In both the collection of comics and the original Salvatore short story, this new format graphic novel is a great buy. First, the artwork of the comics is excellent. Bringing to life the rich world of Corona, consisting of eight Salvatore novels, the comic series collected here provides a great visualization that does not conflict with that of the novels. The story follows that of Andacanavar, the Norseman ranger trained by the Elves, upon his return to his people after being trained far from home for nearly his entire life. The story has two other main characters, Moira, an Abellican Sister, and Grave, a Bloody Cap Powrie Dwarf. They are united somewhat by coincidence to rescue the abducted daughter of the Norse king. The combat visuals are as vibrant as those conceived by Salvatore in his novels, with the same sources of treachery as one might expect.

The short story is a nice background for Grave, telling a tale of Powries and pirates combining their skills to sink a third ship. Of course, the pirates were perhaps stretching the bounds of credulity in trusting the Bloody Caps. It is nice to see that some get their just desserts. The story is pretty brief however, likely due to the format in which it's presented, but it has typical great Salvatore prose, telling the first story focused on a Powrie.

First, an admission. I got this book less for the story than for the format. CrossGen comics is experimenting with a smaller-size graphic novel called a "Traveler," and I wanted to see if it was any good.

The story was pretty good too, thankfully. I haven't read any of Salvatore's "DemonWars" prose novels, but the graphic novel Scott Ciencin set in Salvatore's universe was good enough to get me interested. It doesn't seem like anything groundbreaking in fantasy -- a mysterious ranger, assorted colorful characters, bad monsters to slay -- but it's a solid story and the characters are intriguing, and if I've got that much, I can deal with a standard fantasy setting.

I also appreciated the short story "Three Ships" that Salvatore contributed to this volume. It's an early story of Grave Mungo, a dwarven character I understand hasn't appeared in the novels but was created for this comic. The purpose of the red caps the dwarves wear struck me as being particularly clever.

On to why I bought the book -- the format. Spectacular! CrossGen has found a way to shrink comic book artwork and lettering to a size only slightly larger than a normal mass market trade paperback without degrading the quality one iota! Plus, it's cheaper than a regular trade paperback and it takes up less shelf space. I'd be happy if all graphic novels came out in Traveler format from now on!

This book is probably more realistic than any of the previous Icewind Dale, or Dark elf books. Except in brief sections, all of the characters are human. I enjoyed that Wulfgar and Morik are not the best combat team in the world, and they do not have amazing weapons, so they do not win all of the time. Some readers found Wulfgar's frequent flashbacks annoying, but they are there to demonstrate Wulfgar's hate for himself, for the things that he has done, and the situations that he gets himself into in order to bring the torture back to the surface. His morals still stand, while he is sober, but he takes his pain out on others while he is not. The story of Marelda, Jaka, and Lord Feringal, was a bit slow, and more drawn out than it could have been, however I'm sure that there is a future purpose for them. While I was reading it, I found it vaguely annoying, like a childish romance novel thrown into an adventure. The situation seemed somewhat realistic, although I was worried about the idiocy of Feringal at the beginning. I didn't think that the journal entries of Drizzt were necessary for the book, but they didn't detract too much from the story. Overall I think that this book is probably intended to set up situations for future books.

I wasn't sure if i should buy this book, when the reviews mentioned that there was no drizzt and the band. Being a forgotten releams fan, i went ahead and brought the book. Didn't regret it one little bit. Although the first several pages are immersed in self pity by wulfgar, the story picks up and the climactic finish is good. After this one, i am looking forward to reading more of wulfgar's adventures. I cant wait for the next book to come out.

If u are a die hard fan of salvatore, then this is a must read.

