Hey finally I’ve found my old book digestion speed again ;). In other words – I’ve quickly used the drive I got from Lisa’s Extinction to dive deeply into Annihilation by Philip Athans. And it worked. It worked well. In this book you’ll have the expedition to the Abyss on the edge of destruction and more than that, you’ve a high priestess close to utter desparation – an archmage (of Menzoberranzan) on the verge of destruction – a lichdrow in his finest and darkest moments and an assassin between two sides. You’ll read that thousands merge into a few, and those eight return.

I have to say, it was an impressive read. Due to my work obligations I had a few trips by airplane which certainly sped up my reading in this, but even without these trips, Annihilation was a very thrilling and captivating read. I’m not quite sure if I like Philip Athans’ personal style with the underdark and his approach to the characters as much as I did Lisa’s – but I have to admit it was a continuosly coherent and action filled read coming from someone with a great imagination of this world.

 

So it finally looks like I will manage to get the War of the Spider Queen read within the next time and can go on with some of the decent looking books from my self-filling shelf  :). I would rate Annihilation with a decent 8 of 10 points, given I am not too fond of the writing style, but Philip did a great job on killing one of the characters I was certainly enjoying most on the way, and still I think he did extraordinary well in the scenery.

Greetings and hello, I think it’s about time I write my short review of Lisa Smedman’s extraordinary contribution to the War of the Spiderqueen Series. She wrote a book called Extinction – driving forward the journey to the Abyss and giving Pharaun, Ryld, Valas, Danifae, Halrissa, Quenthel and her draegoloth but not only them…

My personal favorite is her approach to Gromph, the archwizard of Menzoberranzan, his dealings and troubles. There are incredible nice ideas for challenges in this book – a great, short overview of an aboleth “society” and their powers – an illithid, Elistraee priestesses, Werewolves - I like the changes during the storyline – and the flaws and merits every character seems to possess. It wasn’t the best book I’ve read, but it’s close to Paul S. Kemp’s novels and I am very much looking forward to read Lisa’s others books after I finish with this series. (Which keeps me from reading other books for far too long now).

Conclusion: It was one of the best books of this cycle, probably the best so far and now the bar’s pretty high for book #6 – and my expectations for Paul’s of the last book are growing. *smiles*

The second part of six is done. Honestly I start to understand why I was not overly fond of the first part…
Thomas M. Reid did a good job on the second one – this one is about the journey of a handful Menzoberranzanyr to Ched Nasad to find out what happened to Llolth, did other drow loose contact as well?
As usual I will try to give a review without spoiling the fun of reading the book yourself. (It is probably worth it, I liked it)

The first part describes the journey to Ched Nasad itself, the band of drow itself is quite amusing, with refreshing quirks of characters I got to “like” during the first part (though I did not like the style of writing).
I am sure if you like demons – this part will be quite special and will provide you with a special insight that will keep you smiling throughout the whole book. The second part is about special happenings in the city of Ched Nasad – a plan going awry –
– and finally the third part is mainly about underdark war.

Insurrection gives an insight on guardian spiders (which are described in a very lovely way), on duergar mercenaries and their tactics and a lot of destruction.
I really recommend this book for all those who like underdark adventures – Thomas M Reid does an excellent job on spell descriptions, internal conflicts and thoughts of the various (refreshing) characters.
While I wouldn’t say this is one of the best books I’ve read for a time, it still is a good second part, which prepares for something completely different upcoming. I’ll keep reporting on the upcoming Condemnation.