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