My favorite books in the series were always the Icewind Dale Trilogy and the sequel to them, The Legacy (all five out of five stars). This was mainly because my favorite character was always Wulfgar. I found myself wishing (sorry Drizzt fans) that it had been Drizzt who fell to the Dark Elves instead of Wulfgar (but then where would the next book go?). And I always hated (even at its first mention in Halfling's Gem) the thought of a relationship between Drizzt and Cattie-Brie. I was disapointed in The Silent Blade ( 3 out of 5 stars) because of Wulfgar's fall from grace, but The Spine of the World was one of my favorite Salvatore books. I can barely wait for the next one, and I hope it is about Wulfgar, rather than Drizzt and co. (they have been played out) Of course, I would love to see the group reunited on Deudermont's ship.

First of all, I love R.A. Salvatore's work, and thus I'm not writing a hatchet job on this book just because I don't like fantasy novels. I actually love Science Fiction and Fantasy books, and have read all of Salvatore's books. Unfortunately, I absolutely hated this book. The beginning of Witch's Daughter, which sets up a trilogy, was confusing, difficult to believe, and basically made me question that it was written by R.A. Salvatore. While this book is not absolutely horrible (after the beginning scenes it isn't that bad) this book does remain Salvatore's worst. Perhaps because he is such a great author I expect too much, but this book definitely let me down. If you've never read Salvatore's work, PLEASE begin with the Icewind Dale or Dark Elf trilogies, and if you've read all of his books, I humbly recommend that you pass on this series and wait for his next offering.

All believed the Black Warlock to be defeated. But Thalasi and Reinheiser were now both sharing the same body. Once harmony was established, he and his evil Talons began their campaign anew to make a new dark world.

Brielle had forever lost Del, but now had a lovely daughter, Rhiannon, who was blessed with the same powers as her mother witch. On her twentieth birthday, Rhiannon's wish was to travel with the Rangers and see the world. She found more than she bargained for! The Black Warlock had thousands upon thousands within his army. The witch and mages were kept busy against the warlock as the others were out numbered 4-to-1 or 10-to-1. But Rhiannon was learning her own powers and feared the devastation she could call up through her magic. But once she learned to control her fear and do what must be done, the Black Warlock and his dead General Mitchell would be in trouble.

**** Exciting from the beginning! Much better than the first of this series. Magical spells, dragons, and battles on nearly every page. A fast paced read that you will fully enjoy.

R. A. Salvatore outdid himself. This novel has everything, action, humor and romance. I'm waiting for a fourth book in this series. It's worth reading.

I am a big fan of Salvatore's Drizz't novels and was excited when he came out with a Star Wars book. Seeing that he was influenced by Star Wars greatly in many of his other novels ... I thought he would succeed as a worthy adition to the somewhat lacking class of Star Wars authors. Well in my opinion he really failed to meet expectations. One of Salvatore's great skills is not superior writing or story but his ability to create such wonderful, diverse and convincing characters. Well tackling the Star Wars universe seems to have thwarted his creative ability since he was required to use existing characters. I find this is the case for most of the Star Wars novels since none of the authors can truly keep any of the main charters in line with their film counterparts. Salvatore struggled with them greatly. At times their emotion and personality was nowhere near what George Lucas had established. ... The enemy race the Vuuzhan Vong or however were a pretty chinsy foe and it seems authors are really stretching for Star Wars ideas. The book was enjoyable for the most part as a Star Wars story but nowhere near what Salvatore is capable of. Timothy Zahn still is the only author to succeed in writing convincing Star Wars books in my mind.

To many Star Wars bibliophiles, R.A. Salvatore's "Vector Prime" signified the end of a classic literary sub genre. Prior to this particular novel, the Star Wars license had been in the capable hands of Bantam: a publishing house that had remained faithful to the fun-loving essence of the series. With the much-publicized entrance of Vector Prime, the license was transferred to Del Rey and, thenceforward, the story arcs took a darker turn.

Del Rey introduced the deaths of both canonical and expanded universe characters, the quixotic pandering to an even younger audience, the introduction of collectivist ideology and politically correct undertones. Through these both sweeping and subtle changes, the space operatic wonder of earlier Star Wars literature was lost and in its place a mere empty shell remained.

