| Title | : | Siege of Darkness (Forgotten Realms: Legacy of the Drow, #3; Legend of Drizzt, #9) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0786901640 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780786901647 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Mass Market Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 337 |
| Publication | : | First published December 30, 1993 |
Siege of Darkness (Forgotten Realms: Legacy of the Drow, #3; Legend of Drizzt, #9) Reviews
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Aaand with an immense step up from the previous volume, Siege of Darkness is the best Drizzt book I have read so far. Conspiracies thrive in the dark depths of the Realms and the dark elf focus is strong.
The reader experiences the following amazing sights:
- exquisitely tasteful dark elf intrigue, including being dragged along the wily schemes of the delightful House Baenre (I'm a fan!), learning the story behind its abnormally powerful Matron Mother Yvonnel Baenre (I'm definitely a fan!), and watching the ambitious aspirations of the wonderfully evil younger daughter Quenthel Baenre (I'm an ever bigger fan!)
- the avatar of the Spider Queen herself wandering amidst the vile creatures of the Abyss, and basically telling them to shut up and do as she wants!
- a distinct lack of Artemis Entreri!
- mind flayers mind flaying!
- a large-scale pitched battle in the corridors of the Underdark!
- oh, and Drizzt and his friends are also here.
What more could one want? -
Call it 2.5 stars.
I notice that I neglected to review the last volume of Drizzt, but really I think I could write the same review for every single book. The names are either tongue twisters or pretty silly. I mean really, how does one even pronounce Drizzt? The other dark elf names tend to have apostrophes in them and impossible consonant combinations. Doing these as audio books must be difficult. And consider names such as King Schnicktick. How can one take him seriously with a name like this?
All of Drizzt’s adventures are melodramatic--he is pushed to his limits, but suddenly finds new reserves within himself or is saved by a friend, who he vows to cherish even more. It’s a very black and white world of good & evil with very few nuances. I presume that Salvatore is writing for a young audience, as the man-woman relationships are basic at best. This book comes the closest to giving Drizzt a romantic partner, his old friend Cattie-Brie (that’s right, cheese girl, as I think of her). Fresh off of losing her fiance, Wulfgar, Cattie-Brie comes in contact with a sentient sword which flings her into Drizzt’s arms. Of course, Drizzt is a gentleman (gentledrow?) so Cattie-Brie’s virtue is uncompromised. Nevertheless, they set out together at the end of this book, leading me for the first time to be actually intrigued as to where the author intends to take them in the next volume.
Somehow, the last volume (
Starless Night) seems to have been quite pointless--Drizzt didn’t accomplish much and the planning of an invasion of Mithril Hall by the denizens of Menzoberranzan continues apace. Readers may be intrigued to see how the dark elves of the Underdark are defeated by the noble alliance of friendly races (and their own frailties). Enough of the known characters remain that there is potential for more dark elf mischief in the future. For the time being, I am glad that Salvatore plans to move the next volume into the daylight of his world.
Book number 326 in my Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Project. -
Maybe the best Drizzt book in the whole series until now. Everything that build up over the last few books comes to its epic conclusion, with a more than 100+ page battle around Mithril Hall.
And I must say the best parts in these books are the short interludes by Drizzt. Truly fantastically written! -
In relation to the rest of the Drizzt series to date (9 books including this one, out of a total of 31 so far... oh Salvatore, what have you done and what have I done by starting to read these...), it was pretty good. It generally ties up the storylines of the Icewind Dale, Dark Elf and Legacy of the Drow trilogies, perhaps a little too well in places by re-introducing characters and factions that I have long forgotten about. These books' fine details don't quite stick in the mind. For example, a bunch of goofy wizards showed up from, I dunno,
Streams of Silver? For once, Drizzt DOESN't spend the book moping and reproving himself. This was a refreshing change, as was the relative lack of drawn-out move-by-move combat accounts.
Although it was meant to show an epic battle between the evil forces of Menzobarranzan and Mithril Hall and its allies, the overall tone was light and I never felt that epic intent. In places, it felt like it was written in a hurry. At least one key scene seems to be missing (). The end was overly abrupt with everyone rapidly going on their happy ways; I would have liked to see Bruenor reacting to directly since it's a big freakin' deal, and more denouement of a lot of the survivors of the war. As usual for Salvatore's Forgotten Realms books, the attempts at humor fall into the "mildly amusing" category at best.
