Promise of the Witch-King: The Sellswords, Book II [Mass Market Paperback]

R. A. Salvatore just has a gift for creating memorable characters, whether they are protagonists or antagonists. In fact, when I sit and think about it I can name nearly every character he's ever created. But the obvious one is Drizzt, and perhaps second to him is Drizzt's mortal enemy Entreri. Any fan of Salvatore knows this name, and no doubt hates (in a good way, to be sure) this character as much as they love Drizzt.

Promise of the Witch King is the sequel to Servant of the Shard, the first book that contains Entreri but no Drizzt, and it was a brilliant book. In fact, it still ranks highly among my all time favorite action fantasy books.

In Witch King, Salvatore does even more to separate Entreri from Drizzt by placing him and his partner--or manipulator--Jarlaxle in an entirely new setting (it can be found in Demon Stone, a video game written by Salvatore). Still, it has the Salvatore touch with action scenes written as easily as we would sign our own name, and a stream of new, lovable characters.

Now, without spoiling, I will attempt to describe the plot of this story. In the wild lands of Bloodstone, only recently freed from the dark clutches of an evil lord, Entreri and Jarlaxle are attempting to make a name for themselves while also acting as double agents for two dragons. In the opening, they are battling in a magically created tower, which had once belonged to the terrible and powerful Witch King, who long ago died yet still has a grip on the land. When a second tower is magically constructed, warriors seeking fame and fortune decide to defend the realm and perhaps save two dying souls that are directly tied to the tower. But with the rag-tag band comes clashes and plenty of secrets, and as these secrets unravel, disaster eventually strikes and the heroes becomes enemies with each while they are still battling the evil forces of the Witch King. In the end, it leaves a few more revelations about Entreri that weren't there before, and he ends up, I think, as a more likable character. And, of course, Jarlaxle is up to his same old mischief.

What's best about this novel is not the book itself, but the promise (ironic, really) of the future to come for these two characters, for by the end an entirely new element is introduced and should end up making the Sellswords series as good as any Salvatore has written before.

I'd recommend this to long-standing fans of Salvatore, fans of Dungeons and Dragons--though it's not required, as I'm no such fan--or lovers of classic swords & sorcery stories, as Salvatore is easily the best there is right now. I can't recommend this to anyone seeking to get into Salvatore now, however, because you will be left lost among the characters and history, which is long and deep.

Like many, I can fondly recall cutting my teeth on R A Salvatore's early Forgotten Realms novels. I recently even tried rereading the Icewind Dale trilogy after over 15 years, and found it to be a little dated. Yet as my tastes seem to have grown over the years, so too has Salvatore's skill.

Servant of the Shard was the first Forgotten Realms book I've read in years, and after reading such masters as Martin, Cook, Hobb, and Brust... I wasn't sure if Salvatore could keep up with my new favorites. He is still the master of high-action.

Jarlaxle and Entreri were two of the best villains from my early fantasy reading days, and their exploits in the newest books are outstanding. There are never enough novels with villains as protagonists. Promise of the Witch King was one of the best I've read in some time.

Jarlaxle is always out for power and wealth, but here, he and Entreri take on the guise of two capable, but not-too-ambitious adventurers. They are in the land of Vaasa, helping with the region's indigenous beast population. They are bounty hunters, earning gold for goblin ears and such. By all appearances, they seem to be here just for the adventure and fame, but Jarlaxle has information of mighty artifacts hidden within this mountainous land.

One such artifact IS found, and it takes on a life of its own- soon threatening the whole kingdom. Jarlaxle and Entreri offer their assistance in dealing with this great danger, but does everyone realize that Jarlaxle only wants that power for himself? Some memorable characters are also on the quest, and some of them may be as shifty and dangerous as our duo.

The assassin and the dark Elf have a fascinating relationship, and the plot keeps you guessing steadily throughout. I had no problem finding excuses to keep reading long after I should have gone to bed. Are the two going to turn on each other? Is Entreri becoming a hero? Just what are their motives, and what exactly are these two dangerous men capable of? You'll enjoy finding out, and I won't enjoy waiting for book three. I am impatient to learn what happens next. Keep `em coming, Bob!

I am a bit surprised by the vitriol in some of the other reviews. I enjoyed this one, even if it was a bit formulaic. In fact, I'd go so far to say that you don't read RA Salvatore, Ed Greenwood, or William Shakespeare for that matter, without encountering some fairly predictable events and outcomes.

I enjoyed Entreri as an anti-hero. I have liked him as a character for a long time, but in truth, he was always somewhat two dimensional: an emotionless killer whose only purpose was the next job. When he became obsessed with Drizzt, another aspect of his personality came to the forefront, and it did not seem much of a stretch. After all, he cares nothing of worldly possessions, so professional pride is all he cares about.

Since Entreri has finally exorcised his Drizzt demons, he is lacking direction. Going back to simple assassinations would not be enough for him. He is looking for something, and he is doing it while facing his own mortality...not from an enemy's blade, which he has never feared, but simply from age. Salvatore emphasizes that Entreri has reached middle age in a genre in which people are generally either young adults or immensely long-lived. That alone would be mechanism enough to induce introspection in Entreri, but Salvatore combines that motivation with magical compulsion (which I will not spoil here) and I think those two plot elements make Entreri even more believable.

Personally, I found Entreri's ruminations to be much more enjoyable than Drizzt's monologues. Entreri is a simple man in his emotional infancy, trying to come to grips with powerful issues like death, love, and the meaning of life. Where Drizzt is a philosopher, Entreri is just confused and impatient. It resonates because Entreri has evolved. He is not the same person he was 20 years previously. He knows who he was then, but he does not know exactly who he is now.

If Holden Caulfield had been a taciturn trained killer travelling with a flamboyant pathologic liar, he would have been Artemis Entreri.

As you can discern, I enjoyed this book because of the insight into an aging, evolving anti-hero who is developing some complexity. It made up for what the book is lacking in other regards. The "dungeon-crawl" aspect of this book is somewhat boring to me. It is the problem with epic charcters in the AD&D world, and, in fact, throughout fantasy writing: as they become more and more powerful and acquire more powerful artifacts, it becomes difficult to write a suitable challenge for them. The castle construct is basically an endless monster-generator, like Halastor's Undermountain. It lacked emotional impact.

There were several new characters, only one of whom was particularly compelling: an aspiring paladin with some shady underworld contacts. I would have liked to learn a lot more about her, but that plot line was addressed in only a limited fashion. That's too bad. I would have liked to learn about her motivation and how she tried to reconcile the roles of her double life, but after it seemed as though she was going to become a parallel story to Entreri's, she became relegated to the supporting cast.

Overall, I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. I would like to give it 4.5, but I'm stuck with these darned integers. If you are willing to forgive a little predictability, you have read the Drizzt novels with Artemis Entreri, and you like to see characters develop over time, give this book a read.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 59 reviews  4.2 out of 5 stars