Oddly, So far, R.A. Salvatore


Books


I would like to ask him about the level of control he has had with some of his novels while writing them. Reading the Icewind Dale Trilogy, some parts were dead on and you could tell were well written. Others seemed forced and clunky. The four books where they went into the underdark were just hideous. As were the silent blade and spine of the world.

Then somthing changed and Servant of the Shard was absolutely awesome IMO, and I have found Sea of Swords to be nearly as good. The stories are pulpy which I like, and his structure, pacing and writing has improved. I am looking forward to the hunters blades trilogy and the Jarlaxle and Entreri books.

A.


If I recall correctly, I stopped halfway through "Spine of the World" when I realized that I wasn't being entertained. "The Crystal Shard" ain't Shakespeare, but it's got some beautiful and fast-paced fight scenes that showed a real love of the characters. Reading "Spine of the World", I ended up feeling like I was watching a moody drama when I'd signed up to watch an action flick.

Glad to hear that his latest stuff has recaptured the old magic!


To tell you the truth, I think Salvatore has gotten the most out of his Drizzt character. Like all good D&D Campaigns, when your character has reached 20th level, it runs out of steam and it is time to hang it up and start anew. I know he has tried to write some other series but only one set in the Forgotten Realms atmosphere. They are not the same.I was a huge fan of the Crystal Shard, SOS, THG series as well as Drizzt's exploits in the underdark but now it seems like a long running soap opera. Drizzt will always carve up the enemy, the damn dwarf will always return from the dead and Wulfgar has emotional baggage he carries around with him. Will Wulfgar and Catti-Brie ever get back together? Is Drizzt the other man in their relationship? C'mon Salvatore, we know you are capable of better material than that. The Servant of the Shard read like a crazy Dallas series with all the mind games going on. I tried to read the latest series but there is nothing left for the drow to accomplish. So it is like when Micheal Jordan retired, he was great, we were all sad to see him go, thanks for the memories, butlet's look forward to the next breath of fresh air.


I have enjoyed all his Drizzt books. I like the straight forward get-to-the-action pace. I like the fact that I don't have to read half the book to see the universe/planet/realm created nor do I need 12 pages to describe the origins of the latest monster to pop in. His writing is descriptive enough and the FR world understood & developed enough that we don't need all that.
His development of Drow society and the politics/realities of Menzoborranzan is great. I really hope he writes another trilogy or two on Drizzt.
I would also like to see him write in the "Thieves World" series. There is no tougher town than "Sanctuary" (on the surface world at least) and he would REALLY be able to deliver a tale that would fit into the dark, cut-throat world of Thieves World. If you have not checked out this series, you need to do so!

Dark Archive

I totally agree with Pauls posting.
Drizzt and the other characters are somehow used up. There's nothing inside the Hunter's Blade-trilogy that had gotten me exited. The best scenes were those, where none of the usual characters like Drizzt, Bruenor ect. were involved.
The fight-scenes are well written, but they are getting on my nerves, 'cause it's always the same, page after page.
I sometimes think that Drizzt is a caricature of himself with his endless whining about not having a real home and place to settle down.
And i find it really sad, 'cause this sheds an ugly light on an otherwise great character that really turned into a legend.
I'd really like to see Salvatore put an end to this seemingly endless chronicles of the homeless drow and move forward to something fresh and exiting, like a novel focusing on Jarlaxle and Entreri after their escape from Calimshan.


I think the problem with Drizzt is that in some sense he never really evolved. I understand in the new books he's taken on the "Hunter" persona from Sojourn/Exile. I've heard complaints that Salvatore abandoned the initial development of the character which may be true, but I think the appeal of Drizzt has very little to do with the "adversity" he has faced.

Let's face it - Drizzt is a Superhero living in the Comic Book world of Salvatore's Forgotten Realms. It's fantastic, fast paced, entertaining, action-packed fun, but I think to the degree that some people try to piece apart Drizzt as a character, are in many ways missing the point. We love Drizzt because he is so darn overblown and can consistently accomplish the impossible.

