Letdown after letdown
This was a massive letdown from the get go. I've been a fan of Drizzt for about 17 years now, having read all of his novels, but noticing a distinct trend in the last 5-6 years. Drizzt is no longer the main character in the Drizzt novels. Makes sense right? The cast of characters for this novel is massive, easily 30 or more main players. There is a dramatis personae, but with the Kindle version, it's at the end of the book, so I'm not sure if it's at the beginning in the print version. It's very hard to keep track of all the characters and the events of the previous novel.
As I gathered my thoughts to write this review, I was torn on how to best describe this novel. The best and fastest way I can describe it is, Avengers Endgame, if half the main Avengers weren't in it. Bruenor, Wulfar, Cattie-Brie, Artemis, and Regis are barely in this book and it's a downright shame. All of these characters have a personal stake in seeing the City of Spiders fall, but when the time comes to fight, everyone of them says no. Artemis goes off on a side quest to find his ex, but doesn't find her. Clearly this is setting up to be resolved in another novel, but it was just dumb to have him pause what is arguably the biggest fight of his life for this. At one point, it's believed that Artemis and Cattie-Brie are killed, but they managed to teleport away at the last second. After they do that, Artemis isn't mentioned again until the very end, where the two meet Drizzt again, but then Artemis juat stops being mentioned again. Cattie-Brie says no to fighting, until Drizzt leaves to go fight and then she changes her mind right away. But Bruenor, Wulfgar, and Regis all just decide they won't find to topple Lolth, despite them hating the evil drow.
The previous novel spent a lot of time setting of Voselly and Aleandra, former driders. Voselly is killed in battle fairly early on, which wastes all the time spent on her in the last novel. Aleandra isn't mentioned again after Voselly dies. There was a brief hint that Voselly hadn't died, but was taken prisoner, but it wasn't fully explained or mentioned again. I liked the surprise reveal from the last novel that Drizzt's brother Dinin was alive. In this novel he makes a deal with Lolth early on to kill Drizzt's daughter, but this isn't mentioned again until the very end of the book.
Having Kimmuriel die was bittersweet but also disappointing. He's become a favorite character of mine, not physically powerful but easily one of the most powerful and dangerous drow alive. Until he gets trapped in a bubble and dies. He deserved a better death than that. Have him go out with a dramatic battle like Gromph. It was nice seeing that Kimmuriel's mind is still intact and able to communicate with Jarlaxle, but he still deserved a better send off. Gromph dies temporarily, but it was heavily implied earlier in the novel that he had set contingency plans in place. Even if he hadn't come back, he went out like a boss, throwing destruction around like it was nothing. Another massive letdown was having Yvonnel getting trapped in an unknown dimensional prison at the beginning of the fight. That was such a lazy cop out.
This book should have been the Drizzt equivalent of Avengers Endgame. Drizzt, Zak, Azzudonna, Cattie-Brie, Jarlaxle, Kimmuriel, Gromph, Artemis, the Companions of the Hall, some of the Callidean drow, and the Dwarven armies should have marched down to the City of Spiders, teamed up with House Baenre, and laid absolute waste to their enemies. The Lolthians and demons would have put up a good fight, but ultimately they should have been absolutely demolished. Lolth still could have appeared and been temporarily banished. Most of the characters who died could have been given much better and worthier deaths. Instead we got half the characters suddenly deciding they don't want to fight. The fight scenes were well written but there's so much more to this series than just swordplay. Oh and the dialogue was so grandiose and over the top it was like Salvatore went on a Shakespeare binge. This book could have been incredible but it was such an awful let down.