D&D FR novels, the good, the bad, and the ugly

[pogre]

I had never read a D&D fiction book until the last year. I read to my son at bedtime and he wanted some D&D stories. I figured we would try the Drizzt stuff. I went in with very low expectations, just hoping for lots of action to keep my son interested. To my surprise, they were not as bad as I feared. We read the 1,000 orcs trilogy. After the first couple of sections I skipped over the innermonologues of Drizzt though - those were as bad as I feared.

 

[Teflon Billy]

The Good: Paul Kemp.

The Bad: Most of the rest of it.

The Ugly: Streams of Silver.

 

[hamishspence]

What was wrong with Streams of Silver?

I was a bit younger when I read it, so I might not have spotted the flaws.

Troy Denning: has his ups and downs. Malik, in Crucible, was rather cool. He seemed rather mediocre in the Shade trilogy though.

I liked Crucible: the 1st person writing style seemed to work. I was not as fond of Waterdeep though, or the Shade books, though I thought Melegaunt Tanthal was interesting, and it went a bit downhill after he went out.

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

I liked the Azure Bonds/Wyvernspur trilogy the best I think.

Cheers


Richard

 

[Kelek72]

OK...I was young and stupid when I read Icewind Dale and the Dark Elf trilogies, but they were cool beyond belief.
Then I read Legacy and the next two or three RAS hardbacks and didn't like them nearly as much. The wizards hiding their brains in their butts to keep the mindflayers from eating them was a bit too much. (I'm not making that up either!)
I liked the sequel trilogy to the Moonshaes better than the first three but I did enjoy them all.
Douglas Niles wrote pretty well in my opinion, but the setting was too real-world-like in spots.
Jean Rabe had a gem with Red Magic. Interesting characters and the BBEG wasn't the most powerful force in play.
Two years ago I read one of the novels about a rogue in Unther and it was pretty well done. An epic battle during the Time of Troubles opened the book and then the main characters story blended nicely into the opening to a great climax. Tiamat made an appearance too!

 

[hamishspence]

Grubb and Novak

Good authors. Their Elminster was rather better than Avatar series one, or Ed Greenwoods. Captured the feel very well.

The later books: Masquerades, Finder's Bane, and Tymora's Luck, are interesting, but not quite as consistently good as the first trilogy, a bit more patchy.

 

[Slaygrim]

R.A. Salvatore

I'll write a complaint on him as he was my favorite author.

I see a lot of people here dis on his comic relief, and while it isn't the greatest I never really thought it was bad.

RAS has come up with some of the coolest character EVER... and has systematically made them pathetic. Take Drizzt for example. My all time favorite character. What happened to him? He used to be so cool, so daring, so carefree! Now he is a freaking headcase! Not only that, but since when did he go all "Paladin-like"? This guy can't do a single thing wrong anymore. And talk about emo...

And then there is Artemis Entreri. One of the best villains of all time! Well, that was before he wrote Promise of the Witch-King. I believe in that book Entreri ran away in a battle and screamed. WTF? Artie screams? Yeesh... I know there has to be some character developement but good lord, taking the fearless and master of self control and have him flee screaming?

But those aren't my biggest complaints. And neither is the "RAS keeps killing people and bringing them back" as most people tend to hate about his writings. My biggest complaint is the near feminist writing style he has adopted. All of the heroines are like the women we see on those damn sitcoms. You know, the endless sitcoms where the husband is a bumbling fool who can't do anything right, and the wives are always so well grounded and have to come to the rescue all of the time, win all of the arguments, and basically be right in everything they do? Yes, that's RAS. From Catti-brie, to Kelsey, to Jilsephony, to Danica, etc. They are BLEH characters. No depth. Just perfect little angels that can't do anything wrong, are right about 99% of the time, always act as the soother for all of the drama that goes on, etc. Take Kelsey from the Spearwielders Trilogy. She is a normal girl from Earth and suddenly she finds herself in that magical realm with the hero. It doesn't take her long at all to stand up and fight villains and show amazing courage. No flipping out or acting irrationally after finding herself in a magical world surrounded by creatures trying to kill her and her boyfriend? Bleh!

He needs more characters like Sydney. You know, the one from Streams of Silver, the mage apprentice to Dendybar. SHE was an interesting character. Now he doesn't need to have the females be villains like Sydney, but show a little self centeredness, show that they can act irrationally at times. SOMETHING outside of the perfect little angels.

If Cat is still around by becoming a "mage" in the 100 year jump to 4th edition, I am going to be pissed.

 

[Slaygrim]

Favorite FR Characters:

Elaith Craulnober
Jarlaxle Baenre
Drizzt Do'Urden
Artemis Entreri
Erevis Cale
Drasek Riven
Jack Ravenwild
Danilo Thann
Fflar Starbrow
Malgaunt Tanthul
Thibbledorf Pwent
Athrogate
Liriel Baenre

Worst FR Characters:

Catti-brie Battlehammer
Danica Bonaduce
Cyric (when human *whine!*)
Galaeron Nihmedu
Regis Rumblebelly
Arilyn Moonblade
Aballister Bonaduce

I'll post more when I think of them.

 

[Votan]

Lisa Smedman (Viper's Kiss series)
The Good
-Lisa has GREAT characterization. All her characters have quirks and personality nuances.
-Good detail. The city of Hlondeth really comes alive.
-Unique stories. Not another "Ugh, another BBEG wants X and is stopped by Y".

The Bad
-Sometimes the plot feels forced. Her characters are so defined, sometimes you ask yourself "Why are they doing this?"
-Lack of cohesion in the later part of the series. You lose some of the suspension of disbelief as certain factors take place.

The Ugly
-In general, Lisa Smedman writes with a lot of free space. Some of her ideas and the directions she takes existing canon will either intrigue you greatly, or frustrate you endlessly. She tends towards a "Love/Hate" relationship with readers, with little common ground. I tend to like her work, but I can see how several fictional changes would anger a lot of FR fans.

'twas a good series. I found the plot twists in the last book a bit forced and there was a lot of "psionics specific flavor text" that got repetitive after a while. But it was well written, the characters were interesting and the plot different enough from the usual fantasy novel that it definitely ranked as a good read.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

This is a neat thread. I'm not really reading fantasy right now and haven't been reading fantasy for a couple of years, but I sure have had a hankering of late to get into a "lite" book and fantasy fits the bill. The last fantasy novel I read was George RR Martin (love him) and after that I read book three of the David Farland series The Runelords. I've had an itch that probably needs scratching with regard to some fantasy, so maybe I'll give one of the authors mentioned in this thread a spin.

I will note that I did try to read a FR Ed Greenwood novel that I borrowed from my library. It was horrible. It's also the only book in my entire life that I did not finish reading once I started it. I put it down and returned it to the library after page 80. Wretched, wretched stuff. RA Salvatore, as cliched as his writing is, was nowhere near as bad as the book I borrowed that was penned by Mr. Greenwood.

Maybe I'll give Elaine Cunningham a try. Or Paul Kemp. Thanks for the plug on those two names!