After being a little disappointed in the last installment of the series this felt better again. I think the overall plot was fairly weak and felt more of an excuse than anything else but I liked that this book felt way more reminiscent to The Dark Elf Trilogy which has been my overall favorite so far as Drizzt’s journey brings him back into the city of his birth: Menzoberranzan, which is just a cool setting in itself. 

To get into characters I’m gonna have to be a little spoilery (I’m just gonna hide the big ones, so if you’re really sensitive stop reading. 

I’m starting to get annoyed at some of the recurring characters, mainly the human assassin Artemis Entreri who just feels very one dimensional

and really another fake-out death

? I liked though that Catti-Brie gets a more central role although that being the role of "babysitter" for the most time. I really hope that we don’t get the romance between her and Drizzt

with the way for that being paved now after Wulfgar’s death in the last novel

. 

The real star of this novel imo is Jarlaxle. I think he is just fascinating, mischievous, and conniving and I really love the screen time we get with him which was quite a lot in this book. 

Otherwise this novel feels a lot like setup and there are some cool plot threads that I hope will get picked up. 

Funny side remark to end this review: I’m listening to the books on audio and these are some older editions. I think this novel had the 4th different narrator so far and everyone of them used different pronunciations for a lot of the Drow/Elvish names which I guess is a great indicator for creative Fantasy names? ;)