Relentless: A Drizzt Novel (Drizzt Trilogy #3)

In a ruined world, bereft of hope, leadership, or a cause to believe in… R.A. Salvatore rudely interrupts \”the real world\” by providing the lifeline I needed to feel great, and survive during the \”Time of Troubles\” more popularly known as the Covid-19/Coronavirus Pandemic. Relentless describes the hero of a generation, Drizzt Do\’Urden, but is also a poignant, unintentional descriptor for the author himself. The action, characterization, intrigue, and emotion invoked in this most favored of loving-crafted literary worlds is relentlessly, insistently excellent. I am avoiding spoilers in my review, as I am not the world\’s worst human being, but I can assure you: lifelong Drizzt Do\’Urden fans will finish their journey at the conclusion of Relentless, eager to heap praise on this particular novel, and on R.A. Salvatore, and possibly ready to go to war against anyone who rates this less than 5 Stars, out of Dwarven inspired battle-rage. Join me, in cursing the spiders around you, hefting a frothy mug of ale, and loudly belting a ballad, while horrifying everyone around you during your triumphant read. That\’s what heroes do. And that\’s what you will want to do, as you satisfyingly journey with the beloved Companions of the Hall, potentially for one last time.*

I\’ve been reading this series since I was a kid, since the first book came out. I\’ve read fantastic Drizzt books, I\’ve read some pretty awful ones. The latest few have been…kinda weird. As though Salvatore wants us all to convert to some transcendent order of oneness or something. This was the culmination of some path, as though Salvatore-via-Drizzt-Sue is moving beyond belief and into self-sustained joining with the universe. Between the constant description of that and the frequent allusions to orgasms, this book was off compared to his normal writing.

