The Ghost King: Transitions, Book III by R. A. Salvatore

The Crystal Shard, Crenshinibon, has been destroyed. Or has it? When the spirit of a dead Illithid torments the Dragon whose fire destroyed the artifact, as well as its own eyes, the spirits of the seven liches who made up the shard are released, and the Wyrm, a dragon named Hephaestus- dies, but is transformed into a Dracolich, and the shard is bonded to its forehead.

The Dragon wants revenge on Jarlaxle, the Drow who used it to destroy the shard, and Crenshinibon wants revenge on Drizzt Do'Urden, the drow who defeated it and caused it to be destroyed the first time. When the spirit of the mind-flayer Yharaskrik joins the other two, they become a new entity, the Ghost King, who will go for revenge on each of the entities involved in their death and mutilation.

Meanwhile, Jarlaxle is finishing up his business, accompanied by the Dwarf, Athrogate. But the intrusion of The Ghost King into his mind when he goes into the state of Reverie that makes up the sleep of elves bothers him, causing him to forgo that rest. He can block the Ghost King from knowing where he is, but not its ceaseless whispers declaring its revenge. He decides to go north to ask Drizzt for help (in his own way).

But Drizzt has a sudden problem of his own. The source of the magic called the Weave is fragmenting, and it strikes down his wife, Catti-Brie when she is in the midst of her morning exercises. She undergoes a strange magical affliction that causes her to relive her life as if it was happening all over again. But in between these episodes of almost-sanity, her eyes glow blue and she magically levitates. He is determined to save her, and takes her to Mithril Hall. There, Bruenor, her foster-father, is no less determined to save her. Deciding she needs clerical intervention, he decides to take her to Spirit Soaring Cathedral, and to Cadderly Bonaduce, cleric of Deneir.

Cadderly is having problems of his own. Deneir has gone silent, although Cadderly is still recieving help from his deity when he asks for help. But the spells and powers he gets are nothing like anyone has seen before. But his own children by his wife, Danica, are in a town under seige by creatures of Darkness, and coincidentally by some of the liches from Crenshinibon. As Danica sets off in search of her missing children, they are on the run back to spirit soaring along with their dwarven protector, the druid Pikel Bouldershoulder.

But as Drizzt and Bruenor prepare to set out for Spirit Soaring, another tragedy befalls- Regis, the Halfling with the magical ruby, attempts to bring Cattie-Brie out of the magical state she is in. But instead of him drawing her out, she draws him in, and for him it is torture- trapped in a shadowy world where he seems to be under constant attack. They cannot even take him with them, as his attempts to defend himself hurt and endanger the others around him.

But is there any healing to be had for Catti-Brie? For even as everyone heads for Spirit Soaring, it is already under attack, and the Ghost King himself is glad that all its foes are finally in one place. As the broken magical weave reshapes Faerun, a rip in the fabric of space and the dimensions links the underground ways of the Dwarves to the Plane of Shadow, allowing beasts from Shadow to roam free. But can there be any victory when the conditions are so grim?

I had been kind of looking forward to this book, but kind of dreading it, too. Because this is the last book in the third edition of the Forgotten Realms, and the first in the fourth. I knew there were big changes ahead for Drizzt and his friends, and I sort of knew that while he would survive pretty much unscathed (being the fan favorite that he is), I was not so sanguine about those around him.

And I was right to feel that way. Wizards of the Coast nerfed the Forgotten Realms because a growing number of players felt that they couldn't have heroic characters in a setting with so many high-level heroes. I don't agree, and it's basically stopped me from buying or even playing 4th edition. I do not like or agree on the direction in which the game has gone. And basically, all my fears for this book were realized.

The ending to the story, I found intensely depressing to read, and the last line nearly made me cry. I won't give it away, but essentially, not only did Drizzt and Bruenor lose their friends, but they won't even be together in the afterlife. As I've said, intensely depressing. If you enjoyed the old Realms, the real Realms that were Ed Greenwood's creation, this book will make you very sad to see them going away forever. I can't honestly recommend this book unless you feel like being sad. But YMMV. Especially as my disappointment was rather colored with metabook stuff.