Paths of Darkness is the New York Times best-selling

New York Times Best Seller list

The New York Times Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. It is published weekly in The New York Times Book Review magazine, which is published in the Sunday edition of The New York Times and as a stand-alone publication...

 series of novels chronicling adventures of the renegade drow elf character Drizzt Do'Urden

Drizzt Do'Urden

Drizzt Do'Urden is a fictional character in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Drizzt was created by author R. A. Salvatore as a supporting character in the Icewind Dale Trilogy. Salvatore created him on a whim when his publisher needed to...

 written by R. A. Salvatore. It is the follow-up series to Legacy of the Drow

Legacy of the Drow

The Legacy of the Drow is a New York Times best selling fantasy series. It is the third series by R. A. Salvatore following the adventures of the Forgotten Realms character Drizzt Do'Urden.This series is followed up by the Paths of Darkness series....

and is followed up by The Hunter's Blades Trilogy

The Hunter's Blades Trilogy

The Hunter's Blades Trilogy is a New York Times best-selling trilogy written by science fiction and fantasy author R.A. Salvatore. It follows on from the previous book, The Servant of the Shard and the other books of the Paths of Darkness series. It contains three books, The Thousand Orcs, The Lone...

, and also followed on from the Servant of the Shard in the Sellswords trilogy.

Todd Lockwood

Todd Lockwood

Todd Wills Lockwood, born in Boulder, Colorado, is an American artist specializing in fantasy and science fiction illustration. He is best known for his work on the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, and for his covers for the books of R.A. Salvatore...

 painted the covers for Silent Blade and Spine of the World.

Works included

1. The Silent Blade (1998)
2. The Spine of the World (1999)
3. Servant of the Shard (2000)*
4. Sea of Swords (2001)

*Servant of the Shard (2000) is also the first book of The Sellswords

The Sellswords

The Sellswords is a trilogy of fantasy novels written by R. A. Salvatore, whose related works include the Legend of Drizzt series and The Hunter's Blades Trilogy...

series, which follows Jarlaxle

Jarlaxle

Jarlaxle is a fictional character in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting based on the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. He first appeared in the 1990 novel, Exile, by R. A. Salvatore as the charismatic and opportunistic drow leader of the mercenary band, Bregan D'aerthe...

 and Artemis Entreri

Artemis Entreri

Artemis Entreri is a fictional character in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Entreri is depicted as a ruthless assassin and the arch-enemy of Drizzt Do'Urden, the protagonistic dark elf. He is the creation of author R. A...

.

Plot summary

In The Silent Blade, Wulfgar

Wulfgar

Wulfgar can refer to:*Wulfgar, the herald of Hroðgar, a character in Beowulf*Wulfgar, the villain in the 1981 Sylvester Stallone film Nighthawks*Wulfgar, one of the Companions of the Hall from the Icewind Dale Trilogy...

, a mighty babrarian, tries to come to terms with his freedom from the Abyss, from the torturous clutches of the balor Errtu and fails, fleeing from his friends to the port city of Luskan. Confused and angry, he finds a job in The Cutlass, a local tavern, as a bouncer in return for a room and alcohol, which he has become dependent on to dull the pain of his six-year long entrapment in the Abyss. Many miles to the south Artemis Entreri

Artemis Entreri

Artemis Entreri is a fictional character in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Entreri is depicted as a ruthless assassin and the arch-enemy of Drizzt Do'Urden, the protagonistic dark elf. He is the creation of author R. A...

 returns to his hometown of Calimport, only to find that a lot of things have changed in his old thieves guild… and many more will change if he and his new drow sponsors have anything to do with it. Drizzt himself travels with the rest of his friends to see Cadderly Bonaduce who has said he will attempt to use his powers as the chosen of Deneir to destroy Crenshinibon

Crenshinibon

Crenshinibon is an evil, sentient artifact in the Forgotten Realms setting based on the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. The item was featured primarily in the novels The Crystal Shard, Passage to Dawn, The Silent Blade, and Servant of the Shard by R.A...

. Drizzt and company are duped by Jarlaxle and his lieutenants who impersonate Cadderly and take the crystal shard for themselves.

In The Spine of the World, Wulfgar and his new friend, Morik the Rogue, are convicted of the attempted murder of Wulfgar's old companion Captain Deudermont, a crime they did not commit. Morik the Rogue is an unscrupulous human who comes along as a traveling and drinking companion to barbarian hero Wulfgar, and is a close, but not necessarily trusted, friend. Wulfgar's mighty warhammer Aegis Fang is stolen and sold to a notorious pirate. They narrowly avoid the horrors of Luskan's prisoner's carnival and set out to become bandits on the roads surrounding the city. They prove to not be very proficient at it, though, and soon become involved in the politics of a backwater town in which the peasant fiancé of the local lord bears an illegitimate child. Wulfgar is blamed, but is helped to escape, and adopts the baby girl as his own.

The Sea of Swords is the story of how Drizzt and his friends try and track down Wulfgar's magical hammer Aegis Fang. They stop Wulfgar's new wife Delly Curtie from being murdered in Waterdeep

Waterdeep (city)

Waterdeep is a fictional city-state that forms part of a popular Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game campaign setting called the Forgotten Realms. It is a port city that is located along the western coast of the Faerûn sub-continent...

 and are eventually reunited with Wulfgar himself with help from their old crewmate Robillard of the Sea Sprite. They track down the pirate Sheila Kree, the one who bought the hammer back in Luskan and who has now turned it into a symbol of her power. They discover her cohabiting in a cave complex with an ogre

Ogre (Dungeons & Dragons)

In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, ogres are a lesser race of giants, rather being simply large brutes with clubs. An aquatic subrace of ogres is known as "merrow." D&D ogres are also closely related to the race of ogre magi, a smarter race with blue skin and great magical abilities...

 clan which she has bent to her will. There, Drizzt is faced by Ellifain, the elf child he saved when he was a part of a drow surface raid. She blames him for killing her mother; they fight and he unintentionally kills her, and with a little help from Morik the Rogue they succeed in taking back Wulfgar's weapon. Wulfgar then takes his family to Mithral Hall to live with his old friends.

Literary significance and reception

The Silent Blade debuted on the New York Times bestseller list at number 32.

The Spine of the World debuted on the New York Times bestseller list at number 25.

Servant of the Shard debuted on the New York Times bestseller list at number 25.

Sea of Swords debuted on the New York Times bestseller list at number 14. It was positively reviewed in Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...

, with the reviewers describing the novel as a "fast –moving fantasy adventure", although they acknowledged that the book, as the last in a sequence of four, was not for the uninitiated.

Matt Drake of RPGnet gave the series a 4 (out of 5) for style, stating that "Salvatore's chrome is starting to tarnish in a few spots, but he is still a great fantasy novelist." He gave it a 3 (out of 5) for substance, stating "With the exception of Spine of the World, these stories are a little predictable and trite."