Rating: 
Summary: I must be a mutant......(Take Two)
Review: I must be a mutant of a particularly virulent strain of fantasy readers. I have had an opportunity to re-evalute the reviews I have written of this book to see if I was a bit hasty earlier. I must, unfortunately, say I was dead on. I enjoyed this book not at all, and actually felt a little betrayed by how far this story has gone(to me) in the wrong direction. I have not felt that strongly and poorly about books since I forced myself to finish the Dune series. Wulfgar has always been my favorite character in this series, and it was the addition of Wulfgar to the group in the Crystal Shard where these books, and the Companions of the Hall began. I like Drizzt, and thought the Dark Elf Trilogy was excellent, but the last few books seem to have focussed entirely too much on Drizzt as if he were not a Dark Elf but a black hole from which the other characters can not escape. I must respectfully rebutt one of my co-reviewers comment that Mr. Salvatore is "developing Wulfgar into a powerful character" or words to that effect. I believe he was already a good character and that the recent developing has been counter productive. In fact, I see all the characters as becoming too much like Drizzt. I was pleased that the more recent reviews tend to justify my lack of enthusiasm for this installment.
Now, I enjoy Mr. Salvatore's work, but I do agree with my co-reviewers who believe that this series is past its prime. I liked the idea that one of them proposed of having Drizzt start a new series from the perspective of two or three centuries further into his life. That would be interesting. The only other thing I could suggest is that which is unthinkable to most fans of this series: Drizzt Do'Urden should die. Nothing short of such a drastic change will suffice to rekindle the reader's interest. He could even bring him back after a certain period or goal had been completed. As things stand now, however, I am forced to conclude that I should put this series down. Let others enjoy it as much as I did enjoy twelve of these books.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Enjoyable
Review: I eagerly awaited this book and recommend it to anyone who has read the series up to this point. I enjoyed seeing Wulfgar battling his deamons and getting back to his old self. Drizzt at always is one of my favorite characters to read about. Great read!
Rating: 
Summary: Decent, not outstanding
Review: This was a decent read if you have enjoyed the other books in Salvatore's series. It had a good amount of action, subtelty, and some political intrigue thrown in for flavour. It was also nice, on several levels, for him to visit some old story lines and tie up loose ends.
That being said:
Salvatore seems to work best with characters currently in development: Drizzt while overcoming his past and the scars that he carried because of it, Cadderly through his trials and tribulations, more recently Artemis's character along with Jarlaxle, &c. In this book he makes a critical error: he revisits many characters who's development is essentially over. Complete characters who are ready to be shelved and brought out as occasional NPCs, not to be put into the spotlight unless something critical is going on. He has taken steps to further their development, but he has failed to provide anything truly refreshing with these characters that will move them forward and make them interesting--in the Salvatorian style--to continue reading about. Essentially the "Companions of the Hall" are a "Veni. Vici. Vinci." group. They have no weaknesses, few internal demons, none of them can ever die, and they can overcome anything together. Further, Salvatore is showing a lack of willingness to kill a main character when it is appropriate to do so: a heroic death that will be sung by bards around the world for ages to come. Salvatore sets it up perfectly and then has an almost unbelievable circumstance save the character. A few times (Gandalf comming back, Bruenor's return) I'm more than willing to accept, but it keeps getting more and more unbelievable. I did enjoy this book and recommend it to anyone who has read the series leading up to this book (particularly if it is fresh in your mind), but Salvatore's style needs to evolve to fit the characters that he is trying to portray.
