Dissolution
by Richard Lee Byers
Reviewed by Coral
Trouble is brewing in the underground realm of the drow, more than just the average day-to-day plotting for position. Assassination attempts have been made on high priestesses, inside Tier Brieche – the priestess’ school – itself. Additionally, an unusually high number of male drow have gone missing, having seemingly run away.
What does this all mean? More than one drow seek the answer, hoping it will propel them to power. But in order to find the answer, they may have to do something that goes against their drow nature: work together.
I thought that this book was an interesting start to the series. We got the answers to some of the mysterious happenings in this book, but there are larger questions remaining.
I did find it kind of ridiculous that one of the characters, Quenthel, could survive so many assassination attempts. At one point I was annoyed with her plot, because each of her chapters would end with her seemingly dead and defeated by an assassin only to have her pull out a victory in her next chapter.
While each of the drow are motivated by personally gain and glory, there were a couple of characters that I could at least root for in a general sense, even if they aren’t really morally great characters.
Grade: B
