Halisstra Melarn

War of the Spider Queen

Covers of the six novels in the series, illustrated by Gerald Brom
Author	Richard Lee Byers Thomas M. Reid Richard Baker Lisa Smedman Philip Athans Paul S. Kemp
Cover artist	Gerald Brom
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Fantasy
Publisher	Wizards of the Coast
Publication date	2002-2005
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)

War of the Spider Queen is a New York Times best-selling series of novels set in the Forgotten Realms universe published by Wizards of the Coast. The series contains six books focused on the drow and their principal deity Lolth. Each of the six novels in the series is written by a different author with veteran Forgotten Realms author R. A. Salvatore overseeing the project. Cover art for each book in the series was designed by Gerald Brom who has done other Forgotten Realms work including reprints of The Avatar Series.

According to Salvatore, the idea for the series was that of his editor Philip Athans, who also wrote the fifth book of the series. Athans had to convince Salvatore to sign onto the project, and it was the idea that "I could help some other writers get some much-needed exposure" which won the author over. Salvatore and fellow authors Richard Baker, Thomas Reid, and Richard Lee Byers along with Athans and others then met in Seattle to compile the main overview of the storyline. Afterwards, Salvatore became the content editor, mostly ensuring that content within the Drow city of Menzoberranzan "kept the place where I wanted it for future works."

In September 2006, Wizards of the Coast released the War of the Spider Queen series in two separate gift sets featuring Brom's artwork on the exterior of the boxes. Graphic Design for the gift sets was done by Lisa Hanson and Matt Adelsperger

Since the completion of The War of the Spider Queen, two series continuing the stories of certain characters have gone under development by authors involved in the original series. Thomas M. Reid, author of Insurrection, continued the story of the half-demons Aliisza and Kaanyr Vhok in The Empyrean Odyssey, with its first installment entitled The Gossamer Plain being released in May 2007. Book two entitled The Fractured Sky was released in November 2008 while the finale, The Crystal Mountain, in July 2009. Lisa Smedman, who developed the character Halisstra Melarn heavily in Extinction, is continuing the story of the Drow priestess in The Lady Penitent. Book one and two, Sacrifice of the Widow and Storm of the Dead were released in 2007 while book three, Ascendancy of the Last, was released in June 2008.