D&D 5E (2014) Just read Vengeance of the Iron Dwarf...

[pukunui]

I agree with almost everything here, except for the bit about Rowling. The Harry Potter books are wonderful - and they've done more to get people that don't otherwise read to start reading. People from every age group, gender group, whatever group... they all love them. Sure, the writing's simple... but that's part of the charm.

My inclusion of Rowling was more a dig at her books' ever-increasing length than the quality of her prose (of which I am not that familiar anyway, not having read the HP books myself).

 

[Dkase]

I made a comment in a previous thread about how Drizzt is the type of character you 'get' when you're a teen, are embarrassed of when you are in your 20's and then feel nostalgic about when you are +30. I've been re-reading, or trying to re-read, some of the forgotten realms book I purchased as a teen and have yet to make it pass the first few chapters of any of them... They just seem a little on the campy side these days.

 

[Tyranthraxus]

The Dark Elf Trilogy is one of my fave all time Trilogys. Whilst Im not huge on Drizzt , I find Salvatore is a great wRiter of actualy Drow Society esp in Menz. The depiction of the Baenre stranglehold on the city and how the other cities fight it out to be on the council was great. I really enjoyed the world building going on there. I havnt read many of the later books but those first ones I like a lot.

 

[Charles Rampant]

Drizzt and his friends' quest for personal fulfillment just stopped being interesting to me when it became clear that it was endless.

I've never read a Drizzt novel, though I read and enjoyed the recent D&D Humble Bundle comics featuring him, but I thought that this was a really interesting point. When the recent Days of Future Past came out, I remember some people complaining (or commentating, perhaps) that Wolverine no longer acted much like the feral nutjob that they were expecting. This, I thought, was an odd complaint; of course he doesn't, the whole point of his arc thus far is him moving beyond his feral nature in the first film, and into a relatively(!) stable member of the team. The film's plot actually made use of this idea, since he now had to fulfill the stable team player position that Xavier couldn't. Anyway, your comment reminded me of that, and if - as you say - the characters have spent 30 books going around in circles on their character arcs, and never being allowed to just end and be retired, then I can see why that would be totally dull after a while.

 

[Ahrimon]

I had an odd thought. What if Salvatore was under a contract that he had to keep going as long as the books are popular, but he's been done for a long time. He can't directly screw-up the book because editing will stop it, so he's purposefully slowly tanking the books and making his writing worse and worse in the hopes that he'll finally be able to move on. Yet due to the rabid fans he can't win, they keep buying up his books no matter how bad he makes them. It could explain the constant downward spiral of his quality.

 

[delericho]

I had an odd thought. What if Salvatore was under a contract that he had to keep going as long as the books are popular, but he's been done for a long time. He can't directly screw-up the book because editing will stop it, so he's purposefully slowly tanking the books and making his writing worse and worse in the hopes that he'll finally be able to move on. Yet due to the rabid fans he can't win, they keep buying up his books no matter how bad he makes them. It could explain the constant downward spiral of his quality.

I don't believe that for a moment. But it would be awesome.

 

[Blackwarder]

I stopped reading Drizzt books when they moved to 4e, I picked them up with the Sundering book I: The Companions and been reading all of them when they came out.

Personally I love R.A.Salvatore FR books, and I really like the new story arches of all the companions, especially Brunor (since his a dwarve and I love dwarves) and Regis AKA Spider, the entire series since The Companions have been a classic "what if I could go back in time knowing what I know now" kind of story only in the current timeline.

I finished The Archmage last weekend, and it was great, especially the parts about dwarves and drow society, Grumph and Brunor parts were especially interesting to me and Cattie-Brie have surprised me and became more mature and central. A marked improvement in this books is Bob's comfort level with magic and magic using characters, although there were some scenes that were obviously not 5e compatible (although they can be worked around).

Warder

 

[GameOgre]

I loved Drizzt and all the rest but stopped reading them a while back. They have the same issue comics have. Instead of killing characters off when appropriate for that character and the story, it's all about how can we keep them going.

People need to learn to let go. Life and Death are a basic important part of the literary tale. The End is a important thing to learn.

 

[Wik]

My inclusion of Rowling was more a dig at her books' ever-increasing length than the quality of her prose (of which I am not that familiar anyway, not having read the HP books myself).

Well, you should read them. They're very well-written for what they are, and I think the ever-increasing length had more to do with appeasing the fans than poor editing . They don't take too long to read. I'm a pretty big fan of "the classics", but I'll add JK Rowling to any list of the best authors of the 20th and 21st century.

 

[Henry]

[MENTION=93321]Psikerlord#[/MENTION]: Lovecraft was a *much* better writer than Salvatore is. I think you'll enjoy his work.

You just have to remember to take any racism encountered in the prose as a product of the writer's life and times. Lovecraft was not free of it, just as most authors of his era, but past it is some excellent Existential Horror.