This is a great book. It may be to the dislike of some people. But Salvatore is able to create a good image and his diction is great. He is able to create a way for the reader to relate to the character, and still express a healthy amout of interest. Yes, he does go a little over on the descriptions of the fights, where as most people wouldn't be able to understand what was going on. The storyline though in general is increadable an I would recomend this book to others. ( )

I have come to the solid realization that I can not stand anything about the way this man writes. The story itself would be tolerable, even passably enjoyable at times, if it weren't for the fact that Salvatore is, in fact, one of the worst writers on the face of the planet.Aside from completely redefining the term "infrared", having random, previously unmentioned possessions materialize out of nowhere, and apparently allowing the main characters to "listen in" on the narration (several characters don't know anything about a species at the first encounter, yet call them by name at the second, with no introduction other than the narrator's description to the reader), half the story doesn't even make sense. Drizzt nearly falls off a cliff to his death when Drizzt is capable of magical levitation. A reanimated corpse, supposedly both without emotion AND retaining the warrior instincts of its previous life, hacks up a bunch of stuff (which didn't exist before being hacked up) belonging to its prey when it finds the camp unattended...The list of ridiculous inconsistencies present in Exile (even more than Homeland, first in the series) leads one to believe that Salvatore's copy editor was stoned out of his mind or dead.How this drivel got published is beyond me, and its popularity is a distinct testament to the deplorable tastes (not to mention comprehension skills) of the American populace. ( )

The Dark Elf Trilogy has long been one of my favorite books. I've purchased three copies; the first destroyed by children, the second destroyed by flood, the third sitting nicely on a shelf out of the reach of both. ( )

I ended up skimming the last third of this book, because honestly, I'd had about as much of Salvatore's writing as I could stand. I read Homeland, and while it was a fun story, some of Salvatore's writing quirks made it a slog for me. The slogging continued with Exile. I've never seen characters who growl and snarl so much. It was driving me bonkers. The book is also quite heavy on fights, which got a little tiresome. I know, it's a D&D book, of course there's going to be a lot of fighting, but still, there was a bit much for my liking.

I tried Homeland and Exile out because I kept hearing / reading about how great Salvatore's stuff is, and I must say: I don't really understand why. Maybe I just don't get along with his writing style. I noted in my review of Homeland that I'd be finishing the Dark Elf Trilogy to see how it ends, but I don't think that's going to happen now. I'll just look up a plot summary to see where Drizzt ends up. ( )

This is really a fantastic book. It doesn’t have the culture that Homeland had, but it really shows Drizzt begin his life-long fight of following his principles. I guess officially we saw the very beginning of that in Homeland, but then he was really still trying to figure out what his principles were. The chase that happens between Drizzt and Zaknafein adds a healthy amount of suspense to the book. Also, Belwar Dissengulp, one of my favorite RAS characters, makes his sole appearance in this book. “Bivrip!” ( )