If you are a fan of Salvatore and his 2 groups, the Heroes of the Hall and the heroes from Spirit Soaring you will have mixed feelings about the book. On one side it revisits -yet again- some old villains in a clever way but it starts to look like a Power Rangers season where the villains keep coming back no matter how many times you defeat them. One of the attractive ideas from D&D that I have always liked in his books is the opportunity to always face new enemies, not only new challenges. It started with Icingdeath, then Crenshinibon, then Errtu, drow, orcs, etc., but not so in this book. And the evolution of the characters -for those than evolve - is in a direction which isn't logic and its corny (mainly Jarlaxle and Cadderly in relation to Jarlaxle) for it reflects more the joining of the players behind the characters rather than the way the characters would evolve in a world real to them. If you are a fan you need to buy this book if at all to close the cycle, but it is as disappointing as real life can be.
Spoiler warning
Though I understand the value of writing about confronting a terminal illness, it is certainly not expected in a fantasy book. I also understand that not all stories should have a happy ending, nor I'm asking one on the heroes, but as heroes and fantasy stories go Cattie-Brie's and Regis' ending is not fitting for a fantasy hero and it also fails in showing the heroic quality that anyone facing a terminal illness has to have.
And if you add the annoying need from WoTC to justify a changing world because a group of upstarts came up with new rules for the game ... well Salvatore's treatment is certainly good to introduce the new sources of power but it is not because it was required by the plot, or the storyline, but because the new bosses need to earn their paychecks. Understandable, but it is unfair for the author, the characters and the plot.