Review – The Two Swords by R.A. Salvatore (3/5 stars)

The Two Swords is the third (and last) book in The Hunter’s Blade trilogy from R. A. Salvatore. This book, while slightly better than the last book, was just okay.

In this book the dwarves work to defend Mithril Hall against orc invasion. Drizzt and Innovindel continue their battle to rescue the Pegasus Sunrise and to deplete what orc forces they can.

The Good
– I really enjoyed the character development between Drizzt and Innovindel.
– The frost giant queen was a very enjoyable as a character
– You get a little closure between Drizzt and Cattie-Brie
– Well-written action scenes
– For once good does not necessarily triumph

The Bad
– This book just continues the battle from the second book
– The main characters survive unrealistic situations (I mean *really* unrealistic situations). It is as if Salvatore can’t bring himself to loose any of the main characters.
– This book is a lot of strategic battle; there isn’t a ton of personal quest type fights (which I like more than epic battle scenes)
– There is still a lot to be resolved at the end of this book

The Ugly
– Secondary characters are treated like fodder (similar to how we treat NPCs when playing DnD)
– Certain characters seem to be killed just because Salvatore doesn’t know what to do with them
– The whole book is epic battle and more epic battle filled with mass slaughter or orcs and dwarves alike.

Overall this was an okay book. I personally don’t enjoy books with epic strategic battles that much; especially when the epic battle goes across numerous books. I enjoy personal type quests a lot more. While Drizzt and Innovindel do go on a quest to save Sunrise; it is not the main focus of the book. I did like the fact that for once evil is not neatly put down; it looks like the good folk are going to have to really get their act together before they get rid of Obould…or possibly even strike a compromise with Obould. It was also nice to see that Drizzt can’t beat everything he goes up against.

In all this was definitely not my favorite work of Salvatore’s. It took a long time for me to get through it. I stopped reading it a number of times but was determined to finish it. Hopefully the next book will be better.