Author Analysis: R. A. Salvatore

Analyze and discuss the writing style and skill of R. A. Salvatore without bashing or gushing. Consider any strengths or weaknesses, any authorial niche he may fill, whether you would like to see him return to writing Star Wars, etc.

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Walter Jon Williams
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Roger MacBride Allen
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Steve Perry
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Barbara Hambly
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K. W. Jeter
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Go at it!

 

Vector Prime was great. Chewie's death was absolutely fantastic and the intro to the Vong was well done. It did start off a little slow but once it picked up pace it was really exciting.

Attack of the Clones was decent. I liked the added scenes on Tatooine in the beginning. Better than TPM, but way below RotS as far as novelizations go.

 

Chewie!

 

I've seen Salvatore criticized for his writing style, but I for one liked it. I found it much richer than most Star Wars books.

 

He's a guy that doesn't do his homework, and he killed Chewie.

 

Salvatore is a pulp writer. He's one of the best of them, and I think it's a shame he won't write another Star Wars novel because of the frankly disgusting behavior of fans. Issuing the man death threats over Chewie? Please, for starters most of those people would be the kind of nerds either too weak or too fat to carry out said threats ( ), but still! It was a dark moment in fandom...

I liked Vector Prime and the Dark Tide books alot more than any others I think, but I have to say - if you like VP and want to see more of Salvatore, the Drizzt books are where it's at.

E_S

 

He turned Attack of the Clones into something interesting and substantial. That's commendable in itself.

 

And he's lucky no one went through with it. Murdering a Pop Icon in an ignoble manner without bothering to do research as to what the characters one was writing about are like behaviorwise, thus showing the people who care about his subject manner that he was doing the job for a cheap pay day, reaps that kind of thing.

His writing style would have been fine if it wasn't using established characters. It's probably passable when (if?) he writes original fiction, but doesn't belong in the EU.

 

I find the death threat thing to be deplorable. And Chewie's death could've been way worse, I'll admit that.

But his lack of research on characters... *Shakes head* And I didn't like VP, either, to boot.

 

Just parsing this a bit here . . . Are you saying that a foreseeable consequence of "[m]urdering a Pop Icon in an ignoble manner without bothering to do research as to what the characters one was writing about are like behaviorwise, thus showing the people who care about his subject manner that he was doing the job for a cheap pay day" is someone carrying out an actual, real-life death threat?

Hopefully I missing an in-joke, like a Freakin' Sweet Hat or something.

 

Maybe not Chewbacca, although I wouldn't have been suprised. He's quite lucky though, that his bosses weren't able to order him to off Luke, though. Before anyone jumps on me for pointing out the obvious, do not think I am advocating what could have happened - I'm merely pointing out that I think R.A. didn't consider the risk he was taking when he took the Bounty on Chewie.

 

No, I'm sure he assumed nobody would be fanatic enough, pathetic enough, sad enough to get to the point of harassing and threatening someone over Star Wars fiction.

E_S

 

Miserable writer. At least in VP; I suppose it's unfair to judge him off a single work.

I remember picking up this strange looking new book (this was pre-'net for me) and being like "the hell?" Boluphur? Ackdool? Blorash and tizowyrm and the stroking of beetles?

Plus, Chewbacca's death sucked. Don't get me wrong, I was happy to see the family dog finally bite the big one, but good Waru. A crashing moon?

 

The moment I saw this thread I knew what I was going to read.

All right. I was an EU newbie when I picked this up. I had read YJK and Rogue Planet only up to this point. And I liked this book. It was fun at first (I loved the asteroid belt-running with Han and Chewie screaming at each other, that made me laugh HARD ). But there was something sinister underneath it all, especially when Yomin Carr made his entrance and began offing ExGal people.

Then came Sernipidal. And that completely altered my viewpoint on everything SW forever. And I liked it. Liked it enough that within the next two months I had charged through everything up to Traitor, including the paperback of Star By Star (yes, people actually bought that ).

I give Salvatore a lot of credit for turning me on to Star Wars books. I likely would not have bought any more SW books if it wasn't for Vector Prime. It is also the reason why I tend to look down upon most Bantam works (besides Zahn and Kube-McDowell) because I read exclusively NJO from 2002-2003. Compared to the DR books, a lot of the Bantam books have seemed childish to me, and they never seem to take chances and introduce major character development. (Take THAT, Striker and Saiya! ) Give a NJO-style sense of danger anyday.

