So finally on to the last novel in this series. Resurrection by Paul S. Kemp is a Forgotten Realms novel and the sixth book in the six part War of the Spider Queen saga. Following on from the end of Annihilation with maybe a day having passed in the interim, this book begins with us meeting a new character, the ultroloth Inthracis. I can't really describe what an ultroloth is, so I'll let this picture do the description for me (the ultroloth is the one with the sword). Suffice to say that they are very powerful outer-planer creatures. Inthracis finds himself playing host to Vhaeraun, Lolth's son who wishes his mother dead. To this end he coerces Inthracis to send an army to the new Demonweb Pits to kill Quenthel, Danifae and Hallistra.
The wind that blow through the lower planes carry the word Yor'thae on them. In the High language of the drow, it means Chosen One. One of the three priestesses is this One, and Lolth is calling her to come and join with her goddess. Should the Yor'thae fail to arrive, Lolth's rebirth will be stillborn and the goddess will perish, which is exactly what Vhaeraun wants to see happen. Unfortunately he cannot enter the new Demonweb Pits as his mother has sealed them against entry by any divine being, so he must resort to using the ultroloth's mercenary army.
After that interlude we catch up with Halisstra and the two priestesses of Eilistraee who are accompanying her (Uluyara and Feliane) on her mission to kill Lolth. They are pursuing Quenthel and company who they hope will lead them to the goddess herself. Neither group though is prepared for the dangers of the new Pits, and they get caught in the midst of the Teeming!
The Teeming is one of the most brutal scenes I have ever read about. Picture a vast plain, pockmarked with entrances to caves and holes. Then picture as the dawn comes up and bathes the land, thousands upon thousands of spiders of all shapes and sizes (up to and including ones the size of houses!) crawling out of these holes... and then turning on one another with utter ferocity. The strong survive, the weak perish and are food. And now imagine walking across that plain when this happens! That is the Teeming!
While Quenthel, Pharaun, Jeggred, Danifae, Halisstra, Uluyara and Feliane fight a seemingly unending horde of foes who view them as much as food and prey as the other spiders around, back in Menzoberranzan Gromph awakens amidst the destruction in the Bazaar that the battle bewteen himself and the lich Dyrr wreaked. Dyrr has been destroyed, but a lich is not so easily defeated. Gromph knows full well that the lich's phylactery (an item that his soul is bonded too) will regenerate the lich in under three score hours. In that time, he has to find the phylactery and break into House Agrach Dyrr (which has been under siege since their treachery in book 3 of the series!) to destroy it.
While the happenings in the Demonweb Pits are good reading (especially the battle between the drow and the ultroloths army!), the parts of the book I found myself enjoying most were those spent with Gromph on his infiltration of House Agrach Dyrr. Mr. Kemp managed to convey a very real sense of both the danger and the thrill of sneaking about a house full of Gromph's enemies unseen, searching for an item that is also being hunted by those of the renegade house themselves.
I am annoyed though at the ending to this book, which after 5 books of complete turmoil and chaos, pretty much just re-establishes the status quo from before the series. The Yor'thae reaches Lolth but that doesn't seem to realy do anything. My favourite character gets killed in a completely pointless way (though the ending does leave an opening for his return), and my least favourite character survives (albeit in a changed form) and will be featuring in a trilogy of her own, the first book of which is out in February 2007.
All in all I'm going to award this book 3/5. The good parts are really good, but this book more than the others before it has to carry the can for failing to really change anything. Six books came to 2225 pages in total. I find it profoundly disappointing that 6 superb authors with that kind of page count to work with, couldn't do more than have a goddess change address; which is pretty much what this series outcome amounts too.
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