Rating: 
Summary: This Book Was Terrible!
Review: I love Drizzit's books but this was horrible. It's only about a drunken hagard Wulfgar! Were is Drizzit and the rest of the gang! What about the Christal Shard and Jarxale come on. I like Salvatore but he can do better than this
Rating:
Summary: Worst fantasy book ever
Review: Look how the mighty have fallen... R.A. Salvatore had great success with the original Crystal Shard trilogy, and after that, he decided to shamelessly exploit his characters for commercial gain. The first ones were still good, and amazingly, the couple of books that followed were not bad at all. However, the quality has been declining steadily, as Salvatore was running out of ideas, and just wrote on, and on, and on... just like a certain Edgar Rice Burroughs with his endless books about Tarzan.This book is the weeakest of them all, and it shows that Salvatore should just give up writing, once and for all. There are two plotlines here: one is a sappy romance novel, so terrible in execution that any writer of housewife literature (fortunately, I can't name any) would be proud. The second one is written, I'm guessing, to keep the men interested, but fails at that as well. The pages that deal with second storyline are filled with detailed, disgusting descriptions of various tortures. Salvatore seems to be enjoying churning out pages after pages of different tortures inflicted on Wulfgar and everybody else, and it's not entertaining in the least - it's just disgusting. If you enjoyed the certain movie called 'Gigli', which attempted the same - to appeal to both males and females, and also failed, then this book is for you. If, however, you are a sane person, then run away from this crap!
Rating: 
Summary: shaun's review of the spine of the world
Review: Shaun Huffman
English 11,5th
Mrs. Fason 10-10-03 Shaun's review of the spine of the world: an awesome book! "A drow off guard is a drow murdered in Menzeranzan, and thus few are the times when dark elves engage in exotic weeds or drinks that dull the senses." R.A. Salvatore's purpose in writing the spine of the world is to distract the reader from his daily troubles and bring them to a fantasy land where anything can happen. He achieves his perpose well with his setting in an unknown area of the world, his witches, warlocks, barbarians, trolls, demons, merchants, and pirates. He also achieves this well with his action filled plot and his cultured language. This book is a very surprising book filled with many mythical creatures, magical weapons, and barbarian brawls.
In this book Morick the rouge and Woulfgar the barbarian go threw the mythical land of Menzerranzan dominating any one in their path. They arrive in Luskan a major port city in the land of Menzerranzan. Woulfgar gets a job as a bouncer at Arumn's tavern in the heart of the worst part of town. Where he regulates fights and throws the men on the street face first if he has to. The book also tells about the king of Aukney's love for a peasant girl named Meralda who is in love with a peasant boy named Jaka. She dose not love the king but he can help her dying mother. Meralda is forced to see him by her father who feels very guilty about whoring out his doughter to the king to save her mother.
The setting of this book was very effective because it brings you to a mystical land of mythical creatures wick sucks in and makes you forget about your daily troubles. It lets your imagination play as you read the descriptive words about the mythical land.
The characterization of this book is very effective because the characters are very imaginative and inspire the mind to think things that bring your mind off the troubles of life and school. That brings you in to the world of your own imagination in which every sees the book in their own different way.
The plot of this book was very jumpy it jumps from one story to another intertwining the stories into one. The plot keeps you interested in the story because it is a different story every five minutes. It keeps you in suspense when you move back to the story you were suspended from you are in suspense from the story you just read and you just want to keep reading the book to find out what is going to happen next which keeps your mind off of what is bothering you outside the book.
The language in this book is filled with culture which gives this book a very realistic feel. Everyone in the book has his or her own cultural slurs and you have to stop and think about what they said which you have to do in real life that gives the book a very realistic feel.
If you like to read mythical books that enhances your imagination to a state of reading hard to find in most books. That changes the way you think and feel about books plus keeps you in suspense the whole ride you will definitely like this book. This is a great book and I would recommend it to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Read -- Great Story
Review: Wulfar was always one of the least-interesting characters to me of all the works I've read by R.A. Salvatore...until now. Literally back from the Abyss, Wulfar tries to curl up at the bottom of a bottle of booze. This is the story of a man's semiconscious struggle to regain or recreate his identity after going through every type of humiliation and torture that a demon can invent. The torture scene at Luskan and the creative way Salvatore ties the two main threads of the story together at the end mark this book as one of his finest...even without the drow ranger.
