is there such thing as a good FR novel?

[Henry]

Call me another Salvatore Fan. (Y'know, I almost wrote "Slavatore" fan - perhaps that would be a good name for us? The "Slavatories" )

I enjoyed his books, but then, I wasn't looking for Tolkien - I was looking for action and adventure, with a little message about humanity involved.

This may sound strange, but perhaps the best Forgotten realms story I ever read was Ed Greenwood's short story that he wrote when he was 10 years old. It was a little darker than the mid-1990's Realms fiction, and more in a Robert E. Howard kind of style, though not gratiuitous. It is available for free on wizards Forgotten Realms Fiction website, under their archives.

 

[Razuur]

Avatar

The only FR books I liked were the first two books of the Avatar Trilogy.

They were written by Scott Ciencin, under the pen name Richard Awlinson or something. I flew through the frist two books, loving them. And then I hit the 3rd book and screeched to a halt, finding myself forcing my way through it. After careful examination, it turned out that it was staill written under the Awlinson pen namje, but in fact, a different author had finished the books.

I managed to trudge through the final book, but the whole time I wished the original author had finished it.

I have heard that Scott Ciencin has published a couple of other works, but I was never able to find out what they were, or locate them.

If you want to read the best FR, read those first two Avatar books, and then trudge through the final book for some closure.

I have heard that cunninghams books are good too....

I too don't understand the fascination with Salvatore or Drizzt.

Razuur

 

[Tsyr]

Salvatore != Drizzt

Salvatore is actualy a fairly prolific (sp?) writer who has a number of quite good books outside DnD behind him, who just happens to write for DnD.

 

[rounser]

I really enjoyed the first Moonshae series, and I'm currently working my way through the second. Very dark for FR.

 

[jhallum]

The best and the worst

The best by far is the Songs and Swords books by Elaine Cunningham. Her Councilors and Kings books aren't bad either.

The worst by far is the Once Around the Realms. Damn, I'm still scarred by how horrifyingly bad that book was. Ugh. Nothing but really really bad puns through out. Check this book out from the library if you want to read it.

 

[Tom Cashel]

Ugh!

FR novels are the worst pieces of pulp drek ever to find their way into print. Death of the Dragon was excruciating, even for the historical information, and I'm about halfway through The Summoning right now. I bought the both of them at the same time, so I feel compelled to force myself to read it. I can promise you this: if I manage to finish it, I'll never read another one.

I kind of liked the Icewind Dale trilogy back in high school...it really depends on your tastes. Back then I liked all kinds of garbage. At 29, bad writing is simply bad writing.

The problem I've noticed is this: someone told the writers they had to follow the rules. This is just bass-ackwards. The rules are great for the game, but as we all know, they are made with game balance in mind and don't make a lot of rational sense beyond that. So when you have a novel that describes how wizards must memorize their spells, where magical effects are described solely in terms of their title in the Player's Handbook, etc etc...it just makes for bad fiction. Great game, of course. But terrible fiction.

Have you read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon? Now that was a fantastic book.

 

[TBoarder]

If you're looking for a book that has the same atmosphere as the recent Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, I'd suggest giving The Summoning and The Siege a chance. I enjoyed both quite a bit, and they are, so far, that only books that use the changes to the setting that 3E brought.

 

[Sciurus Rex]

The only reason I struggled through the Cleric Quintet series (he bemoaned) is because it involved a white squirrel (he exclaimed gleefully).

Salvatore badly needs a good editor (he uttered shaking his head vigorously). He's verbose, over-exposed and full of his own importance (he thought to himself). The only good thing about the author (he ammended quickly) is that it's easy to avoid his books because his name is so bloody huge on the covers (he ejaculated).

 

[Oni]

I just read Elminster: The Making of a Mage this January. In my opinion the book was not very good (more than that, I thought it was silly), and about the only reason I finished it was becuase I don't like not finishing books. I don't know what others think of the book, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone myself.


I am curious though, for those of you that have read more Greenwood books, and Realms books in general how does Making of a Mage stand up. Is it pretty much bottom of the barrel, middling fair, or thats about as good as the Realms get.

 

[dagger]

After I read Game of Thrones again last week I picked up the newest dark elf book and I have to say I enjoyed it very much. I like the one he wrote about Jarlaxe and Artimus the best, but all of them are good.

I dont worry too much what people think about books, everyone has there own view of books, just like movies and everything else. Best thing to do is read what ever you like for yourself and ignore the moron comments.