TSR Code:

• Book I - The Summoning
• Book III - The Sorcerer

Well, thank goodness for Denning, thats all I'm saying. The Siege was written in Dennings excellent style, and progresses the story nicely. The action is lively, and the description wonderful, and I suggest it to anyone who read The Summoning. However, there are a few concerns I'd like to bring up, and I do hate to tack this to this novel, but...is it just me or are illithids and beholders getting a little old. I remember the good old days when a single beholder WAS the boss. Now people appear to be cutting the things up like swiss cheese. They have almost fallen into serving the position of goblins. Also, it is getting a little too easy as far as I'm concerned to slice people up. Hey, I realize that the darkswords are all cool, but I mean come on, all Vala has to do in this is throw her sword (yes, the fact that swords are not at all aerodynamic is ignored fairly well in this book), and the Phaerrim fall into a hundred peices. It is getting a little ridiculous. And finally, the Phaerrim (I swear this is the last complaint). Yah, werent they supposed to be hard. I remember when the Phaerrim were the stuff. You didn't go up against a Phaerrim or you'd get blasted into, well, YOU DIDN'T GO UP AGAINST A PHAERRIM. Now, you get dozens slaughtered at a time. These things brought down the Netheril empire, BROUGHT IT DOWN. Now we have a couple of Vaasan swordsmen with darkswords carving the things up like old plywood. I really would like to see the Phaerrim put up some sort of a fight besides mindlessly casting meteor swarm. However, please don't get a wrong impression, the book was an enjoyable read, not a superb book, but fairly good. People always complain more than they praise, and you can't blaim Denning anyway, he just recieves an outline of the story TSR wants. All together, a good read.