That said, I'm still a total Drizzt fan boy. Thank GOD they finally god his scimitars and appearance correct - the old covers of the novels were HIDEOUS sans the Crystal Shard which still had him appearing a tad too old.


I'm always surprised The Cleric Quintet gets so little love when people talk about Salvatore's FR books.I thought it was some of his better story's and characters.
I've enjoyed the Hunter series(2books read) but I'd like to see some fresh stories with new characters in a different location of Faerun for sure.


Salvatore is a real mixed bag for me.

I could NOT get into the cleric quintet. It just didn't do it for me. Icewind dale was all good and stuff, and so was the Drizzt Sojourn, exile, etc. stuff. Nothing else has really appealed to me; it seems like a lot of people are hung up on Drizzt, and can't let him go. He's a cool character, but now it almost feels like Salvatore is doing a pastiche of his own earlier works.

I think as far as D&D authors go, he is good. I think I like Douglas Niles, Weis and Hickman, or Ed Greenwood better, though.


I just finished "The Thousand Orcs" & "The Lone Drow" and am now into "The Two Swords." I am really enjoying it. I think the Realms are big enough that there is still plenty of good story lines to go. I am interested in seeing where it all ends up. I like all the characters except Wulfgar's new family.
I also agree that the new art work is excellent. Some of those old book covers were terrible.
Here's to Drizzt!


Just finished "Promise of the Witch-King." The book starts out with a bang! Love the opening battle-scene! Great job RAS!

Dark Archive Bella Sara Charter Superscriber

RA Salvatore's stuff is the only D&D novels I ever read (other than DL - which, by the way, I hate), and that was back in high school. One of my old gaming buddies gave me the first of the Hunter's Blades trilogy a little while ago and I agree that they didn't have the same magic. Now, whether that's because I'm 15 years older or because the character is played out, I'm not willing to speculate.

I have fond memories of both the Crystal Shard trilogy and the Underdark trilogy. I read the cleric quintet and generally hated it. The dwarves were too slapstick and the last book was particularly wretched. The series did have a good dragon fight that is worth reading.

What parts in particular felt clunky? My impression is that he had more freedom to write the underdark trilogy and subsequent books because the crystal shard trilogy did so well.


i havent read any of the Drizzit series yet.. i feel like ive already seen the character before since a friend of mine would always play darkelf rangers.. really badly.

i did like the clerical series he wrote.. i thought it should have stopped at 4 books though.. but the 5th wasnt a total waste of my time.

the demon wars sagas.. first three were great, the next four.. that needed a little work.. except for the horse Ranger whose name escapes me and the workings of the High Yatol.. i was thinking that the wingless elves would have been villains but no.. they were missunderstood good guys.. riiight..

oh and the scenes with the dragon being taken down by siege weaponry.. i just couldnt picture it. and it was like some kinda old weenie dragon? i dont know..

hes far from my top author.. but hes a guy to go to for stories.. if a little overly dramatic.

david gemmell is similiar to him with the fight scenes.. but 3 of his works are like a rough draft for the next one in line.. and that pissed me off.. still interesting characters.

Eve forward.. shes awesome. i loved both of her book, Villains by necessity, and the Animist.. i repeat.. awesome.

J.V jones.. the Book of Words trilogy.. also awesome stuff.

joel rosenburg.. guardians of the flame.. excellent series.

greg castikyan(sp?) cups and sorcery.. he only wrote 2 books.. but they are hilarious to me.

the end


Loved the Cleric quintent and Homeland/exile/sojourn. Homeland is my favorite out of all of them and i liked the Halflings Gem too. The promise of the witch-king was interesting, good start but i didnt like the ending

For other authors try Jennifer Fallon;
second sons trilogy(starts with the lion of Senet)


I like most people have a soft spot for "Mr. two-scimitars, forest green cloak and owner of I must say the most powerful figurine of wonderous power ever to see print in any of D&D worlds", but Mr. Salvatore's other works like his "Crimson Shadow" series are far better, as far as I'm concerned. The best of his works is by far "The Spearwielder trilogy", The Woods out Back is one of those stories you just get into and have to see how it ends, no matter what time you need to get up for work in the morning, you just keep plowing through page after page.

