Ascendance (Second DemonWars Series #1) » (~)

R. A. Salvatore was born in Massachusetts in 1959. His first published novel was The Crystal Shard. He has since published more than a dozen novels, including the New York Times bestsellers The Halfling's Gem, Sojourn, The Legacy, and Starless Night. He makes his home in Massachusetts with his wife, Diane, and their three children.

Years have passed since the great miracle atop Mount Aida--a miracle known as the Covenant of Avelyn. Corona is a different place. Avelyn is about to be elevated to sainthood by the very church that once proclaimed him a heretic. And King Danube has asked Jilseponie Wyndon--the outlaw hero of the Demon War--to become his queen.

Jilseponie is torn. She can never love any man as completely as she did the Ranger Elbryan, the father of the child she lost. But she cannot deny that she has feelings for the wise and kindly king. And she could do so much good at his side . . .

Yet threat looms, one Jilseponie could never have anticipated. For the child that she lost never died--as she believes--but was stolen away by the queen of the elves. Raised in secret by the queen, he has grown to be a headstrong boy who shows every promise of being as skilled in the arts of combat as his father before him, and as powerful with the gemstone magic as his mother.

They called him Aydrian.

Aydrian: a boy raised to be a weapon. A boy who has never known the love of a human mother. A boy so hungry for fame and the sound of his name on human tongues that he will pay any price for a chance to wrest immortality from an uncaring world.

Aydrian: a boy on a collision course with destiny!

Publishers Weekly

Fans of bestseller Salvatore (The Demon Awakens, etc.) will welcome the chance to follow favorite characters through yet another epic saga of good versus evil in this start to a new trilogy, in which good-hearted Jilseponie "Pony" Wyndon and her dreaded enemy, cleric-turned-weretiger De'Unnero, are caught up in fresh intrigues that tear at the civil and religious heart of the land called Honce-the-Bear. Pony, now wise to "the truth of God, of spirituality, of living beyond this mortal coil," rules as well-liked Baroness of Palmaris during an age of unprecedented peace and prosperity. Unknown to her, however, scheming elf Lady Dasslerond has taken Pony's "unborn" son, Aydrian, whom Pony thought she lost in battle during the first DemonWars trilogy, to raise in secret. Grown into young manhood, talented Aydrian chaffs against lessons in rangering and gemstone magic. He longs to make a name for himself even bigger than that of his famous father, Ranger Elbryan (aka "Nightbird"), killed by De'Unnero, and later runs away from his elven teachers and assumes the role of "Nighthawk." While Pony ponders an offer of marriage from good King Danube, De'Unnero comes out of hiding to manipulate Aydrian into destroying Pony and helping him take control of the kingdom. The many plot twists are clumsy and all too convenient, while the book concludes predictably with Aydrian gaining the upper hand over his mother and her allies. 6-city-author tour. (May 1) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.