The cover of Night Masks. A young woman and a young man are in a rowboat, and a zombie is rising out of the water to attack them. The young woman brandishes a knife at it; the young man is waving a staff.

Night Masks

“Writing tip: when your other characters start lampshading how incredibly annoying it is that your protagonist magically knows everything, maybe, just maybe it’s time to dial the omniscience back a bit.”

The cover of The Night Parade. Some sort of weird genie monster crosses his arms in the background. In the foreground, an armored woman with impossibly weird anatomy looks over her shoulder at a weird fleshy humanoid thing. The background is blue-tinged dark clouds.

The Night Parade

“It’s a wild, shambolic farrago which subverts my expectations for a Forgotten Realms novel, a horror story that’s grossly out of place among these heroic fantasy epics and owes more to Stephen King than Tolkien.”

The cover of In Sylvan Shadows. A black-clad elf on a white horse is accosted by a muscular young woman and a robed young man with a feathered hat. He doesn't look happy to see them. Behind them all, some sort of ogre or goblin or something is rising up with a sword to attack.

In Sylvan Shadows

“Goblins, orcs, ogres, orogs, ogrillons, giants — say what you like about the forces of evil, but at least they’ve put a lot of effort into creating a diverse workplace.”

The cover of Prophet of Moonshae. In the background is a young blond woman with a crown, presumably Alicia. In the foreground are a Viking longboat and a stereotypical Viking man with a horned helmet, axe, and shield.

Prophet of Moonshae

“Well, all good things have to come to an end eventually. There was a long stretch of no books written by Douglas Niles for a while, but now he’s back with another trilogy focusing on more shenanigans in the Moonshae Isles.”

The cover of Pools of Darkness. Two humans stand against a hellish red background. One is a long-haired woman holding a staff, the other is the same chain-mailed swordsman from the cover of Pool of Radiance, except now he's grown a short blond beard.

Pools of Darkness

“Now, I’m not the sort of reader who believes that it’s necessary to torture your characters to make compelling drama. But characters who have only one problem are only as interesting as that problem, and ‘monsters attack’ is not interesting.”

The cover of Red Magic. A bald wizard in red robes with a tattoo on his forehead is holding a hand over a glowing red orb that's shooting tendrils of energy all around. He holds a staff with a skull on it. (I think that means he's a bad guy.)

Red Magic

“But even I know enough about wilderness survival to be sure that you shouldn’t treat a freely bleeding stab wound by rubbing a bunch of ferns into it, and you shouldn’t try sliding around the forest on gobbets of raw antelope.”

The cover of Canticle. In the background, a robed young man with a walking stick is strolling down a path with a mountain in the background, reading a book. In the foreground, an evil-looking red-robed figure is holding a glowing vial and staring off to the side.

Canticle

“With five books all focusing on one overarching story, the temptation to indulge in sloppy characterization and meandering plots requires immense discipline to avoid. “Disciplined” isn’t really an adjective that springs to mind when I think about Salvatore’s writings thus far.”

The cover of Elfshadow. On a rocky outcropping, a graceful black-haired woman wielding a sword stands next to a tall blond man who looks like a chubby football player. A giant moon fills the sky behind them.

Elfshadow

“It’s good to see elven society finally getting some attention. Despite their thousands of years of culture and history, most authors don’t go any further into characterizing elves than the usual ‘nature-loving hippies’ stereotype.”

The cover of The Parched Sea. Three people are sitting on the floor of a tent with a meal set in front of them. One is a black-robed Arab man waving a curved dagger around. The second is a veiled young woman recoiling from him. The third is a desert-robed white man who looks unconcerned about the display. The roast chicken in their meal looks like the author had never seen a cooked chicken before and drew it from a description.

The Parched Sea

“So what are we to make of this Lawrence of Anauroch? It may be derivative, but it’s certainly not boring.”

The cover of Sojourn. Drizzt, a white-haired dark elf, stands at the mouth of a cave. Outside is the open sky and the surface world. His left hand rests on the back of Guenhwyvar, his giant panther companion who's posing next to him.

Sojourn

“Montolio feels like a much more sinister character to me now as an adult than he did when I was a teenager — the personification of the ugly questions about racism that the Drizzt books keep raising but then never addressing.”