Rating: 3/5
Condemnation is the third book in the War of the Spider Queen series. It takes place in the Forgotten Realms, which is a fantasy world that Wizards of the Coast uses for the game Dungeons and Dragons.
The series is centered around a race of dark elves known as the drow. These elves live underground, are ruthless, and endlessly fighting one another, physically and politically. The females rule over the males with iron fists. Their common ground comes from a feeling of superiority to all other races. In this series, their chief goddess has gone silent. No one can reach her and her priestesses have lost their powers.
Condemnation uses two groups of characters to continue the story. The first group comes from the main drow city, and their mission is to discover what happened to their goddess by any means necessary. They are seeking a group of drow that live on the surface world and venerate a different deity to get answers to their questions. The path ahead of them is long and dangerous.
The second group seeks to take advantage of the loss of power that the females are experiencing. They will use any enemy of the drow they can find to upset the current power structure, hoping to pick up the pieces in the end.
I did not like this book as much as the first two books. The pacing is quite a bit slower. There is quite a bit of action, but sometimes that just emphasizes the low points in the story. The intrigue that kept me interested in the other books just wasn't as present. Plus, this writer focuses on different characters that aren't quite as interesting to me. I felt like the characters were presented well enough, but one in particular is at a very low point that brings the energy of the book down.
Anyone could pick up the first book and enjoy the series though. There are a lot of other books set in this world, which aren't necessary to read before these. Nor do you need to be familiar with Dungeons and Dragons to enjoy the books, though it might help.
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