i read the crystal shard first because my local library didn't have homeland

now i cant stop reading
and i'm biding my time until his next ones come out

I've read three of his series, but by far the books with jarlaxxle and Bregan D'aerthe top my favorites.

The way drow society works and lives is anotherone of my interests with his books and how the Matron mothers worked for and against each other...

Good reading.

I've read all of the Drizzt Saga, The Spider Queen stuff, and the Sellswords triliogy, but now that I've read Patriarch I'm done with him.

EDIT: I must agree with Kay, the Bregan D'Aerthe novels are the best ones by far, the intrcate society within Menzoberranzan is rather interesting, and Jarlaxle is a total badass.

ya got ta read the rest of the drizzt stuff it kept me on the edge till the very end

p.s. jarlaxxle is by far salvator's collest character
my friend calls him a drow pimp because of how he looks

I've also read his short stories...the Origin of Artemis Enteri (which I will get the name of the anthology it is in later) has to be the best.

You see what cause Artemis to be who he is and how he came about being thecold hard cruel killer he is.

I just finished reading the Servant of the Shard and absolutely LOVED how Jarlaxxle changed in the end. And how he used the legends of Drizzt to his advantage

Have you read teh Cleric Quintet?

Cannot believe I forgot the Cleric Quintet, Cadderly is one of the most intruiging characters in the Forgotten Realms. And Pikel is also a badass, possibly moreso than Jarlaxle.

i read the Quintet after the halflings gem
it is excilent
but pikle may be a badass but he is not as cool as jarlaxle
dwarf doodad is a realy good idea
hehehe

Naw, Jarlaxle, as cool as he is, is not as awesome as Pikel.

And Drizzt becomes an emo bitch in the last few books. Very disappointing =/

Drizzt and Wulfgar, that's why I'm just about done with Salvatore.

breunor should smack there heads together
so they can start being cool again

I think they're beyond saving, which is why Bob's moved on to Artemis and Jarlaxle.

When they first came out, pretty good stuff. I agree that Drizzt needs a good slap now along with Wulfgar tho.

I think Salvatore got bored with the "good" Drizzt.
Then again, he also likes to put a lot of "Questions" into his traditions of drow society.

When at least 2 of the 3rd born sons that are supposed to be killed survive makes you wonder.

He's a great writer, but he needs to stop with the Drizzt series. Kill Cattie-brie, Wulfgar, and Breunor. Let Drizzt have his psycho emo rampage, die, and continue onwards. The whole thing with Drizzt has gotten stale, and I've heard damn near enough about Twinkle for one lifetime. The Hunter's Blade series is just pissing me off to no end, and this whole "They're dead! No wait, they aren't dead." Shit is getting annoying.

On the other hand, War of the Spider Queen and pretty much any Underdark series is fantastic. The Drow are just too awesome.

Yeah the whole thing with Drizzt is dead no he isn't.....ungh

But I really like his short stories they amount to some of his best works

I think he really needs to do another Cadderly series, or even come up with some new characters and start fresh.

i read The Demon Awakens

it was really good

I read his Icewind Dale series (or whatever it was called) and realzed something amazing...it was written 50 YEARS EARLIER and was called "The Fellowship of the Ring." R.A. Salvatore is a talentless hack whose books are crushingly boring once you realize the good guys will never lose. Who cares if one dies, they will just rez him so no biggie.

LAME.

ouch that is a bit rough don't you think?

It really is, most fantasy novels are like that, you might as well sit back and enjoy it, or just sit down and shut up. Read it for the writing, its a lot better than most of the stuff out there.

I'd say that borders on insulting even though it's not insulting a forum member.

interesting. the demon awakens is nothing like this, as several main characters die and arent rezzed

It's plagiarism, no matter how well-written. It is no different from the time Poppy Z. Brite rewrote an H.P. Lovecraft story almost WORD FOR WORD but use modern references, so it was okay by not only her publisher, but by the reading public in general.

The story I am referring to is in her anthology "Swamp Foetus" and it's about two guys in Louisiana. Don't remember the name, but it's not hard to find and just as easy to prove to be plagiarism.

I think you need to go and re-read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. The plots are completely different, but that's your opinion.

Quinn, tone it done, your posts are bordering on being inflamatory and are now derailing a topic that managed to stay on topic for almost a page. You're entitled to your own opinions but not to be an ass about it or make accusations. I'm not editing posts yet but I will if you keep it up.

You know, I actually found: The Legacy quite an entertaining read...but I will always love Crystal Shard, Streams of Silver and Halfling's Gem.

The best thing about Salvatore's ice wind dale stories is the comfortable, exciting read, with a familiar style of characters that are detailed and easy to recognize.
The artwork shows that the artist really followed the author's concepts. Quinn prolly meant just the Fellowship of the Ring story, that one does kinda follow along with what Salvatore's story was about.
But Kayhynn- you are Totally right, the sad lonely drow goes all kinds of emo- did you see it coming? Did you see the secondary characters lose interest and go on with (parts) of their lives?
Honestly, I just want to get in there and shake him up!

Prediction: Next Drizzt book has him slitting his wrists with Icingdeath, while that one elf chick cries over her dead husband.


