I have finally reached the second half of The Demonwars Saga with Ascendance, which is the fifth book overall in The Demonwars Saga and it marks the beginning of the second DemonWars trilogy. Several years have passed for the various characters since the time of the rosy plague in the previous book Mortalis. Pony, still going by her full name Jilseponie, has been the baroness of Palmaris and working in harmony with the local abbot and friend, Braumin Herde. Now she is being faced with the decision of whether she should potentially accept the upcoming marriage proposal from King Danube. Meanwhile, the son, Aydrian, that she is unaware of has started to feel discontent and unhappy being trained by the elves. Watching fellow ranger, Brynn Dharielle, leave to head back to her homeland of To-Gai, Aydrian decides it is time for him to leave as well. He has a different goal in mind though, to become immortal by being the greatest ranger to ever live. However, he falls under malicious influences who seek to use him for their own ends.
Having read this book I can see why it is considered both a continuation of the previous works and the start of a new series. We see a reappearance of Pony as a primary character along with the dread weretiger Marcalo De’Unnero. Characters that we already know, as well as we can any character, and are familiar with. Other characters such as Roger Lockless and Abbot Braumin Herde are still present though they take more of a backseat in this book. However, we also have a new start, so to speak, in the character of Aydrian, the son of Elbryan and Pony. Aydrian is much like a younger Roger Lockless back when he first met Elbryan and Pony in book two, The Demon Spirit. What I mean is that he is a child who is unsure about who he is and who he wants to become. The only thing he is sure about is that he needs to be the greatest ranger to ever live. As such he becomes convinced that he is better than other humans due to his ranger training. Many of his later interactions are characterized by a cockiness and self-confidence that do mothing but fuel his growing arrogance. Unlike the young Roger, Aydrian has no one to deflate his big head and knock him down to size. This sets him on a more dangerous path that Roger was able to avoid. Ultimately this leads to a great set-up for the newest conflict in the series. By combining both old and new characters Salvatore really sets the stage for the new conflict that will span the second trilogy. I would give this book four out of five stars.
As you have probably already gathered I would recommend this book to people are fans of the fantasy genre or fans of Salvatore. It is a really good book that has incredible character development, even for the bad characters like De’Unnero. However, I would recommend that you read the previous books in The Demonwars Saga to have a better knowledge of the background for the characters. In theory, you probably could start here and just read the second trilogy but you will be missing a lot of more minor details from the earlier books. Obviously, the book is aimed at adults but it could probably be read by young adults or older teens. I would recommend that anybody younger than that be careful as it could be considered a little mature at times for them. It is a good book though and one that I enjoyed. Keep an eye out for my reviews of the last few books in the series. If anyone else has happened to read the series let me know what you think in the comments below as always.