Sacrifice of the Widow

Forgotten Realms: Lady Penitent #1

by Lisa Smedman

Goddesses vie for the soul of people...

Halisstra Melarn, convert to the cause of the goddess Eilistraee, was sent to the deepest depths of the Outer Planes to kill the demon goddess she once worshiped, but instead was transformed into a hideous creature bent to the vengeful will of her former mistress.

For the Queen of the Demonweb Pits not only survived her Silence but evolved into something greater than she was before - something that no longer needs to share the domain she calls her own.

Could it be that the War of the Spider Queen has just begun?

Genres: Forgotten Realms, Fantasy, Fiction, Dungeons and Dragons, High Fantasy, Ebooks, Role Playing Games

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Lisa was very much the tomboy growing up in Vancouver, British Columbia--playing in the woods behind her house, building tree forts, damming the creek, playing army with GI Joe dolls, swinging on ropes, playing flashlight tag, building models and go-carts (which she later rode down the street). She also liked reading science fiction novels from the 1940s, the Doc Savage series, and the Harriet the Spy books.

In 1984, she began her professional writing career, first as a journalist then as a fiction writer. She counts science fiction authors Connie Willis, Robert J. Sawyer, and H.G. Wells, and classic books such as Treasure Island, as influences.

Several of Lisa's short science fiction and fantasy stories have been published in various magazines and anthologies, and in 1993 she was named a finalist in the Writers of the Future contest for science fiction and fantasy writers. She has also had three of her one-act plays produced by a Vancouver theater group.

Lisa is the author of Extinction, one of several novels set in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game’s Forgotten Realms universe. Released in 2004, Extinction made the New York Times bestseller list for hardcover fiction.

After authoring several science fiction and fantasy novels, Lisa recently turned her hand to children's books. From Boneshakers to Choppers (2007) explores the social history of motorcycles. Her interest in motorcycles goes way back--as a teenager, Lisa enjoyed trips up the British Columbia coast, riding pillion on friends' motorcycles. She later purchased her own bike, a 50cc machine, to get around town.

Lisa is one of the founders of Adventures Unlimited, a magazine providing scenarios and tips for role-playing games. She has written short fiction for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game's Ravenloft and Dark Sun lines. She has also designed a number of adventures and gaming products for Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Cyberpunk, Immortal, Shatterzone, Millennium's End, and Deadlands. Her original games include Valhalla's Gate, a tabletop skirmish miniatures game drawn from Norse mythology and runic lore. An avid gamer, Lisa belongs to the Trumpeter Wargaming Club.

After working for more than 20 years as a journalist, Lisa now divides her time between writing fiction and contributing to the Vancouver Courier (she edits and writes the History's Lens column). Besides a diploma in journalism, she also has a degree in anthropology. She is fascinated by history and archaeology, particularly the Bronze Age. Her future plans include writing more historical fiction, alternative historical fantasy, and game tie-in novels. Lisa is also interested in building models and dioramas, and tabletop miniatures gaming.

She lives in Richmond, British Columbia, with her wife, their son, four cats, and two pugs.

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad but not really my thing.

[Brenda Cothern · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lisa Smedman’s new book, Sacrifice of the Widow, is the first of three in the new Forgotten Realms (FR) series, The Lady Penitent. This series is a must read for any Forgotten Realms fan. It brings about the Drow transformations that change the world of the Forgotten Realms forever and offers the story behind the Drow Pantheon changes in the Forgotten Realms Role Play Game books.

The two Drow goddesses, Loth and Eilistraee, mother and daughter, play a game of sava where the moves they make upon the board change the land of Faerûn. Each is intent on winning the game, a game that has been going on for as long as mortals have been in the Realms. A wager is proposed by Loth that the winner take all and death is the reward of the looser, witnessed and enforced by Ao, the overgod. As the goddesses move their pieces about the board, their mortal worshipers progress through the Realms, doing the bidding of their goddesses while Vhaeruan, brother to Eilistraee and Loth’s son, plots treachery unbeknownst to them.

