Resurrection: War of the Spider Queen, Book VI

The Goddess Lolth awakens from her slumber seeking her Yor'thae chosen one vessel and preparing to cause havoc. Qunethel and Danifae hear the siren's call from the malevolent Spider Queen of the Demonweb Pits; they journey towards her with both vying to be her sacred vessel. At the same time, Halisstra the swordswoman enters the Demonweb Pits, not because of the call of the evil Goddess, but because she plans to assassinate Lolth. As the trio treks closer to their destiny, the dark elven drow wants them dead. Other subservient worshipers come home to Lolth's spidery realm. Confrontation is coming with much of the Forgotten Realms in peril regardless of the outcome. The sixth and final fantasy in the delightful War of the Spider Queen series is a strong conclusion that will please fans of dark tales with the Queen and the drow taking center stage. Especially enjoying the tale will be the myriad of readers who devour the works of R. A. Salvatore, as this and the predecessors (see Byers' DISSOLUTION, Reid's INSURRECTION, Baker's CONDEMNATION, Smedman's EXTINCTION, and Athans' ANNIHILATION) pay homage to the great fantasist. Though better to read the previous novels first but in spite of connectivity gaps, Paul S. Kemp provides a strong finishing touch. Harriet Klausner

I don't see why everyone dislikes this novel so much. Yes big changes were hinted at throughout this whole series and did not really come thought at the end, but does it always take a huge change in the realms to please people now? The drow are such a cash cow for novels now they could not possibly kill of Lloth and possibly alter the structure of Drow society and the image of the drow. *****spoiler***** i knew from the start of it that Lloth was going to remain basically the same at the end of the story. One of my favorite parts of the novel focused on Gromph attempting to slip into the drow house, if you read it you know what I am talking about but i don't want to spoil everything. I thought Paul Kemp did a great job writing this novel. You have to remember that he had to follow the storyline and did not have free rein to do whatever he wanted. Even if this novel disappointed you I suggest checking out Kemp's Cale trilogy and his work in the Sembia series. *****spoiler****** I only things that mildly upset me was the death of Pharuan and that Jeggred lived.

Well, this book had, as much as the others of this series, a two-fold purpose. First (if not primarily), to give "new" authors more space to present their talents. Second, to explain the in-game developements of the Forgotten Realms cosmology. Some of the readers may not have taken into account the latter. For the novels readers here, some explanations: The polytheistic cosmology of the Forgotten Realms (FR) has changed when Dungeons & Dragons moved from AD & D to D & D 3rd / 3,5 edition. Beforehand, Lolth was a multispheric deity and various settings (Greyhawk, FR) had her as one of the evil deities. The cosmology of the FR was now set apart from the rest and the "FR Lolth" had to leave her Greyhawk image and realm behind. Furthermore, her godly realm was now seen as the opposite of the good elven deities' realm, Arvandor. As such, it was clear that a) she needed all her personal effort to remove her realm (The Demonweb Pits) out of the Abyss (a plane of existence, previously home to various deities and archfiends) and thus went "silent", and b) that she had to attain a new quality of godhood. In game terms this meant that she was raised from intermediate (= second highest divine ranking) to greater goddess. That was the whole point of the storyline. Not exactly obvious to the non-gaming fantasy reader. Why it took six novels, well, that is another point. On the novel itself, Paul S. Kemp is surely one of the finest on the Wizards books right now and one has to remember that there were half a dozen plots left open at the end of WotSQ V and he took them all in and got us to the grand finale. Describing the chaos of Lolth's plane as well as the one wreaked by the fighting in Menzoberranzan isn't that easy and I for one wonder how people ask about the power level of the characters involved ('round about the ECL 18 to 20 mark for those who know), since others wouldn't have survived the journey. In other words, every single one of these characters could teach other FR novel heroes, such as Drizzt, Liriel, Danilo, or Arilyn, a lesson without breaking sweat. Was there anything which bothered me? Of course there was. The whole Halisstra affair dragged on far too long (IMHO) and kept reminding me of the mind games the reader / viewer of LotR III had to endure with Frodo, Sam and that One Ring. The fighting on the planes was indeed getting a bit tiresome too, but then again, what did we expect? The ongoing mental battle between Quenthel and Danifae were at times, hard to follow too. On the plus side of it ... the drow's mind games, especially in Menzoberranzan are described excellently. Furthermore, you won't find many authors such as Paul able to get the nod of approval from the gamers of D & D. The way he described the monsters, spells, weapons and usage of the aforementioned goes hand in hand with his Erevis Cale series, i.e. nigh perfect. In the end, I'd assume that a trilogy would have suited the purpose too, but as this is a monumental event

First off, why write a review where all you do is give a spoiler? Anyways, I found this book to be my favorite. The character personalities, the backstabbing, the mistrust, all there. Everything was as starkly cruel as you would imagine, and then some. It was gratifying how the characters all acted intelligently (except a slight gripe or two I have here and there), and with forethought, and with malice ... except of course Jeggred, who just acted with malice. :) The book read like a pair of freight trains, accelerating slowly, but moving faster and faster until a spectacular, explosive ending. (grin) No, not every main character survives, but in the world of the underdark, can you really expect them to? Even if it is your favorite character? Now that I've finished reading it, I'm going to go back and read it at a more leisurely pace.