I can see the writing process at work in the incorporation of the Time of Troubles into this novel. Some people have built an in-world chronology of the Forgotten Realms books, and this detail helps place Drizzt's adventures in that timeline. I don't think this is why it was included. While the loss of or unpredictability of magic created some temporary problems and stresses for both the heroes and villains, given that these were fully resolved before the Drow determined to march on Mithril Hall, it is clearly not part of the major thrust of the book. I figured it out, though. The Time of Troubles was necessary to produce a certain MacGuffin-like solution to the final problem faced by our heroes. I can see Salvatore's thinking at work here (for real end-of-book spoiler here, don't look unless you've read the book or if you just don't care): and the rest of the story was back-written from there.
So, the book is OK purely from a plot-driven perspective, it's light and fluffy for a book about a massive race war, and if nothing else allows Drizzt to move on to the next stage of his legend. You know, for the next 22 books... -
I've already commented on this series as a whole, but this book marks a turning point.
By the time the reader has reached this book, the formula is set in stone. Drizzt fights and wins, then fights and wins again. The villain never dies, the supporting characters make brief quips, and nobody but nobody gets one single hint of development as a human character (except for Drizzt, who stopped developing several books ago).
Appropriate for young children, and possibly as a guilty pleasure. Don't get me wrong: I have fond memories of cuddling up with this book and a mug of hot chocolate. It's just... I wouldn't read it again. -
I need to take a break from this series for awhile. It's just wearing me thin with the pointlessness of it all.
This book seemed more like two books crammed into one. I really enjoyed the part where magic failed but there was no explanation why. The author also skimmed over things that sort of made me raise an eyebrow like "well that was an easy way out." but I had no answers. Like Catti-brie and her sword. It was just too easy with no explanation behind it.
The second half of the book was a war and a pretty boring one at that. 100 pages are dedicated to the fighting but its mostly characters thoughts. I just wasn't interested because I just didn't care. I really, really just hate the main characters in these books.
The sad thing is I Love reading about the Drow. They are just so much more interesting and I think that's why I enjoyed the first half, because Drizzt was no where to be found and it mostly took place in the Drow city. I find their politics interesting, their characters interesting. Especially that when they die they stay dead. If there was a book just about them then I would probably read it and enjoy it a lot more. Now if it was 13+ books I'd probably end up hating them all.
It will be awhile before I pick these up again and finish the ones I have. They are slow and pointless to me and I don't want to read them anymore. -
Five months. It took me five months to finish this book. To be precise, it took me that long to read almost two thirds with many, many days without giving it a glance. This evening I finished the last third. And it was all about battle.
I don’t know what to say. Drizzt stopped developing as a character long time ago and to be fair, we almost see more of Jarlaxle (I kind of like the flamboyant drow) than Drizzt. And one more thing lacking are the thoughts of Drizzt Do’Urden in between chapters. Because of them, I always gave one star more for every Salvatore’s book. Not this time.
In the end, I liked this bit:
"The days are short," she remarked, "and the road is long. "
"Only as long as you make it," Drizzt said to her, drawing her gaze back to him. "And the days are only as short as you allow them to be. "
Maybe I should take his advice. Maybe I should read some other books instead. For my days are not getting longer. -
Salah satu novel dari siri Forgotten Realms (juga siri game Dungeons & Dragons), antara siri novel fantasi yg terkenal dan banyak peminatnya. Merupakan buku ke-3 dalam quadrilogy 'Legacy of the Drow' - menyambung kisah pengembaraan Drizzt Do'Urden dan rakan-rakannya (Bruenor Battlehammer, Wufgar, Cattie-Brie, dan Regis). Juga merupakan buku ke-9 (dari 34) dalam siri The legend of Drizzt. Buku ketiga ni lebih best berbanding dua buku sebelumnya. Plotnya penuh dengan aksi2 pertarungan dan peperangan yg detail.