Each chapter begins in the familiar FR style, providing the “Year of…” and the DR date, allowing Faerûn historians to easily place these events into the Forgotten Realms timeline. Fans will recognize Qilué, High Priestess of Eilistreae and Chosen of Mystra, as she scrys another familiar character, Halisstra Marlarn, Eilistraee’s Champion and wielder of the Crescent Blade. Qilué watches as Halisstra is slain, despite Qilué’s help, but doesn’t realize that Halisstra won’t be joining Eilistreae in her eternal dance. Fast forward three years and we meet a new character, Halisstra’s brother, a wizard and the only other surviving Marlarn after the fall of Ched Nasad. Q’arlynd’s adventure begins when he locates a portal to the surface and makes contact with priestesses of Eilistreae after accidently killing one of their sisters. He learns his sister made her way to the worship of Eilistreae and begins a plot to rebuild House Marlarn with his sister as its head and he at her side. Another new character is introduced to fans when the Darksong Knight and novice priestess to Eilistreae, Cavatina, is order by Qilué to retrieve the Crescent Blade from the Daemonweb Pits, Loth’s home plane.

The story focuses on Halisstra’s own transformation and struggle between her new nature & her old conscience and desire to serve Eilistraee, while Vhaeruan’s plot, through his worshipers, unfolds and Q’arlynd, in typical Drow form, tries to find his most adventitious niche. The adventure is fluid and has a natural progression that carries the reader along. The combat scenes are typical, and somewhat predictable, for a Forgotten Realms novel. This book gives a stand alone story with the sava game as the carry over factor to the series. It also offers the “Oh My God, No Way!” experience that will have readers referring this book to their friends who are Forgotten Realms fans.

Smedman offers not only a classic Forgotten Realms style story but also an insight into the Drow race that has not been seen since R.A. Salvatorer’s War of the Spider Queen Series or Elaine Cunningham’s Starlight & Shadows Series. Dungeon and Dragons or other fantasy fans will feel right at home with the races, characters and combat, both melee and magical. For readers who have never experienced the Forgotten Realms and the lands of Faerûn, check out this book and you will quickly become immersed in this world.

[Steven Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hey, now, this was pretty fun. It's a reasonably fast read, not a whole lot of depth, and yet with characters that feel compelling in their own way.

Smedmen spent less time with the Dungeons & Dragons minutae here than she did in "Extinction", but pieces of D&D lore are there for those with the background to spot them. (Which is fun..)

[Gustav Grotius]

I enjoy stories about the drow. This one is rather interesting, since it highlight. the relationship and mistrust between the males and females. I enjoyed it.

[Jason Folkens · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was one of those books that I had difficulty putting down. The author clearly spent just as much time on the protagonists as she did the antagonists. Not only that, but there are a few characters that appear to be playing both sides in the struggle, and the author unfolds the story brilliantly. The ending was absolutely fantastic, as it's perfectly set up for it's sequel.

What's more, this book holds answers to questions that you might have with regard to pantheon changes in forgotten realms. If you enjoy Forgotten Realms literature, this is truly a must-read.

Once I reached about page 170, I couldn't put it down until I finished...

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

After ruining the war of the spider queen series, I swore I would never read anything else by Lisa Smedman. However, seeing that this book continued the series I couldn't resist seeing what happened next and it helped that I found it at a used bookstore. Lisa proves in this book that she can write an interesting story after all. Dispite quite a number of glaring errors concerning the drow, she pulled off an intriguing novel.

[Michael Ware · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do I love my fantasy novels! Good follow-up to the War of the Spider Queen series. I believe there is another series follwoing the War of the Spider Queen, it is hard to follow the timelines with Forgotten Realms, they are changing the setting through several series.

