niamh Posted October 29, 2006 Share Posted October 29, 2006 Homeland Exile Sojourn The crystal shard Streams of silver The halfling's gem Canticle book 1 in sylvan shadows book 2 Night mask the fallen cleric book 4 The chaos curse the legacy starless night siege of darkness passage to dawn the silent blade the spine of the world sea of swords the thousand orcs the lone drow the two swords the sellswords: servant of the shards promise of the witch king road of the patriarch (edit: that's what happens when one is interrupted halfway through a post loads of useless typing ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fenryng Posted October 29, 2006 Share Posted October 29, 2006 For pity's sake. Niamh, I SWEAR I am not thread-stalking you. But am I to understand that you have read all of these also, or do you just happen to know what order these are actually in? If it is the first instance, than you and I now ANOTHER topic to potentially discuss.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galactus Posted October 29, 2006 Share Posted October 29, 2006 The irony of course is that there *should* be lots of things in the FR that gives Drizzt a run for his money.... If not just flat out stomping him. I thought the Dark Elf triology (at least Homeland) was by far the best of the books. The others VERY QUICKLY got formulaic. Although there is a certain amount of fun in recognizing a creature form the MM simply by the description Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niamh Posted October 29, 2006 Share Posted October 29, 2006 For pity's sake. Niamh, I SWEAR I am not thread-stalking you. But am I to understand that you have read all of these also, or do you just happen to know what order these are actually in? If it is the first instance, than you and I now ANOTHER topic to potentially discuss.... No, I only read nine of them I have to agree with the downhill quality of them. The dark elf trilogy is great, however. It does stand to sense to like both Gemmell and those, since at least the first ones deal with the same sort of emotions, and besides, the two writers were good friends (Salvatore himself even dropped a message on the DG board only for us ) I'll get around them all at some stage, even though they should be bad So, yeah, it's pretty logical we should post in the same threads Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightsnake Posted October 29, 2006 Share Posted October 29, 2006 The books get crappy and formulaic very, very fast with utter stagnation, poorly handled characters and utter repetition...plus an author who suggested his critics go kill themselves. Lovely man, RA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gryphon strike Posted October 29, 2006 Share Posted October 29, 2006 Wow what a coincidence I am just starting to reread a Crystal Shard. Not sure if I will bother with the others though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted October 29, 2006 Share Posted October 29, 2006 The first two trilogies are pretty enjoyable, although they're also rather cheesy. Perhaps Salvatore's closest rival in terms of style is Feist. The third trilogy has some good ideas, but you can tell Salvatore's heart wasn't in it any more. I tried reading the Paths of Darkness series and it was so lame I couldn't even get through the first book. There are actually better Realms books than Salvatore's, such as The Empires Trilogy, which is pretty good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashara Posted October 29, 2006 Share Posted October 29, 2006 I'd say that Cleric Quintet is something I liked more than most Drizzt's books. I'd say that it goes downhill after Exile (I didn't like most of IWDT). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doc awesome Posted October 29, 2006 Share Posted October 29, 2006 You only need to read the first three and you can just read the next few in your head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terser Posted October 29, 2006 Share Posted October 29, 2006 There are actually better Realms books than Salvatore's, such as The Empires Trilogy, which is pretty good. Very true. Though I thought the third book in the trilogy was kind of weak the second novel, Dragonwall, is honestly one of the best "military fantasy" novels I've ever read. Incredible worldbuilding, a realistic sense of strategy and tactics, and lots of interesting cultural detail and plot twists. And all in a 300 page novel published by TSR! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted October 29, 2006 Share Posted October 29, 2006 Very true. Though I thought the third book in the trilogy was kind of weak the second novel, Dragonwall, is honestly one of the best "military fantasy" novels I've ever read. Incredible worldbuilding, a realistic sense of strategy and tactics, and lots of interesting cultural detail and plot twists. And all in a 300 page novel published by TSR! I ponder how much the fact that it is a Forgotten Realms novel not actually set in the Realms (it's set in the Oriental land of Kara-Tur to the east) plays into that. It is interesting that Salvatore, who is despite his failings is one of the better authors of the setting, also pays relatively little attention to stuff going on in the Realms and seems to very reluctantly uses elements not of his own creation. Whilst those authors who suck the hardest in the setting also seem to be those most in love with the core events of it, including Elaine Cunningham and Ed Greenwood. Not sure if that's a coincidence or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astra Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 Thanks a lot for all replies. I think I will read the first 2 trilogies, probably 3 if I like the second one. Then we will see. I am not familiar with Forgotten Realms or D&D, so this world is completely new for me. I have read Homeland and Exile and I like it. Far from the best fantasy I have read so far but it is a decent one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 The Realms was an anti-influence for Steven Erikson. Whilst he enjoyed the enormous maps, he didn't like the fact that the sociology and economic make-up of the Realms were not described, and that different races would live next door to one another with no ethnic or religious strife. Ironically, later authors and developers of the setting did expand the Realms precisely in these areas so that they are, somewhat, more solid a setting than first they appeared. