This book was a phenomenal addition to the long standing tradition of R. A. Salvatore!!! Can’t wait for the next one!

This book is told from two prospective. You've got Drizzt (duh) as he spends time with his daughter and goes through an existential crisis. The second prospective follows Catti-brie, Artemis Entreri, Zaaknafein, and Jarlaxle on an adventure in the north.

This book suffers from a problem sometimes found when you read more than one prospective. I liked one of the prospectives and hated the other. Drizzt's chapters were boring. I don't care about his struggles with religion and his purpose in life. I appreciate what Salvatore is trying to do with those chapters but I want action.

The adventure story is really cool. After years of appropriate backlash for making the dark skinned drow naturally evil, Salvatore addresses that drow's evilness has nothing at all to do with the color of their skin but from living underground so long. We're introduced to surface dwelling drow who are wonderfully kind. I'm looking forward to seeing where this story goes.

Unfortunately, pretty far down in terms of Salvatore's works.

One of the biggest problems might be that the book seems confused with what its target audience is supposed to be. Those who've been keeping up with these books might see that there's a lot of repetition, nothing really feels new or interesting anymore. Those just getting back into the series might be lost as a lot has happened, some major changes that aren't so easily explained, and the characters they knew won't feel familiar anymore. New readers might be overwhelmed by the size of the cast. Fans of Drizzt might be disappointed, as he bears little relevance to the plot and his role feels shoehorned in.

Starlight Enclave is a great example of fun and compelling characters. as it includes a fantastic range of characters, with both intriguing new characters to beloved long-running figures from the overarching series. Over the last couple of Drizzt Do’Urden novels, Salvatore has noticeably moved away from some of his classic protagonists and has started to focus on the unique combination of the Drow characters of Jarlaxle and Zaknafein. I quite like these two great characters, I'm looking forward to continuing this series.
Full review to come on YouTube.

I love R.A. Salvatore! I feel he can do no wrong. He always delivers a strong plot and strong characters and this book is no exception! I found myself sucked in, wanting more, and reading late into the night. There’s very few fantasy writers that deliver such character and environmental driven stories at the same time. I can’t wait to continue this story!

Today I am excited to welcome R. A. Salvatore back to the show to talk about his new book Starlight Enclave that kicks off the new series Way of the Drow.

Salvatore has written the start of another great series. He is a master writer who does not disappoint. The plot was tightly written and kept one engaged the whole book.

The below 3-star review was posted to Every Day Should Be Tuesday, Amazon, and Goodreads on 8/10/21:

Tolkien was my real gateway into fantasy. But like a lot of kids in the 80s and 90s, a huge part of my fantasy reading was devoted to D&D tie-in novels. Outside of the Dragonlance Chronicles, R.A. Salvatore was the king of the tie-in novel, and he created what has to be THE marquee D&D tie-in character, Drizzt Do’Urden. Drizzt spawned a small publishing empire of his own. I was never a Drizzt fanboy, but I read a bunch of the earlier Drizzt books and even non-D&D fantasy by Salvatore like The Sword of Bedwyr. The Drizzt stories somehow soldiered on without my $8, and The Legend of Drizzt superseries is at 37 books, I think, with this latest entry. So parachuting in with book #37 is a bit of a leap but not completely crazy, and I have fond memories of the early books (especially The Crystal Shard), so when offered an ARC of Starlight Enclave I gladly said yes.

Unsurprisingly, that context matters a lot. If you have already read all 36 previous Drizzt books, of course you are going to read this one. If you haven’t read any Drizzt books, of course you wouldn’t start here. If you walk in with some context but not full knowledge, like me, you can enjoy this book but there are downsides too. Drizzt sells books, so he gets his picture (maybe) and his name on the cover, but this isn’t really a Drizzt book. The tension between feature Drizzt to sell books and Salvatore really wanting to tell another story creates some issues. The pacing early gets bogged down by Drizzt presence despite his plot irrelevance. It gets better as the book progresses. Drizzt steadily gets fewer and fewer pages, with his presence eventually being distilled down to philosophical ruminations. Which are his real role here, and they do play an important role setting up I assume will be a grand theme of the new trilogy.

Another major issue is how Salvatore presents the other characters. His approach reminds me a lot of what Kevin Anderson did in The Dark Between the Stars, another series starter that really continues a prior series. Neither tries to introduce characters in the way a first book would, instead opting to just sort of tell us what they have been up to. It probably works fine for readers of the earlier work, but it doesn’t hook a reader walking in already invested in the characters (or even one whose investment has just waned from long neglect).

