The Fallen Fortress

The Cleric Quintet #4

by R.A. Salvatore

Trying to avert a war between the combined forces of Carradoon and Shilmista Forest and the fiends of Castle Trinity, Cadderly uses his priestly magic to wage a smaller war. Reprint.

Genres: Fantasy, Forgotten Realms, Fiction, Dungeons and Dragons, High Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Audiobook

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

As one of the fantasy genre’s most successful authors, R.A. Salvatore enjoys an ever-expanding and tremendously loyal following. His books regularly appear on The New York Times best-seller lists and have sold more than 10,000,000 copies. Salvatore’s original hardcover, The Two Swords, Book III of The Hunter’s Blade Trilogy (October 2004) debuted at # 1 on The Wall Street Journal best-seller list and at # 4 on The New York Times best-seller list. His books have been translated into numerous foreign languages including German, Italian, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Turkish, Croatian, Bulgarian, Yiddish, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Portuguese, Czech, and French.

Salvatore’s first published novel, The Crystal Shard from TSR in 1988, became the first volume of the acclaimed Icewind Dale Trilogy and introduced an enormously popular character, the dark elf Drizzt Do’Urden. Since that time, Salvatore has published numerous novels for each of his signature multi-volume series including The Dark Elf Trilogy, Paths of Darkness, The Hunter’s Blades Trilogy, and The Cleric Quintet.

His love affair with fantasy, and with literature in general, began during his sophomore year of college when he was given a copy of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings as a Christmas gift. He promptly changed his major from computerscience to journalism. He received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Communications from Fitchburg State College in 1981, then returned for the degree he always cherished, the Bachelor of Arts in English. He began writing seriously in 1982, penning the manuscript that would become Echoes of the Fourth Magic. Salvatore held many jobs during those first years as a writer, finally settling in (much to our delight) to write full time in 1990.

The R.A. Salvatore Collection has been established at his alma mater, Fitchburg State College in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, containing the writer’s letters, manuscripts, and other professional papers. He is in good company, as The Salvatore Collection is situated alongside The Robert Cormier Library, which celebrates the writing career of the co-alum and esteemed author of young adult books.

Salvatore is an active member of his community and is on the board of trustees at the local library in Leominster, Massachusetts. He has participated in several American Library Association regional conferences, giving talks on themes including “Adventure fantasy” and “Why young adults read fantasy.” Salvatore himself enjoys a broad range of literary writers including James Joyce, Mark Twain, Geoffrey Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dante, and Sartre. He counts among his favorite genre literary influences Ian Fleming, Arthur Conan Doyle, Fritz Leiber, and of course, J.R.R. Tolkien.

Born in 1959, Salvatore is a native of Massachusetts and resides there with his wife Diane, and their three children, Bryan, Geno, and Caitlin. The family pets include three Japanese Chins, Oliver, Artemis and Ivan, and four cats including Guenhwyvar.

When he isn't writing, Salvatore chases after his three Japanese Chins, takes long walks, hits the gym, and coaches/plays on a fun-league softball team that includes most of his family. His gaming group still meets on Sundays to play.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/rasalv...

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid four star book in this, the fourth book (of five) in the Cleric Quintet series.

This is the big showdown (not really sure what's left to do in the fifth book) where Cadderly, Danica, Ivan & Pikel Bouldershoulder descend on Castle Trinity and battle it out with Aballister.

Salvatore drops everything on the page - we've got dragons, chimera's, hydra's, orcs, goblins, magic showdowns. Good stuff.

Why not a five star rating? Because nothing really happened with the characters. No growth. No development. Not much real interaction. Salvatore's strength (including his battle sequences) has always been character and it almost pains me to say that this book lacked a little on the character front.

Still...a really good read. I recommend it. I can't wait to get to the next book in the series.

[Edward Blodgett · Rating 1 out of 5]

Holy cows, this book starts off in "god mode". You know when you're playing a video game and you do the cheat code that allows you to beat everything without being touched? That's what every one of Cadderly's comrades has in this book. Seriously, did I just read how 6 adventures battled and won against a manticore and chimera at the same time, while on a cliff of a snow covered mountain ????? And I didn't even mention the most ridiculous thing. OMG, I can't believe anyone can give this more than one star. The only reason why I'm still reading this, is because I like the characters despite that they get on my nerves many times during the course of a book. It's like a car crash, I can't help but look.

