Annihilation

Forgotten Realms: War of the Spider Queen, Book 5

By: Philip Athans

Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor

Length: 12 hrs

Publisher's summary

The New York Times best-seller, now in audio! This edition expands on the civil upheaval among the drow, one of the most popular races in the Forgotten Realms. Best-selling author R.A. Salvatore wrote the prologue to Annihilation and continues to consult on the series, lending his expertise as the author who brought drow society to the forefront of the Forgotten Realms mythos.

A journey through the unforgiving expanse of the endless Abyss awaits. At the end of that journey a ragged band of dark elves hope to find Lolth herself. Though they've managed to survive the fall of Ched Nasad, the demon-haunted ruins of Myth Drannor, and the vicious cunning of aboleth slave-masters, the Underdark is child's play compared to the chaotic infinity of the Demonweb Pits. They'll go to find the truth but may well find only… Annihilation.

©2004 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Another great chapter

Narrator was excellent as she has been throughout the series. The story has been entertaining and has been worth the listen from the first part.

A pivotal entry in the War of the Spider Queen

I'll get this out right now, despite some notable flaws, Annihilation is my favorite book in the War of the Spider Queen series since Dissolution.

First, a little background, for those who have gotten this far into the War of the Spider Queen series without doing much side research on it. War of the Spider Queen was an ambitious project undertaken by Wizards of the Coast, under the advisement of RA Salvatore. The overarching plot line and all of its main events was dictated before ink ever touched the page, and those milestones were handed off to multiple authors to write each entry (with editorial oversight by Salvatore). As a result, each book has some minor departures in style and characterization based on author interpretation. That said, the events that unfold in this entry are key for the series as a whole. Here we see the mission, which really began in book II, come to a close. We also see the inklings of change, as our heroes undertake a new mission (to be explored in the final book).

Book V is brought to us by the author Philip Athans. I have mixed feelings on his work in this book. On the one hand, I enjoyed how Athans included details which reinforced the careless brutality of the drow. We get to see the tragic deaths of humans through their own eyes. The stories of their lives, their dreams, and their aspirations are paraded before us in the fleeting moments before they die as meaningless pawns in the power struggles between drow. Also to his credit, Athans provides an excellent description of the most pivotal event in the series (which occurs in the final few chapters). However, this impressive descriptive skill is not on display throughout the rest of the book. Athans dialogue and prose are often uninspired and mechanical. It feels like every line of dialogue is "said," rather than "barked," "warned," or "whispered." Basically, Athans doesn't take enough care with word choice throughout the novel.

To sum up my opinion on Athans' work here, he does a great job with large scale storytelling but lacks the mechanics of a writer.

Rosalyn Landor is the real star of the show in this audiobook. Her consistent performance throughout the series helps to smooth the transition between authors, which might otherwise be very jarring. Danifae's voice continues to be husky and seductive, Quenthel remains haughty, Jeggred remains feral. Some detractors of the paper copy of this book have argued that the characters feel inconsistent; the continuity of voice helps to maintain the sense that these are the same characters as before, only changing as a result of their mission. Moreover, Landor's performance and emotion successfully covers up any lack of emotive writing on Athans' part. I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed this entry as much if I had read it in paper.

Obviously, if you've gotten this far in the series, Annihilation is easy to recommend. I think it's a satisfying end to the longest arc the series has to offer, and it catapults you into the awaiting conclusion.

Excellent Story, Good Performance

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this book. The whole series is quite good, the characters compelling, and the plot interesting.

I wouldn't recommend this unless you're reading/listening to the entire hexology, however.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Annihilation?

One of the more memorable moments of War of the Spider Queen 5 was... Well, I don't want to spoil it for anyone. Still

What about Rosalyn Landor’s performance did you like?

She has really hit her stride with the voice acting and on pronouncing things by this point. There were a few times I thought she said something oddly, but overall it was quite good. Her voice was very good for making the characters distinct by this point, as well.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Honestly, no, While interesting, it's simply too long (as part of a hexology) for me to be willing to try to marathon it. But I don't think that's a bad thing.

Pulpy Fantasy Fun

Great D&D adventure. Great narrative. Better narration. I enjoyed entire series. 5th part is very exciting.

The story was...off

The segment of the series fits in but it's off. The characters do things that seem out of place in parts of the story. It also seem like the characters were forgetful of thing they had already discussed and knew. It still a good but it left me questioning why? with no real reason that made sense.

review for entire series:

Any additional comments?

i was a little leery about how a female narrator would accomplish such a wide variety of character voices, when so many of them are supposed to be hulking, gruff monsters. wow, did she pull that off. i was never once distracted by a character voice seeming out of place. obviously, i don't expect ANY narrator to adapt a "death metal singer's" rasp, especially if they are voicing a 5-book series. but everything she does is appropriate. i wish Salvatore would have hired her instead of a couple of the incompetent bumblers that have read a few of his other works.
the story overall is quite enjoyable, and resolves appropriately. there are some great characters, and web woven is entertainingly complex & twisted.

Amazing

Series gets better and better check it out for yourself. Bob is a genius for this universe

A bit combat reliant

Compared to the other offerings presented in this series, I found this book rather reliant on lackluster combat descriptions rather than relevant story progress. The little plot progresses that were achieved were fairly obvious and uninspired. Out of the WOTSP this has been easily the weakest. However you can chlak up another great performance from Rosalyn!

Too Many Fight Scenes

I have loved every single book in this entry so far, but this one has been rather taxing to get through. What I've loved about these stories is the politics, cultures above and below ground, religions, characters, and most importantly- dialogue. For me, this book has many fight scenes that tend to drag along for pages unnecessarily.
It's made all the more taxing to listen to whenever there is a mystery opponent, and the descriptions of who or what the opponent could be become way too much of a focus of the fight. Or, worse yet, the lack of an initial description beyond "the thing", "the creature", "the animal", make it very hard to even picture what's happening. There's no real middle ground.
(Spoilers below)
Don't get me wrong, I am still heavily invested in this story, and the fights in previous books have been well done, but the fights aren't the most memorable things about the books. Unfortunately this entry in the series has a lot of odd breaks in the story to throw in random surface animals to stump the characters, and the back to back demon fights on the ship of chaos was too much. Instead of developing the distrust Jeggred began to have for Quenthel and her vipers, or showing more of the progression of Quenthel's dive into madness, we got quick looks, some paragraphs of dialogue, and passing observations from other characters. Not just that, but a fight between one demon, then pages later, BOOM more demons.
It just became exhausting, and once the swamp lynx attacked Ryld and then Jeggred stepped in and continued to fight the lynx so slowly, I had to take a break for a while. The plot of separating Halistra and Ryld was so good, so captivating, and was sent to a full stop by a lynx.
I know this is seems like a very negative review, and I don't mean it to be, but I have to point out this one aspect of the book that greatly bothered me. Everything in this world is coming together to solve these climactic political conflicts and the mystery behind Lolth's disappearance. It's gripping, engaging, and beyond stop and go with just how many fights and sentences within fights get repeated again and again. I wanted to love this book as much as the others, and it just doesn't live up to the previous ones. For such an important placement in the series, it gives very little in the way of pacing.