Relentless

Starred review from June 22, 2020
The exhilarating conclusion to Salvatore’s Generations trilogy (after Boundless) illustrates the power of family, both born and chosen. When dark elf Zaknafein Do’Urden, weapon master of House Do’Urden, becomes a father, he’s determined to keep his son, Drizzt, the hero of Salvatore’s Forgotten Realms series, from being corrupted by Drizzt’s evil mother and the hate-driven underground society of Menzonberranzan. But when Zaknafein grows afraid that his enemies will use Drizzt to get to him, he leaves Drizzt in order to keep him safe. Jumping forward centuries, Salvatore shows the long-lasting consequences of choices made by both Zaknafein and Drizzt. Drizzt’s wife, Catti-Brie, is about to have a child, and the family she’s created with friends and loved ones from all different races of supernatural beings are in the midst of their most fearsome battle yet against the powers of the underworld. The question of Drizzt’s survival will be on the minds of all returning readers, and Salvatore expertly draws out the suspense en route to an ending that is sure to satisfy series fans. Amid epic sword and sorcery clashes, Salvatore makes a powerful case for love and compassion conquering even the strongest of evils. Fans will be sad to see this fantastic series end. Agent: Paul Lucas, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc.

February 1, 2020

In Queen of Storms, the second in the "Firemane Saga," Hatushaly and young wife Hava restore the fire-blackened Three Stars in trade-rich Beran's Hill, but they aren't the cheerful innkeepers they appear to be (100,000-copy first printing). A young woman in small-town Queensland, Australia, undertakes a gothic journey after hearing from her long-gone brother, thus launching Hugo- and World Fantasy-nominated illustrator Jennings's buzzing debut novel, Flyaway. In The Relentless Moon, sequel to Kowal's Hugo, Locus, and Nebula-Award winning The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky, the moon is being colonized even as a meteor strike brings climate crisis to Earth. Originally scheduled for October 2019, Malerman's Malorie reveals what happens to the title character eight years after events in Bird Box, basis of the Netflix mega-hit. The perennial best-selling Modesitt's Quantum Shadows is set in a place called Heaven, where humankind's major religions each have their own land and places of worship are being scarily marked with inscrutable black images. With his stories already nominated for Hugo, Nebula, BSFA, Sturgeon, and World Fantasy honors, debut novelist Rosenbaum (The Ant King and Other Stories) returns with The Unraveling, which dreams up a far-future, distant-galaxy, rigidly structured society where individuals have multiple bodies and staid-gendered Fift and bail-gendered bioengineer Shria wind up in the midst of an eyebrow-raising art spectacle. Salvatore's Relentless closes his "Generations" trilogy with Zaknafein reunited with son Drizzt Do'Urden and reconciled to life's unpredictability (100,000-copy first printing). In multi-award-winning Walton's intriguing-sounding Or What You Will, a character who's been a dragon, lover, scholar, warrior, and thief in the many books penned by Sylvia Harrison knows that the 73-year-old author won't be around much longer and is trying to figure out how the two of them can escape into immortality. Born in England to South American parents and raised in Africa near the historical territory of his Xhosa ancestors, Winter draws on his background to light The Fires of Vengeance, second in "The Burning" series, wherein a queen who has lost her throne joins with a young warrior in a battle to regain it (75,000-copy first printing).

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