The Demon Awakens

Lore & Background

The plot follows Elbryan Wyndon and his childhood friend Jilseponie Ault (nicknamed Pony), whose lives are changed by the destruction of their home town Dundalis. Avelyn Desbris, a pious man, enters a group of monks that go to the monastery St. Mere Abelle to study and serve under God. While Elbryan and Pony try to sort out their lives, Avelyn comes to terms with the human brothers of the church and the injustices he watches them cause.

Reader's Guide

After the destruction of his home town, Elbryan is taken in by the Touel'alfar to their home Andur'Blough Inninnes (The Forest of Cloud), where he trains his body and mind in philosophy to become a ranger. Pony cannot remember her past and tries to ease the pain of her forgotten past. Avelyn soon has to leave the church in an unexpected way. Years later, they all meet and fight the demon Bestesbulzibar, reawakened by human weakness, who rules with an army of goblins, powries (dwarfs), and Fomorian Giants. The church also pursues Avelyn. The group, with unlikely allies, must stop the demon and save the realm.

Did You Know?

• The novel is the first book in the first Demon Wars Saga trilogy.
• It is also the first of seven books in the combined Demon Wars Saga.
• The demon antagonist is named Bestesbulzibar.
• The Touel'alfar teach Elbryan at their home Andur'Blough Inninnes, the Forest of Cloud.

From Leominster to the Page

Robert Anthony Salvatore entered the world on January 20, 1959, in Leominster, Massachusetts, as the youngest child in a family of seven. His formative years at Leominster High School included an English teacher he credits with shaping his development as a writer. At Fitchburg State College, a Christmas gift—J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings—ignited a passion for fantasy that would define his career. He pivoted his academic focus from computer science to journalism, earning a Bachelor of Science in communications and media in 1981, and later added a Bachelor of Arts in English. Before dedicating himself entirely to writing, Salvatore worked as a bouncer, an experience he credits with giving his combat sequences their raw, visceral intensity. In 1997, his personal letters, manuscripts, and professional papers were donated to the R. A. Salvatore collection at Fitchburg State, preserving the paper trail of a career that began with a single candlelit manuscript.

The Icewind Dale Breakthrough

In 1982, Salvatore committed to writing with new seriousness, crafting a manuscript called Echoes of the Fourth Magic about a submarine thrust into a post-apocalyptic realm he named Ynis Aielle. He composed the entire novel in longhand, working by candlelight. Between 1983 and 1987 the manuscript circulated among publishers, including TSR, Inc. There, Mary Kirchoff, reviewing unsolicited submissions for TSR's book department, found the story lacking but recognized genuine talent in the prose itself. TSR happened to need a writer for the second entry in its Forgotten Realms line and invited Salvatore to audition. He won the assignment in July 1987 and, with much of the Realms setting still largely unexplored, was given considerable creative freedom. He completed his debut published novel, The Crystal Shard, in just two months; TSR released it in 1988. The resulting Icewind Dale trilogy became a phenomenon, with the first two books moving over 1.5 million copies and the third climbing The New York Times paperback bestseller list. His first hardcover Drizzt title, The Legacy, reached number nine on the New York Times bestseller chart in September 1992.

The Drizzt Exile and Reconciliation

By 1994, Salvatore had branched beyond TSR, signing a three-book deal with Warner Books for what became The Crimson Shadow series. The move triggered a bitter contract dispute. TSR's fiction managing editor, Brian Thomsen, demanded six additional novels upon renewal—a pace requiring three books a year to satisfy both publishers. When Salvatore balked, Thomsen floated the idea of a ghostwriter, a suggestion he found offensive. TSR refused to soften its terms or pause the Drizzt brand while he fulfilled outside commitments, and Thomsen stated he would hire a different author for the character. Feeling bullied by the company to which he had contributed such a valuable property, Salvatore signed a three-novel deal with Del Rey for The DemonWars Saga. His final Drizzt book before the split was Passage to Dawn in 1996. He publicly declared that if TSR handed Drizzt to another writer, he would consider the character dead. TSR followed through, assigning Mark Anthony to write The Shores of Dusk. After Wizards of the Coast acquired TSR in 1997, it fired Thomsen, shelved Anthony's novel, and courted Salvatore back. He returned with The Silent Blade in 1998, which won the Origins Award.

Vector Prime and a Broader Canvas

In 1999, Salvatore crossed into the Star Wars universe with Vector Prime, the opening novel of The New Jedi Order series. The book became a lightning rod among fans because it killed Chewbacca, the first major character from the original trilogy to die in the expanded-universe novels. Many readers assumed Salvatore made that call, but the decision came from Lucasfilm and Del Rey editors, who felt a prominent death was needed to sell the threat of the Yuuzhan Vong. They initially wanted to kill Luke Skywalker, but Lucasfilm refused permission. Randy Stradley, then an editor at Dark Horse Comics, proposed Chewbacca instead, and the choice was made. Years later, after Disney acquired the Star Wars rights in 2012, the company declared in 2014 that all pre-2014 expanded-universe works were non-canon, citing Chewbacca's death as a major factor in that revision. Beyond Star Wars, Salvatore's reach extended into comics and video games; he co-created the Spooks comic with Larry Hama in 2008 and wrote the story for the 2004 video game Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone. Across all his work, he has sold more than 15 million copies in the United States, with 22 titles reaching the New York Times bestseller list.

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