What a satisfying conclusion to this trilogy! As evidenced by my glowing reviews of the previous installments, I'm a big fan of Drizzt, and all of the things that I love about him—his morals and ethics, his wit and humor, his skills and battle prowess—are on full display here. You feel the full spectrum of emotion for him, and seeing him figure everything out is an absolute delight. His friendship with Mooshie is an absolute standout, and I'm getting good vibes about the budding friendship between him and Bruenor.

I really, really love this character and this series, deeply and truly, bur i dont remember disliking this book as much the first couple go arounds. I don't know if this is coming from a place of just the fact that this is a re-read as I try to read all the books in order (as I've only read a handful and they are mismatched in chronological order) but like... i felt as if nothing of worth happens in 2/3rds of this book.

Everything truly exciting happens in the 3rd act and then the book ends with a shit ton of other threads just vamping on the heels of this nothingness (a big battle witb like 100 Orcs with nothing but traps and another blind ranger, a re-telling Bilbo's encounter with Smaug with Drizzt and an Ancient Red Dragon respectively, and then introducing Bruenor and Catti-Brie for the first time etc.) just happening, and then the stuff fom the first 2/3rds (kinda) pays off in the end. Idk I LOVE Homecoming and Exile but I am glad to be out of the Dark Elf Trilogy of this 33ish volume book saga (with another on the way in August at the time of writing) where Exile's boredom comes towards the end of the novel this novel's beginning and middle suffer from the same.

Don't get me wrong when excitement happens it's wonderful. Salvatore has a knack for writing captivating battle scenarios and strategum,, detailing the fluidity of his protagonist's unique fighting style. Not to mention that he carries Drizzt's moral principles and the calamity between his drow heritage and his pure intentions with the utmost respect I just think there's a lot of nothing happening in this book, and that pieces of the previous two suffered likewise. Again, whether just fatigue from re-reading this trilogy yet again or whether these canonically first books lack the pieces that the later books are so well loved for by fans, mywelf included, such as The full Companions of the Hall kicking ass, more Jarlaxle, The Sellswords, and Drizzt's signature armor and scimitars to just name a few, and I'm just looking forward to getting to THOSE books and these were just in the way uh... remains to be seen.

Now onto the beginning of my personal favorite trilogy (thus far) The Icewind Dale Trilogy, Book One, Book 4 chronologically canon-wise, the one that started it all, The Crystal Shard. Thanks for reading my babbling review. It's a great place to start but I guess if you've read them and didn't want to acutely remember every detail just start with Icewind Dale. Don't let your completionist mind get in the way... like I did.

6 Kinda basic with not a lot of depth or characterization but enjoyable enough.