Joya and her complex relationship to the dwarven religion provided a complex character with great insight into dwarven culture; and the side plot with Ingara and Arngam also shed light on the dwarven culture, and I think they’re would be really interesting characters to look deeper into (although I am a sucker for smiths).
I would have liked a bit more development with Ruen and his spellscar, though. His story was vastly interesting, and his reason for not wanting to touch Icelin caused a really interesting conflict within the novel. After his near-death experience, he realized that he really is in love with Icelin, which makes sense, but he doesn’t seem to struggle with touching Icelin afterwards. I think it would have been much more interesting if he admitted his love for her but they still couldn’t touch, thus renewing Icelin’s resolve in finding the Arcane Script Sphere.
The way that the drow are handled is interesting and odd. Their general demeanor is consistent with Salvatore’s lore, except Johnson doesn’t focus on the racial aspect at all. The drow in this book are still dark elves with gray/black skin, but the color of their skin is never mentioned. She uses them simply as an intelligent, cunning species who is manipulated by their evil goddess. Because religion is a major theme in this novel, Johnson played into the idea that the drow are evil because of Lolth, which I vastly prefer to them simply being inherently evil.
Zollgraza was a very interesting and complex character. At first I was off-put by their queerness, seeing as they and their partner were presented as evil throughout the book and the only two queer people in the novel being the villains didn’t send a good message. But Zollgraza isn’t evil, or doesn’t turn out to be. They’ve been indoctrinated into drow society since they were born, but once they learn the horrors of it, they have a change of heart. They don’t fight for the dwarves, but they do betray the drow.
Zollgraza presents a really interesting foil and parallel to Drizzt. Both are drow who end up forsaking and betraying their society, but they go about it differently. Zollgraza wrestles with the loss of their religion more heavily than Drizzt, and their betrayal of the drow has much more to do with a loss of identity. They need to discover who they are without Lolth, and their need to unlearn the drow propaganda to do so.
Overall, this was such a great fantasy novel. It’s one of the better books in Jaleigh Johnson’s library, and thus it’s a true standout in the Forgotten Realms as a whole.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 29, 2024
I had no idea this was a sequel to other adventures of Icelin, Ruen, and Sull. However, I never felt lost and I grew to love all the characters. I will now search out any other adventures of this crew.
March 30, 2022
3.25-3.5 stars.
A continuation of Icelin, Ruen and Sull's adventure from Mistshore, but here, somewhat uneven in quality. I enjoyed the beginning, the middle and late middle. The trek through the caves after Icelin and Ruen were captured by the dwarves to be escorted back to the dwarf city was slow going. The last couple of chapters of so felt like the story was rushed; the final siege and battle needed to have more grandeur and gravitas. Also, a bit too much of a "young adult" feel verging on teenage in the storytelling, but that's just my preference.
'"He's my butcher."' still makes me laugh.
Some beautiful moments in the story, particularly the exploration of dwarven family life through Garn's family and his daughters. Even Obrin was nothing to shirk in terms of personality, being so dour and taciturn. Also, the waterfall by the stone garden scene was lovely.
I still highly recommend Mistshore.
A continuation of Icelin, Ruen and Sull's adventure from Mistshore, but here, somewhat uneven in quality. I enjoyed the beginning, the middle and late middle. The trek through the caves after Icelin and Ruen were captured by the dwarves to be escorted back to the dwarf city was slow going. The last couple of chapters of so felt like the story was rushed; the final siege and battle needed to have more grandeur and gravitas. Also, a bit too much of a "young adult" feel verging on teenage in the storytelling, but that's just my preference.
'"He's my butcher."' still makes me laugh.
Some beautiful moments in the story, particularly the exploration of dwarven family life through Garn's family and his daughters. Even Obrin was nothing to shirk in terms of personality, being so dour and taciturn. Also, the waterfall by the stone garden scene was lovely.
I still highly recommend Mistshore.
November 8, 2012
Spider and Stone is the follow up to Mistshore. I had not read Mistshore in a few years and I was happy that Ms. Johnson did a great job reintroducing the characters. She quickly re-establishes the personalities of Icelin, Ruen, and Sull and gives slight reminders to the previous book, so this book is good for new readers or those who have read Mistshore.
The story itself was engaging and flowed very well. Icelin and friends are searching for a magical artifact that they know little about. This leads them into a conflict between an ancient dwarven kingdom and the drow. Ms. Johnson does a very good job of hiding a few surprises in her characters until the right moment to spring them. All told this is an engaging Realms novel and a continuation of Ms. Johnson's excellent Realms work.
The story itself was engaging and flowed very well. Icelin and friends are searching for a magical artifact that they know little about. This leads them into a conflict between an ancient dwarven kingdom and the drow. Ms. Johnson does a very good job of hiding a few surprises in her characters until the right moment to spring them. All told this is an engaging Realms novel and a continuation of Ms. Johnson's excellent Realms work.
September 3, 2016
Great story, great narration by Audible (Pearl Hewitt) I listened to this audible without prior knowledge of previous books in wich the caracters appeared but I never felt like I missed something because the autor does a great job of introducing the characters and references of their previous exploits are made in a friendly manner to new readers.
Read
July 5, 2013Review to come.
February 15, 2013
I enjoyed most of this book, the characters were interesting and the plot had potential but it kind of fell apart for me at the end and I ultimately found it a bit disappointing.
March 29, 2013
enjoyable read, good story with a few unexpected twists, wchich builds nicely to the final battle
January 6, 2013
Good entry into FG, interesting to see what the spider queen has planned...
March 8, 2013
Great Story, trying to figure out if it's part of a series or not...
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews