The Demon Spirit

The DemonWars Saga #2

by R.A. Salvatore

“Absorbing . . . This is one of the finest books yet in Salvatore’s prolific career.”— Publishers Weekly

Elbryan and Pony—soul mates from childhood who grew even closer over time—fervently hope that the tide of darkness is at last receding from the land of Corona. Yet if evil is on the retreat, why are hordes of goblins and bloody-capped powries slashing their way ever-deeper into civilized lands?

A sinister threat now looms over Corona, for the power of the demon dactyl was not entirely vanquished by the sacrifice of the monk Avelyn Desbris. Instead, its darkness has infiltrated the most sacred of places—as a once-admired spiritual leader rededicates his life to the most vicious, most insidious revenge against the forces of good. There may be no stopping the spread of the malignant evil . . .

“A gripping story . . . some of [his] best work.”— Booklist

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Forgotten Realms, Epic Fantasy, Audiobook, Science Fiction Fantasy, High Fantasy

532 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 30, 1999

About the author

As one of the fantasy genre’s most successful authors, R.A. Salvatore enjoys an ever-expanding and tremendously loyal following. His books regularly appear on The New York Times best-seller lists and have sold more than 10,000,000 copies. Salvatore’s original hardcover, The Two Swords, Book III of The Hunter’s Blade Trilogy (October 2004) debuted at # 1 on The Wall Street Journal best-seller list and at # 4 on The New York Times best-seller list. His books have been translated into numerous foreign languages including German, Italian, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Turkish, Croatian, Bulgarian, Yiddish, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Portuguese, Czech, and French.

Salvatore’s first published novel, The Crystal Shard from TSR in 1988, became the first volume of the acclaimed Icewind Dale Trilogy and introduced an enormously popular character, the dark elf Drizzt Do’Urden. Since that time, Salvatore has published numerous novels for each of his signature multi-volume series including The Dark Elf Trilogy, Paths of Darkness, The Hunter’s Blades Trilogy, and The Cleric Quintet.

His love affair with fantasy, and with literature in general, began during his sophomore year of college when he was given a copy of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings as a Christmas gift. He promptly changed his major from computerscience to journalism. He received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Communications from Fitchburg State College in 1981, then returned for the degree he always cherished, the Bachelor of Arts in English. He began writing seriously in 1982, penning the manuscript that would become Echoes of the Fourth Magic. Salvatore held many jobs during those first years as a writer, finally settling in (much to our delight) to write full time in 1990.

The R.A. Salvatore Collection has been established at his alma mater, Fitchburg State College in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, containing the writer’s letters, manuscripts, and other professional papers. He is in good company, as The Salvatore Collection is situated alongside The Robert Cormier Library, which celebrates the writing career of the co-alum and esteemed author of young adult books.

Salvatore is an active member of his community and is on the board of trustees at the local library in Leominster, Massachusetts. He has participated in several American Library Association regional conferences, giving talks on themes including “Adventure fantasy” and “Why young adults read fantasy.” Salvatore himself enjoys a broad range of literary writers including James Joyce, Mark Twain, Geoffrey Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dante, and Sartre. He counts among his favorite genre literary influences Ian Fleming, Arthur Conan Doyle, Fritz Leiber, and of course, J.R.R. Tolkien.

Born in 1959, Salvatore is a native of Massachusetts and resides there with his wife Diane, and their three children, Bryan, Geno, and Caitlin. The family pets include three Japanese Chins, Oliver, Artemis and Ivan, and four cats including Guenhwyvar.

When he isn't writing, Salvatore chases after his three Japanese Chins, takes long walks, hits the gym, and coaches/plays on a fun-league softball team that includes most of his family. His gaming group still meets on Sundays to play.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/rasalv...

Reviews

[Niki Hawkes - The Obsessive Bookseller · Rating 2 out of 5]

I may have stalled on writing this review a bit longer than necessary, but it should tell you something about my general lack of investment in this book that I can’t remember a single, solitary thing about it even though it has only been a few months since I finished it. Nada. Squat. Zilch. A big fat pile of nothing. So I’m left with only the vague memory of forcing myself through the book without retaining anything (because I was bored – the book didn’t have much resembling plot-advancement. That much I remember). This is not good. Despite love of Salvatore in general and my curiosity for everything that takes place between this book and Child of a Mad God, I’m seriously considering abandoning this series for the time being… or at the very least putting it on the back burner for other things. I just can’t bring myself to invest time in the final book of the trilogy when I had such an unremarkable experience with Demon Spirit. Especially when I have a laundry list of things I’m enjoying more. I’ll probably revisit one day, but not in the near future. Heck, I might even skip ahead just to reinvigorate my interest in the series. I own them all. :/ [update: I wrote this review. I meant every single word. But now I’ve changed my mind and want to give the final book a go… it’s a long story. Lol]

Via The Obsessive Bookseller at www.NikiHawkes.com

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Demon Spirit by R.A. Salvatore continues The DemonWars Saga. The demon is destroyed in his physical manifestation but he can still influence people in their minds. The demon dactyl infiltrates the religious leader Father Abbot Markwart and Markwart becomes obsessed with power. Salvatore creates a story that is more political/church court thriller and I think it would have worked much better as that story. Where the story really bogged down and suffered for me was with our heroes Elbryan and Pony. I had a very hard time having any interest in the fights they had with goblin #432 or giant #44. Where the first book had arch-nemesis that made it more interesting, this book just seemed to not have any real antagonist except for Father Abbot Markwart. Because of this, it just got boring at times during the fight scenes.

One thing I did love about this book was the introduction of Roger Lockless. Roger is a rogue with an ego the size of a giant. I thought his introduction to the story was great and I'm looking forward to having him more in the story. Master Jojonah is a great good monk against the evil that is Markwart and the entire monk storyline and intrigue was decent. I just wish Elbryan and Pony were more interesting. One of the characters from the previous book was sorely missed and there just wasn't enough storyline when it came to our heroes.

I just started the third graphic audiobook and I hope it is better than this one. I think it will be because there are many more characters being introduced and the political ramifications of everything Markwart does in this book are making a huge difference.

I just was disappointed in this second book and thought it was just OK. At this point, I'm not sure if I would recommend this series.

2/5
10/25 Possible Score
Plot - 2(OK)
Characters - 2(OK)
Setting/World Building - 2(OK)
Writing Style - 2(OK)
Heart & Mind Aspect - 2(OK)

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book in the Demon Wars saga and I was a little disappointed.
Salvatore does what he does best - he has great characters, tons of action and great fight sequences.

So why the disappointment? Way too much plot devoted to the church and the corruption within. I've always found religion to be a little bit silly to begin with but I understand that it's a major plot point in a lot of fantasy books but in this book it's really the main plot point. That the church would be corrupt was not surprising but the motivations behind the father abbott and his minions for their corruption didn't match their actions. The actions were extreme and the motivation not strong enough.

The characters are strong enough in the series to keep my enjoying the book nonetheless and I will definitely keep reading. Hopefully the church will not be as big of a "player" in the following books.

[John Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little disappointed with this one after such a good start to the trilogy. Too much book was devoted to church and it’s corruption which is probably my least favorite part of this series. I still have faith that the last book will be epic but this is a serious case of middle book syndrome.

[Ren Bedasbad · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second book in the Demon Wars Saga focuses much more on the dissension of the monks. The monks story arc is a bit more aggravating as it is filled with strife and very little resolution. There is a strong focus on the villain, who is a bit too typical of a villain. The book is definitely a second book in a trilogy, as it is mainly a stepping stone into the next book. Overall, the war with the demon is still interesting and I'm sure third book will be a better read.

I listened to the book via GraphicAudio, which had a better improvement on their sound. It is much more balanced and kept the excitement going.

[Erika Sellers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would give this second installment in the Demonwars saga 4.5 stars if I could. It does an excellent job of building on the events from the first book. A fair number of the secondary characters were developed in new and interesting ways, but there was very little development of the main characters. I really think Roger and Jojonah were the most surprising and satisfying characters of this book. I will definitely continue reading this series.

[Hailie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was about Elbryn and Pony, along with many other allies along the road, as they fight to push the evil from the land after Brother Avelyn Desbris' sacrifice to kill the demon dactyl. The demon dactyl wasn't entirely vanquished though, and it infiltrates the holy leader of the Abellican Order. As Elbryn, Pony, and their friends fight their way through the lands, they start to learn that the evil enemy they fight may not be who they originally thought it would be. Personally, I really liked this book. I wasn't so sure that it would be good after the first book, but it surprised me, and I really enjoyed it.

[Rob Worth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great action and characters. I closed this book hating Markwart, and loving Pony and Elbryan, and heart broken for Master Jojonah. They finished the war with the monsters, only to find the worst evil, in the place you least hope to find it. The church.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, love the characters and his writing but for some reason just find myself hard pressed to get into and through this series and it's hard to put a finger on. I think I liked this one just a touch more than the first one but it was still a tough read. We'll see how long it takes me to decide to go on to the 3rd book.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

As with the first book, I was both flipping through this book as well as listening to Graphic Audio's rendition of it. I've sorted of gotten used to it. It's kinda nice in its own way, like listening to a movie. Although reading Salvatore's action scenes is where the writing really shines.

As for the story itself, I found it to be more palatable than the first book - at least, some parts of it.

