R.A. Salvatore's 1000 Orcs Trilogy

[MarauderX]

Anyone started this trilogy besides me? It was a quick read, but there were some things that didn't quite work as well as Salvatore's other work, like the Dark Elf series. What did you think of the book and the ending? Not that it was bad, but was hoping it could be, well, better. Has anyone read the 2nd in the series yet?

I hate to dish out spoilers, so I will save them for future posts on this thread.

 

[dagger]

I think it was one of the better books of all his FR books. I'm looking forward to the 2nd book this month.

 

[Benben]

I felt that this was a return to form for Salvatore. I wasn't able to finish his last set of Dark Elf/Whining Barbarian books.

The Thousand Orcs however was pretty good in that I actually worried about the heroes, and was surprised by a couple of the character moments:

Spoiler

Like Regis escaping and his encounter with the Worg and Rider.

 

[Enforcer]

It was alright, in my opinion (and I'm a huge Salvatore fan). My favorite of the recent FR books was the one that basically focused on Entreri on Jarlaxle, actually.

 

[Welrain]

I read both Sea of Swords and Thousand Orcs recently. They were entertaining to a certain degree and worth a read, but nothing new to be honest, Drizzt & Co are getting a bit stale. I've started skipping Drizzt's little essays too, terribly dull and predictable, no longer endearing.

In both books there was a over reliance on coincidence & luck and a willingness to dispose of barely introduced characters with alarming speed, which spoilt the books and detracted from some of the more interesting issues that were tackled.

I used to look forward to Drizzt books (ie lots of hardbacks), but now I don’t, not since the poor Passage to Dawn.

 

[Dark Jezter]

Personally, I think The Thousand Orcs is one of the better Drizzt Do'Urden books, and I'm looking forward to The Lone Drow coming out later this month.

Sea of Swords, however, was a disappointment. But maybe I was just spoiled by Servant of the Shard, which remains my absolute favorite R.A. Salvatore novel.

 

[nHammer]

I found A Thousand Orcs an ok read. It was entertaining (the Bouldershoulder brothers being my favorite part).

I did not, however, like the ending. It is an over-used plot devise.

 

[Decado]

I really liked the book and thought it was one of the better more recent Drizzt books. I was surprised when I tried to read Immortalis though because I could not get into it at all. I have often felt that his Demon War series was much better then his FR books but now i am not sure.

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I thought for sure that in a 1000 Orcs he was going to kill off one of the characters (Cattie-Brie). Then again Bruenor's fate is still up in the air. Part of me does not want to see any of the characters die but I think it would add a nice touch of morality to his FR books. One of the things I like most about his Demon War series is that no one is exempt from being killed.

Decado

 

[Heretic Apostate]

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Decado

Decado, there is a nifty thing called a "spoiler tag." Basically, you use (spoiler) and (/spoiler) (replacing parentheses with brackets) in the same way as you'd use the tags for b = bold, i = italics, u = underlines, and so forth.

To see a spoiler in said tag, you just highlight it, and it shows in negative.

Just thought you'd like to know.

 

[MarauderX]

Spoilers... no tags!!!

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What really bothered me about the book is the lack of a 'real' strategy by nearly everyone, and how the good guys used Drizzt as a crutch - relying on him for the impossibly dangerous tasks like killing a gaggle of giants.

The whole dialogue of "adventurers is what we are" made my eyes roll in my head more than once, and the number of words dedicated to the subject nearly warranted a main character death without a single orc.

The roughriders irked me with their repeatedly brainless activities involving violence, and when they pulled the trojan horse routine I about choked with disappointment, especially when they all escaped.

However, I did like the politics the Bruenor started up during his trip, and thought it would have been a better ending if they came to rescue sooner in place of the roughriders, though perhaps that's what I was expecting.

It seems that Salvatore was trying to stick to the FR rules with the characters and looked up some relevant CRs to put up against them. I have always liked his work, but I think this series will be a further let down with the characters he has been building.

edit: spellik.