Larry ‘djinn24′ Killian reviews the new book by RA Salvatore, The Companions, the first book in The Sundering series, coming soon from Wizard of the Coast on August 6th, 2013.

Salvatore writes one of the best books I have read this summer. – The Founding Fields

Warning: This is a continuation of a series and may contain spoilers of previous books.

I have been reading the books of RA Salvatore since I started reading fantasy in the late 80s, back when the first few books about Drizzt Do’Urden had been published. I fell in love with the characters and have fully enjoyed the story as the series continued to grow and expand. Over the last few years though the material and story has began to grow a little weary. It seemed as if the series was beginning to wind down, in its twilight years you could say. The original Companions of the Hall had started to die and we were finally left with just Drizzt. I am glad to say with ‘The Companions‘ the story has been revitalized, a refreshing breath breathed into it.

The story starts with the original members of the Companions of the Hall, King Bruenor Battlehammer, Catti-brie, Wulfgar and Regis, in a heaven created by Mielikki, Drizzt’s patron god. Mielikki has decided to intervene on the behalf of Drizzt and resurrect the rest of the Companions. The only problem is the way they must return. They are literally reborn into the world with their full memories and abilities intact. The problem is they are not born together and decided they would meet on their 21st name day.

I loved this book, it breathed life back into a franchise a lot of fans, old and new, felt as if was winding down to a close. In movie of comic book terms, they took this series and rebooted it, doing so without getting rid of the previous material as well. The return of most of the Companions is nice and RA Salvatore does their stories well. Because the characters are reborn the story rotates each chapter to focus on one of the Companions as they grow up again. Catti-brie’s chapters where my least favorite but still managed to be fun and exciting.

If you are looking for a great fantasy series you can start with this book but I recommend starting with the  beginning of the series and working your way here. The book flows well with plenty of action during the story. There really is no part of the book where I wanted to put it down, making for some late nights as I was finishing this up. I literally read the last 45% in one go, which made for a long day the following day, but well worth it. This book is a 5/5 easy, while not the best book written by Salvatore, it’s still one of the best book so far this summer.

Print Length: 384 pages
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast (August 6, 2013)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B00BE24W0W