The Older I Get, the Less I Like Salvatore

[Christopher Dudley]

seekerofshadowlight wrote:

well he was an interesting character , and maybe would have stayed that way but lack of growth and just being over written has left him lesser for it

Kind of the same thing that happened to Wolverine.

[Stewart Perkins]

Christopher Dudley wrote:

seekerofshadowlight wrote:

well he was an interesting character , and maybe would have stayed that way but lack of growth and just being over written has left him lesser for it

Kind of the same thing that happened to Wolverine.

+1

[Aaron Bitman]

Yes, I've made that comparison before.

[Freehold DM]

bub snikt?

[wspatterson]

Has Drizz't lost any body parts? Maybe losing a body part would make him more interesting.
Probably not.
Salvatore's fight scenes got increasingly painful to read as I grew older. The man doesn't seem to have a great grasp of how sword fights really go. Which is probably true for most people in this day and age, but most writers don't insist on this much detail.
I enjoyed the books when they came out back when I was in junior high. Now days, I can't touch it. And yet, I'd still rather read about Drizz't than touch a Wheel of Time book.

[Mikaze]

wspatterson wrote:

Has Drizz't lost any body parts? Maybe losing a body part would make him more interesting.

Probably not.

Eyepatches are always cool.

As far as I know, and I only read the first two trilogies and the next book after, he's only lost the skin on the very tips of his fingers. He teared up, but didn't bawl. I thought it was refreshingly humanizing for a little bit. Like the time Greg Rucka had Wolverine tear up when he sniffed some mace because that's what mace does to you, comic fans, get over it.

What, me bitter against any fandoms? Nah....

[Yucale]

Aaron Bitman wrote:

ArchLich wrote:

See for me its not "The older I get, the less I like Salvatore" its more of "the more he writes, the less I like Salvatore".

My point exactly. (Except that you stated it more succinctly.)

ArchLich wrote:

And I didnt think he was that awesome to begin with.

The thing is that Salvatore never made any pretentions of being a great literary giant. He simply wanted to entertain. And I feel that he DID - for six books, anyway.

ArchLich wrote:

Oh and PS: Drop the dark elf already or at the very least write about his kid or something. Jeesh.

Salvatore wanted to drop the dark elf... but TSR / WotC had to continue the Drizzt series - with or without Salvatore - due to money. Under those circumstances, what choice did Salvatore have?

Well, can we now at least stop blaming Salvatore so much, and at least spread some of it over to TSR/WotC? And Drizzt can't help how he's written, jeesh.

I completely agree with you, Aaron.
So far as I know, Drizzt has no children.

[Yucale]

messy wrote:

James Martin wrote:

I've avoided re-reading the Dragonlance Trilogy because I'm afraid it too will have faded with time.

good idea. when i read these as a kid i thought they were the greatest thing ever. i recently reread them and now i wonder how they ever got published.

I read a great essay on that topic once. And I agreed with it that it's not the writing getting different, it's your perspective. Perspectives aren't easy to rate as "good" or "bad".

[organized]

Christopher Dudley wrote:

Worst game fiction I ever read: The Pool of Radiance.

Mother of God. It is to my great shame that I admit I just finished that very book. I sort of kept going, reading chapter after chapter for a laugh more than anything else. I might have been able to take it seriously if it weren't for the author handing out +5 gear to what I believe were level 1-3 characters. And I'm not too big on melodrama or...

I have to protest.

Pool of Radiance was based off an amazing TSR computer game in 1989 or so.
The book actually does a pretty good job of following the plot of the game, filling it in with details that were never possible back then. In the game the characters get to level seven and acquire forth level spells, and yes even some pretty high quality gear.

It's no masterpiece, but if you're a fan of the game the book is awesome!

[Yucale]

seekerofshadowlight wrote:

well he was an interesting character , and maybe would have stayed that way but lack of growth and just being over written has left him lesser for it

Unfortunately, that seems to be what's happened (though I'm not far into the series).

[Yucale]

Madcap Storm King wrote:

To be honest, I haven't read a book in a while. Besides, maybe, a gaming manual if you can even count that.

After reading partway through the comics adaptation of "Guards! Guards!" I really want to read Prachett.

The last fantasy novel I tried to read was "The Spearwielder Trilogy" Or something like that by Salvatore in high school. At first, I was like "Sweet, a main character who uses a spear instead of a sword or other generic dueling weapon! Maybe this will be cool.

Ahahahaha, oh how stupid I was.

Brian Jacques is a good author though. I thought I nostalgia'd Redwall into being so awesome... Now I'm surprised it's marketed as a kids book!

Although he might drag a bit, the guy's got a lot of talent for characterization.

Jacques is still one of my favorite authors, and actually introduced me to fantasy. The descriptive writing is wonderful, and I'm still amazed how he manages to add three decent songs to each book. And there're twenty or so books and counting.