Steven C. (SteveTheDM) - , reviewed on 2/2/2012 + 204 more book reviews

Gauntlgrym is the next installment (and the first of the new Neverwinter trilogy) in the ongoing saga of Drizzt DoUrden, set in the Forgotten Realms, on of the many worlds of Dungeons & Dragons. Ive read quite a few of these novels prior to this one, and weve finally gotten to the point where the different natural life spans of people (elves live ten times longer than humans) have had an impact.

In other words, Drizzt has lost nearly all of his companions. And this is a good thing! The novels prior to this had seemed to me to have devolved into nothing more than never-ending soap operas. Finally, thats all over. We have a Drizzt getting darker and darker (and more interesting), and setting things up for what might very well be some interesting developments.

And (as you might guess from the title), we finally see the ancient Dwarven kingdom of Gauntlgrym. This has been searched for many times in prior novels, and to see Bruenor finally get there is a grand scene.

There were plenty of grand battle scenes (Salvatores strong point), and evocative enemies and allies. The book was definitely worth reading if you are all invested in this saga.

Some of the motivations of antagonists developed early in the novel were confusing, though, and things really didnt clear up much by the end of the novel. Im still not sure why any of the bad guys were doing what they were doing. It almost feels like I skipped over a chapter or something.

4 of 5 stars.

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