to r.a. salvatore fans...

[jollyninja]

how old are you? i'm not trying to be condacending or anything but halfway throught the last book i noticed how awful the characters were, and how contrived the plot felt. i then thought about the other books and realised that it was nothing new, nothing had changed but me and the ammount of non dnd related fantasy fiction i had read. many of my younger friends are eagerly anticipating the next salvatore release while the older ones either never got it in the first place or tired of it before me.

with that said i'd buy a new entreri book in a second.

 

[Chun-tzu]

I don't think this poll will tell you much. You're taking a sample from a generally older population. I doubt there are very many posters here under 12, period, and there are far more older posters than younger ones. So how are you going to be able to interpret your results?

 

[DonAdam]

I too was growing displeased with Salvatore. His older books are definitely light on character development.

But then I read Vector Prime, his Star Wars novel. Say what you will about the NJO, but the characterization in that book was far, far superior to any of the other Star Wars novels.

Then I picked up Spine of the World. Best Salvatore novel ever. Servant of the Shard was also excellent. IMHO, both featured very well developed characters. I wasn't interested in Wulfgar at all before I picked up SOTW, because he was always just there and the stuff in the Silent Blade with him was lame. But that book was a total turnaround.

Same story with Entreri and Jarlaxle (aka homo economicus). That book, as well, did a great deal to restore my faith in Salvatore.

Sea of Swords wasn't as good, but it had Drizzt in it. Drizzt, who used to be my favorite when I was 13, is no longer intriguing. Maybe the next trilogy will fix that.

I will say this though, for all RA's novels: the characterization is still better than Dragonlance, with the exception of Raistlin and Caramon. The characters in that series are as flat and one dimensional as they come (here come the flames).

 

[Crothian]

I did get tired of his books (as well as all of the books put out by TSR) in the early 90's. I enjoyed them when I was young and I think I just out grew them. Also, my friends who really never grew up always seemed to enjoy them (and still do) so that only strengthens my thought that they are liked by the younger people.

 

[Skarp Hedin]

I got tired of TSR published books a goodly while ago, and I don't think I've bought any novels that WotC has published. However, I voted on behalf of my brother, who neither plays D&D nor has ever been to this site, and he's 26. Last I was aware, Salvatore was still his favorite author.

 

[jester47]

I found the Icewind Dale Trilogy to be a pretty good read. There were a few places where he slipped, but all in all it was good. The Legacy books were abysmal. The silent blade was just boreing. Servant of the shard was great.

RA - Write more in first person. Write more about Artemis.

The interesting thing is that I find I like the "Deep thoughts by Drizzt Handy" more than I like the stories.

There are some good moments inthe books, but I think I can see the Editors saying things like "Get some comic relief in there, rewrite chapters 5 through 9 to imake the struggle more epic. etc.etc."

I will give orcs a try, but I dont know... His writing gets better when its DRizzt Light.

Aaron.

 

[John Crichton]

I am 25. Read the Dark Elf trilogy back in 1992. I really dig Salvatore's work. Every time a new book came out in the Drizzt/Companions of the Hall series I would polish off the whole book in a single day. I couldn't wait for the next entry. I loved his Cleric Quintet. Even read the Crimson Shadow trilogy.

So, that being said the more recent Drizzt books aren't up to par with the earlier material. The Silent Blade was good but not as good as any of the earlier books. Spine of the World was different, but boring. Sea of Swords was nice and a decent read but nothing special. Drizzt needs a jumpstart. Maybe the new trilogy will do the trick, I hope so.

Of the Drizzt books, the best were Homeland, Streams of Silver (first book with Entreri) and The Legacy. Servant of the Shard was great as well (more Entreri, please).

However, the series RAS is currently writing for Del Ray books, The Demon Wars is FAR better than any of his Drizzt books (with one exception). There are some obvious elements that he borrowed from himself for the world of Corona but the writing is character driven (very little combat) and well paced. I never thought I'd see a book by RAS that was over 500 pages and had only 2-3 fights in it.

If you liked and of Salvatore's Drizzt stories you owe it to yourself to check out the Demon War's Series. The best book is Mortalis, IMHO. The 7th book in the current arc is due out next year and I can't wait.

 

[CrusaderX]

But then I read Vector Prime, his Star Wars novel. Say what you will about the NJO, but the characterization in that book was far, far superior to any of the other Star Wars novels.

Can't agree there. IMO, the characterization from the likes of Mike Stackpole, Timothy Zahn, and Kathy Tyers is far, far superior than Salvatore's.

I thought Vector Prime was a thoroughly mediocre book.

 

[theT0rmented]

Can no longer read him

I used to like all his books... I read the Icewind Dale trilogy, the first trilogy (before Icewind Dale), the 4 books after that... but then I got sick of Drizzt and his band always getting saved in the nick of time... the clincher was when Cadderly saved the halfling (I forget which book). After 7 books or so all the people are the same? yeah right. So Wulfgar spent some time in a plane. Yeah well he came back. I dunno....

I am a huge fan of Dark Sun. (Yes I'm Gab, from athas.org). I like that major characters get killed. That the world is brutal.

I guess my tastes have changed as I get older. I simply adored RA's book as a teen. But now, I can't read that anymore...

 

[Bamphalas]

I read and totally enjoyed the Dark Elf Trilogy way back when. It is still part of my permanent collection. However, every subsequent attempt at reading other RA Salvatore books I have been left disappointed. They mostly feel contrived, with the occasional reference to things that feel like metagaming. So I am a fan of RA Salvatore's Dark Elf Trilogy, but not necessarily RA Salvatore himself.