Vector Prime itself is readable, but lacks the exciting flair of the traditional Bantam epics. The previous having been said, I suggest the reader avoid the New Jedi Order series altogether.

The story is good, the characterization is decent, but the writing is sometimes slow and sometimes annoying. As far as plot goes, because this is the first book of a spectacular new series, it can hardly be described as anything short of groundbreaking. I have read many Star Wars novels and never has anything like what happens in Vector Prime happened in any of them. This is a great relief, since Star Wars books often seem to repeat themselves (how many times can the Solo children really get kidnapped or threatened with kidnap?!). It's invigorating to read something so fresh and new. This is good, non-formulaic sci-fi.

The chararacters are written pretty well. They are consistent and show some depth. On the whole, I would compare Salvatore's scheme of building up characters through consistent behavior and speech patterns with little recourse to omnicience that reveals inner thoughts to Timothy Zahn's writing. I think Salvatore does a particularly good job of showing us Solo children who are a little more grown up than we've seen them in the past, and of elaborating on Kyp Durron, who has likewise grown up. I hope to see more of this Kyp in the future, because he will make a great foil to Luke Skywalker.

The book is not without flaws. The plot is exciting because it is new, but sometimes Salvatore really drags it out and it gets a bit boring. Also, he has a hard time expressing feelings of affection or nostalgia without getting too cutsie or annoying. This shows up a lot in the women--Mara going on about wanting a baby doesn't sound like Mara at all (I'm sure Zahn could make her want a child without compromising her character), and Leia similarly comes across as too weak. But where it is maybe the most obnoxious is in Salvatore's need to use some epithet like "dear wife" or "precious wife" every time he talks about Mara. Okay, she's sick and Luke loves her and is worried. But really...there are other ways to express it.

In sum, then, this is a pretty good book. It has a few quirks that some editing could have fixed, but they're no big deal. It's not the best in the NJO series, but it's also far from the worst. Vector Prime is definitely worth a read, though I should add that the very momentous event that takes place at the end has offended a lot of people, perhaps in part because if it was going to happen, it deserved to be in a better book by a more trusted Star Wars author like Zahn.

I picked up this book after having read over a dozen of his other books (Demon Wars, Cleric Quintet, Icewind Dale, etc.) and have loved some, but at least liked all of them. This book, though written in the same story telling style, is a empty story with little substance. The witch was the only interesting character in the book. I would most all of his books a second time. I am sorry I read this one at all.

But what future *isn't* post apocolypic these days?

But seriously, this wasn't a bad book. As I understand it, it was actually Salvatore's first written book. (Note, written. The Crystal Shard was his first published novel)

Note that I haven't read this book in about four years, and don't remember it too well.

It is about a submarine crew that is transported, sub and all, to a post world war III time when magic has returned, and much of the world's population has mutated into Goblins and other such happy creatures.

Once at this future, some of the crew splits away from the rest to join with the "dark side" and hijinx ensue.

This wasn't one of my favorite Salvatore books, but I did enjoy it. If nothing else, it's a good one to see where he started.

Incidentally, I understand that this book is being re-released in the near future with a few revisions from the author.

The Unicorn was an undersea discovery sub in which any nation in the world could help fund. Those nations that did got to share all the new discoveries from the vessel. However, while a huge storm ravaged above the sea, the sub was sucked into a black void. Most of the crew died. The few who lived emerged to find themselves far into the future.

Captain Mitchell, Reinheiser, Doc Brady, Billy Shank, and Jeffry DelGiudice "Del" found themselves to be the ancient ones who were prophesied to come and change the world.

The race of Man had destroyed themselves. Four humans were chosen by a being to become wizards to help the world in its change.
Brielle, the Emerald Witch of the Woods.
Ardaz, the Silver Mage.
Istaahl, the White Mage.
Thalasi, the Black Warlock.
The world now consisted of elves, known as Moon Dancers, and misshapen lizard beasts known as Talons.