The Exchange

I personally reckon Salvatore is well overrated. He had the benefit of being about the only guy writing novels for FR, so he had very little competition in the early days, and Drizzt is sort of cool with the two swords thing (also RAS innovation largely, though well over-used now). If you read the Icewind Dale trilogy - well, it's pretty terrible, but they were apprentice works. The first part of the Dark Elf trilogy is good, and they are as a whole better written. But overall Drizzt is a fairly annoying sanctimonious git on more than a few occasions - why can't he go out, get drunk, and try and pull some girls for a change, rather than moaning on about his moral dilemmas?

That's not to say that RAS doesn't have his strengths: his Drizzt books can be entertaining and often action-packed, and they don't pretend to be great works of fiction. So they are a good low-brow read for a gamer. And he has improved as time has gone on. (I haven't to be fair, read his non-Drizzt stuff, so any comments on that would be welcome.)

But he has some real down-sides too - and they normally involve dwarves: the punning names (Bouldershoulder? C'mon!!! [gags]), the cumbersome humour, the idiotic accents rendered phonetically, the general, slappable stupidity - aaargh don't get me started on Salvatore's dwarves.

And the pat morality grates after a while - I prefer something edgier, which you can get from some FR authors (Lisa Smedman's Yuan-ti trilogy - two books released so far - is good [unlike her War of the Spider Queen novel] and the first one is even slightly kinky in places, and Richard Lee Byers is good too) but Salvatore doesn't appear to have the stomach for that. All the good guys seem to think like middle class suburban Americans (especially Drizzt - I'm surprised he doesn't carry a rosary or something, he seems so consumed with Catholic guilt) (this is not an anti-Catholic/Christian rant, by the way) - not very fantasy, really.

All in all, WotC doesn't very often publish great novels. Salvatore is no exception. I don't even think he is the best of what WotC has. He's just been around the longest and made the biggest impact at a time when there was nothing much else for gamers to read. Nothing against the guy, and I have spent a few hours happily reading the Drizzt books when I had nothing else to do. But it is meagre faire, all said.


I agree with a lot of what Aubrey has said; the Drizzt books seem pretty childish to me now. However, they were a great introduction to the Forgotten Realm novels and forever endeared themselves in my love affair of fantasy. If anyone is in their teens and/or wants exposure to the Dungeons and Dragons novels, then I highly recommend them.

As to us more exposed readers of fantasy (George RR Martin, Steven Erikson, Tolkien, Robert E. Howard etc.), Drizzt is a bygone era. It was a stepping stone to future reading in fantasy and that's why I can't knock him entirely. As a young reader, I can't say I wasn't swept away by the notion of a morally tormented dark skinned elf with two magical scimitars trying to cut a path in a hostile world of monsters and magic. Hey that's what fantasy is all about. Even now I still sometimes pick up his books from the library (but I won't pay for them)

That being said, Aubrey mentioned some key points of Salvatore's writing that are very annoying and childish. The dwarven slang and accents, Drizzt's little soliloquies and the Bouldershoulder humour (Doo-dad? Arrgh!). I must say, I enjoyed Drizzt's little monologues at the start of each book when I was younger. Now that he is an icon, I feel he is preaching to me. (Piss off, Drizzt!) The fact that no one perishes in an extremely violent world is totally unbelievable and leaves little suspense. I groan and nod my head, knowing fully where each book is headed at page one.

Like I said before in an earlier article, he is a worn out cliche (much like Mr. Bond) and it is high time I spent my reading time on fresher, more mature material.

The Exchange

I think that's right, Paul - time and place for the reader is almost or as important as the book itself. Drizzt has run out of steam (I think RAS said so himself - I guess the power of the marketers keeps Drizzt going as much as RAS does) but he was fun for a while. And it is true - while I didn't have a gaming group, Drizzt was a sort of substitute. So all power to the dark one - may he enjoy a well-earned retirement.

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