I just really wish R.A. was still writing SW. Damn overzealous fanboys . . .

 

I liked the scenes in VP set on Belkadan or with Nom Anor. They had a nice atmosphere to them. The rest of it was blah.

I don't remember much about the AOTC novelization, except that he added all the cut scenes in as well as another one with Panaka.

He's not a very good writer, but he's better than Hambly.

 

Am I the only one here who knows just how awesome Salvatore's pulp fantasy is?

As a pulp fantasy writer, he's perfect for Star Wars.

You need to read some of his older stuff, to see the journey and heroism of Drizzt spelled out. He's no George RR Martin, or Tolkein, but he's damned good at pulp fantasy.

Which is exactly what Star Wars is, and needs.

Give him the license to write Star Wars universe material without having to use preestablished and personality-erratic characters, and he'd shine.

E_S

 

Hmm. I hate pulp fantasy, so... yeah. Not exactly sold.

Anyway, up until just now, I thought this Drizzt fellow was some sort of fly. Turns out I'm thinking of Tzvizzt.

 

Pulp Fantasy of the Salvatore kind is the same kind of pulp fantasy as Star Wars, except when it's in space it's called "Space Opera" and replaces swords and elves with lightsabers and wookies.

ES

 

He turned Attack of the Clones into something interesting and substantial. That's commendable in itself.

*sputters the ewok gum out of his mouth*

He did what, EwokStromboli? AOTC was almost completely superifical in depth. The ending most of all. And back then, specially priced at $20 when books were 18, which by Aust standards was criminal. Most of the scenes were just going through the motions, no emotive reflection or thoughts.

I was outraged. Outraged!

Vector Prime was okay, actually. He had these paragraph-long sentences that should have been broken up into smaller sentences. Vast page time was devoted to nobody scientists that all died anyway. His sentence structuring gave the book a rushed feel. But still and all, it's one of the NJO's few decent books, and I can't fault that.

Or the man himself. He's a veteran, he's a name that can sell a book, and I admit I'm curious enough to read at least one Forgotten Realms book even with my racial dislike of fantasy cliches that I've recently ordered the Dark Elf omnibus. Individual books' font were microscopic, so I had to go for the larger edition.

What're folks complaining for anyway? It was utterly evocative. It took a falling moon to kill him. You can't go better than that, a roar of defiance up at Dolbido, or whatever or whatever it was.

 

I think the moon thing ticks people off because it wasn't something that he could be expected to fight against, or even have any impact in stopping. Other parts of the scene ticked me off as well, but not having read VP in over half a dozen years, I'll leave it up to someone else to give their detailed thoughts on that part.

 

Any person remotely near to being close enough to a fictional character to even think about wanting to kill and/or harm someone charged with writing their death should find their nearest therapist (or criminal psychologist), stat. And please stay away from small animals and children.

I liked AOTC, it was the love story of the movies, and he had to make the love story of the novelizations. And he was able to relay the political climate at the time without beating us over the head with it. Testosterone is a dangerous thing in large quantities.

I recently reread Vector Prime and was really impressed with how the whole NJO was set up with it. It was a big job, and he did it wonderfully. The feeling of foreboding seeped through the whole book.

 

I very much enjoyed VP. In fact it's the book that really got me hooked on the EU. I had read a few books before but it wasn't until I read Vector Prime that I really started getting into it. The way that some of the fans acted in reaction to Chewies death was deplorable. He was told by LFL to kill Chewbacca and he recieved death threats. Simply disgusting.

 

VP was pretty good. I dont understand why people complain about Chewies death and the Yuuzhan Vong bio-tech etc when none of that was up to him anyway. As for the characterisations being inconsistent, he's not the only one guilty of that by a long shot.

 

IIRC, Salvatore actually did come up with the biotech. But I may be wrong about that.

IMO, that's the only way they could have done it. To have Chewie die at the hand of something or someone that he could fight against would have meant that Chewie failed. Chewie, however, did not fail. He saved a baby, and his best friend's son, and it took a freakin' moon to kill him. Chewie went out as a hero, and I for one, would have it no other way.

 

It's true. The only way it could have been better is if Chewie had taken a bullet in a more literal sense. Sure, he died saving Anakin, but he didn't die for him. He was dead anyway. He couldn't get to the Falcon. There was no conscious decision to give up his life for a Solo -- that choice was made for him, which I feel does take away from it slightly, but only slightly. Because it took a friggin' moon.

Although even that wasn't enough for Itchy.