Novel kali ni menyambung kisah dari buku kedua quadrilogy ni. Dark elves dari Menzoberranzan mengambil keputusan untuk menyerang dwarf di Mithral Hall. Bruenor Battlehammer, Drizzt, dan sekutu2 mereka yg lain mula membuat persediaan untuk mempertahankan Mithral Hall... -
This book was MUCH BETTER than the last one. I was psyched for the war between the Drow and the surface world.
However, there's a few things that have become apparent to me:
1. Salvatore seems to have a lot of trouble with solving problems. He creates these massive problems like The Times of Trouble where gods were warring with each other and magic wasn't working properly. Spells would backfire or just fizzle, magical artifacts were inconsistent at best, and devastating at worst. And then the problem just... fizzles away and gets resolved with no explanation. Dantrag's demonic sword is picked up by Cattie-Brie and it messes with her head, encouraging her to go for more lethal hits when she's training with Drizzt, pulling at her consciousness until it possesses her completely... but it's nothing a three week camping trip in the mountains can't solve because Cattie comes back completely in control of the sword and the demon artifact no longer cares it isn't being wielded by the best swordsman around.
2. Salvatore has no idea how to write women. Cattie-Brie is still insufferable here. She's literally the only girl in a group of guy friends who constantly says "I hate drama" and then goes out of her way to create drama. Her fiance just died, but she's already getting ready to jump on Drizzt. But wait, she still loves Wulfgar, but wait, she likes Drizzt too, and- stop please stop. Every man in these books seems to dote on her. Drizzt, Wulfgar, Regis, Bruenor, Jarlaxle, even the DEMONIC SWORD. It's exhausting. And the only other woman, Alustriel, who's supposed to be an amazingly intelligent and strong minded leader, does a a really good job of painting herself to be an incompetent dumbass. She struggles to lead her city this entire book, because she's actually NOT a strong-minded leader. She just has a council sitting behind her pulling her strings. But at least she's still an accomplished mage- oh no, she picked up Elfhain's broken record syndrome, and then kamikazes into the middle of the battlefield never to seen or heard from again until the epilogue. -
This is where in Salvatore's books that he starts to move to many, MANY, MANY scenes of fighting. The focus seems to be on fighting technique... okay... but YAWN. I agree has its place, but although I am rereading his books... Too many fight scenes BORE me. I prefer properly placed fight scenes and more focus on the characters and story. He has some very good points that are now Drittz commentary between chapters and not as interwoven with the characters and story as before. The substance (for me) comes in small sporatic packages instead of interwoven in the storyline.... I am still going to continue to read this series until I can not take it any more. But I prefer his earlier works best
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Not my favorite of the Drizzt Do'Urden books so far. Some of the scenes/passages didn't make sense. For exampe:
1. Errtu only shows up at the beginning and end of the novel. What is he doing in the meantime?
2. What the heck was the "Time of Troubles"? It suddenly appeared, then left without any explanation.
3. Who killed Matron Baenre?
4. Why the longevity of the battle scenes with no explanation of why they're there?
5. Where did this whole fight with Catti-brie's sword come from?
I definately would've liked more explanations and more coherence. It was a good fluff novel though, if you can say that at all. -
I would say that this was the best book in the Drizzt Do'Urden series so far. I liked all the intrigue and house-wars in Menzoberranzan, especially since Jarlaxle is my favorite character in Salvatore's books. Though in some places, it did feel like the author needed to amass pages, so there were scenes where the characters' thoughts basically ran in circles to add a paragraph here and there. On the other hand, some of the scenes and characters were hilarious, especially the Harpells! Harkle's eyeballs popping up in the Mithral Hall left me in tears, I laughed so hard!
-
Well... I am giving this book 2 stars only because it was all about battle. I didn't like the battles in Lord of the Rings either. Plus we don't get to spend too much time with the main characters... there were just different battles going on with the minor characters. And I am tired of the Underdark! Let's get into other plots!
-
Drizzt books are practically guaranteed to be a great read for me, but these novels don't stand-alone. As such, the plot is relatively slow moving at times. A lot of action takes up the book.
