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nikkis_read_cute 's review for:
The Demon Awakens
by R.A. Salvatore
I’ve long been a fan of fantasy books (and in most cases, their movie adaptations), having read most that I’ve purchased at least twice if not more over the years. As such, I feel that I’ve become a pretty strict judge of the genre - I know what I like, and what doesn’t work for me.
R.A. Salvatore’s “The Demon Awakens” landed firmly within the group of fantasy novels that I like, although at one point, I thought it might fall short of the mark. You’ll have to read on to find out why!
4.3/5
Any fantasy reader will be familiar with dragons, elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, trolls and the like, so it was no surprise that some were included in this story. I did like the twist that elves were dainty, had wings and could fly.
There was a point at which I thought to myself that the plot too closely resembled that of another fantasy novel I’ve read (disaster strikes, hero human is introduced, hero ends up with elves to train, etc.), which led to feelings of disappointment, but then I realized this novel was written (and published) first and that as such, it couldn’t possibly have taken “too much” inspiration from that other novel. It all ended up being a moot point because, as the story progresses, the similarities became less and less.
The author introduced a number of interesting ideas and concepts, all of which were original and made to work very well. I particularly liked the concept of the magic stones.
The story was initially told with multiple points of view, and R. A. Salvatore did an amazing job bringing those points of view together in a very believable manner, then splitting them up again for a brief time.
I enjoyed that the author wasn’t afraid to kill off some of the characters, both good and bad. This made the story all the more fulfilling - I find that too often, with fantasies, the “good” suffer far fewer losses than you’d expect. That being said, however, I did find Quintall’s storyline came to a rather abrupt and unexpected end. A lot of time was spent building up the character and then next thing you know, within two pages, it ends rather unceremoniously. This book is part of a series, so maybe he’s not as dead as we are made to believe?
When the final showdown occurs, I felt as though it was a little underwhelming, and this is the single biggest reason why I lowered my overall rating.
After having read 650 (or so) pages to reach the final confrontation, I was hoping for an epic battle lasting for a few chapters which would include some unique and unexpected heroics and plot twists that would eventually result in some kind of stalemate where the big bad was forced to withdraw, and regroup ahead of the second book, but that isn’t what happened at all. The confrontation was, similar to Quintall’s, rather brief and apparently decisive.
I’ll be reading book two next. I may revise my rating for Demon Awakens based on how the story continues. Hopefully, Salvatore has a surprise waiting for us!
R.A. Salvatore’s “The Demon Awakens” landed firmly within the group of fantasy novels that I like, although at one point, I thought it might fall short of the mark. You’ll have to read on to find out why!
4.3/5
Any fantasy reader will be familiar with dragons, elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, trolls and the like, so it was no surprise that some were included in this story. I did like the twist that elves were dainty, had wings and could fly.
There was a point at which I thought to myself that the plot too closely resembled that of another fantasy novel I’ve read (disaster strikes, hero human is introduced, hero ends up with elves to train, etc.), which led to feelings of disappointment, but then I realized this novel was written (and published) first and that as such, it couldn’t possibly have taken “too much” inspiration from that other novel. It all ended up being a moot point because, as the story progresses, the similarities became less and less.
The author introduced a number of interesting ideas and concepts, all of which were original and made to work very well. I particularly liked the concept of the magic stones.
The story was initially told with multiple points of view, and R. A. Salvatore did an amazing job bringing those points of view together in a very believable manner, then splitting them up again for a brief time.
I enjoyed that the author wasn’t afraid to kill off some of the characters, both good and bad. This made the story all the more fulfilling - I find that too often, with fantasies, the “good” suffer far fewer losses than you’d expect. That being said, however, I did find Quintall’s storyline came to a rather abrupt and unexpected end. A lot of time was spent building up the character and then next thing you know, within two pages, it ends rather unceremoniously. This book is part of a series, so maybe he’s not as dead as we are made to believe?
When the final showdown occurs, I felt as though it was a little underwhelming, and this is the single biggest reason why I lowered my overall rating.
After having read 650 (or so) pages to reach the final confrontation, I was hoping for an epic battle lasting for a few chapters which would include some unique and unexpected heroics and plot twists that would eventually result in some kind of stalemate where the big bad was forced to withdraw, and regroup ahead of the second book, but that isn’t what happened at all. The confrontation was, similar to Quintall’s, rather brief and apparently decisive.
I’ll be reading book two next. I may revise my rating for Demon Awakens based on how the story continues. Hopefully, Salvatore has a surprise waiting for us!