Rating:
Summary: Another Great Book From The King Of Fantasy, R.A. Salvatore
Review: This was one of the most eagerly anticipated books in Fantasy in a long time and it did not dissapoint. Although the storyline was not at it's best, and it would have been better to see more better evil enemies than Pirates it can still keep you up all night turning the pages. Of course there is tons of great fighting action and Drizzt is at his best. I thought this book was great, and I finished it in two days.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but part of a series that might be past its prime
Review: One cannot help but thing that the characters of the Salvatore books have outlived their usefulness. Unfortunately, unless you count the few series that actually end...Song of Ice and Fire which is limited to six, the trend in current fantasy is to just keep spinning books out until the author is six feet under, sometimes beyond. Although this was not a bad book by any means, the conclusion really was not in doubt at any point, merely how the characters were going to manage to get to the happy ending. In all honesty, what exactly can the author throw at this group to make the reader think that they might not get out of this one. When Wulfgar died, there was a feeling that any of the characters could check out, cause one of them just had. However, since his return, that mystique over the books that anything can happen disappeared. Now, the Companions of Mithral Hall are less men and more immortals. In this book, while it was fun for a while to see Drizzt and crew back in action, the giddiness quickly departs when one realizes that unless something drastic happens in the next trilogy, the best books are behind this franchise. Just like many of the recent books, there is a new enemy, who is really non-to threatening, and obviously destined to fail from the get go. The climax is something that even echoes a book from the past. The combat scenes are alright, so long as you do not care that you know the heroes are not going to lose. Honestly though, the book is not a bad read, but do not expect a book that rekindles the truly inspired work that was The Dark Elf Trilogy or anything even close. It is pretty much a run of the mill story that you could probably read the last chapter of and get the jist of what occured in the content of the book. Though, kind of like the Star Wars prequels, you know what is going to happen, it is how you get there that is what you are there to see. Same applies for this book.
Rating: 
Summary: a disapointment
Review: First of all, I am a Dutch reader. This doesn' t mean anything to you but 1. English is not my native language 2. Every book I want to read I have to order abroad (e.g. at [Amazon.com]/expensive).
Nevertheless I own every book Salvatore has written.
This is by far the worst book he has written. The characters are flat, Wulfgar is at his annoying best, the story is two or maybe one-dimensional and I think Savatore made this story up while eating turkey at Thanksgivingday at his parents (boring) place.
I rated this book two stars but I'm thinking it even deserves those two stars. Roger van den Heuvel
Rating: 
Summary: Good Writting
Review: The story does lack the suspense of not knowing how it could end like servent of the shard and many of his other books. The reason I say good writting for the title is just that salvatore is a good at writting and can make a story as predictable as this one good. I want to see ertemis and Jaraxle come back. I know Salvatore is not writting his Drizzt books as often (Demon Wars). I would like to see sometime latter on when all of the companions are dead of old age and only Drizzt is left of the original ones.
Rating:
Summary: Salvatore gets nice again
Review: I have been a fan of Salvatores ever since I got homeland which I loved and since then I have read all his forgotten realms books. This book takes you back to Icewind Dale and has all the companions of the hall return in it. I think it was a great read and a must have for all fantasy readers, but make sure to read all the other books first. Buy this book you wont be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Mildy entertaining, due to Drizzt and company.
Review: With any other set of characters this book would have been much weaker. However, as I have read every Do'Urden book, I have an investment in the character that supersedes a predictable plot, and makes an average read better. While this does not compare well to the other Paths of Darkness novels due to lack of character development, it is still worth reading as an endcap to the first three books. If you don't expect the opposing individuals to be as interesting as Entreri, Jarlaxle, Rai-Guy and others, and the plot to be as engrossing as The Silent Blade or Servant of the Shard, you won't be disapointed. Overall, an average fantasy book from Salvatore is still a better book than most. P.S. If your interested in an exellent trilogy from the same author, try the first Demon Wars saga.
Rating:
Summary: Hmmmm...
Review: In reading this book, it looks like we're beginning to have a problem here. While it is apparent that Salvatore loves his characters, I got the distinct impression while reading this book that he would have rather been writing something else. Salvatore is falling into the category of the famous writer that has been typecast and is desparately wanting to do something different, but people are simply waving too much money under his nose to write more Drizzt novels. Sea of Swords is a book filled with over-dramatization, repeated phrases from his other books, and way too many adjectives. But that's not the problem. The problem is that Salvatore is better than this; he *knows* better than that. It's like before he wrote the book, he sat down and said "Well, a bunch of teenagers are going to read this, the not civilized adults who read my Demonwars novels, so I'd better write to the audience." Oh boy. The slow demise of Drizzt may have just begun. My advice to Mr. Salvatore: You were an awesome writer, and you still are. Follow your passion. If you want to dump Drizzt, then dump him. If you still want to make a lot of money writing TSR novels, fine. Write about Jarlaxle and Entreri. Use the second half of "Servant of the Shard" as a guide. You'll have fun, it'll be a *great* book instead of a *barely good* book like this one, people will buy it (I know I will), and you'll still make money. I would much, much rather read about Jarlaxle and Entreri than about a drow hero who is getting tired of himself, and whose very author is getting tired of him.
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