The weak parts are again on the monster army. The scattered remnants (not that they were really united to begin with) of goblins, powries and giants are really nothing more than numbers to be slaughtered (way more "monsters" died than did humans) by the protagonists. The early parts about Elbryan and Pony were somewhat bland, since they're so overpowered; a bit nonsensical too (irritation: Why would you, after taking down the big baddie, hang around in no-man's land for weeks killing stragglers instead heading south quickly to both recover, and to become the bearer of good news? At the very least, go and find those refugees that you left fending off monsters on their own!). Thankfully, these bits are quite spread out so they never got to the point where they simply irritated me in the first book.

Protagonist-growth-wise, it's ok. I liked how the Pony and Elbryan are facing their relationship in an uncertain world. I especially liked the growth of Jojonah's character, and even a surprising return of another character. A new protagonist in the form of a young rogue with a huge ego was extremely irritating for the better part of the book. I found his arrogance and belligerence to be quite forced. It's only towards the end that my annoyance with this new character lessened, after a maturity spurt.

The best part of this second book was the fall (figuratively) of the leader of the Abellican Church. I think his descent into an ends-justifies-the-means kind of way was really quite well done. Even his sidekicks were done well too. What was really weak was how the rest of the church (as well as the rest of devout populace) actually reacted to these actions. The rationalisation and motivation was fine - it's just the way events turned out that defies belief. Most monks are more akin to robots than supposedly philosophical or religious fighting men. There's literally zero difference between generic monks and generic monsters that Elbryan and Pony keeps mowing down - they're just numbers.

The book ends with a cliffhanger of sorts, where the primary antagonist of book 2 is still at large, and a couple of good guys dead. I supposed we'll have a reunion of sorts for the remaining good guys in the next book and the revelation of the true evil. I hope it stays on the corruption-within theme that's just so much better than the monster-army-that-was-never-really-an-army theme.

[Petros · Rating 2 out of 5]

The pacing remains as glacial as in the first book, and on top of that not many things happen to excuse its length. Most of the events were superficial even in the first book, but even that was half-decent at building up towards a resolution. The second book doesn’t even do that.

The cast is even less impressive than before.
-Elbryan’s cycle of the hero’s journey is over, and now he has nothing to do. He spends the whole book in skirmishes with monsters that offer nothing new to his already archetypical personality. He is left static and boring.
-Jil gets a level up by acquiring Avelyn’s magic stones and becomes a potent spellcaster. She is no longer worthless in battle, but still remains completely uninteresting as a personality. Also, mastering the use of the magic stones so fast cheapens the training others are supposed to be doing for decades. She remains a bland sex partner and nothing more.
-With Avelyn (the best character of the first book) dead, we get another antihero to replace him, named Roger. He too wants to do the right thing, and is far chaotic and unpredictable to the point nobody trusts him. He never comes off as particularly strong or needed in the team. It felt like they added him for the heck of it and then spend more time not trusting each other than fighting monsters.
-With Dactyl (the main villain of the first book) dead, the new bad guys become the corrupt priests of Avelyn’s monastery. They certainly do a lot more plotting and scheming, and come off way less one dimensional, but are far from great as they lack presence. I had a hard time remembering who was who, as they were all doing the same things. Also, they are not defeated at the end of the second book, so there was no pay as opposed to Dactyl.

The above take up roughly a fifth of the pages. The rest of it is boring traveling logs and skirmishes with the same 3 types of monsters. They never felt threatening and at this point each of the main characters can solo dozens of them, so there never was any tension. No matter how much they were trying to build them up, they were always a weak mob of leaderless buffoons getting mercilessly cut down by a handful of people.

As a whole, emptier than the first book.

[Adam Belsha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one was dark.

The dactyl of the first book was a war-hungry demon who called together a massive army of the evil races to take over the world. He's your standard epic fantasy bad guy. When he does something violent, you're not really surprised. He's a demon.

Here, the villain is SADISTIC. Without giving too much away, this book implies that the essence of the dactyl from the first book still lingers and has found its home in the psyche of a paranoid holy man hellbent on preserving his legacy. There are no lengths he won't go to in order to get what he wants, all while spouting how everything he does is godly and for the greater good. But there is no piety there, only despair, torture, and murder.

The story mostly focuses on two perspectives: Elbryan, Pony, and Juraviel cleaning up the hordes left over from the first book; and the goings-on of the Abellican church, mostly focused on the above mentioned holy man and the monks who secretly oppose him. I felt like the book focused more on the church than the heroes, but that was effective in portraying the villain of the story as truly villainous. You get to see the build up from mild paranoia to full on sadism all the way up to the last page.

Oh yeah. The epilogue, Salvatore? Not cool.