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhelanArcetus Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 The irony of course is that there *should* be lots of things in the FR that gives Drizzt a run for his money.... If not just flat out stomping him. I thought the Dark Elf triology (at least Homeland) was by far the best of the books. The others VERY QUICKLY got formulaic. Although there is a certain amount of fun in recognizing a creature form the MM simply by the description There are in fact plenty of things that would stomp Drizzt trivially... he just never runs into them. I continued reading up to The Thousand Orcs, though I was losing interest well before then. And the manufactured nature of the crisis there really turned me off. The best of the Drizzt work is definitely the Icewind Dale trilogy, and I think the next best is the triplet The Legacy, Starless Night, and Siege of Darkness. I'll skip my problems with Salvatore as a writer, as they don't belong here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oneeye Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 I've read all the drizzt books, they do sag a bit in the middle but the last couple have been fine including the artemis series. The first 2 cunningham books were good too daughter of the drow etc, but the third was quite painful. I also like Cormyr a novel, by grubb/greenwood, especially the ancient time stuff. Overall I think Forgoten realms has enough strife, I mean the dwarves/elves got their asses kicked by the goblinoids and human kingdoms have rivalries too, but mainly it's humans against monsters. Dragonlance was probably a better realized world, but Faerun is definitely the most fun to play ad&d 2nd edition in. It's easy to dm and your characters can do much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grim Too Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 Salvatore was the first author I ever saw posting on message boards dedicated to his books and aggreeing to engage in online chats with fans. From what I saw during those times he's a nice guy and can tell some humorous anecdotes. I believe his brother passed away while he was writing Mortalis and after that his work seemed to change. It's understandable, an event like that will have an impact. It's also important to note that he was not happy with TSR at one point and was basically gone and they were gonna hand over Drizzt to another author since they owned the rights, not Salvatore. Drizzt was a money maker for them. You can imagine that can jade an author when that happens. Any love he has for the Drizzt character had to take a little hit right about there when Drizzt is treated like an intellectual property. Wizards of the Coast acquired TSR not long after that and RAS was back in the saddle with Drizzt. Drizzt was also supposed to just be Wulfgar's sidekick. RAS told the story of how he came up with Drizzt and it was on the fly, moments before his editor was going into a meeting to sell the Icewind Dale Tirlogy idea. I believe it was Mary Kirchoff. She asked him for something more to deliver in her pitch and he brainstormed Drizzt and his house right there on the spot. Or something like that, been a few years since I saw him describe that scene. Homeland is my personal favorite. You also may want to check out the War of the Spider Queen series that RAS oversaw. The first book ends up giving more insight into Menzoberanzan than any of the Drizzt novels did. And the rest of the series piles on the brain candy about other Drow cities and Drow life. It's a fun read if you like the setting and enjoy reading about mages like Gromph Baenre opening up cans of woopass as mages should. :cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devil Hanzo Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 Drizzt is has now entered parody status, i mean read nuklear power.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted November 1, 2006 Share Posted November 1, 2006 Dragonlance was probably a better realized world, but Faerun is definitely the most fun to play ad&d 2nd edition in. It's easy to dm and your characters can do much. The FR books certainly had a better variety of stories than the DL books which mostly seemed to consist of mutually contradictory stories about characters from the original Dragonlance Chronicles series (or their descendants). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galactus Posted November 1, 2006 Share Posted November 1, 2006 There are in fact plenty of things that would stomp Drizzt trivially... he just never runs into them. I continued reading up to The Thousand Orcs, though I was losing interest well before then. And the manufactured nature of the crisis there really turned me off. The best of the Drizzt work is definitely the Icewind Dale trilogy, and I think the next best is the triplet The Legacy, Starless Night, and Siege of Darkness. I'll skip my problems with Salvatore as a writer, as they don't belong here. Actually the consequences of the last series are very, very interesting. We now have a powerful orc nation ruled by a very intelligent orc warlord. That can spill over in all sorts of interesting ways. Dragonlance was probably a better realized world, but Faerun is definitely the most fun to play ad&d 2nd edition in. It's easy to dm and your characters can do much. I never got the hang of Dragonlance. It just felt like they basically plopped down a bunch of towns and dragons with little thought. The FR feels a lot more like a late middle-ages setting (despite the ludicrous magic-level): They've gone to a lot of length to set up trade-routes and governments in the various towns and such. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oneeye Posted November 1, 2006 Share Posted November 1, 2006 yeah when I dm, zhentil keep isn't in ruins, those fly by wand blasting wizard patrols over eveningstar are just too much fun. I also thought the time of troubles were silly, why did they implement that anyway. My player died of boredom in those modules and I can usually make modules interesting if a little too easy. dragonlance feels more like it's own world in the books but not as fun to dm. that orc nation is scary in the late drizzt books, I wonder what will stop it. FR is like a mish mash of tolkien, world history and some unique stuff, but fun to DM/play in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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