When deciding on what book to read next I always look at the Forgotten Realms books, but end up passing them. Today I finally bought the Icewind Dale Trilogy. Is this a good place to start in the Forgotten Realms universe? What are your general opinions about the Trilogy and the whole Forgotten Realms series?
Thanks ?
Posted by Eaquae Legit (Member # 3063) on :
Okay, that one's not too bad. You might read the Homeland-Sojourner-Whatever trilogy as well. And then never, ever pick up another RA Salvatore book. Ever. Just. Don't.
I enjoyed the Elaine Cunningham ones when I was younger, featuring Arilyn Moonblade. Um. I can't remember any others that I can recommend with a moderately clear conscience.
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
What's wrong with Salvatore? Granted, I've never read anything by him/her/it, but you have me curious.
Posted by Eaquae Legit (Member # 3063) on :
He has no sense of linguistic continuity. The names he gives characters from specific cultures range all over the place. His stories begin to repeat themselves.
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER
He kills Chewbacca. "Vector Prime." Chewbacca DIES. No forgiveness.
Posted by TL (Member # 8124) on :
Plus he's making Artemis Entreri all touchy-feely now.
That's worse than killing Chewie. Entreri was a way more interesting character.
*grimble grumble*
Posted by Eaquae Legit (Member # 3063) on :
Whoa what? *sigh* Just as well I don't read the new ones.
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
Actually I like what he's doing with Atremis, at first Artemis was a cold ruthless killer who cared only for being the best at killing. However with is 3 or so fights with Drizzt he finds some1 who he can't beat and from his experiances in Menzoberranzan learnes trully how horrible his passionless killing is as he encounters a whole race of passionless killers where no matter how hard he tried he would never be better then 20,001.
I haven't read Promise of a Witchking yet but I'm going to thoughouhly enjoy it.
I enjoy his books well while I do kinda skim over the fight scenes since i prefer dialogue most of the time.
War of the Spider Queen novels is pretty good but reading the Drizzt, Dark Elf, and other books first would be a good start since they mention some things that you may not understand, but aren't important to the story just little things that may drive you cracy not knowing what you mean maybe 5 lines of dialouge at most throughout a whole books.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
There are hundreds of thousands of decent books out there. Why start with these?
Posted by The Pixiest (Member # 1863) on :
Tom, dear.... Not everyone likes the same things you like.
I kinda put Savaltore on the same level as Peirs Anthony... well, ok, maybe 1 step up from Peirs Anthony.
I loved PA as a teen and I think I would have loved Salvatore as a teen even more. But as an adult.. I dunno... Can't really get into it ya know?
Posted by Eaquae Legit (Member # 3063) on :
I enjoyed them as a young teen. And for what they are, the early ones aren't that bad. The later stuff just... dribbles downhill. Most writers get better with time, but I think Salvatore got worse.
I'd recommend finding a copy of Robin McKinley's "The Blue Sword" and "The Hero and the Crown" instead.
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
Elaine Cunningham's books are okay. In an empty-calorie sort of way. They're fun and unpretentious, which is more than can be said for a lot of D&D-based fiction.
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
Piers Anthony...I've never been able to understand his popularity.
Then again, the first book of his I read was "Firefly".
The story itself, combined with the most repulsive Author's Note in the history of writing...rather biased me against him.