[Jake · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have been enjoying re-reading thru the Cleric Quintet, but honestly I think this was the weakest of the books so far.

It is too action heavy, which might seem like an odd critique, but basically the entire book is a journey to the enemy base, and then fighting them. It doesn't really have the space the other books had to explore the characters' motivations, goals, or personalities, and after a while it just felt like similar action scene after similar action scene.

I am looking forward to the final book, as I remember there are some pretty huge developments coming, but overall after how good Night Masks was, this one was just meh.

[Bryan Cebulski · Rating 1 out of 5]

I owned the Cleric Quintet omnibus when I was in middle school. Reading it in that form at that age, I only ever got through Canticle and half of In Sylvan Shadows. For the longest time I assumed I just didn't have the patience or fortitude for a really long, bulky tome, not being confident in my reading comprehension. Reading these on audio now, I think at that age I actually just intuited how badly these novels drop in quality after the first book.

Imagine if the Empire Strikes Back had scenes where Darth Vader talked about being Luke's father to random underlings every five minutes in the movie before the actual reveal. That's basically Salvatore's approach to plot here, made even worse because there's also an additional three novels prior that also kept reminding the reader of the twist. I'm not sure how you can get away with being that bad at plotting but okay.

Anyway. Canticle, the first book in the Cleric Quintet, was fun and charming, an altogether simple but endearing story with relatively small stakes and likeable characters. The quintet proceeds with In Sylvan Shadows, a barely readable menagerie of identical fight scenes in forests with almost no plot progression or character development, and Night Masks, a barely readable menagerie of identical fight scenes in a city with almost no plot progression or character development. The kindest thing I can say about them is at least they're somewhat coherent. Night Masks in particular had a couple nice passages about faith.

I had some hope for the Fallen Fortress, though, as one could reasonably chalk up the other two books being filler, and surely the more conclusive fourth book will have more substance to it! Unfortunately there's a ton more barely readable fight scenes and very little development for the characters or plot. It's almost a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment when the big bad dies. Everything is tied up too neatly, morality treated way too simply.

Cadderly was an interesting protagonist in Canticle because he didn't fit the typical fantasy warrior mold, being a bit weak and naive, a much more introspective character than you'd find in most run-of-the-mill fantasy, but he gradually transitions into the warrior role as the series goes on, erasing that uniqueness. And he seems to transition from one to the other less because it makes sense for him to (he does get more powerful, granted, but it's only ever manifest in battle when it ought to be more psychologically expressed) and more because Salvatore seems to want to write more fight scenes. And the fight scenes in this novel themselves are already grating because of how insanely overpowered the whole party has become, making none of the battles feel like they have any stakes.

I don't think Danica's eyes were described as "oriental" or "almond" in this one, at least. Salvatore definitely described her as "exotic" again at least once though.

There's still one more novel in the series. It's short, so I might finish it. It's kind of interesting that this is the actual conclusion to the major conflict of the series, with The Chaos Curse being more of an afterstory. That might be a good sign? I can't imagine many more fight scenes on this scale or of the nature of the last few books. Or it might just be more filler. We'll have to see.

[Greg Strandberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the things that's great about this series is how the suspense and tension grows. I have to add that the character Cadderly gets a bit too powerful and honestly, should't there be a bit of a limit on spellcasting and what you can do?

I can't run a marathon every day all day, but it seems that's what you can get when you get to a level of...what? I dunno. Little things like that have to be suspended for you to get through all these books.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 4th of 5 books and just as enjoyable with really good action scenes, the humor of the boulder shoulder brothers and the continuing maturing of Cadderly makes this a top notch book in the series.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Coming in during the middle.

A young priest with grwoing powers decides to go off on his own to help take doewn the Big Bad. Things don't quite turn out as he expects.

I'm not 100% sure what the author is really going for here, so it's probably best to start with book 1.

[Fco. Salvador · Rating 1 out of 5]

Es muy difícil que el argumento pueda ser más simple, llegado a este punto de la serie. Al menos, es el protagonista el que decide tomar la iniciativa, en lugar de responder a los ataques de su enemigo.
Es cierto que uno puede preguntarse qué más puede deparar el siguiente volumen, ya que la cosa podría quedar aquí más o menos resuelta. Aunque, tampoco hay tanto interés, la verdad.
Eso sí, los personajes siguen siendo igual de planos e insulsos, y aunque este volumen tiene esa acción palomitera típica de Salvatore, el interés que me despiertan los motivos para esa acción son más bien escasos.

