By Ian Strelec, Staff Reviewer

Available at FRP Games

Forgotten Realms: The Legend of Drizzt Book III: Sojourn [Novel]
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Initiative Round
Sojourn was written by R.A. Salvatore, and is actually the third book in his Dark Elf Trilogy, sixth book written about the drow ranger Drizzt Do'Urden, and third (chronologically), about Drizzt.

The book opens on the surface world, with Drizzt dealing with a life so entirely different from that which came before. Having spent his first 40 years underground, Drizzt had grown up and spent more time never having seen the sun, felt the wind on his face, or even witnessing the vastness of the sky than many surface dwellers had been alive. Needless to say, it's something of a new experience. The first trials are against his drow-made eqipment, as it either burns up or fades away under the revealing light of the sun.

With most of his gear destroyed or ruined by the light, he's almost immediately thrust into moral dilemmas dealing with gnolls, farmers, and other inhabitants of the world around him that he is completely unsure of. He's stepped into an entirely new world where he knows nothing of the inhabitants, so he's left with intense guilt after killing a small band of gnolls that were going to raid a farmhouse full of humans. With no idea as to the nature of the dog-men or of the humans, he can't help but feel he did wrongly. And then of course, there's the malicious element that does nothing to help him.

This book is truly the beginning of Drizzt's long journey towards acceptance, and thus his first and most painful rejections are faced throughout this book. He also has to deal with certain folk that are less than acceptant to the extreme, to the point of one man hunting him quite literally across Faerun for the sake of lost pride. Needless to say, the book is pretty emotional on Drizzt's part, and it's not difficult to find oneself being saddened by Drizzt's treatment. Salvatore also continues the tradition of using a brief essay from Drizzt's perspective at the beginning of each major section, dealing with issues of life, morality, and good and evil, among other things.

Critical Hit
Overall, this book doesn't step too far outside the bounds of any of the other ones, but it does offer one major point that the others in the long series of Drizzt books don't. That is, Drizzt's first experiences on the surface. The Icewind Dale trilogy opened with a Drizzt already somewhat hardened to the way he would be treated in most communities, to the point of expecting and accepting the treatment he receives due to the reputation of his dark race. But in Sojourn, we get the ugly details of his first encounter with humans. One ends the first major section wondering, "What if that had gone differently?" It's almost inevitable. The book is, through and through, the catalyst that defines Drizzt's character from here through the rest of the series.

Critical Fumble
In all honesty, the only problem I find with this book is the fact that it's pretty short, with only 346 pages. That may sound like a lot, but my copy is a small book, with small pages. I finished it in about one long day of reading.

Coup de Grace
Thus, Sojourn isn't an incredible book, but it is the real defining book in Drizzt's history, so if you have any intention of reading the series you need to make sure you get this one in early. The book has, ultimately, the most profound change in Drizzt than any other book in the series, and is the most influential in the character he is now. Salvatore also does a great job of making the book individual of its predecessors, so the previous two books in the trilogy are relatively unnecessary if you don't have access to them.

Final Grade: B+