R.A. Salvatore reminds me a bit of Piers Anthony at his best. The monsters that don't quit fit, especially, although maybe these were determined by the bosses at DnD and Salvatore's not responsible for them at all.

There's less horrible punning and embarrassing lechery in Salvatore, though, so that's too bad. ( )

I was wondering why I liked this novel's predecessor (Homeland) while the Icewind Dale trilogy (books 4-6) made so little impression on me, and now reading Exile I think I know why. In Homeland, Salvatore focused on a character's relationship to his society, and Salvatore exploited this to enhance characterization and drama. In Exile and Icewind Dale, he focuses on a party of adventurers essentially making their way through a D&D module and character and drama take a back seat. The titular Dark Elf is now joined by a companion, svirfneblin Belwar, and both characters are essentially the epitome of goodness so their interactions grow rather stale pretty quickly. The bulk of the novel is them killing a variety of fearsome beasts making their home in the Underdark which is not compelling. ( )

I liked this one a fair bit more than #1, but probably less than any of numbers 4 - 6 (which I read first, as they were written first). The drow society stuff doesn't appeal to me all that much -- the members of this group are just too unambiguously and flatly bad on the whole -- and there was enough of that in the book that I was turned off here and there. Salvatore is at his best when writing about friendships, and there are little elements of that in this book that are stirring. Battle scenes and descriptions generally are procedural and a little blah. These are quick and mostly pretty fun reads. I like Drizzt a lot, and I look forward to seeing what he does in #3 (I predict some early shenanigans with Bruenor Battlehammer, which I anticipate liking a lot, as their dynamic in the books that occur chronologically later in the series has been a highlight of the series for me so far). ( )

Good story. I cried. A couple times. Really good tale ( )

I knew it! A bit predictable, but I still love the character of Drizzt.

Thank god for fresh air! Woohoo!!!! Sojourn, here I come! ( )