[Nicolae-Gheorghe Cojocaru · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another one for the ages. The final showdown between cleric and wizard, the final battle(s) takes most of the second part of the book.

This volume is a bit different than the previous ones, scattered fights all the time, running for cover, and running towards their destination - our heroes don't seem to have time for any characters development.

Cadderly seems overpowered by far, two of the "big" creatures are overcome too easily, seemingly flukes. And not to mention that one of the biggest monster they will ever likely face - will not spoil - is dealt with in a surprisingly creative manner.

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cadderly faces his father the last time.

[Tony Loyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Better pace and more interesting events than previous installments in this series, I felt my eyes drooping about half as much as I remember doing in the last book. Some of the stuff with the dragon was fun. Too much unnecessary text, detail, and dialogue, which is in of itself not a bad thing, but it's not done particularly well so it just drags. The story is extremely derivative of Hidden Fortress, or Star Wars if you prefer, and Cadderly is somewhat derivative of Muad'Dib. Not a very original or interesting piece of fiction but not the worst and kind of fun in parts.

[Arthur · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first book of the Cleric Quintet, Canticle, suffered from poor pacing and oodles of setup. The second book, In Sylvan Shadows, was a remarkably well-balanced book with an enjoyable climax. The third book, Night Masks, was a change of pace with a good deal of character growth.

The Fallen Fortress is pure fantasy pulp. It's one huge battle almost front to cover, and features a vastly powered-up Cadderly. Little happens in this book besides brawling at Castle Trinity. The fighting is enjoyable but there's too little content and way too much filler. A big step down from a series which, in my opinion, was gaining steam and finding its pace and story.

As someone who loves pure fantasy schlock and really digs the way Salvatore writes battles, this was too much of one thing over and over again. It was strangely entertaining but not a book I'd crack open again.

[Thingolo · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the worst Salvatore books I have read so far. Here is an incredibly interesting path to Castle Trinity, where the heroes successively defeat several powerful monsters. Then there are several encounters inside the castle itself, where the heroes are victorious again. The cherry on the cake is certainly the boss fight, the outcome of which, however, is quite predictable. Hugs, kisses, a cliffhanger. The curtain falls.
No, seriously, each of the previous books had its own plot twist. But here everything is hideously linear, as if the writer was playing Eye of the Beholder III: Assault on Myth Drannor at that moment.
Nevertheless, a good friend of mine read this book while playing Baldur's Gate II and sometimes is overcome with acute nostalgia for it. For this, and also for the fact that the book is set in my beloved Forgotten Realms, I give it two stars.

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

The plot of the series continues to unfold in unexpected leaps and bounds. I was not expecting the group to so quickly descend on the enemy castle. It remined me of a James Bond movie where Bond simply keeps diving forward into ridiculous situations and dangers just to end up in the clutches of the evil villain. It all felt very rushed and I didn't enjoy the experience as I had with previous books. I was happy to make progress on the overall series of five books but unhappy at the waste of so much fertile ground in this universe. Perhaps the author had a strict deadline to meet?

[Media · Rating 2 out of 5]

This series is getting really dry and repetitive. It's a fun adventure if you enjoy Salvatore, but man it's predictable. There's not a single twist or unconventional storytelling element to be found and it doesn't help that about half the book is battle descriptions.

[Liam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I listened to this one for the most part, though I read some. I’m mostly done with this series, and hope Salvatore can write something good for the last book because at this point I don’t care for any of these characters, but I said i would read them all, so onward to book 5.

[Scott E · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poor. Worst games of Dungeons and Dragons are those that are combat combat combat and this book is a perfect metaphor for that. Some of the dramatics are good but it is held together by fight scene after fight scene after fight scene. Very repetitive

[Tammie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better executed than the previous book but Cadderly has entered what I deem a "God-phase", where he's almost invincible against anything that crosses his path.

[Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!* · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fast read, I suspect in part to a sparser font than other novels in this publishing line (I will have to do a side-by-side comparison to confirm), but also because it is action-packed from start to finish. Of course, because this is a R. A. Salvatore novel, the main character finds plenty of time for pained self-doubt, but at least he does it while on the go.

