How would you rate the Icewind Dale Trilogy?

[Desdichado]

Well, Salvatore isn't that bad of an author; I certainly wouldn't give him a 1. He's also not that good of an author, though -- he's a little too enamoured of tactical battle descriptions, for one thing, and I don't think his characters are often particularly interesting or likable, although even there he occasionally does well. Early Driz'zt was interesting up to a point, and Artemis Entreri as well.

 

[John Crichton]

Well, Salvatore isn't that bad of an author; I certainly wouldn't give him a 1. He's also not that good of an author, though -- he's a little too enamoured of tactical battle descriptions, for one thing, and I don't think his characters are often particularly interesting or likable, although even there he occasionally does well. Early Driz'zt was interesting up to a point, and Artemis Entreri as well.

If you read some of his non-Drizzt stuff you may have a bit of a different viewpoint. There are many stretches in the Demon Wars series where hundreds of pages go by with not even a sign of a fight, and I believe that is some of his best writing.

I also believe that he is an improving author who is getting to know the value of a truly deep cast of characters that tell a very interesting story. He still holds on to a few too-many cliches at times but they are forgivable. I think his best work is still ahead of him even though I have greatly enjoyed the bulk of his work so far.

 

[John Crichton]

I think I’ll stop by Waldenbooks to see what it was, could have just been an older book stuck out front for some reason.

If you happen to find stumble upon something I've missed, please post about it. I hate to miss a RAS release.

 

[Green Knight]

This is from the latest "In The Works" article on the Wizards site.

October: The Lone Drow

This is the long awaited sequel to The Thousand Orcs, already a New York Times bestseller and now available in paperback (if you've been holding out).

Like most sequels, The Lone Drow picks up where The Thousand Orcs left off. That means you jump in with Drizzt, separated from all of his allies, behind enemy lines, thinking that his friends have all just been slaughtered. He's surrounded by way more than just a thousand orcs (and far too many giants) -- and he's got nothing to lose. If you read the Dark Elf trilogy, you'll have a good idea of what it means when I say that as The Lone Drow begins, the Hunter returns.

There it is.

 

[John Crichton]

This is from the latest "In The Works" article on the Wizards site.

Yah, I saw dat the other day, too. I am very much looking forward to this next Drizzt book. 1000 Orcs was good and I'm interested to see where this trilogy is going...

 

[Dark Jezter]

Yah, I saw dat the other day, too. I am very much looking forward to this next Drizzt book. 1000 Orcs was good and I'm interested to see where this trilogy is going...

Heh, The Thousand Orcs ended on a major cliffhanger. I'm so anxious to see what happens next that The Lone Drow is going to be the very first RAS book I'll buy in hardcover.

 

[Welverin]

If you happen to find stumble upon something I've missed, please post about it. I hate to miss a RAS release.

Nothing new, they must have just been displaying an older book (I did see a few copies of Immortalis).

Guess we'll just have to wait until next month.

 

[Ranger REG]

The Icewind Dale Trilogy is an enjoyable read, not one that would be on par with most fantasy literature as the Lord of the Rings, but then again, I'm not a professional literary critic. I just read for the sheer enjoyment, not to be in common with those of sophisticated taste.

Henry pretty much sums up my point for the book, despite this is RAS first entry to publishing novel commercially. His writing got better, as indicated by his second trilogy, Dark Elf, which surprisingly not his favorite character (it was second favorite, as IWD was meant to cast the barbarian Wulfgar as the leading character).

For those who dislike Drizzt, the bulk of them are probably gamers who think he should have stayed a cardboard drow elf and not be a good ranger. Others don't like the 1st/2nd edition conversion of his story character into a game character. While others simply think he's too big of an iconic figure for too long. Almost like Tom Cruise, now that he's getting too popular, I'd rather see a fresh face than yet another Cruise movie.

As for me personally, he's unique because you have a classic archetypal bad guy being portrayed as a good ranger, so he has a special pedestal for him alongside Kaz the Minotaur from Dragonlance. Of course, it helps to be a ranger fan (almost all of my PCs are rangers). As for IWD, you don't have a party of adventurers but rather a family: a fatherly dwarf who raise a human daughter and now mentoring a young barbarian. Bruenor befriended a drow elf ranger (two things no archetypal dwarf would associate: an elf, and a drow), and halfling rogue that round up the rest of the family unit.

 

[dagger]

My favorite book of his is probablly the book with Artemis and Jarlaxe (sp?) as the main characters.

 

[Darth Shoju]

The Crystal Shard was the first D&D novel that I ever read. Salvatore is responsible for getting me not only into D&D novels but into the game itself. I had read The Hobbit at that point, but being young and for some reason not realizing the connection to LOTR, I didn't really branch out into fantasy after reading it. But I picked up Salvatore's works every chance I could get, and through him I started other D&D books and because of his Woods Out Back series I got into non-D&D fantasy (which I pretty much stick to nowadays).

[EDIT: I forgot this post was started by a guy who hasn't read these books yet, so I thought I'd toss in a SPOILER ALERT tag here. ]

I bought and read every Salvatore book that came out, but to be honest I started losing my interest after The Legacy. I read Starless Night, Siege of Darkness, Passage To Dawn and The Silent Blade and to be honest I thought they were all fairly lackluster. Passage to Dawn in particular was not his best effort IMO. I didn't like how Errtu was taken down rather easily, how Bruenor's eye grew back and how Cadderly was no longer dying after giving his life energy to raise that cathedral of Deneir. The Silent Blade was better, although I'm also not a fan of how Entreri seems to be becoming more "mainstream". The man's a cold-blooded killer and should stay as such. I didn't really get that feeling from that book. I read the first book of the Demon Wars saga, and while I admint Salvatore seems to be making an effort at more developed characters (and succeeding too), I still didn't like them as much as I did his FR characters (I suppose they were a bit shallow, but I still liked them). Not only that, but the whole Demon Wars setting seemed just a little too stale and not terribly fleshed out to me.

Now, he could have turned all of this around with his more recent works, but for now I think I'm just burned out on him. He's just getting too prolific. I'm thinking he should just chill for a bit, re-examine his writing style (not that it's bad, but he could use some reflection time I think) and come back fresh. I'm sure I'll pick up another Salvatore book someday, but it won't be soon. I gave him a 4.