The Ancient Ones, battling amongst themselves, joined the new races to help battle the Black Warlock and his gruesome Talons before all good and the entire race of Moon Dancers were destroyed forever!

**** I found the beginning to be very slow. But after the first few chapters, the story picked up and held onto me. I understand it to be the first of a trilogy or series, but I am not sure. Salvatore fans will NOT be disappointed. However, expect a Sci-Fi, instead of a Fantasy, for the beginning to set up the plot.

The final installment in R.A. Salvatore's Spearweilder series, "The Dragonslayer's Return" is, like its predecessors, a good read that sometimes flirts with greatness, but never really lives up to its potential. In fact, as a conclusion to a trilogy, it is somewhat disappointing, although without completely destroying the series.

Obviously Drizzt Do'Urden creator R.A. Salvatore is deeply connected to these books, and feels very strongly about the subject matter. Again we join Gary (named after Salvatore's own brother, presumably) from Real-earth, and his wife Diane (named after Salvatore's own wife), as they embark upon a journey to the realm of Faerie (a shallow version of Middle-earth, essentially) to destroy once and for all the wicked witch who terrorizes the land. What ensues are a lot of heavy-handed war sequences and some smaller battles that are overflowing with Salvatore's zesty action descriptions. Though action is certainly one of Salvatore's strengths, he often gets carried away, and this is particularly true in "The Dragonslayer's Return." The repetitive nature of these action setpieces leads, sooner or later, to boredom, and skimming ahead to read the inevitable outcome.

Most disappointing, though, is the series conclusion, which doesn't pack as much punch as you might wish (and bears an uncanny similarity to a certain sequence in the film, "Conan the Destroyer"). Salvatore seems almost rushed to deliver an ending as well, and deprives his readers of what could be a more emotional farewell between the residents of Real-earth and their Faerie pals. Like a Hollywood film, it seems that once the action is finished, the story races toward a finale, therefore depriving itself of slower, more character-driven moments. This is a great loss to the series - though not a completely crippling one, by any means.

Though Salvatore uses these books to get a bit preachy at times, his messages are generally worthy ones, and his themes mostly adhere to those embraced by his obvious mentor, J.R.R. Tolkien. The characters are vivid and colorful (though, strangely, Real-earth natives Gary and Diane are perhaps the least interesting), and the humor is generally right on the mark. Again, though, Salvatore tries in vain to balance light-hearted fun with the horrors of war and violence, and though the other two volumes in the series suffered similar difficulties, "The Dragonslayer's Return" is the biggest offender. It's a tough balancing act to be sure, and Salvatore, at least during this stage in his career, just wasn't up to the task.

All quibbles aside, "The Dragonslayer's Return" is, like its forebears, a fast read, and though it has its lulls, it's still a good sword 'n sorcery novel, sure to retain the fans of the previous tomes. It just gets a bit too self-important sometimes, and never really makes the most of its winning premise. Still, I can't help but recommend it to the world's dreamers, who will almost surely find something to like here.

This entire Series is a little juvenile. I read this book and the other tow in the trilogy (The Woods Out Back and The Dragons Dagger) and they were all good. This is an easy read which is part of the reason that I don't think that this is Salvatore's best work. I got the feeling that this might have been one of his earlier attempts before he found his real writing niche. I love all of Salvatore's boooks and am now about 4 books from reading them all. This Particular book and series has great characters. I liked the Leprechan especially. There was a lot of good comedy and there were several fights but these weren't as Dynamic as, say, the Dark Elf books by Salvatore. All in all though this book has a good story, be it predictable at times. I did enjoy this book because the basic premice of the books was good. Somewhat like the Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay who is also a very good writer. This book and this series (Becuase you might as well read the whole series) are worth the time and this would be a good one to read to your kids at night. I hope this helps.

This, the fourth book, in Salvatore's "Cleric's Quintet," is probably the worst novel in the five book series. There were a few promising ideas that could have been developed more but alas, no such luck. This book is meant to be the climax of the story, which resolves around the plans of Castle Trinity to conquer part of the Realms.

