Interesting start to a new Drow trilogy . Sacrifice of the Widow by Lisa Smedman is the first book in the Lady Penitent trilogy. For fans of the Forgotten Realms, this book follows up on the events of the six book series War of the Spider Queen. So, before I start this review, if you have yet to read the War of the Spider Queen series, I strongly suggest you do before you read this as events from that series are talked about, and have consequences, in this book. If you choose to read this book, and most likely this trilogy, without reading WotSQ then there may be some things that just don't make sense - So consider yourself warned.    The plot of this book is not your traditional plot, in that it is not really one linear plot with a few sub-plots sprinkled in. The sub-plots are very good and hint at much larger ramification that will more than likely transpire in the next two books. There is the sub-plot of what really happened to Hallisstra Melarn at the end of the sixth WotSQ book, and how she became what she is now. There is a sub-plot of the followers of Eilstraee fighting followers of tow other entities. There is also a sub-plot of a larger `battle' between Lolth and Eilstraee. Ms. Smedman does a wonderful to weave all these sub-plots together to create not only an engaging story, but a seamless one at that. When the sub-plots shift between one another there is not much transition that throws the pace of the book off at all. The overall plot is very well written and easy to follow.    There are several characters in this book. This is both a good thing and a bad thing at the same time. With all the different sub-plots there needed to be many characters to keep everything going. However, with this amount of characters there is less time for them to be developed fully so the reader has a better connection with them. There are a few characters that I would have definitely liked to read more about, and maybe that will be remedied in the next two books. Don't get me wrong, there was some character development in this book, such as that of Hallisstra, her brother Q'arlynd both had significant development. Yet, the majority of the characters had little development. I believe that was just a part that had to suffer due to how much the plots of this book needed to be explained.    Overall, I enjoyed this book quite a bit. This is not your traditional Drow novel in that it's not strictly about subterfuge and chaos. The pace of this book is very good and Ms. Smedman's writing lends itself to be easily read. It's very easy to read through one hundred pages and wonder where the time went. With some Drow books, the authors try to make these huge grand flourishes of prose, yet in this book Ms. Smedman seems conserved and this creates an easy feel.    If you are a fan of the Forgotten Realms and have read the WotSQ series you will undoubtedly enjoy this book for the continuation of that storyline. If you are a fan of fantasy in general and know a little about the Forgotten Realms I still believe you will enjoy this novel, although some things may not make much sense to you. At any rate, if you are considering reading this, I have no qualms about recommending it. It's a very nice addition to the Forgotten Realms universe.
Output: POS