[E Kummeneje · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's... Okay! Okay plus. The big draw here is that Smedman pays almost equal attention to the antagonists as the protagonists, and tries to make us understand their motivations. The main character, Q'arlynd, is highly relatable and human. The language is serviceable. I never really got drawn into the trials and tribulations, but it works.

One interesting thought was spawned by this book though. In the Forgotten Realms, the gods are basically intelligence agencies. It all feels a lot like the Cold War's KGB vs CIA struggle, with numerous other players (MI6, etc etc). The gods do nothing except work through their agents, whom they will happily endow with special powers and equipment. They can be warned and questioned by their agents, but are often oblique in their answers and motivations even to their highest ranking field personnel. They hand out assignements that are often incomprehensible to their own agens, and often involve double-crossing another of the organizations. Hm!

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this first book in the Lady Penitent Series. I was a huge fan of the War of the Spider Queen books (sans the author switching…), and it is fun to follow up with some of the characters from that series (albeit, 12 years later). Smedman is also an author I enjoy from the Realms.
Now, without ruining the plot, I will say that Halistra, the name sake of the series, was not in this novel a lot. There are several other characters that get a lot of focus, and they are great, but if you are expecting this to be the Halistra Show, it is not.
Where this novel really shines is epic level of what is on the line. We are watching Gods and Goddesses make their plays for power. And in the Realms, mere mortals have a chance to sway the battle. It is loads of fun.

[Quaesitor · Rating 2 out of 5]

El libro no esta tan mal, sin embargo me costó mucho ir develando la trama del mismo, ya que en el relato hace alusión a hechos pasados y personajes que no aparecen. Luego me di cuenta que en realidad este libro forma parte de una colección mas grande que se llama Reinos Olvidados y este libro es el 50 y pico de esa colección.

[Benjamin Hesdorf · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading the War of the Spider Queen series I wanted more, and here I got more. Once I started reading I couldn't stop myself, and I ended up spending the whole night and morning finishing this novel. Kudos to Smedman.

[Sherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far, I haven't found a book in this franchise that was a disappointment, but this one really rocked! I can't wait to read the next one!

[Elektrohase · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thrilling, good. I love the drow. And.. Just how creepy is it, when you're reading about spiders crawling all over the place and then you realize... A spider is crawling all over YOUR place?

[Bobby H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Action packed, great battle scenes, wrapped up series well. Would have given 3.75 stars. Too many characters to keep track of with multiple story lines.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Melarn wishy-washy indecisiveness is annoyingly genetic.

[Trille · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting and not boring any time in the book! I recommend reading war of the spider queen first !

[Adam Scott James · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing quality isn't great — even by Forgotten Realms standards — but I'm an absolute sucker for Eilistraee lore. If you're into Darksong Knights and Sword Dancers of Eilistraee and the like, this is pretty good.

However, I'm aware that the series is a controversial retcon — presumably because of the second and third books in this series — but the first book is a solid story if you're into this specific Drow vein.

[Adam Duclos · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was pretty good, especially for a Dungeons and Dragons novel! The quality for DnD books varies widely, but this one mostly moved right along and was fun to read.

It also showed a game between Lolth and Eilistraee using Mortals and lesser beings as game pieces, which is always pretty cool. I like it when books like this have multiple levels of reality.

It also had a prophecy in there, that made the loyalties of two of the characters uncertain. The great thing was, we only got a first person point of view of one of them, and it was still unknown how it would go!

It was also nice that despite being a trilogy, it had a self contained story in there, along with some momentous stuff, like the death of two gods! This came out just before Fourth Edition DnD, so the author must have been told that they could go wild. I'd say that this aspect of the book was better than the preceding 6 book 'War of the Spider Queen' series.

That said, the story did it did take a while to get moving... they introduced quite a few first person point of view characters, not all of them main characters. A good four or five side characters were introduced just so that they would have a chapter to themselves, then get killed off.

