I received a free copy of The Companions to review from Netgalley. The premise of the story is that several of the characters from the Forgotten Realms series, Bruenor Battlehammer, Wulfgar and Regis the halfling, choose to be reborn and meet again in twenty years in order to protect Drizzt Do’Urden from an unspecified threat. It is a tale of love and friendship rather than good vs evil. At first, I felt at a distinct disadvantage not being familiar with R.A. Salvatore’s work. The most noticeable example of that was near the beginning when the character Ruqiah suddenly declared her name was “Catti-brie.” From the context it was clear that this was supposed to be a shocking revelation, but my reaction was more along the lines of “oh, OK. Who the heck is Catti-brie, and why should I care about her?” Fortunately, Salvatore made a point of answering those questions clearly and effectively. It took me a little longer to get my head around the various races who live in this world, and their relations to each other, but that didn’t impact on my enjoyment of the book. What I liked Salvatore’s writing style. His writing style is noticeably more “epic”…
For this week’s reading roundup I read Rick Riordan’s short story The Son of Sobek in which Percy Jackson from the Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus series meets Carter Kane of the Kane Chronicles. It was a fun read, if nothing majorly exciting. I was disappointed that the enhanced ebook version with narration from author Rick Riordan was not available for Canadians – indeed, I purchased it on Kobo. It also contains a sneak peak at the fourth book in the Heroes of Olympus series, House of Hades, which I am really looking forward to. I also read The Companions by R.A. Salvatore, which I received as a free copy from Netgalley. I plan to write a full review of it later, so I will save my thoughts for then. Suffice it to say, I wish I’d discovered R.A. Salvatore much sooner. The final book I read/listened to was The Lost Colony, the fifth in Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl series. This is a series I much prefer listening to on Audible, mainly because of Nathaniel Parker’s wonderful narration. His accent work and general excellent storytelling make this series a joy to listen to. Check out a sample. The Lost Colony…