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Dark Elf and Icewind Dale Trilogies
Bullio
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm a bit ashamed to say it, but I haven't read any of R.A. Salvatore's stuff. I'm looking to rectify this by starting with these two trilogies. I'm wondering which is better to start first, though. I know IWD was written before DE, but it makes more sense to me to from the beginning of Drizzt's life. Is this the correct choice, or does it really not matter?
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The only jarring thing about reading the later books first is that in between each major section of the book (usually about 3 per book), there is sort of a journal style-entry written from Drizzt's perspective. While the Dark Elf series is a prequel, these journal entries are written as if just after the Icewind Dale trilogy. I don't recall any spoilers from the journals in the Dark Elf books, but there are some primary character names mentioned who are introduced in between the timeline of the Dark Elf and the Icewind Dale books. You just won't know who those characters or their relationship to Drizzt yet.
To answer your question directly, I think it's always best to read books and series in the order they were written in.
I Kept slogging on and on through the books, enduring the unending diatribe about drizzt's web of steel and dance of death for so damm long, even after it became apparent that salvatore didn't really know what to write about anymore.
Frankly, the Duel with Obould is what broke me. Obould wasn't just a big scary orc; he was effectivley an avatar of gruumsh (who is a god surpassing that candy ass bitch lolth by a fair margin) and it was heavily implied that the only reason he didn't lose to drizzt was because he was healing back too fast.
It's not even just Fonz Do'urden though. Every central character in his bibliography has plot armor that an exploding sun couldn't penetrate.
As for the OP's question, I think it doesn't matter much. I read The Icewind Dale trilogy first, but I had a friend who read the others first. You'll get more background on Drizzt reading the prequels, but it was fun for me to go back and read about the character after reading Icewind Dale. It's been so long since I've read them but I guess personally I'd recomment Icewind Dale first since I feel like that was a stronger story.
If you enjoy them I also recommended checking out The Cleric Quintet.
That being said, just reading the "prequel" trilogy (Homeland, Exile, Sojourn) is a good way to go. In my opinion, they're the best books of the series.
However, I still enjoy reading the Drizzt books simply because I read them somewhat like the transcript of a D&D game, and for a D&D game, it's pretty cool. But I also enjoy the far-too-powerful hero trope for some reason.
The rest of it is just utter rubbish.
Spoiler if you haven't read:
But the first two trilogies are pretty good reads... except Sojourn, which is pretty awful.
This. Fuckin'-a, this.
The first two trilogies are decent. The IDT is a solid, if very standard, D&D series. There's a party, they fight evil, yay. The DET is far more interesting, and really sheds light on the Drow themselves. After that, though, you get into Dragon Ball Z territory.
RE: spoiler
Salvatore doesn't have the chops to really drive home the torture, the fear, the sadness, the depression. Wulfgar-as-alcoholic is just laughable.
Now, I like Pikel. I think he's good comic relief... just if you're going to kill a character, 1) make it meaningful to the story, and 2) don't take it back in the next chapter.
Two words:
Very true... also...
Also didn't Cadderly give someone the FR equivalent of the mark of Cain or something?
He dies from a combination of sunlight and Cadderly channeling the power of the plot.. I mean Deneir.
I'm about 3/4 through the book and, well, it's terrible. It feels like something I might have enjoyed when I was thirteen but the lack of any sort of depth of character really causes me to not really give a damn. So, my question is does it get better? If I'm not enjoying this book should I bother continuing?
Further to that, it can't be possible that all of the D&D books would be that vapid. Is there something that's a bit more mature in the line that one might enjoy?
No.
No.
No.
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The Finders Stone trilogy > Dark Elf books 1-6
Hrmm, perhaps I will look for my fantasy fix elsewhere then. Thanks for the help folks!
All of them
It's nice to just read a fluff book sometimes.
Eh, I only really enjoyed the second book. Giogioni, Nameless, and the Wyvernspurs in general are cool. The rest, not so much.
I agree with your comments on the Finders Stone Trilogy.
Also, I suppose the Daughter of the Drow books featuring Lireal aren't all that bad... I like Christie Goldens work though.
Also: having read most of the priests series I can attest to them being very solid.
To put it another way, many of his main characters have the same voice. Drizz't isn't all that different than Cadderley, Lucien, The Nightbird, etc. Hell, even Luke Skywalker. Cattie-Brie and Pony are nearly identical to me.
After the DET, he falls into the same generic rut. There are a couple exceptions - Jarlaxle and Entreri - but for the most part, if you read a Salvatore novel, you know what characters to expect.
Not that it's entirely horrible. His best work tends to have a lot of spectacle, just not mych beyond that. He's fantasy Michael Bay - lots of explosions.
Note: Memory is almost definitely tainted by 15-20 years of nostalgia, but the avatar books were certainly good enough to make me name pretty much every CRPG character 'Mignight', 'Adon' or 'Kelemvor' for most of my teenage years.
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