During my brief freedom from LSAT studies, I trudged through this trilogy set in the Forgotten Realms world.
The setting is the other side of what regular readers of the Forgotten Realms series are familiar with. In this area elves live on the fringes of the land, keeping the meager concentration of evil races at bay while humans flourish and expand in a land that is more like Earth's developing history.
Artemis is transported to this land via what I call a Convenient Plot Device. Not only does this CPD allow for him to escape Calimshan, the city of thieves guilds and whatnot, but it also gives him an unlimited supply of money. He is now free to explore this new land unfettered by common needs like money for food or whatever - and naturally he gets into trouble. He is the baddest thing around, and uncharacteristically acts like it. Pontier characterizes Entreri more like a schoolyard bully than anything else - and the self-possessed assassin has never seemed more childish and impulsive than in his story.
From my understanding, the first volume was originally a lengthy fanfiction piece that the publishers found interesting enough to capitalize on - however, as a connoisseur of fanfiction, I found the first volume particularly unremarkable. It's definitely not the worst fanfiction I've ever read, but aside from the basic premise, the story is not very good. It seems to be written very much so by an amateur - Entreri somehow never seems to get into any trouble he hasn't already planned a dozen ways out of - and frankly, I'm kind of annoyed it got published. But then, Twilight got published too, and that was a trainwreck as well. The only reason I completed it is because my insistent boyfriend told me it got better in the later books. People told me that about Twilight too, but I guess I really didn't have anything better to do this time.
Do I recommend this trilogy? Nooooot really. If you've got nothing else to read then sure. Meh overall.