The plot involves both a book-level quest and the setup for what I assume is a series-level conflict. The latter gets limited development but has immense potential. A cadre of drow are convinced that the drow of Menzoberranzan are not inherently evil but rather live in an evil society due to the baleful influence of the chaotic evil spider goddess Lloth. And they are willing to start a civil war to prove it. (Whether a race in inherently evil is an important philosophical and practical debate among the characters themselves and could prove a very rich theme if done well.)

The book-level quest is to what must be the planet’s north pole to rescue a half-moon elf/half-drow magically flung there. You can tell this isn’t Drizzt’s book because he isn’t in the quest party. It instead consists of Catti-Brie (now married to Drizzt and a cleric), the roguish drow Jarlaxle, Drizzt’s dad Zaknafein, and the assassin Artemis Entreri (now a good guy, apparently). I don’t want to spoil things, but the quest turns into a very good Lost World story.

My views on Salvatore’s storytelling haven’t really changed: I like but don’t love it. The main thing he has working against him these days is greater competition. I have simply been exposed to far more really, really good fantasy than I had twenty-five years ago. Setting aside the issues created by my parachuting in to the story, my real issue with this book is what I expect is a baleful influence from the D&D tie. Too much time gets bogged down in detailed descriptions of monsters, locations, and magical items. So, so many magical items. (The more traditional fantasy worldbuilding when they reach the Lost World, on the other hand, I very much welcomed.)

Okay, that wasn’t my final gripe. Salvatore, for some reason, did not see fit to give us a complete book. Instead we get most of a book that ends not with climax and denouement but instead half-climax and cliffhanger. No.

Gripes aside, I enjoyed it. And if it hasn’t inspired me to read 2-3 dozen Drizzt books, or maybe even to finish the series, it has inspired me to reread The Crystal Shard.

I was so glad to see that the adventures of Drizzt was continued. Salvatore does not disappoint once again, and left me with one of the biggest cliffhangers. Seeing the changes in Drizzt--such as having a daughter--has brought on new elements of enjoyment for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Voyager for an e-copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. This book surprised me, in a good way from the start, since I thought the Drizzt stories may have been over. Minor spoiler-they are not, though this book was more about his companions than him. Salvatore is great at making something he has been doing for 30 plus years feel fresh by examining well-defined characters in new environments. He has set up redemption arcs for characters, had characters develop and grow, and, as he has feinted at in the past, even set up the ability for a species/race, for lack of a better term, to have a chance at redemption. This book puts Cattie Brie, Jarlaxle, Zaknafein, and Entreri in a part of the world that the book hasn't visited before, and introduces characters that call into question the relationship between Lolth and the drow in Menzobarranzan. I do not want to say more than that, at the risk of spoiling, but even so, the journey-both via action and character development, is worth the read. There are new types of enemies, but, more importantly, there is a new type of ally that causes the reader to think more about the issue of identity and belonging, and innate nature that the series has touched on in the past. These are serious themes in a book that can also be entertaining at a pure bubble-gum level, but, looking back, were present from the very beginning (adoption of Wulfgar, CattieBrie, Drizzt emerging from the underdark). So in this way, the reader can appreciate the maturity of the author and how his ability to weave this into the story results in a larger impact now than 30 years ago. Obviously, any fans of the series should read this, as should anyone who enjoys Dungeons and dragons. BUt even though this is far from the first book in the series-I think people may be able to pick it up and enjoy it even IF it is the first one of the series they've read. The backstory wont' make a ton of sense, but it may be worth a shot-so people shouldn't think they need to read the entire back catalog to pick this up. They will want to afterward, though, I bet. Highly recommend