Warning, this review contain spoilers. If we were allowed to give half stars, I would rate this book a 3.5 As a Forgotten Realms fan since 2005 (and yes, the Drizzt books were my introduction to the setting), I have a lot to say about this book, so possible tl;dr. Like the last several Drizzt books, I have mixed feelings about Relentless. I have seen complaints that there is no sense of peril for the characters, as Bob rarely kills charactersand indeed, brings them back. Personally, this is something I actually like about his writing. Yes, readers need to feel afraid for the characters sometimes, but I was thrilled to see the return of several characters, particularly Zakthough I would still love to know where his soul was all this time. Speaking of soulsthe gods, indeed, the cosmology of the Realms, was treated verystrangely in Relentless. Bob is known for disregarding canon and doing his own thing (sometimes I wonder why he writes in the Realms at all, if he is going to ignore pretty much everything about the lore. Does he just want to be able to write about drow?) It is true that mortals cannot know everything about the gods or the afterlife, but that doesnt change the fact that in this D&D setting, the existence of the gods is fact, and the afterlife(s) have been well-established. The Monastery of the Yellow Rose is an Ilmataren temple, yet there was not one mention of this poor and underrepresented deity. Instead, even Kane didnt know what was beyond. Again, mortals dont know everything, but, also againtemple of Ilmater. Followers know (or at least have a basic understanding) that they will go to the realm of their patron god, or the deity they worshiped most in life (Faerun is largely a polytheistic society). There was little, if any of that here. The one with everything concept was neat in some ways. I also liked Yvonnels declaration that souls were energy, and thus could not be destroyed. This is something I have thought about, myself. When you become one with everything, you, from my understanding, do not entirely lose a sense of self, but become part of a greater whole. Reminds me somewhat of the Planescape model, in which a petitioner eventually either becomes one with their god or plane, but maintains a sense of identity. Its a perfected form, one could say. But where does this leave the realm of the gods? The souls from the dagger were released into the multiverse (I was vaguely reminded of His Dark Materials and Earthsea here), but what Afa experienced was also a place between life and death. It was a bit confusing, and maybe it was meant to be, but that also meant it was a bit frustrating. I would have loved these scenes to be longer, but they were all crammed in at the end. In Relentless, everything is very convoluted, and I am not really sure how to respond. We also have the appearance of Charon/Sharon, an entity who has appeared occasionally in the Realms before, but isnt too prominent. In this scene, a binary, Judeo-Christian take on heaven and hell is given. As there are many options for an afterlife in the Realms, one could see this as a simplification of the heavenly realms (Celestia, Arvandor, House of Nature, etc), and more hellish realms (Banehold, the Abyss, the Nine Hells themselves, etc), or if it really was a heaven/hell as western readers would understand it. If its the latter, then that begs the question of whether this was Bob being Bob, or if WotC/Hasbro is making moves to further simplify the cosmology. There has been talk of removing alignment, at least with mortals, and so maybe your fate is based on choicesbut, that was already true, as you went to the realmand god—that was best aligned with your ethics. I am all for redemption arcs, but Entreri was already heading in that direction. It felt rushedin fact, much of the last quarter of the book felt rushed. Being as it was the last book in the trilogy, RAS was doubtless trying to cram all the revelations and tie up loose end, but he should have started sooner, either in Timeless and Boundless, or at least earlier in Relentless. Speaking of revelations (major spoilers here), the revelation of Lolth was soout there. Is this a move made by Bob, or something WotC/Hasbro prompted him to do? It is too early to tell, but either way, it goes against decades of lore (does Bob or his editor fact-check?). This could be part of the move to diversify the drow, but this just seems like yet another missed opportunity to have Eilistraee and Vhaeraun. Instead, Lolth, while an entity of some sort, wasan infection? She was a malevolent force that feeds off the corruption that we all have potential for. There was a moment where it seemed to harken briefly back to when the drow were first driven underground, butLolth was already Lolth by that point. Again, this all happened very fast, with a lot of information and action crammed into the last 20 percent of the novel. Bob may have been setting the building blocks for future changes in the Realms, but I really am not sure what to take away from all this. Lest it seem like I am tearing this novel apart, I will say that there were some poignant moments, particularly concerning the companions when they thought Drizzt goneCatti in particular tugged at my heartstrings. And, of course, more Jarlaxle is always a plus. Ive always been a Zak fan, so I was thrilled at the end of Hero, and to see more of him is always great. I would have actually liked to have seen the reunion at the enda couple more pages, or at the very least, a couple more paragraphs, would have been nice. Oh well. Despite the fact that this book raised a number of deep questions (and some questions from earlier in the series remain unanswered), I do hope Bob writes something else. The Drizzt series has to end at some pointthough fans dont seem to think so. I personally wished it had ended with Hero. That was such an amazing ending. But here we are, at the end of the Generations trilogy. Is it the final Drizzt trilogy? As of now, and maybe it will be.

This book deals with the past, parts of the original book retold, and brings us to modern day. The parts of the past I could\’ve sworn I was rereading a book I read before, and had to check several times. I guess he is sightly expanding on things he has already had us read in past books. The sections regarding the here and now… Well I feel like a different author wrote them. They don\’t seem to be well written, are VERY confusing, and are very disjointed. I have read every book up to this one many times, loved them all, but something feels very off about this book. I\’ll edit this review later if I can put my finger on it, but so much of it doesn\’t make sense and has no context. I had to make sure more than once I didn\’t skip a book by accident. Edit: I stand by all the above, I feel as if there was a book everyone missed, the first half of the book that talks about the present doesn\’t make sense. The second half starts to pull things together based on what was introduced, but this book definitely has parts that didn\’t seem to be written by R.A.

For those of us whove followed this story line, and these characters for literally YEARS – it is pointless to try and explain (to the degree needed) why we love this story so much. So for those of you new to the Drizzt Story I can only tell you to start at the beginning and enjoy the ride. For those of you who understand the why and wherefore of this story wondering whether or not to read this book – I can speak only for myself, but this may be Salvatores best book….ever. I wont spoil any of the story, but there is an intimacy, wisdom, and a demand of the reader unlike with the other storylines, and books. This is not a knock on the others, just recognition of improvement. Mr. Salvatore, thank you for continuing this story and in the way youve done it. It is truly a pleasure reading these stories and perhaps getting to know you (a little better) through them – Thank You.

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