Being the conclusion of the Legacy of the Drow, the war is finally resolved on the Mithril Hall. I rather liked the ending, suggesting a new adventure ahead. -
I can never find anything negative to say about Drizzt novels. When the story seems simple and predictable, it's almost like that was exactly the fun-to-read break I was needing. When it's complex and difficult to follow, I appreciate the challenge. I think I'm just predisposed to love them, so take my review with a grain of salt.
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I found it a little uneven and disjointed, but the Time of Troubles part is pretty cool.
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Otro buen libro de Salvatore. Sabe como enganchar al lector.
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4.25/5 — Listened on audiobook. Reliably good as ever. Salvatore is a good writer and a good storyteller. Another installment in the Drizzt legend.
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My least favorite Drizzt book so far. 200 pages of filler followed by 100 pages of tensionless action that barely focuses on the main characters.
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Read this review (and others) at:
https://literatureislife.com/2021/06/...
Ok, so, some background information on D&D that gives this book some extra context. There have been
a few different editions of D&D. When the game updates to a new edition, there’s some big calamity in-universe to explain the game’s new rules and mechanical changes. Siege of Darkness came out around the time the game switched from Advanced D&D, the original, to D&D 2e. The calamity here was called
The Time of Troubles. In a nutshell, a pair of gods get up to some shenanigans, tick off the head god, and the head god believes in collective punishment, so he banishes all the gods but one to the mortal world in mortal form.
Now, Siege of Darkness doesn’t really touch on this topic too deeply. Everything else you’ll need to know for this story gets explained in the book. But I find the added context helps. Aside from all that, Siege of Darkness picks up where
Starless Night left off. Drizzt and co. know the drow are coming for them. So, the first part of the book deals with them contacting allies and shoring up defenses. Then the Time of Troubles kick in which, among other things, makes magic somewhat unreliable. Which itself drives a lot of the plot.
The Time of Troubles don’t last this whole book, they’re wrapped up by the time Part III starts. The rest of Siege of Darkness is the actual siege and it lives up to the name. Huge fight sequences, armies battling for survival, it’s all very epic. And it really wraps up this story arc. I know there’s another book in this arc, but really 90% of the plot is wrapped up by the end of this one. So, it’ll be kind of interesting to see how the cliffhanger we’re left with here resolves. -
Αγαπημένα μου φου-ρου,
(μην παίρνετε θάρρος, σας αγαπώ γιατί μου καίτε τον εγκέφαλο κάθε καλοκαίρι και μπορώ μετά να εκτιμώ καλύτερα τα μέτρια βιβλία)
Σας αγαπώ, σας εκτιμώ, αλλά κάθε φορά παλεύετε με νύχια και με δόντια να μου δείξετε και ένα comic relief πιο ελεεινό από τα προηγούμενα. Αδυνατώ να πιστέψω ότι θα βρεθεί κάτι γελοιοδέστερο από έναν dwarf battlerager δεμένο από το πόδι, που τον σβουρίζουν πάνω από κεφάλι τους οι υπόλοιποι της ταξιαρχίας του για να φτάσει έναν drow που αιωρείται στο ταβάνι της σπηλιάς μέσα σε μια σφαίρα σκοτεινιάς. Αλλά ειλικρινά, δεν θα ήθελα να τα πάρετε για challenge - όχι, μη, παρακαλώ γονυπετής, δηλαδή.
Με την ευχή να μην ξαναεμφανιστεί μπροστά μου ο συγκεκριμένος,
Ευθυμία -
There's nothing here to make this one stand out from the others, but it fits the bill if you're looking to spend time in the world and with the characters.
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The big war with all the races was entertaining.
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Loved everything about this book except the war scenes (well written, just not my taste). I also would have loved to see a lot more of Jarlaxle... all in all, a great read!
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Excellent tale of the attack of the members of the Drow city of Menzoberranzan on the dwarves stronghold, Mithril Hall. Starring Drizzt Do’Urden, Regis, Bruenor, and Catti-brie. Third in a series so best if read the others first but still can stand well enough in its own.
-
Honestly this whole series just hits me in all the right places.