It was also pretty tough to take how dumb Eilistraee was during her godly board game. Seriously?

On the other hand, I like how it shows that Selvetarm had an avatar, a main body in the demonweb pits that was killed by beheading, but that his true form was the one hanging out with Lolth playing the board game on the World Tree, and only really died because Lolth killed him herself because she had to honor her game results because Ao was watching. Nice!

Back on the downside though, the author added in more game elements than normal, but did it badly. I mean, it's a DnD book, set in a DnD game world (Faerun), and it's great that the author added in all sorts of spells that you would expect wizards and clerics to be using, but they were either used incorrectly or better ones were ignored. Specifically, a big deal was made of the clerics raising each other from the dead, which is great, because that's a big part of the game that usually gets flat out ignored in DnD books, but they kept running into this problem where sometimes their bodies would be destroyed, so they sadly shook their heads and bemoaned their inability to bring them back from the afterlife.

First of all, some of them did have bodies, they were just digested. Gross, but whatever. So, the 'raise dead' spell might not work. However, they still had access to a druid who could have used another fairly low level spell, 'reincarnate', on them. On top of that, even Qilue is an epic cleric, yet she also freaked out over this, even though she should have access to all of the spells like 'resurrection', which can use even small parts of a dead body, or 'true resurrection', which doesn't need any part at all. Anyway, buck up guys! You can eventually get most of your friends back.

I do wish that some of the special things that happened, like soul theft and so on, were represented in the rules somewhere, because that would be pretty neat.

Oh, I also thought it was weird that when Qilue was confronted at the end of the book about how Eilistraee might be adversely affected by killing Vaerun and taking on his portfolio, she wasn't just like, 'Yeah, obviously that's going to be an issue.' Ah well. In the story, even the goddess seemed to be blindsided by that for some reason. It does make me wonder how the rest of the trilogy is going to go though. As Dark Helmet said in Spaceballs, "Evil will always defeat good, because good is dumb."

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gods plot against one another using their drow followers as pawns. Whether they are the priestesses of the dancing moon goddess Eilistraee, the assassin-clerics of the shadow god Vhaerun, or the wicked followers of the demigod Selvetarm, none lack a plethora of outrageous spells endowed them by their ever-warring deities. Amidst them is the Lady Penitent, the once-drow, now arachnid abomination that serves at the behest of the chaotic spider-goddess, Lolth.

The Sacrifice of the Widow is the follow-up to R.A. Salvatore's War of the Spider Queen; and even being familiar with this work, it is possible to get lost without foreknowledge of the drow gods of the Forgotten Realms universe. A map, along with a glossary or compendium would have been helpful, as there are many references to people and places that are not explained in this book alone. Be prepared to do some preliminary research online if you are unfamiliar with the subject matter.

Eilistraee is the benevolent goddess that the reader is supposed to root for, as the plot centers mostly on her drow followers; Cavatina, a devoted Darksong Knight; Qilue, the powerful high priestess and chosen of the goddess of magic Mhystra herself; and Q'arlynd, a battle wizard that has yet to fully commit to a deity. While the intentions of Qilue and Cavatina are quite clear, the neutrality of Q'arlynd makes for an interesting arc.

The rules of magic in this universe seem to no know bounds, which unfortunately eliminates any sense of real danger for most of our protagonists, when a healing spell is quick on the lips, or a last minute shielding spell saves them from imminent doom. And if all that fails, there's always resurrection.

Smedman is adept at creating horrific images appropriately suited for a battle between the pawns and creatures of the malevolent Underdark gods. Lots of goo, acid, blood, and other creepy fluids somehow find their way into this tale. She takes the reader directly into the characters minds as they experience the crunching of bones and the spraying of blood first hand. In a sense, this is almost a horror/fantasy novel.

Sacrifice of the Widow picks up and races to a refreshing climax towards the end; pleasantly unexpected for a first book in a trilogy.

