I have been a fan for the past 16 years, rereading the series countless times and this is by far the most powerful story yet to me, the only time I cried harder from such an overwhelming joy was when my oldest daughter was born. You have been scraping at my heart over the years but with this my friend you have gashed, thank you.

For anyone that is unaware, the series was supposed to have ended with the last book. But Salvatore realized the inherent and fully unintended racist bias (in dungeons and dragons as a whole) that is the dark elf race being inherently evil, and to a lesser extent the orc and goblin races. To that extent I think this book did a fantastic job at creating a setting that both showed the ability to "be good" regardless of, or even in spite of, their environment. To the lack of drizzt, I say I agree, it's sad to see so little of a beloved character, but at the same time his story has been told... We'll see plenty of him in the future I'm sure, but with characters like Zak, Catti, Entreri, and Jarlaxle, especially with the growth they've seen, this book is just as engaging as the first few that solely featured Drizzt. Honestly a 5/5 read, not counting the absolute excitement I feel for the rest of this trilogy. Kudos to Salvatore for killing it again, even if it's mainly setup. Only downside is how difficult it is to buy/find a full collection of the Drizzt books in an economical way. Only reason I've struggled to collect them....

The book is well written and the new Drow lore is certainly interesting to read. The story is engaging and fun for what it is but anyone looking to read a book about Drizzt will once again find themselves disappointed. The story focuses entirely on the journey taken by Jarlaxle, Zak, Catti, and Artemis, with Drizzt once again side lined in his own books. What content he is in is still good though mostly just because of the interactions shown between himself and his daughter and not much else. If this had continued throughout the book it would make up for it but it only happens a few short chapters early on and then never again. I can only hope given how this one ends that the next book will be better in this regard as it is increasingly frustrating to read books about a character that isn’t even featured anymore 90% of the time. 3/5 because at least it focuses on characters that have been developed that I actually care about which is more then I can say for some of the other recent books.