Rating: 
Summary: An interesting twist from Salvatore
Review: Reading the Icewind Dale trilogy and Legacy of the Drow series tends to lead one to become rather attached to the loveable characters- the heroic Drizzt, Bruenor, Catti-Brie, Wulfgar, and Regis, and the villainous Entreri, Jarlaxle, and Errtu alike. In Spine of the World, they're back- well, one of them, anyway. In this novel, Salvatore takes a break from his usual ensemble casts and concentrates on the character of Wulfgar, now returned from his sojourn in the Abyss and battling the demons of his mind. Scarred and defeated, he's turned to the bottle, working as a bouncer in a seedy tavern in Luskan, the city of sail, until he's arrested for a crime he didn't commit. This turn of events sets in motion a quest, leading not to gold or slain dragons, but to Wulfgar's own redemption from his tortured past. Interestingly enough, Wulfgar's battle with guilt is punctuated by a subplot involving a peasant girl's similiar struggles with lies and betrayal that end up sweeping Wulfgar into a tangled web of love and jealousy. The Spine of the World seems to mark a continuation of the more mature, less predictable storylines that Salvatore has been working on since Legacy of the Drow- a positive change in the all-to-often hackeneyed genre of shared-world fantasy. Another strong book from Salvatore- pick it up, it's a quick read, and a worthwhile one at that.
Rating: 
Summary: wulfgar rules, but not with lackey characters
Review: this book, though it is brilliant like all of Mr. Salvatore's books, is lacking in many areas. For one thing, i personally feel let down when i see the once proud and noble barbarian stoop to so low a level as to begin raiding caravans! but, the saga needed a twist, and this was nothing short of a twist. Wulfgar struggles to defeat the inner demons that have consumed him after 6 years of torture at the hands of a balor. He quickly forgets all his usual principals, and becomes nothing more than a big slob. though it fits in well with what is going on in the saga, it still doesnt seem right. Another thing to test your patience is the fact that there are many people in this book who arent necessary at all. the tale of lord feringal and meralda will bore you to the point where you throw the book across the room and say "wheres the goddamn heros in this story?" im only 16 years old, so my judgement may be a little incorrect, but i expected this to be a book focoused soley on wulfgar, struggling in a noble way to find the life that he thought he had lost. i would definitely reccomend reading it to anyone though.
Rating:
Summary: Favorite one so far
Review: In my opinion, this is the best Salvatore book i've read so far. I've been going through his whole Forgotten Realms series, and I enjoyed reading this one the most. Although Drizzt Do'Urden is a great character, his adventures were starting to get tired. I was a little unsure of how interesting a story could be being based around Wulfgar. I usually found him pretty boring, he just didn't appeal to me at all. Don't be fooled if you felt the same way. He's gone through alot of changes and this story tells the tale of how he survives the city of Luskan (and other locations) as a bar bouncer. I really feel this is the most intelligent Salvatore book that I have read.
Rating:
Summary: A break from Drizzt but not the Barbarian
Review: This book is the second book in the "Paths of Darkness" series. I have to admit, I was a little weary about picking this book up. I had heard many mixed reviews about the books without Drizzt. I am so glad that I read this book!!!! This book is very different then the other Drizzt books. Even the writing format is a little different. Every other chapter Salvatore switches characters, from Wulfgar, to a young peasant girl turned Queen named Meralda. I was a bit confused with the story of Meralda, but it all comes together. Although Her and Wulfgar's paths only cross for a few chapters, they are a major influance on each other, changing each others lives for good or for bad (I will let you read and find out). All and all, I thought this was an exellent book. I read it in 2 days with not problem at all. I enjoyed it a lot and think any fan of Drizzt, his companions, or his enemies will love this book and the others in the "Paths of Darkness" series.
Rating:
Summary: This story would have blown had I not read it correctly
Review: I am totally fine with the fact that the usual cast of characters were not present in this tale. I am not one who is oppossed to the introduction of new characters (e.g., Morik the rogue is a great addition, and the storyline is much better off with him). However, after reading the first couple of chapters on Feringal and Meralda, it quickly became intolerable. If Salvatore is going to devote the book to Wulfgar, that is fine, then keep it on devoted to him. The intertwining story on Auckney was a complete waste. In fact, after the first two chapters on that group I skipped every one of them until their story merged with Wulfgar's. Within two pages I was caught up with enough detail on their story to not have missed a beat. Trust me, skip every Auckney chapter up until Chapter 19, the story will flow much more quickly and smoothly, and you will not have wasted any time on useless characters. Chapter 20 can be skipped as well; in fact, I believe that learning of Meralda's story at the same time Wulfgar learns it is much more meaningful--especially since this is Wulfgar's story after all--not Auckney's. I have enjoyed all of Salvatore's books up to this point, and in fact enjoyed this one. I was a little surprised at all of the effort Salvatore put into these worthless character in Auckney--they were nowhere near as endearing as his mainstays (or Deudermont, Robillard, or Morik for that matter). In fact I will be sorely disappointed if the storyline ever returns to this fiefdom. Allow me to reiterat, the story on Wulfgar was a good one. Although a Drizzt fan, I do not require his presence in every story, in fact, a few tales on other characters might be interesting as well.
Rating:
Summary: Wulfgar's Story
Review: Yes there is no mention of Drizzt in this book but it does talk about the internal struggles of his barbarian friend. After being released from the lower planes Wulfgar finds that he cannot stand the pain of being back in the world. He slowly drowns himself in drink and in the daily grind of his job which is a bouncer at a tavern. A good book
| 
