BOUNDLESS

Second entry in Salvatore's latest fantasy trilogy (Timeless, 2018, etc.) set in the Forgotten Realms and featuring Drizzt Do’Urden, his iconic dark elf.

Centuries ago, in this matriarchal, demon-infested world, Zaknafein, champion of House Simfray in the Underdark city Menzoberranzan, fatefully encountered houseless reprobate Jarlaxle, founder of the mercenary company Bregan D'aerthe. Later, Zaknafein sired Drizzt and subsequently died saving him. This thread forms a backstory to the entire Drizzt saga. Meanwhile, in the present, Zaknafein lives again, but revived by whom, and why? Zaknafein brought with him a whole raft of prejudices, shared by the unenlightened matriarchs of the city, that Drizzt, with his dwarf and elf friends and human wife, finds difficult to deal with. Still, along with Jarlaxle, they'll make common cause against said machinating matriarchs, an invasion of demons, and the intrigues of Lolth, the monstrous Demon Queen of Spiders. The ending will raise eyebrows high. Some books in the series, like this one, resemble novelized episodes in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, where the setting originated and to which the series owes a large part of its appeal. And most contain large chunks of the Theater of the Absurd. For instance, characters in the most desperate straits—such as being surrounded by invading hordes of ravening demons, about which the unsuspecting folks back home must be warned at all costs—will find time to stop and politely bicker over who's going to do what, when, and who goes first; the demons, meanwhile, obligingly turn on each other. For susceptible readers, these aspects of the narrative form a prominent part of Salvatore's otherwise bemusing charm.

Drizzt Industries ticking over nicely.