Some of the minor characters from the first book make an appearance, but I can't say much without giving a lot away. Salvatore also introduces a new thief type character to round out the "good guy" group makeup (Elbryan the ranger, Pony the magic-user/warrior, Juraviel the archer, Symphony...the horse).

I don't know what to say about the mood of the book other than to say it's dark. You might wonder how I can five-star a book this depressing...it's because I'm big on world building. The depressing nature of this book will follow the heroes into the trilogy finale, resulting in an epic that pits a furious hero team against a psychopathic madman. Should be a...good read. ;D

[Martin Hernandez · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF at 52%.

This is such a sharp downturn from the 1st book. The 1st book was very much old school epic adventure fantasy with a cool magic system, and an otherworldly entity as the main big bad. I was skeptical how the series would continue after the Dactyl was defeated at the end of book 2, and my worries are warranted.

This book focuses more on the politics within the church, and Elbryan & Jilsephonie mopping up the stragglers of the Demon's army. Granted they get roped up with some survivors, and become impromptu leaders of such group; but their exploits feel so hollow. Its battle, after battle, after battle with the wrinkle being a thief/rogue named Roger who want's all the glory for himself.

I'm just not feeling it. Looking ahead the series seems to fall upon more politics within the city, and even to the point of the Royals. I expected this to be straight up adventure fantasy. It's a shame really. I bought the whole set, albeit at a discount of $0.99 each, so it wasn't a huge investment, and normally I would push through to make sure I got my money's worth. In this case I don't see that happening.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Underwhelming follow-up to the mostly-solid first installment. I was annoyed from the get-go, when it seemed R.A. saw goblins and had a knee-jerk reaction to put 800 fight scenes in the book. It felt like I was reading a Drizzt book but with different (were they, though?) characters. The set-up to this series was very strong, and to see Elbryan do mostly nothing except fight really bothered me.

That being said, the stuff with the Church was great. I enjoyed that. However, Jojonah's sudden Christ-like demise bothered me quite a bit. We the reader can infer these things without it having to be shoved in our faces so deliberately.

Having trouble pushing through into installment 3...

[Iantony · Rating 2 out of 5]

FYI, the rating is for this book only while the review is for the whole saga. Reading the first book made me excited at first, this is a promising new saga, I said to myself.

Then as the story progressed I realized that these are basically very similar to the tales of Drizzt Do 'Urden and his companions. Yes they had different names and appearances, came from different lands, and fought against pretty much similar darkness with a different name.

If you have never read the exploits of Drizzt do 'Urden and his companions or if you could somehow read this saga with a 'blank slate', this saga is still worth to read.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Demon Awakens sort of left me with the feeling of having just read a formula I had read many times before. As a result I took 6+ months before picking up the second book of this trilogy: the reviews were even worse than the first...

... but after reading book 2, I have to say the formula kicked in just fine. Sure it's the same formula, but it works. Where book 1 was a story in itself, book 2 sets the stage for the ongoing story and while there are many clichés and moments that prompt me to roll my eyes, it is still an enjoyable read, even if the crafted story is predictable.

[Charles Hengst · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do not agree with some of the reviews left on this book. I thought this book was amazing. There was no real turn of the book battle at the end like in “The Demon Awakens”. Corruption is well written in this installment, and you see the power of greed and what it holds over people with an army behind them. One downside to the book is that I felt that Pony’s emotions swayed in a manner towards the end that didn’t seem like her. The ending of this book tore my heart, I can’t wait to see what book 3 and 4 hold

[Andrew Delaney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I finally forced myself to finish this, I started rereading many of my books on amazon over continuing this. Definitely a bad sign but I still cannot work out why it doesn't hold my interest. I think it is something about the villain and that plotline, it seems like they just get out of more situations than they really should and are surprisingly disconnected from the heroic storyline.

[Derek Gillespie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than the first book: Markwart is a fiend!

[Δημήτριος Καραγιάννης · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent fusion of religion, morality and the supernatural/paranormal

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

R.A. may be a crazy leftist but his writing does not really reflect that. I love his books! His writing style and characters are just soooo good. I will read pretty much anything from him.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

U

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am loving this series so far...

[Keith Christoffers]

New

[Niclas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Felt like an in-between episode in a TV series where there's no or very little progress on the big story. Perhaps building up to the third book?

[Jurgen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story ARC is picking up speed...

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am really enjoying the series!

[Cassidy Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

The graphic audio version is done so well. The magic system is pretty unique and fun plus the fun mixture of magical creatures makes a unique blend.

[L. Embers · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book is great, it didn’t feel finished to me. It did, however, set up the conflict for the next book well, and it definitely pulled at my heartstrings.

[Sarah Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoying this story