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lisa Smedman is one of my favorite authors from the War of the Spider Queen saga. The drow continue to be the most and best interesting characters, since my discovery of the Drizzt Do’Urden novels. The Lady Penitent trilogy delivers all the pain, horror, blood & gore, evil, and deception that I’ve come to love and expect from the drow elves.
Two rival deities play a dangerous sava game since Lolth’s return from the Silence, in their struggle for dominance over the drow.
Along with the differences in the two elven worshippers, there are also similarities, especially in the consideration and treatment of males. Lisa Smedman fills this exciting book with great monsters like driders and with powerful wizards too.
One of the siblings of House Melarn is prophesized to betray the priestesses of Eilistraee. However, they don’t know whether it will be the Lady Penitent who was once Eilistraee’s champion or Q’arlynd whose heart and mind is torn between Eilistraee and the Spider Queen. With Q’arlynd’s questionable pledge, and Halisstra’s weak character and will, I wonder if the Crescent Blade will reach Lolth’s throat.

[Terry Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

The beauty of drow elves

I would like to say that I enjoyed this book. If you like the drow elves give this one a try...but first start with the war of the spider queen series, else this wont make any sense. I am tired of the whole drizzt story as it seems drizzt is a god like character who dies then comes back. Well this book has drow heroins who face a more gritty situations
Also it has great characters, even the villians, who I was getting to really like. Lisa also shows the duality of the drow and the way they handle success and self doubt among their everyday life. There is drama here to make you smile, sad as well as make you wanna scream yes or no!!! I thoroghly enjoyed this book and fixin to buy the next.

[Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was good. It provides the darkness one is looking for when reading about the Drow, but it lacks a little what i am used to from Lisa Smedman. To me it seemed like there was a lot of background and getting to know the characters for the bulk of the novel versus seeing them in action. Granted this is only the first in a series I am hoping the others pick up the pace. When it comes to plot it had a good big picture idea, but the details fell short. Not hearing how Vhearaun was killed was rather saddening, and the twist with Halisstra and Selvetarm was kind of transparent. But, I would still recommend it to any Forgotten Realms fan.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this on my shelf. My nephew had sent it to me, added into an order, to get to the free shipping threshold. I thought, "This might be a good palate-cleanser to Kavalier & Klay." It's not good. I don't expect that anyone thinks it would be. I expect this would be unreadable for anyone not familiar with the tropes but it's fun reading descriptions of D&D rules acted out. Characters show up and die usually only lasting for a few pages. I won't be adding the name "Smedman" to my personal canon of authors but I'm honestly enjoying it more than Chabon's award-winning masterpiece. At least there is a plot with twists and turns rather than a gradual slow slag to the bottom.

[Aborted Savior · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.2

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book started out kinda slow, but after the first fifty pages or so it really took off, making it difficult for me to put down the farther I read. Smedman created a wonderfully stressful plot that has an amazing impact on the Forgotten Realms world.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad. Continues the War of the Spider Queen series, which was pretty good in its own right. An easy read. Some interesting new characters are introduced and some pretty powerful characters you have heard of in the past take center stage.

[Efren Lawag · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sacrifice of the Widow is definitely a must read for fans of high fantasy. My lack of knowledge about Forgotten Realms lore didn't stop me from enjoying the book either, which is a good thing since it's hard to get engaged with similar books based on existing lore.

[Kostas · Rating 4 out of 5]

7.5/10

Η άμεση συνέχεια της εξαλογία από τον πόλεμο με την βασίλισσα αράχνη. Η Smedman κάνει καλή δουλεία σε αυτή την "αναγκαστική" συνέχεια της ιστορίας, η γραφή της είναι καλή και αναπτύσσει καλά τους χαρακτήρες.
Γενικά η τριλογία είναι καλή με κάποιες ωραίες ανατροπές στον κόσμο των θεών.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Forgot how fun this series was.

[Pennies · Rating 5 out of 5]

So Amazing!