Condemnation (Forgotten Realms: R.A. Salvatore's War of the Spider Queen, Book 3) Mass Market Paperback – May 1, 2004

I liked this book and a lot of the things you get to see. I think it did a good job of moving the overall story along and I enjoyed learning more of Loths domain.There were a few things that pulled me out of the story, though. One isn't the co-authors fault. It's something that Salvatore has been guilty of from almost the beginning, but I noticed it more in this book than o have before and that's the issue of how the drow see. In the frizzy prequels, (sojourn, homeland, exile) he did a pretty descent job of showing the dark elves seeing things in heat vision.However, a lot of the later books, and this one in particular, reads like they're using daylight vision. There are just too many descriptions of visual things. Hairstyles, clothes, and other things.I can't say I really blame them too much as it's a hard thing for visual human beings to imagine or write. Still, if you plan to spend a lot of time with dark elves, then it's something to keep in mind. Look at a picture of a image taken with FLIR and you'll get an idea of what they're seeing. You see a lot, and you see differently, but not as sharply.A couple of other things that bothered me were when he said a war lizard trotted somewhere. Lizards don't trot and you can't just call it a lizard and write it as a horse. Also, I kept hearing drow use the term laddie and I don't think I've heard them use it before or since. It was disconcerting.Overall, though, its nit-picky and I did enjoy the story. Besides those things I mentioned that probably wouldn't bother anyone but me, it was well written.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. First, it becomes clear on the first pages that the author has a way with the pen that the others just don't. His writings are eloquent without being bombastic and pompous, describing the realm and characters in subtle ways that draw the reader in more than the "plain" verbage of the others. The author also introduces several new characters, and does a very good job at making them plausible and interesting. I also really liked how he has a way of turning the characters to life so they are more than just a mage, a fighter, a cleric, etc. He adds layers of depth to them by describing their thoughts, actions and intra/inter-personal relations which are missing in the other books. In short, you learn a lot more about them than in the other books, which treat the characters more matter-of-factly and focus instead on combat and plot.One good example is that he really brings the priestesses of Eilistraee to life, and you can understand why Hallistra starts to doubt her beliefs. The way he has the Eilistraeeans explain to Hallistra what they stand for is very interesting and it's most unfortunate that the subsequent books in the series dropped that depth in favor of more "hack and slash."Definitely recommended.

Richard Baker unleashes a very suspenseful installment of the six part drow elf epic. The fabric of the spider goddess worshiping Menzoberranzan society is imperiled on an even deeper level than one ranger escaping to the surface. The main characters get a lot of development and the reader is eager to purchase part 4!

I gushed a lot about this series in my review for book 2 so I'll tone it down a little here. Every book in this series is awesome. Even though there is a different author for each volume in the series, they each nailed it. Phaerun, Gromph, and Valas were my favorite characters. I especially liked learning more about Gromph and what he can do. I hop he someday gets his own Trilogy, or at least a novel devoted to him and his craft. If you are a fan of sword and sworcery this book is a sure bet. Get it, you'll enjoy it!

After the first two books I was sure I was reading one of the great fantasy series ever concocted. Storywise I still believe I am. Beyond that, everything's starting to decline.While I have heard many good things about Richard Baker, I don't think I will go out of my way to read anything else of his now that I've seen a sample of his writing. It seemed as though they were trying to include to much in this one book and he subsequently didn't give any of it enough attention. It reads like he was either rushed or too lazy to give it the time and attention a story this great, or any story really, deserves.What ever the reason behind the books lack of content, there is NO excuse for the pathetic editing. For a first edition book, a comma here or a puncuation mark there is forgivable (and there have been a couple I've caught in this series). INCLUDING PARTS OF THE ROUGH DRAFT IN THE FINAL COPY IS INEXCUSABLE! Mistakes like talking to characters who aren't even in the scene, causes the readers attention to be distracted by the writing itself rather than engulfed by what is written.READ THIS BOOK THOUGH, THE STORY'S GREAT and skipping books in in this series will only leave you lost and greatly diminish you're enjoyment of the series as a whole.

its written better than the previous two, on top of that the group of drow are finally getting to the meat and potatoes of everything.

This book simply is great, traversing many locations. The main characters are very engaging and troublesome. I loved the stories that continued and look forward to seeing how the new ones set in motion turn out

good book

the 3rd book in the war of the Spider Queen series, this one is still pretty good ( although not as good as the first 2 ) but beware they go downhill after this and ultimately the series is just not worth the time it takes to read all 6 books, possibly due to the fact that they are written by different authors and so feel a little disjointed but also because they lose a lot of their originality by the end

This is the best entry so far, the war builds in intensity and the party need to deal with the surface world. I don't want to spoil it, but amazing book.

Very good book will be definitely be getting the next book in the series

New author for each book in this epic series. So the storytelling is fun because it's a little different each time. Characters are great. Love Forgotten Realms and this is awesome if you like the stories about Drizzt or dark elves.

Wonderful continuation of the story cannot wait to read the next installment . Great suspenseful story great characters as i said can not wait to read the next book