The Ancient
Author – R.A. Salvatore
Hardcover
Page Count: 384 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: March 4, 2008
ISBN-10: 0765317893
ISBN-13: 978-0765317896
It’s funny how perspectives change. Back in high school, when I first discovered R.A. Salvatore’s DemonWars series, I was an instant fan. I loved his personal take on fantasy, drawing endearing characters through hard situations that really allowed the reader to get close. Layered on top of this were the interesting world of Corona and a unique gemstone-based magic system, both of which resonated with my younger self. Mortalis, the fourth novel in the cycle, still stands as one of the most emotionally powerful novels I’ve read.
Second to Mortalis is The Highwayman, a formerly standalone novel set in Corona, the world featured in the DemonWars cycle. It features Bransen Garibond, a young cripple who, through circumstances only available in a work of fantasy, gains full mastery over his formerly palsied body. Bransen’s struggles through the novel, as he faced a world full of rejection and misery, were a joy to watch.
Needless to say, when I first caught wind of The Ancient, the first in a new Corona based series called The Saga of the First King, I was excited. Any further explorations of Corona, a world where Salvatore was not confined by the rules of Dungeons and Dragons, were always welcome; doubly so when they featured one of my favourite characters written by the author. I eagerly dove into the novel when it arrived in my hands, will to be lost again in Corona, but almost immediately I knew something was different. Something was wrong. The Ancient is nowhere near the level of its predecessors; it fact it shares many of the pitfalls that plague Salvatore’s other series, The Legend of Drizzt.
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