-
Siege of Darkness wraps up the Mithral Hall plot of the Legacy of the Drow series admirably, though some might be peeved that two thirds of this book is build-up to the 100 page fight scene at the end. (Me, I found it refreshing, since Legacy followed the opposite sort of formula, where two thirds of the page count was devoted to fighting with only a small bit of character development.) Some might also notice that Drizzt isn't as active in this book as he is in the others - for instance, he and Catti-brie go to visit the barbarians of Settlestone to negotiate a treaty, and Catti-brie ends up doing most of the work. Drizzt also doesn't get the fancy final attack in the climax - Bruneor does! It's nice to see the other Companions of the Hall shine though, especially since Drizzt has steadily been getting more and more OP with every novel, and is obviously being squeezed into a forced shipping arrangement with Catti-brie despite the dirt on poor Wulfgar's grave not even settling yet!
All jokes aside, Salvatore's writing has steadily improved with each volume, and the Drizzt x Catti-brie relationship, while perhaps shoehorned in, isn't unbelievable. More impressive is the fact that Salvatore managed to make this a tie-in novel of sorts to the Time of Troubles, a major D&D event that ushered in the second edition of the game. The Time of Troubles focused on the various deities of the Forgotten Realms, who all temporarily waged war on each other, lost their powers and fell to earth. It's mostly background flavor here, but Salvatore uses the events of the game to flesh out the motivations of Lolth the Spider Queen, who takes advantage of the god war chaos to wreck more havoc in Menzoberranzan.
Funny side note - according to some stuff I've read online, Salvatore was almost forced to kill Artemis Entreri (who isn't in this book) due to editorial mandates that TSR laid down during the Time of Troubles. D&D was getting a bad media rep for encouraging demon worship and too many nefarious characters, and as the game entered its second edition, all assassins (including PCs, jeez) were going to be exterminated due to all of the assassin cults in the Forgotten Realms biting the dust. Luckily, Salvatore managed to convince the powers that be that Artemis wasn't REALLY an assassin (even tho he clearly is lol) but instead a fighter/thief multi-class who took money to kill people. Haha, the challenges of storytelling within the constraints of a tabletop RPG setting. Gotta love it! -
"Normally it pleased Jarlaxle to be in the middle of such a conflict, to be the object of wooing tactics by both sides in dispute. This time, though, Jarlaxle was uneasy with the position" (151).
Rating
4 stars... Without Cattie-Brie it might have been a 5.
Book Series
Book 9 of The Legend of Drizzt series (30+ books).
My Thoughts
I would like to nominate Jarlaxle to MVP (Most Valuable Player) and Cattie-Brie to LVP (Least Valuable Player).
Jarlaxle
We got to see Jarlaxle manuever between alliances with members of opposing sides while simultaneously representing his own interests. Seeing him in action definitely raised my opinion of him. He's clever and witty, but sometimes being clever means knowing when to shut your mouth. There were quite a few times where Jarlaxle didn't say what was on his mind, but the reader knows what he's thinking. His pragmatic way of thinking was one of the more interesting aspects of this book.
Cattie-Brie
There was some character-growth via demonic sword, which brought Cattie-Brie from one-dimensional to two-dimensional, but it's hard for me to praise anything that brought about this scene:
"There was no pursuit. The young woman remained in place, half-sitting, half kneeling on the floor. She threw her head back as if in ecstacy. 'Oh, yes!' she cried" (122).
To provide context, Cattie-Brie snuck into a guy's room and told him, "only in your hands I feel whole" (122) and is now pretending to have an orgasm on the floor of his room. In her defense, she is possessed by a sword, still kinda a WTF scene.
Rest of the Book
The rest of the book was really good. Without going into too much detail, magic temporarily has stopped working, and though I realized in past books that the drow are far too dependent on magic, I was surprised to see it pointed out and explored. And seeing Jarlaxle nervous added to the tension.
Conclusion
Minus Cattie-Brie, the first two thirds of the book were my favorite. I love the drow, their culture, and their backstabbing. The tide kept changing. One house would have the advantage one chapter, and by the end of the next chapter, the opposing house would be favored. The last third of the book was good, but much of the outcome was expected and therefore, not surprising.
