Ascendancy of the Last

by Lisa Smedman

Book Overview

Is it the end for the Lady Penitent? Is it the end for Lolth? Lolth has come out of hibernation with a plan that may seem too ambitious even for her, and to pull it off she'll need the help of a drow... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786948647
• ISBN13: 9780786948642
• Release Date: June 2008
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 0.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Fantastic closure to the series.

Wonderful final book in this excellent trilogy about Eilistraee and her followers. The Masked Lady was amazing, and had all too brief a stay in the Realms. I would have loved more, both from Eilistraee and from author Lisa Smedman in terms of future books along this line, but 4E changed everything and it's unfortunately not to be. Regardless of that, though, this is a truly excellent series, and the author did a fantastic job of leaving just enough room for the reader to make their own decisions about what all really happened in the end. Excellent writing, excellent conclusion to the series.

Did not dissapoint, very enjoyable!

I, for one, enjoyed this third book very much - I was captivated through the story which provided sufficient amount of non-linear plot, double-crosses, weaves and turns to make it very entertaining. I would recommend this to anyone who has read the previous two. While I rate the story on a high side, I would say characters were not growing as much as in the previous books, but then there was a LOT that needed to be covered in this one. While this is true, I feel that the focus was more on the game and repercussions of the game between the goddesses, and as such the book definately delivered.

Welcome to Forgotten Realms 4th Edition

There is no doubt that writers of Forgotten Realms 4th edition needed some new player races and this book just ushered one in. Smedman is the one of the best writers of the Drow out there. She has nicely tied up a lot of unfinished history of the Drow which was a huge task but she pulled it off. All three books were very well written and enjoyable. Lisa Smedman now ranks up there with Thomas M. Reid and Richard Baker.

An excellent closure to the trilogy.

I've been a fan of the Drow since I was first introduced to them. R.A. Salvatore did an amazing job fleshing out the workings of the race, and in doing so created many "standards" by which any book involving them should be considered. Of course, these were expanded upon by numerous authors in the War of the Spider Queen series, and every author in that series proved to be not only familiar with the essence of Drow nature, their writing styles contributed greatly to the growing lore regarding the Drow race. For me, the WotSQ series was well put together, but none of the authors stood out in my eyes. Lisa Smedman has stepped beyond her "one of the six authors" status with this entire series, culminating with this book, Ascendancy of the Last. Readers of the first two books may have ideas about what will be within, but they'll be shocked by the full contents of this book. The book continues the plot lines outlined in the second book: the god's divine "sava game" (an excellent, if slightly overused metaphor made literal) continues, now involving the final deity worshiped by the Drow: Ghaunadaur, the Ancient Evil. The trials and activities of Q'arlynd, Cavatina, and others, as well as a new character (T'lar, the rather psychotic looking shaven-headed female on the cover). Following all of the characters at once results in a bit of jumpiness here and there, but it all flows well enough to not be disruptive in reading. Without delving into the plots established within, all I can say is that Ascendancy of the Last does an excellent job stabilizing the Drow / Dark Elf race, and ties up every loose end nicely. As another reviewer suggested, this seems to be WotC's way of "dumbing down" their upcoming 4th edition rule set. I felt similarly after reading the first book. However, this knowledge did not diminish the enjoyment that I received in finishing a very well-written series. A different reviewer suggested a "cliffhanger" ending, which is hardly the case. The lives of the primary mortal players are played out, their "end game" is well set-up, and as for the divines... well, all I can say is that a literal situation was likely the basis for almost every metaphor in existence; remove a literal viewpoint when completing the book, and life goes on exactly as expected. All in all, a very good end to a very good trilogy, and highly recommended.

Lovely conclusion

Up front, I am a Lolth-worshipping drow lover. As such I loved this book, it was my favorite out of the three which recovered amazingly the stumblings of the second one. The plot as usual for Smedman was nicely woven together and in some ways rivals the skill of Salvatore's for writing about drow, displaying an excellent understanding of them. In a similar way to WotSQ, this series at times felt somewhat contrived, seeming at times to exist solely for the purpose of explaining in-realm rule changes that WotC made to D & D -- ie., that series was to explain Lolth's change in deity status, this one I'm guessing to explain the purging of the drow pantheon that probably occurs in 4E which if memory serves is coming out soon if it hasn't already. Across the whole series I did not much care for the build-up of the Eilistraeean faith, which has never been accepted as anything more than a splinter sideshow, but which the folks in WotSQ (especially, unsurprisingly, Smedman's installment in that series) and Smedman here in her own series, have made determined efforts to convince us IS in fact a genuine faith that we should accept as being on par (or nearly so) with Lolthism. It almost feels like there was that buildup in SQ just so that Smedman would have a platform to write her trilogy on. Who knows? Also the shock value of deity-slaying numbed rapidly. The first book was like "wow! knocked off two!" but you were kind of expecting it for the second book and...sure enough, not surprised. So the introduction here of Ghaunadaur's minions as a new "third player at the sava board" doesn't really feel that suspenseful because you know how it's going to play out: just like it played out the other two times, and the board'll be back to two. Again. All of which is not to detract from the fact that it truly was the best book in the series, and maybe even of the extended nonology that includes WSQ; when I finished I closed the book and just sat there for a good five minutes with a smile on my face. Smedman can have her obsession with drowish redemption...but in my humble spider-kissing opinion, we're better off with the eilistraeean heretics "reclaimed" and now apparently no longer drow. Good riddance, winnow the soft-hearted weaklings and keep the real drow Lolthist monotheists.