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Price: $25.95

Title: The Ancient Author: R. A. Salvatore Rating: Not available Avg. Score: 5 Submit Comment Hits: 64

Review of The Ancient

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Comments for The Ancient

• Posted on 2008-09-07
  wow
  
  It arrived expediently and was in perfect shape like new I'd say so!Good book.I really appreciate the seller's honesty,no B.S. delivered what was promised.Can't wait for the next one.
  Score: 5
• Posted on 2008-08-08
  The Ancient, book by RA Salvatore
  
  Another fine work from R.A. Salvatore. With characters you want to cheer for. And a Hero that you will want to win.
  Score: 4
• Posted on 2008-06-01
  solid Salvatore, but not his A-game
  
  More like 3.5 stars, really.
  
  The problem isn't so much what the Publisher's Weekly reviewer centered on (the undeniable familiarity of most of The Ancient's characters and such), but that the actual prose is pretty weak. It's often too simple and often repetitive (both in exposition and in dialogue), with Salvatore's usual lyricism shining only occasionally. I was reminded a little of moments in his Hunter's Blades trilogy, when short sentences intended to be dramatic and powerful came off as trying too hard. Compared to the DemonWars saga and even to Salvatore's Forgotten Realms work, I feel like The Ancient is written almost like a young adult book, which wouldn't be bad in itself if I'd been expecting that. Another reviewer also mentioned that the narrative often seemed fragmented because of POV shifts within sections; I agree. And the mildly didactic elements--something you get in both Salvatore and his late, somewhat similar-in-style friend David Gemmell--seem a little worn, not because we've seen them before but because, again, the writing is uncharacteristically pedestrian.
  
  Like the PW reviewer mentioned, it does take awhile for the disparate plotlines to converge, but once they do momentum picks up noticeably.
  
  But Salvatore's other strengths are still here in force; combat scenes generally and descriptions of the Highwayman's grace in particular are great, and even though some might get understandably sick of dwarves, the powries are different enough from your typical "Tolkien-esque" variety to remain engaging. While the prose is weak, the actual characterization is as strong and deep as longtime Salvatore readers will expect. The inner conflicts of many characters recall moments of the DemonWars saga, and the relative self-centeredness of Bransen and the cynicism of most characters feels honest and real and totally understandable.
  
  I'd have liked to see a little more of Jameston, the ranger precursor, but I expect that in the rest of The Saga of the First King we will. The hard, cunning, loyal, and briefly manipulative Dawson McKeege was an interesting supporting character, too. It was also nice to see more of the Alpinadorans and powries than we previously have in Salvatore's Corona books.
  
  I hope the writing style is back up to Salvatore's usual deftness and maturity for the next installments of this saga, which I will follow, but if you've been reading him for awhile, know that this isn't up to the standards of Mortalis, Transcendence, the Sellswords series, The Silent Blade, or the recent Orc King.
  Score: 3
• Posted on 2008-03-25
  Formulaic but Fun!
  
  Publisher's weekly blasted this book condemning it with the suggestion that Salvatore had "borrowed" characters, situations and settings from his previous novels. While this is likely true Salvatore's oft repeated theme surrounding the questioning of Mores, faith and "common knowledge" is such an important theme that it SHOULD be repeated. Even more importantly, the formula that Salvatore uses is just plain entertaining.
  
  This is the second novel featuring Salvatore's Highwayman. The Highwayman is a cross between Jet Li, Robin Hood and Dustin Hoffman's Rain Man. In the first novel we are introduced to Bransen the son of an Abellican monk (a Catholic priest with magic) and a Jhesta Tu Mystic (Shaolin Nun with magic). Branson's mother, newly and unknowingly pregnant saves a dying woman using her mystical Chi based abilities. Unfortunately the healing requires that the Jest Mystic take on the poisons that infect the woman's body. These aquired poisons cause massive birth defects that become apparent after Branson's birth. With his mother dead and his father missing (dead as well), the Stork (as Branson is called) is raised in a harsh monastery. However, Branson trains himself in the ways of the jhesta Tu mystics and combines it with the powerful gemstones of the Abellicans to not only make himself whole, but to make of himself an unstoppable warrior.
  
  In "the Ancient" we find Branson travelling with his wife and his mother in law as they attempt to get to the mountains of Jhest so that Branson can be completely healed of his Stork body (he still needs the gemstones in order to become the Highwayman). Through a series of events, adventures and individuals, the Highwayman is conscripted into an army that is in the midst of a Holy war; his skills and abilities are multiplied by joining them with an unlikely, but skilled group of freedom fighters.
  
  I found "The Ancient" to by highly entertaining, the action sequences are tight with plenty of blood and gore; and while the characters are not new ones that stretch Salvatore's literary muscles, they are likeable, three dimensional and entertaining.
  
  If you are a Bob Salvatore fan you won't be surprised by this novel, but you will be entertained.
  Score: 5
• Posted on 2008-03-18
  Lots of action, fun lightweight reading
  
  With his soul-stone in place, Bransen Garibond is a perfect warrior and thief--the Highwayman. Without it, he becomes a cripple--the Crane. This disguise has helped him evade capture, but eventually the rulers have figured it out and sent a message to the Abellican monastary. The Highwayman is to be arrested and executed. With this threat over his shoulder, and a false promise for reward, Bransen is tricked into fighting a war against hordes of trolls, barbarians, and giants.
  
  The warm water lake in the midst of a glacier is the source of Samhaist power and when the Samhaist leader, The Ancient, discovers an Abellican fortress in the midst of the lake, he decides it must be destroyed--along with everyone who allowed it to exist. The Samhaist faith is the truth, after all--it promises death, which is the only certainty.
  
  Brother Cormack is proud to be one of the Abellicans who's settled in an island in the warm lake, even if none of the locals has adopted the faith he and his fellows teach. But when the monks rescue three injured barbarians and then refuse to let them leave the monastary until they accept the Abellican faith, his own faith is shaken. Could this really be the mercy and gentleness he believes in?
  
  Bransen, the unwilling hero, and Cormack, the monk stripped of his faith, together with a small band of redcapped dwarves, seem like little threat to The Ancient himself. Still, although Cormack might have been cast out of the Abellican brotherhood, he's got to do something to prevent their complete destruction--as well as the destruction of the people living in the lake--including the woman he's come to love.
  
  Author R. A. Salvatore creates a fascinating character in Cormack--a man of faith, rejected by those of his faith. Throw in some wonderful fight scenes and you've got a book worth reading. I found less to like about Bransen. Salvatore created him as the reluctant hero, but he seems more reluctant than hero. As he, himself, realizes, he is selfish even when doing good and it's, frankly, sometimes difficult to care whether he comes out of his many fights on the winning or losing side. The story is enhanced by wise-talking dwarves, bit characters like Dawson and Dame Gwydre, and a well-motivated villain in The Ancient.
  
  THE ANCIENT makes for enjoyable, if lightweight, reading.
  
  Score: 4