Cadderly, the lead character, becomes more and more powerful with each passing page. His development seems to have been arrested and I found him less interesting than in the previous books. In "Canticle" (which I've reviewed), Cadderly was inexperienced and he depended on his friends to help him. He also had several internal struggles that gave him some depth. However, here, Cadderly seems to be able to overcome any obstacle with little trouble.

The story development leaves something to be desired as well. Salvatore brings back one of the interesting villains from a previous book ("Nightmasks") and then dispatches him without so much as the villain facing off against Cadderly. Other reviewers have mentioned this and I have to find myself agreeing with them. Cadderly's incredible and frequent use of magic becomes something of deus ex machina. There are supposed to be limits on what magic (i.e. power) can accomplish and it seems something of the balance was lost here. It is a pitfall that every fantasy author must always attempt to steer clear off.

There is one development in this book that hints at what will happen to the Edificant Library (a bastion of priests and good gods) in the following novel. I don't want to say anymore on that note for fear of spoiling the plot.

Please refer to my review of all the other novels in this series.

The Fallen Fortress, Book 4 of the Cleric Quintet - R. A. Salvatore
A Review

I'd like to start things off by saying that the back cover of this book is somewhat misleading. Rather than this novel being just another short episode in the ongoing war between Castle Trinity and Cadderly and his friends, the Fallen Fortress is more like something of a conclusion to the series. It encloses the "fall" of Castle Trinity, which is where the name of the book comes from. If you've read my reviews on the other books in the series, you'll know that the series really isn't anything exceptional, but is still pretty good. If you have never read Salvatore before, though, I would strongly advise you not to start reading his works with the Cleric Quintet. I shall make the following announcement:
"The Cleric Quintet is Salvatore's least enjoyable series."
And although I have not read all of his books, I am pretty sure that this series has to be his worst. If it is not his worst, if he has written something that is even crappier than this series, then that goes to show that he most assuredly is not much of a writer.

One, when reading this book and very near the end, thinks why would Salvatore write a fifth book in the series? All the possibile plot variations have been exhausted! Not so, as is obvious when considering that there actually is another book in the series after this one. Just read the Epilogue, and you'll see why. It is true, though, that the plot variations have been exhausted. The fifth book is very tired, but. . .

(spoiler)

The plot of this book is nothing more exciting than the similar plots of the other books in the series. The character's are self-righteous and sickening, and always more intelligent than the supposedly "brilliant" villians. That is one thing about fantasy that always irks me. Good forces do not always have to prevail. If one is intelligent enough, he or she can come up with a plot or idea that is a bit more original than the typical fantasy series. Anyway, there is an evil red dragon in this book, Fyrentennimar, that Cadderly manages to charm so that he and his friends can use the dragon to their own whims. Eventually, Cadderly loses control over Fyren and the dragon turns on them. A battle ensues, and I won't even bother mentioning who the victor is. This "dragon" segment of the book, though, is unusual and I appreciated it greatly. But that alone does not make it any better than the other books in the series.
Anyway, like I have said in all my previous reviews for the books in this series, the Cleric Quintet, specifically this book, isn't really all that bad. It's classic fantasy, and nothing more can be expected from it than what one expects is contained in the words "classic fantasy." Yes, I suppose the series is worth reading, this book especially, but I can't really say the same for the Chaos Curse, the following book.

I will give this book all my 5 stars and highest compliments, I hope any of you who have followed the series enough so far didn't get off course with the horrible reivews people have put in, this book is by far one of the greatest in this series, the series is great the characters are well developed and they do continue to develop unlike what other people have been saying, this book is basically the climax to everything in Castle Trinity and it couldn't have been done better, yes it's hack and slash but it's good hack and slash and the climax was worth the fun reading, you are perhaps expecting a Luke Skywalker thing with Cadderly and Aballister but I will tell you now that the father and son rival thing was done well by salvatore and the ending to this book was great, this book is my second favorite book in my favorite series by Salvatore and I know that if you give the book a chance you will find that there are more exciting things to Salvatore then Dark Elves! I give this book and series 5 stars because it deserves it and I will gladly defend the book in anyway if an argument comes up, read this book my friends and I promise the people who have found this series fun so far that this climax will not disappoint you.