This quintet of novels started off without over-powered superhero characters, unlike the Drizzt books, which I very much enjoyed, but at this point there is simply no imagining a chance of stopping the heroes. Cadderly seems to have gone, in RPG terms, from cleric level 2 to 20 in a matter of months. Whereas he started off the series armed by nothing but cleverness and his self-invented tools (like his multi-yo-yo), he now has access to the most powerful clerical spells. With a new giant ally sporting a ring of regeneration, the indomitable Bouldershoulder brothers, and Cadderly's level 20 monk girlfriend, not even an army literally thousands-strong can apparently stand against them.

In truth, they had a little help to start working on this army. I was pleasantly surprised by the side path that Cadderly took the party along in the first half of the book, (spoilers ahead) to face an ancient red dragon. Surviving that encounter and achieving the dragon's aid by use of what I interpret as a 'change alignment' spell was dramatic enough. But taking the dragon for a joy ride, using it to decimate a goblin army, then slaying it through another tricksy application of magic really took things too far. And as long as we're in a spoiler field, I was annoyed by the undead reincarnation of Ghost, given that the main party never encountered this powerful animated spirit other than inside the Ghearufu. The only purpose this specter served, plotwise, was to give something for Castle Trinity's players to track, given that it was decimated before the key physical encounter that it should have had could occur.

So, what was otherwise a joyous, pulp thrill ride was somewhat spoiled by the ridiculous invulnerability of this crew. It strained the most ardent attempts at suspension of disbelief. Still, there were several enjoyable elements to this book. I enjoyed the fact that we saw a final showdown with the series's primary threat in the penultimate book. I predict that this frees up the final book to take a very different tone, which I anticipate will be more character-driven. Despite their absurd power levels and Cadderly's constant internal debate (so, so like Drizzt's at this point), I have come to enjoy these characters. Another element that I found very well done was the very natural expression of D&D clerical spells through Cadderly's experience of the 'Deneirian song'. It is a welcome interpretation and a hallmark of Salvatore's Forgotten Realms books, in that D&D lore and rules are well-hidden in his works, giving them broader appeal.

[Zach Van Buren · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded down.

The Fallen Fortress, book four of the Cleric Quintet, continues the story of Cadderly and his friends after they have survived the attack of the deadly brigade of assassins, known as the Night Masks, in the small town of Carradoon. Cadderly decides, against the will of the lead priest of the Edificant Library, to venture to castle Trinity to confront the evil wizard behind the war spreading throughout the region. The band confront many dangerous trials along the way ranging from things as mundane as cold weather all the way up to hoodwinking a dragon and battling a wizard in his personal pocket dimension.

This book is very different from the other three at this point in the saga. Previous books have certainly had their fill of action, but they focused more so on the personal struggles of several of the characters with Cadderly’s battle of will and conscience taking the forefront. This one, however, is more of a showcase of Cadderly’s new found Clerical powers from the god, Denier. The action is great and it certainly kept the pace of the book moving.

However, I did find the story dragging just a bit. The pacing and writing of the story was great, but I found myself really missing Cadderly’s internal struggles as he had to make very difficult choices. The most interesting struggle he has is at the beginning of the story to go against his clerical leader, but, after that, I don’t feel there were any truly meaningful decisions to be made. The path was set, and what he had to do was mostly clear. He veered away from the approval of his friends one time because of an item he wanted to destroy with the help of a dragon, but everything came back together in no time. It almost made the whole part of the book about him wanting to destroy a dangerous and evil item rather inconsequential. There had even been a lead up to this point from the beginning of the book with the reawakening of the previous book’s villain, but once it was resolved it felt someone anti-climactic and more of a distraction from the main storyline. I love side missions in my video games, but it fell slightly flat here.

All-in-all, this was still a solid, action-packed book, and it certainly ended with an important climax for Cadderly and the Edificant Library, but I feel it missed something with character development. Still, it is worth the read and certainly important to follow along with as we come to the end of the 5-book adventure of Cadderly and his friends. Definitely read if you want to experience amazing magical and clerical combat!

[Megg West · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 *
C9 A10 W9 P8 I9 L8 E9

Characters
This is book four in the series and we have back all of the characters we know and love from the past books. Pikel still Pikels, Ivan still Ivans, Cadderly is now doing things without consulting his friends.

