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Having been on the surface
of the world for about 100 days, Drizzt Do'Urden, the dark elf, always
make sure that he watches the sunrise. He lives day to day, sometimes
bringing forth the great black cat, Guenhwyvar, who is his only
companion. Longing for interaction with a person, Drizzt leaves behind
the valley and runs finds a pack of gnolls. He joins them not knowing
that they are evil creatures working or a pair of barghest whelps,
Ulgulu and Kempfana. When the gnolls run across Farmer Batholemew
Thistledown household, they decide they are going to go down there and
kill the children and do other horrible things tot he adults. This does
not sit well with Drizzt and he ends up killing all of the gnolls with
the help of Guenhwyvar. When word of this reaches the barghest whelp,
Ulgulu send Tephanis, a quickling, to go and steal one of Drizzt's
scimitars. When Ulgulu has the sword, he shapeshifts himself to look
like Drizzt and slaughter's the farmer's family, leaving behind Drizzt's
now broken scimitar. Drizzt discovers the bodies and hunts down both of
the barghest whelps and enacts his revenge. The townsfolk call in a
ranger, Dove Falconhand, to hunt down the rogue drow, thinking that
Drizzt killed the helpless family. When she arrives, a local mountain
man, Roddy McGristle, joins the rangers group and is determined to kill
the drow. But as Dove trails the drow, she soon comes to realize that
Drizzt may not be guilty of the crime. Drizzt is trying to escape when
he runs across Roddy, who in turn looses a dog, an ear and scars his
face in the battle. Drizzt flees, not wanting to kill anyone, and heads
far away. A surface elf who is in Dove's party, Kellindil, continues to
follow the dark elf after the ranger decides that Drizzt is not guilty
of the crimes. Drizzt knows not where he is going, only that he wants to
fit in with someone . . somewhere . . . somehow. He ends up
sharing a cave with a hibernating bear through his first winter. As the
season passes, Drizzt almost dies, but has Guenhwyvar there to bring him
both food and warmth. In the spring, Drizzt meets Montolio, an old
ranger, now blind, that has been keeping his eye on him. Montolio sees
Drizzt for who is truly is, a good-hearted being and takes him in to
teach him the ways of the rangers. Drizzt finally finds peace with this
old man who has so much to give him. But Drizzt doesn't know that Roddy
is carrying a grudge for one of his dead dog and his maimed face. He is
determined that this evil drow must die at his hand . . . and nothing or
nobody will stand in his way.
Sojourn is the third book of sixteen
in The Legend of the Drizzt series. This new series is putting
all of the books about Drizzt in chronological order. These sixteen
books originally appeared in the the following series: The Icewind Dale
Trilogy, The Dark Elf Trilogy, Legacy of the Drow, Paths of
Darkness and The Hunter's Blade Trilogy. This Forgotten Realms fantasy tale features R.A. Salvatore's signature character, Drizzt Do'Urden, the dark elf.
Other main characters in this story are: Guenhwyvar - a 600 pound black
panther from the Astral Plane, Montolio - an old, blind ranger, Roddy
McGristle - a vengeful mountain man, Dove Falconhand - a ranger, Bruenor
- leader of the dwarves in Icewind Dale, and Catti-brie - the the
human female and adopted daughter of Bruenor.
Following the book
Exile, I was convinced that R.A.
Salvatore could not write a better book. I was wrong! This is the best
book he has ever written, as my score of 10 depicts. The book is
perfect. I often have wondered how Drizzt became a ranger and how he met
Catt-brie, and now I know. This book ties up a lot of loose ends and is
the best Drizzt book on the shelves today. The action sequences are
parallel to none and I have discovered what an extraordinary writer R.A.
Salvatore is. Sojourn is the perfect fantasy novel and Drizzt
Do'Urden is the most exceptional fantasy character ever created. Any way
you look at it, this book is stupendous, a masterpiece of fantasy that
any reader will love. The new cover art is beautiful as it shows Drizzt
emerging from the only world he has ever know and seeing the surface in
sunshine for the first time. I cannot heap enough praise on this book
except to say, "Don't miss this one!" I can't wait to find out what
happens in The Crystal Shard.
I rated this book a 10 out of 10. |
