Insurrection - Thomas M. Reid

The first book set the stage for disaster and introduced all the main players in this story.  But this book gets to the heart of the action, leading the main characters (certainly not protagonists; I'm sure they'd be offended) out of Menzoberranzan to Ched Nasad - The City of Shimmering Webs. 

There a city is built upwards from thick, stone-like webbing.  It would surely be a marvel to behold.  The main characters seemed impressed enough.

So far in the tale we have three females total to the group - Quenthal, sister to the Matron Mother Baenre, and to Gromph, her would-be assassin from the previous book.  Hallistra, the now homeless Matron Mother Melarn (her mother killed in an attempted coup on the part of Ambassador Faeryl's House).  And finally, the lovely Danifae, battle captive and bound to Hallistra.  Hallistra relies heavily on the servant, who seems to want nothing more than to kill her mistress and return to her home city, betraying a level of weakness that is...unsettling to see in a drow.

The males who tend to their demanding females are at current count three as well - Pharaun, the mouthy mage who in the previous book betrayed his "friend" Ryld.  Ryld himself seems now (after surviving the betrayal) to keep an eye on his old buddy more often than not.  And Valas, the scout who joins them on their journey at Matron Baenre's "request" is often quiet, disappearing at the drop of the hat only to reappear at extremely plot-convenient times.

In this book, you see the fall of Ched Nasad into a completely chaotic wreck.  While Menzoberranzan put their political differences aside when the revolt came, Ched Nasad Houses only wreaked more havoc with their wrestling for power.  Ultimately, it looked like the entire city fell apart completely.  Crushed beneath the weight of burning stone and giant fucking spiders.

Dissolution - Richard Lee Byers

This is another book from the Forgotten Realms world.  It follows the intrigue in the Underdark, between the different Houses in Menzoberranzan and the mystery of where exactly the Spider Queen, Lolth, has gone to.

Their dark goddess seemed to have left the drow, leaving a city full of abused and angry slaves under the care of powerless priestesses. The males of the city begin to rise up in discontent against the dominant females of their species and a rebel force grows.

We see much of the story through the eyes of a mouthy drow mage, Pharaun.  His friend - as much of a drow can have or be a friend - Ryld, master of Melee-Magthere follows him on his quest to solve the mystery of where all these male nobles are disappearing to, only to stumble upon an unlikely rebel alliance.

I've only ever read one book set in the Underdark (one book BEFORE reading this series) and this book really fleshes out answers to all the questions I had after being introduced to this other world.  We see exactly how the females treat the males and their slaves, what exactly honor means to them, and how it's frowned upon. 

I've already read the second in the series of four and am eager to discuss the next book so I shall leave it at this for now.

The Cleric Quintet - R.A. Salvatore

Well, I finished it, all 1036 pages of it.  And I am now a Forgotten Realms fan.

I've read novels from the Forgotten Realms....world before.  I read the beginnings of Drizzt, I think the book that describes his youth in the Underdark.  I then went on to read some of his adventures with his friends, but it was out of order and I was quite lost to be honest.

The Cleric Quintet is the complete (as far as I know) adventures of Cadderly Bonaduce, all five books:
- Canticle
- In Sylvan Shadows
- Night Masks
- The Fallen Fortress
- The Chaos Curse

Now, my liking for this series grew with each volume.  I wasn't that excited with the first pages involving Aballister slaughtering some creatures I could hardly visualize.  But by the end of the series, I was resisting the urge to ravenously turn the pages to complete Cadderly's adventures.

This series appealed to me a lot more than the Drizzt series perhaps because I felt there was more depth to the character and he wasn't the typical hero.  True he was an innocent in the beginning, but he didn't take to warfare or battle the way most fantasy heroes do.  He abhorred wreaking violence down upon other beings, was haunted by his first human kill for weeks, despite the evil doings of the man.  Even at the end of the series it was evident that while he was a better fighter than the beginning, he took no joy in the fight.

A scholar by nature and nurture, perhaps, Cadderly made an intriguing choice for a fantasy hero.  His weapon on his adventures was not something that you could hold in your hand precisely (though he made use of his spindle discs and walking stick often enough); it was his faith in the god he served, a power he could call on to cast spells of healing and protection, to dissuade and pain the undead and whatnot. 

Cadderly aside, there was a great cast of supporting characters - Danica, the warrior monk (who incidentally, inspired me to begin my own physical training again), Ivan and Pikel, the brother dwarves, Shayleigh the elven archer, and so on and so forth.

I hate to say it, but the boyfriend was right.  I really liked this book.  Now I have to ask to borrow some others from his collection. :D

Bentobloggy Giveaway!

So there's this awesome blog, completely unrelated to books, that I love.  It's called bentobloggy. 

Now, they're giving away a cool gift certificate and I really want to win!  Good thing no one reads this or else I could have some major competition!

However, if you too love food and want to try to win a $45 gift certificate to CSN stores, then go to bentobloggy and enter!

Acorna - Anne McCaffrey

If you haven't read this book, you need to hit a library or go to a bookstore or steal it or something.  Any lover of Anne McCaffrey's girl-power-y books or scifi/fantasy would love this.
It follows the adventures of this alien foundling, Acorna, in a space-aged human world.  I use the term world loosely, since the setting for this series takes place on multiple worlds, all human-populated. 

Found in a escape pod as an infant by three asteroid miners, Acorna is raised on a spaceship and taught the trade by these three gruff men.  With her strange looks they stay as far away from humanity as possible since each of their encounters with civilization has people trying to take the alien girl away.

Eventually she grows to realize there is a world beyond the hull of their mining ship and that it is really not all sugar and lightness.  One of the worlds they visit and eventually stay on, Kezdet, is full of evil doings.  Children used in the thousands as cheap labor, then sold off to pleasure houses til they are killed from overuse or die of disease.  Corrupt officials unwilling to change the system due to expense and sheer laziness.

Now, of course Acorna won't let that lie.  :)

I first read this book a long, long time ago.  Nearly a decade now, but I still love to reread it.  Even if you don't want to follow up on the rest of the series (and you probably will), it's a great standalone book that you'll have a hard time putting down.

The Cleric Quintet & Update

So my boyfriend has insisted I read this massive book, which is really five books smooshed into one.  I'm about fifty pages in and it's....okay.  Kind of interesting, but the writing from R.A Salvatore has always just left me cold.  Some authors know how to whip up a reader - keep them on the edge of their seats, flipping pages eagerly.  Not so with Salvatore.  It's a good story with a lot of interesting details and stuff but I never feel any tension from it somehow.
So far I'm enjoying it though.

That aside,  I just wanted to update to make sure I was still going through with my book log.  I HAVE been reading other things aside from that last book, but it's nothing new, just some of my own personal classics from my lovely bookshelf.  Maaaybe I'll write about them later, but I want to start off with some new stuff.

That's all for now :D