/r/Fantasy Discussion Group discussion

Hi all,

Im about to read The Crystal Shard by RA Salvatore, Ive already read the first 3 in the Drizzt series and figured I would continue
Just interested to see others opinions on this (long) series and whether its worth my time?

Cheers

I found it fun when I first started reading fantasy, but I tired of it around book 12. I hear it picks up again in the later books, but I've read so much other stuff since then I doubt I would enjoy it much.

Rightio cheers, im about 30% thru Crystal Shard...see how we go

My boss is thru book 6 and so far has really enjoyed it. He likes the simple, fast paced, straightforward fantasy, ala Brooks or Eddings, so it's right up his alley.

All of TSRs "Forgotten Realms" novels were some of my favorite books when playing Dungeons and Dragons ruled my life.

The fact that they were all confined to the TSR D&D settings kind of tied the authors' creative hands and, eventually, they began to all read the same.

Ive read every single one. Was my first series I read so I may be a bit biased due to that, but I liked em all. The new Neverwinter series im not a big fan of though.

Am I the only one who felt that the series went down hill from book to book?

I thought Homeland was an amazing read. In fact I couldn't put it down and I burned through it in only a few days. I finished the Dark Elf Trilogy without ever getting the same feeling I got from homeland but I still thought they were good. Then read several others trying to go in order I think I got through the Icewind Dale and Crystal shard series and I honestly found each book at least a little less fulfilling than the last.

I think the characters are probably to blame. Salvatore has some awesome ideas the world is pretty cool too and that man can bang out books like no ones business but to me his characters seem very week.

Not only is Drizzt a good Drow but he is painfully good like it would physically harm him to do something less than good.

Then you have Wulfgar the classic 10 foot tall stacked barbarian... I know its fantasy but I just feel there is something cheap in size for size sake.

As far as I can tell his characters fit a pretty strict mold and the cookie cutter feel of it cheapened the experience for me.

I will give him his props though things like The portable wizard tower are awesome some of the scenes with the wizards were great. I would also rank Homeland as at least a personal top 25 read in the fantasy genre probably even higher for those who really love the Drizzt books.

OHH and can't forget Gwenavar. Another awesome touch that I nearly left out.

Some of them weren't as good as others and seemed to drag on a bit at times, but I wouldn't say they all got worse. I really liked some of the side series about other characters, like
The Cleric Quintet Collector's Edition and the one about Entreri and Jarlaxle.

Also, the characters at times seemed a bit too "super human".

I don't have a problem with the super human aspect when it's well founded.

In homeland they spent the entire book telling you exactly how and why Drizzt was a badass. The problem with this is as he gains experience he either has an easy time with a lot of dull fights or you have to right in enemies and allies that are just as bad ass.

The fact tat Drizzt was made into a world class fighter in the first book(chronologically) Strongly detracts from the Salvatores contributions to the realms as a whole. It seems to me that the Drizzt books were written with no sense of scale and that bothered me. When you have 20 books with 20 really bad ass bad guys giving the baddest fighter in the world a bad time you have a bad book.

Once again saved somewhat by offset by some really cool ideas and a half decent history. I guess I just prefer consistency over volume.

Joel wrote: "My boss is thru book 6 and so far has really enjoyed it. He likes the simple, fast paced, straightforward fantasy, ala Brooks or Eddings, so it's right up his alley."

This is much different than Brooks or Eddings, I honestly found Brooks to be super, super slow, and Eddings just totally different. They are more similar to Weeks or Gemmell. Although Gemmell is much better than Salvatore and and Weeks dialogue and romance detract much from his work, so I would rate Salvatore as better than Weeks.

James wrote: "I don't have a problem with the super human aspect when it's well founded.

In homeland they spent the entire book telling you exactly how and why Drizzt was a badass. The problem with this is as ..."

I read them in published order, which means I read the Crystal Shard series first, which I thought was ok, however the Dark Elf series, which was Salvatore's second trilogy, was far superior. The third leg in the story was pretty good too, which comprises books 6-10, however I personally started to get board after that. And I really didn't like the Cleric series.