Amph R.A. Salvatore's Forgotten Realms novels

Why's that?

And the only person who changes the SFFBC banner had her computer crash, so . . .

I finished The Crystal Shard and Streams of Silver. They were good, but just not as good as the Dark Elf trilogy - maybe a result of them being written first or something.

 

I've read a couple dozen Salvatore books in the last few months, and while I've enjoyed them, I'm kind of Salvatore'd out.

Yes, I just turned his name into a verb

 

And yeah, I understand that.

 

I just got The Ghost King from my library can't wait to begin reading. MY favorite series of Salvitore's are The Icewind Dale Triliogy and the Cleric Quintet, great books. Also Cadderly is supposed to be in The Ghost King.

 

For some reason I've been kind of not in the mood to pic up The Halfing's Gem. This trilogy isn't as good as the first one (chronologically).

 

Read it It's good.

Not WoT-quality good, admittedly, but still good.

 

Little WoT-happy there, are you?

The Crystal Shard was pretty good, but I wasn't that impresssed with the next one.

 

Just slightly

Seriously, you should read it

 

So I'm half way through The Ghost King. So far it's not as good as The Orc King or The Pirate King, but it's shaping up to be an excellent read. We'll see once I finish.

 

Really? I loved The Ghost King. I thought it was far better than either the Pirate King or The Orc King.

 

As it stands right now, I think The Orc King and The Pirate King are the best Drizzt books out.

 

I got 7 books into this series and stopped. I got bored with it, and more than a little frustrated at the blatant Tolkien ripoffs. I liked Homeland a lot, while the other two of the Dark elf trilogy seemed kind of eventless. And as has already been said, the writing quality in the icewind dale trilogy isn't the best.

 

Well, I've finished The Ghost King, and I have to say that Salvatore's Transitions has been his best trilogy. The Pirate King stands as my favorite Drizzt novel. The Ghost King was the weakest of the three novels, and I felt Salvatore was being forced to go into directions he didn't want to. Nevertheless, The Ghost King was a brilliant novel. Cadderly was fantastic in the book, and probably stands as the true hero. Jarlaxle was also brilliant, though I'm not sure whether Salvatore really knows what he wants to do with the character. Nonetheless, Jarlaxle never fails to put a brilliant show whenever he's there.

 

I finished the Icewind Dale trilogy. I have the next four books (Legacy of the Drow) in an omnibus on my desk. I'm not exactly sure when I'll get to them (especially since I'll probably have to return it before winter break, which is closer than it looks) but I mean to start them soon. I want to get through this series, and I want to do it in a somewhat timely manner.

 

As the only book of the Salvatore's Forgotten Realms intertwined series that I have not yet read, I have to say I'm very much looking forward to reading the Ghost King after all the raving I've heard about it. I've been delighted with the route transitions has taken the characters thus far and all I can say is that I can't wait to see how the trilogy ends.


For those still working on the beginnings of the series.... Read through to Starless Night at the very least... if you're not happy with Salvatore's writing quality, character and plot development and etc by the end of that book, you never will be

Seriously, I'm in awe of the way the man was able to take a single planned trilogy and turn it into an epic Saga - not sure if he thought about it from the beginning, since Drizzt was supposed to be a 'sidekick' to Wulfgar and Bruenor, but what he's done with it has been fantastic.


Big thanks to Nat for directing me this way

 

Well, to my understanding, these novels exist almost solely because of the changes that were made for the 4th ed. D&D, which not too many people were happy about when I first heard the news. So thinking that RAS didn't really want to do what he did is completely understandable and possibly entirely correct. It certainly wouldn't be the first time that RAS has been forced to do something he'd rather not: Wulfgar was supposed to remain dead but the editors ordered him brought back... (Not sure how much of a spoiler that was, but figured I'd err on the side of caution--and I hope I'm doing the spoiler correctly!)

 

You did it correctly

I just started Starless Night - the writing quality has picked up again, and I love that the drow are being brought back in

And i think it kinda sucks that Wulfgar was brought back because the editors saud so - I mean, I haven't gotten there so I don't really know what happens, but after all the grief, it seems like a waste. And after Bruenor was brought back . . . it's not really something that should happen more than once or readers will question every death.

 

Salvatore has a penchant for characters seeming to be dead or at least believed dead by their companions only to have them not turn out to be dead after all. Though it's not entirely his fault, as Wulfgar was due to the editors, as noted.

And I'm not sure why I bothered to spoiler-HTR that, because its really not much of a spoiler, and certainly not for any book still affected by the spoiler rules

 

Speaking as someone that has read everything RAS has published(the last dozen or so as they have been published), I have really enjoyed the books. Yes, the writing takes a few turns for the worse at points(The Spine of the World), but his newest CotH(Legend of Drizzt to you. I refuse to call them this. They are the adventures of the Companions of the Hall as they have always been.) have been a bit more strained that the others. Salvatore said(and i wish i could still find the sources that had this, but alas, they have disappeared into the bowels of the internet.) that after Hunter's Blades, he was done with Drizzt. Unfortunately, his publishers told him to continue, or another author would be writing Drizzt.

So now came 4E, and, imho, it was a blessing in disguise. It gives RAS the chance to end CotH for good.

Ghost King ending spoiler warning.
With the three that he killed of at the end of GK, plus the ending of Wulfgar's story from Pirate King, he really only has one more book to write: the last adventure of Drizzt. Then it's done. Catti-brie is dead, as is Regis. Cadderly is stuck in his own ward. Wulfgar is back with the barbarians. Bruenor is a very old dwarf with a kingdom to rule. That only leaves Drizzt's ending untold.

RAS did kill the characters. They were then, however, resurrected by the power of the editors/publishers. If fans love a character, you can't just kill him/her, right?

 

That was the case with Wulfgar, yes... but as many times as its happened? I doubt its entirely the publishers.

I believe that a couple times were within the same book... definitely within the same trilogy/set.

 

Ok, granted. It happens a few times within certain books, but most of the time, it's only a couple of chapters before the reader knows what really happened. I mean, how many authors, especially in FR, have a tower/mountain/insert other large object here fall on a character just so the rest of their party thinks they're dead? It's a common plot device in fantasy. "Kill off" a character so that they can become a trump in the final battle.

How many authors have done that? 4/5?

 

I think that number is a little high, but it's certainly been done.

 

I didn't care so much about the Sellswords trilogy. I love the characters Jarlaxle and Entreri, but I found the plot of the latter two books to be kinda dull. I will agree with the statement that Salvatore is a genious at making characters. Although I don't care for the plot, the new characters he created for the Sellswords trilogy are very interesting, especially the monk, Kane.

 

I finished Starless Night this morning and I enjoyed it - the writing quality and plots are back up, and I'm actually looking forward to the next two (I have the Legacy of the Drow quartet in an omnibus).

 

RA Salvatore signs a new 6 book deal with Wizards

So what do you think it will be about? In my opinion, I think we'll be seeing some more Artemis Entreri in the books in the future. Unfortunately I've never really liked the character.