Atmosphere
I love when we travel through snowy conditions, it is one of my favorite setting when it's done right. I also love caves and trap doors. Forgotten Relms atmosphere is one of my favorites for all time, missed the library though.

Writing
It's R.A. Salvatore's writing, there was nothing new and exciting, but also nothing wrong with it.

Plot
This is the plot that the past books have been leading up to: the final show down between Allistar and Cadderly. Yep, in book 4/5 we get the finale to this who-comes-out-on-top battle. There is still plot for book 5, but you don't have to wait for this to happen. It still is finished in a satisfying manner for this battle to end on with only one loose end for The Chaos Curse.

Intrigue
There was a good spread out of different events in this book that kept me wanting to read, from character growth to the introdction of a specific new character and to see the end to another character later on. We also get the battle that this series has been leading up to at the end where we get the twist in yet another characters road forward. Lots of good reasons to just keep on with this book and not put it down.

Logic
I only really have anthing to say about the logic of a book if there is something that just doesn't fit my point of view on the book. Cadderly does make some decisions that aren't backed with well thought out logic, but it's nothing that sticks out as horribly wrong.

Enjoyment
Woo book 4.

[Ethan Aegon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gamin, j'ai énormément lu La Forteresse déchue. Le récit est prenant, les combats jouissifs, les gags des frères Larmoire pleuvent comme leurs coups et les pages défilent.

J'ai découvert la série avec ce tome et il reste mon favori. C'est un condensé d'action. A chaque page ou presque, nos héros tabassent : ogres, gobelins, géant, chimère, hydre y'en a pour tout le monde. L'affrontement contre le vieux Fyren est mémorable et le duel père / fils épique. J'ai toujours trouvé Cadderly et ses acolytes plus funs que Drizzt.

On ne sait pourtant rien ou presque de la personnalité des personnages et on ressent difficilement de l'inquiétude pour eux tant rien ne semble pouvoir les arrêter. C'est simple en 250 pages, les 6 comparses vont détruire un artefact maléfique millénaire, annihiler un spectre invincible, successivement mettre à bas des monstres qui seraient chacun l'aboutissement d'une quête entière avant de ravager une forteresse ennemie et détruire le monde parallèle qu'il abrite. Ils ne sont pas aidé par un Dieu, ils ont activé le cheatcode "God".

En relisant 25ans plus tard, je me dis que j'étais un public facile et quoique je reconnais une indéniable efficacité à l'auteur, je pense qu'une telle histoire est à la portée de pas mal d'écrivains.

[Brandon Perry · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me quite some time to read this book, not because it was bad, but because it just felt boring at times.

The plot is essentially that in the first 3 books, our intrepid heroes are being chased by a powerful wizard and the armies that he commands to try and take over the world of Faerûn. In the 4th book, the heroes decide to take the fight to him and attack his actual base of operations.

Although this is the best book in the series in my opinion, for various reasons I will state soon, I still feel like it was pretty boring overall. It was like 15 or 20 chapters of them running through a castle and fighting the exact same way over and over. However, I understand that this was essentially made in early DnD times when they were not exactly imaginative with the classes. So I try to realize that as well.

On the plus side, hearing Cadderly sort of come back to the light, his fight with the red dragon, the magical artifact fight, seeing a bit more clerical magic against the wizard knowledge. Was all much better than the previous entries into the series. There is one more book, and I look forward to seeing how this series is going to wrap up.

[Jessey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ich habe es satt mich andauern bei dem Bewertungen zu wiederholen. Habe mir nun angewohnt die überflüssigen ( salvatore wird nach Buchstaben bezahlt- ) Wörter / Seiten zu überspringen um die unglaublich guten Geschichten zu lesen.
Anfangs war ich sehr skeptisch.. 5 Bücher im Salvatore Stiel und bei den ersten 3 musste ich mir ein wenig quälen ( besonders bei Buch 3) jedoch lohnt sich die aufgebaute Spannung für Buch 4. Kann nachvollziehen warum das so lange gedauert hat und wenn Salvatore nicht immer ausrasten würde mit seinen langatmigen Seiten dann wäre das 4.Buch ein unverschämtes geiles Buch gewesen.

Leider waren die letzten 120 Seiten einfach total unnötig. Hätte man *VIEL*kürzer machen können.

!!!!!!!!Spoiler!!!!!!!!!