I want more Cadderly.

I'd like to see more Cadderly as well.

See, its funny you say that Quinn, because hey... if you root around a bit, you notice that *Gasp* there are quite a few novel series out there where you get a rag-tag group goin out to go better/save the world and have their world views and attitudes changed because of their interactions. Now i can't make any assumptions out of the Poppy Z. Brite reference, trying to say that LotR and Icewind Dale is the same story with slight modifications is a little... presumptuous. Yes, the basic -- BASIC -- novel skeleton is there, but its there in plenty of other stories as well. Same as the basic "lonely girl meets guy who is completely opposite her in every way and then they fight for about 400 pages then have a cheesy romance scene" skeleton that many romance writers use. Or the "OMG advanced alien race has made contact and they're kicking our butts so our plucky black sheep of a hero has to overcome the doubts of many to kick butt and win the girl's heart" skeleton.

I used to love his books. Spider Queen series is by far the best, probably since he didn't actually "write" it. Luckily that series didn't use the work Stoic to describe everything. Drizzt is now an emo. Entreri's starting to get a "good" side (which royally pisses me off, he was my favorite character before Patriarch). DooDad makes me want to gouge my eyes out....

His next novel should kill Drizzt already. My prediction is to how his rough draft looks.

Drizzt stoically gets his stoic ass kicked by the silent and stoic Entreri. Drizzt then stoically reflects on his life and laments about his dark heritage and how he's become alone and emo with some elf when he's always longed for Cattie-Brie. Entreri uses his lavishly jeweled dagger to stoically drain the life Drizzt, who stoically accepts his fate. After putting the lamenting, stoic, bitch out of his misery, Enteri realizes that he was wrong for harboring hatred for his nemesis all these years. He then sits down and stoically plays his flute to lament over his wrongdoings.


That's just the rough draft.....


But I will end up buying the next book, hoping Drizzt flips out and starts acting all drowlike or dies.

What really need to happen is Jarlaxle needs to just say "fuck this" leave Entreri, go find Cadderly then have Danica beat the shit out of Drizzit until he comes back to his senses.

I would be down with that too. Danica is awesome. Hell, I like monks. You may have to refresh my memory if I'm incorrect, but I thought that at the end of Patriarch Entreri was alone and Jarlaxle was back in the Underdark? I may be blocking out a lot of that book because I watched my favorite cold-blooded killer actually start to have feelings. It's never good to have your villains turn into carebears.

I do need to read the Cleric Quintet sometime. Cadderly and Danica were awesome in the brief roles they had in the Icewind Dale Trilogy, but I was always a little leery because of Pikel. He's the Jar-Jar of the Forgotten Realms.

You're kidding right? Pikel is the single best character Bob has created.

As to the Jarlaxle question, Entreri had left to go to Calimport, leaving Jarlaxle standing there with Athrogate, who is the Jar-Jar of the Forgotten Realms.

Yeah, Athrogate is pretty bothersome. Pikel isn't that bad, I guess. But the whole "doo dad" is freaking annoying. It's right up there with Jar-Jar's "meesa".

Oh I'm having fun with the stories, but even Danica the Awesum has been around long enough for a 4 year old to have been named after her. What is this world coming to?!
My friends are such geeks!

oh wait..damn .. yeah, that pretty much means Ima geek too. blah

I actually know a couple Danicas, they're as old as I am which means they were named that before the Cleric Quintet, was written...

Yep. I know at least two Danica's too.

Fellowship of the Ring: A couple humans, an Elf, some halflings venture into an ancient, abandoned, and forgotten Dwarven city deep underground. Therein they find all the Dwarves dead, and a diary chronicling the last days of the city where it is revealed that the Dwarves tunneled too deep and awoke an ancient evil monster. The party finds mithril armor and the Dwarf has a good cry over his dead ancestors before the party is attacked by goblins, the culmination of which is a climactic battle with the ancient evil monster and the apparent death of one of the party as he plunges after the monster into a seemingly endless chasm.

Icewind Dale: A couple humans, a halfling, and a dark elf venture into an ancient, abandoned, and forgotten Dwaven city deep underground. Therein they find all the Dwarves dead, and a diary chronicling the last days of the city where it is revealed that the Dwarves tunnelled too deep and awoke an ancient evil monster. The party finds mithril armor and the Dwarf has a good cry over his dead ancestors before the party is attacked ,by goblins? The culmination of the battle is when one of the party plunges into a seemingly endless abyss with the ancient monster.

Nope, this is just your run of the mill story. Formulaic, but nothing special...nothing overly familiar. I apologize for besmirching Mr. Salvatore by implying that he is a talentless hack who just rewrote one story because it's clear now that I was mistaken and there are only very cosmetic similarities. I think my proffessors at the University of Washington would likely agree that this is all sheer coincidence and not unusual at all.