R. A. Salvatore does it again. This new chapter in the continuing adventures of Drizzt and his friends is a period of apprehensive waiting. What will come of the revelations about the true history of Menzoberranzan? The foundations of everything the Underdark Drow believe about themselves and Lolth have been called a lie and challenged. Jarlaxle believes there will be a costly Civil War and enlists Zaknafein, Entreri and Cattie-Brie to join him on a quest. He believes Doum'wielle can be recovered from her banishment in the far north and used as an ally in the upcoming conflict.
As they continue in their arctic quest things begin to go wrong for the group. Day seems to never end. Their sense of direction is completely befuddled as the sun seems to be cirling them instead rising and setting. It is growing colder and their enchantments are failing to protect them. Even Jarlaxle's famous bag of tricks starts to fall short. Finally they discover even Cattie-Brie's magic has failed them. Still Jarlaxle stubbornly insists they must continue leaving his companions wonder what he knows that he hasn't told them.
Drizzt is left behind during this quest to the north because he is dealing with his own internal struggles. After his transcendence he is finding it difficult to feel any desire or urgency to participate in the battles of his friends. If everything is fleeting, temporary and just a small part in a bigger universe then why fight? He takes Brie, his and Cattie-Brie's daughter, with him to visit Grand Master Kane for some guidance. His journey so far is secondary to that of Jarlaxle's band, but both story lines promise to be extremely interesting and I can't wait for the next book in this new trilogy.
Thank you to Harper Voyager and Netgalley for the opportunity to read the e-ARC of Starlight Enclave.

Would definitely recommend. For as a long as the Drizzt series has gone on, it has to be hard to keep readers' interest and come up with new and interesting plots for Salvatore. He does it in this book, especially after believing there was nothing left with the conclusion of the previous book. I look forward to continuing this timeless series in the next installment,

I thought with last series the adventures of Drizzt were over but then saw that he this series coming out. Couldn't have been happier with another series. This is another one where Drizzt is really still trying to figure out his own purpose and his very nature. This is not favorite thing with all the introspection but the story so far focuses more on the other characters. We have the action which is what I really like and the various forms of magic and tools. So many creatures and demons and stuff as usual as well. This was a fun read overall just like most of the previous books. They are an easy read for me and even with some of the heavier direction he tries to do sometimes that is still not so complicated that it makes wonder how smart or stupid you are trying to understand the ideas of the story. There are some twists and turns that I like and he set up things for the next book at the end. Hope to see more Drizzt in that one though. The wild adventures continue.

If you love Salvatore and his Drizzt novels this one does not disappoint. It throws several curveballs and keeps you intrigued from start to finish. The new Aevendrow are possibly my new favorite Drow. Read it and you will see why.

ARC from Netgalley.
When you have been a life long fan of Salvatore's writing (particularly the Drizzt books) as I have, the release of a new novel is a time of celebration. Old friends return to the forefront of your mind, and you know that new adventures will be both entertaining and unpredictable. Just when you think you can't be surprised... well, let me just say that this book has one of the biggest cliffhangers ever! (For fans, this one is one par with the end of The Last Threshold.)
Starlight Enclave, the first in a new trilogy called "The Way of the Drow", divides into two main stories: 1) Catti-Brie, Jarlaxle, Zaknafein, and Entreri use the sentient blade of Khazid'hea to search for Doum'wielle Armgo, hoping to secure her trust to help in the coming war in Menzoberranzan. Having doubts about their goddess, Lolth, the society is starting to come apart at the seams. Perhaps the answer they really seek is in the barren snow lands of the top of the world, in a community of Aevendrow...
2) Drizzt has a daughter now. Briennelle Zaharina, named for both of her grandfathers, Bruenor and Zaknafein, is such a curious little one. Brie-Zara, or Brie, undertakes a journey with her father to the Monastery of the Yellow Rose to meet Grandmaster Kane. Drizzt hopes that she might begin to train, even at her young age.
Like all good trilogies, neither story is finished, but Salvatore has begun something here that will definitely change not only Forgotten Realms, but perhaps the very definition of what it means to be Drow. I will definitely be along for the ride, as I have been for 30 years already.
Strong recommend. A must read for fans.

There is a special place in my heart for R.A Salvatore. When I was a teenager a friend gifted me a few books or his. At the time I wasn't big in to fantasy and was trying to make my way through Infinte Jest. I was not succeeding at all. One day I put the fifty pound book down and quickly reached for the nearest book as I needed a break. I needed something I could understand without a dictionary or a PHD. The book I picked up was the first book in the dark elf series. Not only did this start my love of Dritzz but my love of fantasy as a genre. Reading Starlight Enclave felt like coming home. It reignited my passion for this world and made me eager to catch up on all the books featuring Dritzz that I've missed in the last few years. If you've read any of the Dark Elf books you pretty much know what to expect. Though I will say that this book had much more heart and much more teary eyed moments then I can remember having reading his earlier works. More to come closer to publication. I would definitely recommend!