Mortalis (Hardcover)

Enthralling, enchanting, spell-binding...

Awesome.

Those descriptions all certainly apply to this masterpiece, but none of them are sufficient. This is a book that must be read, must be experienced, in order to truly be appreciated.

I am a longtime fan of R. A. Salvatore. I was there at the beginning of his career and practically inhaled The Crystal Shard as a kid. And Salvatore has done nothing but get better as time goes by---he is one of only a precious few writers who actually improves from book to book.

Mortalis is a grand achievement, as is the Second DemonWars Trilogy that follows it and the original DemonWars trilogy that precedes it, truly one of the all-time greatest epics in the fantasy genre.

Perhaps the greatest strength of Salvatore's writing in general, and especially in the DemonWars series, is his ability to create characters that come to life for the reader, characters readers can actually care about as if they were real, alive and breathing, and standing right beside you. Salvatore's characters are not stereotypes. His heroes are not perfect---they are only humans, after all, struggling to do the best they can---and his villains are complicated, often shaded in gray rather than utter darkness. Salvatore gives his characters compelling reasons for their actions and deeply explores the motivations of all his characters. This exploration makes for a much richer and more rewarding reading experience than one generally finds in most typical fantasy novels or novels of any other genre, for that matter.

Over the years, Salvatore has been often and justly praised for his fast moving battle sequences and all the rousing adventure he injects into his tales and I couldn't agree with that praise more...but it is truly his amazing characters that are the primary draw for me.

I truly don't know what else to say. I was totally absorbed with Mortalis and disliked only one thing about about this amazing book---the fact that it ended.

Thank God there were three more following it in the series and, hopefully, many more novels set in the world of Corona in the years to come.

As long as R. A. Salvatore keeps writing these amazing tales of supsense, action, adventure, and intrigue and continues to populate these spectacular stories with fascinating, compelling, and complicated characters, I'll keep buying them the minute they hit the shelves.

Take my advice, people...You should buy them, too.

The Demon Wars Saga is a must read for fantasy novel fans. The book provides a good "interim" ending until you are ready to delve into the Second Demon War.