Salvatore fits a lot into Sojourn without making it feel crowded. Someone pointed out to me that the multiple little arcs in this book parallel the campaign structure of D&D, with different scenarios that the hero and their party must prepare for and navigate, and periods of downtime where skills are developed and refined. As with Exile, the stakes feel much higher now that we are no longer in Menzoberranzan where I am expecting everything to be fucked up. Good and bad people exist on the surface and there are real and violent results of dangerous situations. Salvatore is a genius when it comes to having his dark elf main character adapt to the surface; one little moment that I think exemplifies this is when Drizzt has to think about how light refracts through water in order to catch fish, something a dummy like me would never have considered.

If some of the good v. bad stuff continues to feel simplistic, there is an extended conversation about the Forgotten Realms pantheon that demonstrates Salvatore is no stranger to ethics and epistemological thinking. On top of this Drizzt’s arc feels very personal, and I can’t wait to check back in with him.