Night of the Hunter

Apparently rebooting the companions was not enough, and an old adversary had to be sort of resurrected as well to bring a worthy villain to oppose the good guys. I do not mind, though – the drow are always interesting. I do mind that Salvatore does not want to get rid of some of the boring characters in Night of the Hunter, however.

Following the continuing adventures of Drizzt's surrogate party got so much on my nerves that I almost skipped past the pointless yeti fight they had early into the book. I seriously do not understand why they have to be dragged along. Entreri is of course an exception and maybe Effron, too, is somewhat interesting in how he reminds me of Raistlin Majere. But I would not care if he was dumped with the rest of the lot. The monk and the dwarf are probably the worst. They are so incredibly dull. I cannot even remember their names.

While the situation in Menzoberranzan and in Silver Marshes is slowly starting to brew, Drizzt and his refound companions take their time getting to Mithral Hall. They first want to end Pwent's vampirism and visit Gauntlgrym again. Ending Pwent's suffering turns out to be quite simple with a horn of deus ex machina Wulfgar had found before meeting with the others at the Cairn.

The adventures in Gauntlgrym take the rest of the book. At least they somewhat collide with the political games of Menzoberranzan. Drizzt is still far away from getting to duel with Tiago Baenre for that scimitar, though. I am certain that will happen at some point.

Jarlaxle appears again. Of course. His doings during the time jump get explained with him having done paperwork for Bregan D'aerthe. The lazy way out, I guess. The way many people suddenly seem to know he is of House Baenre feels as if it had become almost common knowledge. Someone is leaking secrets.

Also, I like how the companions have a more balanced setup with Catti-brie being a multiclass cleric-mage. You can now make a fully functioning Drizzt party into the Icewind Dale games without having to add additional characters for healing and spellcasting purposes. I feel that they are also taking more damage in fights now that they can be healed almost at will.