James Lowder, ed., Realms of Valor (TSR, 1993)

Realms of Valor was the first short story collection to showcase the continuing adventures of various well-known personages in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons world of the Forgotten Realms (a second, Realms of Infamy, appeared later). Each of the stories is written by someone who was instrumental in the creation of the original characters, e.g. Scott Ciencin, who wrote parts of the Avatar Trilogy under the name Richard Awlinson, gives us a tale about Adon, the priest from the adventuring party in those books, and Robert Salvatore brings back Drizzt Do'Urden, who's spent time on the New York Times bestseller list on quite a few occasions over the past decade.

The book's probably not a starting point for reading about the Realms, but for those who have a few series' worth under their belts, it's great to see one's old friends again. The stories, in general, live up to the novels that introduced the various characters within. They do so well enough, in fact, that some characters with which the reader might not yet be familiar may inspire the more industrious reader to go looking for the books that the characters came from. Very good stuff. *** ½

ok, i only read 3 of the stories so far, so dont count my rating. the one with drizzt was unbelievably boring though, as was the one with arilyn. the really cool one was "the last drink" by christie golden which had the vampire elf jander summerstar, who is really cool. i liked that story.....:)

"Oldies, but Goodies," still hold true today. I re-dug this book out of the boxes of Forgotten Realms books and read it again for the first time. Valor isn't just a word, it's an idea. Take a spin and read this book, as you put yourself in each main character's shoes, and see if you think you might have Valor. I highly recommend this book to those who think deeply and have an open mind to different opinions in Valor.

"Lady Luck, Where Art Thou?" is a compelling first work by a man who has obviously "been there". The polish is lacking, and the editing could have been better, but Mr. Carcione tells a good tale.

Honor among thieves is the main theme here. The four men involved go to unusual extremes to try and help each other out, from jail breaks, to not "talking" at trial, to sharing of money from their heists, to finding "Jobs" when one of them is in need of money. The background of this friendship is missing, with only a couple clues pointing to a mafia related past. Mr. Carcione would have done well to examine this relationship between the four, to help us understand why these men would risk their lives and freedom to help each other out.

As the title proclaims, this story is about four thieves whose luck has run out. Mr. Carcione tells the story in a fast paced whirlwind of activity, only slowing down when detailing the activity of his own trial that sent him to Leavenworth. It is a short and entertaining read that this reviewer would like to see as a portion of the overall story that Mr. Carcione could tell us. Let's find out why these men turned to a life of crime, what brought them together, where the mafia relates, and why their bond is thicker then glue. This will show us Mr. Carcione's talents. We know he can tell a story, but can he develop a story?

No one writes a better battle scene than R.A. Salvatore, which is where this adaptation of a screenplay to a short-lived TV series shines. Tarzan moves and fights with all comers with almost preternatural grace. As Salvatore fans have come to love with the Drizzt novels, Tarzan continually engages in a savage ballet at least every thirty pages. Unfortunately, that's about all the free reign Salvatore has in this book. He seemed limited by the fact Tarzan must win with all his helpless, and continually in-the-way, friends completely intact, and this steals a large amount of the suspense. In Salvatore's own worlds, he is free to take the characters where they take him. Here Tarzan and his friends need to get from preordained point A to B knowing that only a finite number of written pages are keeping them from the inevitable ending. If you've read the Drizzt novels, the Corona tales, the Cleric Quintet and Salvatore's various but scattered trilogies, this book is more of the swashbuckling style but without the characterization. If this is your first Salvatore book though, it may hold your attention, but you're missing out.