In anderen Kommentaren wird sich aufgeregt dass Cadderly viel zu stark bzw gottgleich Stark ist jedoch finde ich es persönlich gar nicht so sehr und finde die Kommentare schon sehr übertrieben. Hatt für mich schon Sinn.

Kurz gesagt : Standart Salvatore ( letze) Erwähnung....versprochen aber eine sehr spannende Geschichte:-)

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is much better than the third book. This one also brings back Shayleigh and Dorigen. I enjoyed both of them so much in the second book.

Also it gets away from the horrible violence of Ghost. There is violence, but it is fantasy fighting, not sadistic.

In book two, the elf prince tells Shayleigh that she is in love with Ivan. I cannot help wondering if that is going to happen. Maybe someday I'll find the fifth book.

I really liked that Cadderly kept growing in his powers. It was if, he just needed to believe in himself and everything would be at his feet.

The scenes with the dragon were pretty amazing. I love how Cadderly can use his powers almost like a Jedi.

I enjoyed how the groups got seperated just like in Scooby-Doo..Danica with Cadderly and Shayleigh with the Bouldershoulder brothers. Which of course lead me back to wondering about Shayleigh and Ivan. What? I think it would be cute!

[Dark-Draco · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the latest instalment of Cadderley's adventures, he is joined by his friends on a mission to destroy the evil wizards once and for all, stopping off along the way to get rid of the artefact he took from The Ghost.

This is fast-paced and bounces around a bit from viewpoint to viewpoint, but not enough that you can't follow the action. Lots of fighting and casual violence, especially against non-human characters - even though Cadderley's reluctance to kill is mentioned A LOT.

I would have liked the shade of The Ghost to have more of a role - I'm not actually sure what the author was aiming for when he brought him back - after all, he didn't really do anything other than being the reason that Druzil gets stranded. Maybe he just needed to fill some chapters before the heroes finally got to the Fortress.

The final showdown was good and a nice, fittingly horrific end for those that deserve it.

[Mattimaxo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was better than Night Masks, but with one glaring problem: Cadderly appears almost invincible in this one. All of the Salvatore DnD books (at least one ones I've read) have characters with insane plot armor. They are hero stories and written as such. But there are ways to make it not so ridiculous, such as short character redemption arcs or writing a scene where escape is somewhat believable. Cadderly somehow finds a way to get through anything, calling upon his sacred tome for a new spell at every turn.

The supporting characters are great once again, with the Bouldershoulder brothers the stars of the pack. There's enough DnD quirkiness to keep things interesting too. Overall, I still like Cadderly as a main character, but it would've been better to have him remain a bit more focused with his mystical powers.

[Ayre · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Fallen Fortress follows Cadderly and gang as they attack the Castle Trinity and attempt to defeat the followers of Talona once and for all. They also need to make pit stop to destroy an evil magical object from book 3.

This is another one of the books in this series I'm not sure fond on. While in book 2 Cadderly was whiny and timid, in this book hes overconfident and on a power trip. He constantly says/thinks that he is correct and refuses to listen to anyone who disagrees with him or his method. He goes so far as to magically overpower anyone who disagrees with him. Hes cocky and kind of an asshole. I know this is character progression and the events in book 5 will take away his cockiness.

[Jason Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marginally better

All of my prior critique holds true. The story is a bit tighter. I feel a bit like when I was a kid watching cartoons for toys like GI Joe and Transformers. Occasionally a character would join that showed off a new Christmas release. The episode would highlight some cool feature of the new toy and contextualize it with the greater method.
Such as it is with this series. Agarnazzar’s Scorcher? There it is in ring form. Magic Missiles - see how they work. A dwarf’s ability to resist poison? Check. A monk’s bonuses to Saving Throws? Yep. Really the whole thing plays out like a series of adventures with a storyteller rolling dice for an inventive crew of high-level players.

[KWON CHOI · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are too much pointless fight scenes without plot progression. I felt Salvatore did not want to write this novel and wrote this reluctantly just to finish what he started as well as to enlongate the seriese, like to satisfy his contract with the publisher.

Specifically, the fight scene against monsters after the dragon riding scene was especially ridiculous. That scene was there only for the party to fight against the dragon.
How about the dining room fight scene which elongate over 20 pages? While that long fight, the dwarves and the elf continuously shoot any hit and shoot and hit without any single point. Skipping all these ridicuous fight scenes would have any single problem for the continuity for the entire plot.