I have enjoyed most of Salvatore's works concerning the Dark Elves and Drizz't in particular. The last two trilogies have been lackluster and Drizz't and company have lost a lot of their edge. While they were able to throw the overwhelming hordes of humanoids back before, now they struggle as if they've forgotten how to fight and how to use their magical weapons to good effect. While this exhibits more realism in his writings, Salvatore set up his characters to be exceptional warriors, and despite all of their struggles and hardships, they are now weaker and wearier for their experiences. Wearier I could believe. Weaker, though... He's undermining the characters he wrote many novels ago.

As for the Sellswords Trilogy, I couldn't get past the fragmented writing of Patriarch to even finish it. I think he needs something more than converting bad guys to good to revitalize my interest in his works. While none of his works were ever "the best thing to ever come out in print", they were brain-candy; fun to read. Your plots and characters can have depth while still being fun to read... He's just not pulling it off. I hope he goes back soon to what was once something entertaining to read.

I agree that Salvatore is talentless, but it is only realistic to expect all new work to be a variation on an old theme. Even the LotR was written to pattern European mythology. In fact, Tolkein was, in a way, trying to provide England with the mythology it might have had had it not been conquered several times over.
Of course, 'variation' was the key word in that first sentence. I wouldn't expect an author to paste new characters on the same plotline as a work written previously, and then not tell us about it. It would have been different if he were reworking and old tale, and were upfront about it, but you would have to agree that he is just about the money, like Goodkind.

And Jimmy(?) is right that it is all about the writing, I just disagree when he implies that Salvatore is a gifted author. His style of narration is much too simplistic for me, and the dialogue doesn't really pull me in. I read the Icewind dale trilogy, and if I hadn't gotten it as a gift in a set, I would never have gotten further than the first installment. The writing is passable, but it doesn't transport me to somewhere else, which is what I expect of a truly good author.

I got a kick out of the Woods Out Back series. First two books were the best of the lot. I wanted to slap the guy -- Gary, was it? -- for moaning over his dad dying for so long and pining for the other world because of it in the last one. But the first two were highly entertaining.

Great literature? Naw. But a good way to blow a few hours.

And I liked the Homeland (?) series better than Icewind Dale. Bruenor was way cool, but nothing beats a bunch of crazy women in charge of the world. The darker side of ambition got nothin on a group of women with goddess power.

That's the point of it all. We don't read only the best of literature. We read whatever we like to or need to read. If we were to read only the best of literature, that body of works would be very small indeed, and we'd find ways to nitpick at those stories until we either could no longer agree on what belonged in that category, or people only read one thing ever. What a dreary life that would be. A book doesn't have to be the best work out there so long as it either entertains or gets you to think. People hold Tolkien up to be one of the best fantasy writers of all time. Tolkien was influenced by the events and ideas of World War I and II, C. S. Lewis, Augustinian, nordic mythology (particularly the valkyries) and other medieval works. Does that mean that since it didn't all come from his brain that he's a talentless hack? World of Warcraft is largely based on Tolkien's works, so does that make Blizzard a group of talentless hacks? Not every imaginative work can be great, and not every imaginative work must be to be appreciated.

Sure, I agree. As long as you like it, read it.
Salvatore is neither good nor bad because he reused old ideas, but because of the way he writes. Personally I don't like the way he writes. People have said the same about Jaqueline Carey, whom I love. It is a matter of opinion.

Yess! Browsing these forums is exactly like that - if we were only allowed to like what the mods or other forum members said they liked, how dull, how uninspiring.
I have seen Great flurries of discussion ( about silly issues too, sure ) because both types of opinions were allowed to be expressed.
Hazzuh~ Caloo calay!
I have a question for Salvatore Fans, I might have missed the answer previously :

Not only Who is your fave charactor in any of the stories, but why?

Is the type someone you'd like to play in RP?
or just have as background image on your desktop?

I think I've only read his Drizzit series....

But then again if there was ever a vote I would totally nominate Drizzit for sainthood.

Also have always wanted to give that poor Delf a hug....

I've only read his first Demonwar books and a couple of the Star Wars ones he has done. Need to get 'round to reading more of his work, definetly.

I enjoy reading Salvatore from time to time, it's a great way to dive back into reading when I've been avoiding it. I got into the series when I found the Dark Elf Trilogy in my boyfriend's room and decided to read it out of boredom (glad I did). Later, I went on to read more of the Drizzt books, and the Cleric Quintet as well. I'd have to say that I prefer the Cleric Quintet over Drizzt, but either is good :-p

About a year ago I went to one of R.A.'s book signings. It was very interesting to hear about how he got into fantasy writing. My favorite 'behind the scene' character story of his, I think, is that of Pikel. He's basically in there just to spite the editors XD It was also interesting to find out that he plays MMO's, such as Everquest and World of Warcraft.

Anyway, I'm exhausted and need some sleep >.<

Well i have read all the Forgotten Realms stuff he has done, and i must say that if you are measuring his work by Icewind Dale only the you have the short end of the stick. I have to say i enjoy his books a great deal.

As to who my favorite character is i have to say i can't choose between the two Brothers Bouldershoulder. But then again they are almost one character instead of two.

I've been thinking about branching out from dragonlance and into forgotten realms for awhile but i just can't decide since i've heard both sides were you got the better drizzit and pikel fans but then you got the repetitiveness and emo on the other side anyone got an opinion on if i should or not?