Passage to dawn Book

This review contains spoilers.

You're probably familiar with the phrase "jumping the shark."� It refers to an episode of Happy Days when the Fonz does a water ski jump over a shark. The phrase is meant to pinpoint the exact moment when a TV series starts to go downhill.

Passage To Dawn inspired me to come up with a similar phrase:"Training the seal."� It's meant to pinpoint the exact moment when a fantasy book series starts to go downhill.

"Training the seal"� refers to an incident in this book when Drizzt trains a seal to dive under water and find a magical statuette. Sound ridiculous? It is, even for a fantasy book. The seal incident is one of the many scenes that make Passage To Dawn the low point in the Drizzt saga. I nearly quit the series after reading it. Fortunately, I gave the dark elf another chance, and the later books sparked my interest again.

Still, I've never been able to forgive Salvatore for the atrocities he committed in Passage To Dawn. Let's take the scene where Drizzt meets Cadderly, for example. Never mind that Salvatore indulged in his worst instincts by allowing them to meet -- the scene is so cloyingly sentimental it's sickening. Not only does the author nearly ruin the Drizzt series in one swift stroke, he nearly ruins Cadderly's story as well. The ending to the Cleric Quintet was appropriately bittersweet, with Cadderly sacrificing his love for his wife to his love for his god. But wait! He lived after all! And he and Drizzt automatically became best friends! And so did Danica and Catti-brie! Yay!

Puke.

One last thought: Salvatore must have been sleepwriting through the "climactic"� final scene where Wulfgar makes his reappearance. That's the only explanation for his straightforward approach to what should have been a moment of high drama.

You weren't trying as hard on this one, Bob -- and it shows.