D&D General "Spine of the World" is a weird novel

[DarkCrisis]

I've been going through the Drizzt series again. Absolutely love it. It's like going home.

By the by, I've never read the 4E era books because killing 90% of the cast (and of the Realms as a whole) due to WotC jumping the timeline forward 100 years soured it for me. I did pick the series back up when 5E rolled in and they more or less fixed the Companions of the Hall.

Anyways, Spine of the World. A book about Wulfgar having PTSD and being a giant arsehole for 90% of the read. Well that and the village love triangle story that finally intersects with Wulfgar near the end just so he can find a reason not to be a raging arsehole.

You could literally skip this book and go right ot the next one where he is still dealing with his PTSD but trying to do better and not really miss out on anything.

But yeah, the book is just unique in the series. Just Wulfgar. Being a raging alcoholic. And a love triangle that ends up not really mattering. This is my second time reading it and I recall after finishing it the first time years years ago... I don't think I'll ever read this again.

I wonder if Salvatore had more of a plan? Like Hickman's reason for Tanis' fate in Dragonlance always came off as dumb to me, and this kind of reeks of that. Like, "I need to send a personal message on this." Maybe Salvatore wanted to tell a story about alcoholism that he may have personal experience with? IDK.

So yeah, weird book. Completely skippable. I'm sure I'll read it again sometime before I die.


BTW cool cover though.

 

[Queer Venger]

Im actually reading now Salvatore's Sellswords trilogy; just finished Servant of the Shard and starting Promise of the Witch king, really enjoying these more anti-hero characters for a change; remind me of the Fjard & Grey mouse books I used to read.

Definitely plan on reading Spine of the world

 

[DarkCrisis]

Im actually reading now Salvatore's Sellswords trilogy; just finished Servant of the Shard and starting Promise of the Witch king, really enjoying these more anti-hero characters for a change; remind me of the Fjard & Grey mouse books I used to read.

Definitely plan on reading Spine of the world

He's not being a hero. Wulfgar is literally robbing people by the end of it. It's just him being a raging drunk for most of the novel. When it's not about a peasant girl catching the eye of a noble. Yawn.

By all means read it, but it's not a book with a hero on an adventure. It's a novel about a drunk and a peasant girl who don't meet until the end.

 

[schneeland]

Yeah, I remember this being the most tedious of all the Drizzt novels I re-read a few years back. It felt like "Wulfgar's groundhog day" for 90% of the book, and it killed my motivation to read on - I finished the Paths of Darkness trilogy, but even though I liked Sellswords 1/Servant of the Shard a lot better again, I moved on to other things afterwards.
That being said, I should have stopped after the Icewind Dale trilogy, because IMO the writing is not that good to begin with, but for the Dark Elf and Icewind Dale trilogy, at least the world building is nice and I like most of the protagonists.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Yeah, I remember this being the most tedious of all the Drizzt novels I re-read a few years back. It felt like "Wulfgar's groundhog day" for 90% of the book, and it killed my motivation to read on - I finished the Paths of Darkness trilogy, but even though I liked Sellswords 1/Servant of the Shard a lot better again, I moved on to other things afterwards.
That being said, I should have stopped after the Icewind Dale trilogy, because IMO the writing is not that good to begin with, but for the Dark Elf and Icewind Dale trilogy, at least the world building is nice and I like most of the protagonists.

The current trilogy started off as a hard read. Drizzt is an arsehole now who somehow forgot that his goddess is the whole reason he got his family back. Not to mention how super awesome the new good ice drow are. Once the story got rolling with the Menzo drow etc the trilogy got better. Though Drizzt still kind of has his head up his butt concerning his religion. It's a really weird direction for the character.

 

[Queer Venger]

He's not being a hero. Wulfgar is literally robbing people by the end of it. It's just him being a raging drunk for most of the novel. When it's not about a peasant girl catching the eye of a noble. Yawn.

By all means read it, but it's not a book with a hero on an adventure. It's a novel about a drunk and a peasant girl who don't meet until the end.

sounds like I'll pass then; thanks for sharing

 

[schneeland]

Yeah, that sounds like I'm not missing out on much. I think, when it comes to older RPG-related fantasy stuff, I'd rather re-read Gotrek and Felix (sadly only the first three have been reprinted in German so far, and the prices on the used market are pretty ridiculous).

 

[DarkCrisis]

Yeah, that sounds like I'm not missing out on much. I think, when it comes to older RPG-related fantasy stuff, I'd rather re-read Gotrek and Felix (sadly only the first three have been reprinted in German so far, and the prices on the used market are pretty ridiculous).

Its pretty much recapped in the first few chapters of the next book anyways. Though oddly somethings are different. Like in the SotW, Wulfgar doesn't want a certain character to come with him but that character pressured him into it. Yet in the next book it says he wanted them to come.

 

[Alexi Lyonhart]

The current trilogy started off as a hard read. Drizzt is an arsehole now who somehow forgot that his goddess is the whole reason he got his family back. Not to mention how super awesome the new good ice drow are. Once the story got rolling with the Menzo drow etc the trilogy got better. Though Drizzt still kind of has his head up his butt concerning his religion. It's a really weird direction for the character.

That's because RA is an ex-catholic and that's bleeding into his writing.

 

[Mirtek]

Well that and the village love triangle story that finally intersects with Wulfgar near the end just so he can find a reason not to be a raging arsehole.

And a couple of books later that concludes with him being an even bigger arsehole.