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Darkman · 02-26-2004, 04:47 PM

***WARNING: Do not read if you are overly sensitive to criticism. This review of Salvatore may ruin future readings of his novels***
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I'm a bit of a Salvatore fan as well. He lured me in with the Icewind Dale Trilogy and captured my heart with the Dark Elf books - or so I thought. I've kept on reading all his follow-up Drizzt books since then and I seem to be more disappointed with each one. After you read enough of Salvatore's work you realize how cookie-cutter and predictable his novels are. While some of his characters are interesting on the surface, they have no real depth and the few character changes they go through are either superficial or over-written.

As Mogeraut mentioned earlier, one of Salvatore's biggest weakness may be his lack of subtlety. I don't know who he thinks his audience is, but his books are so dumbed down they make Dragonlance look like college level material. Even when Salvatore occaisionally breaks out of his standard mold, he ruins it by over-explaining what emotions the reader should be feeling at that particular moment in the story. What a mood breaker. It's hard to take dramatic events seriously when they are written in such a childish fashion.

My biggest complaint though, is how Salvatore likes to include moral undertones (if you could call them that) throughout his novels. It's not necessarily a bad idea in general, but with Salvatore's writing techniques, it just serves to chafe the reader over time. He is incapable of subtley tying in a moral lesson into a series of events; instead, he hits you over the head with it. This style worked fine in the Dark Elf Trilogy where most of the moral crap involved interesting background into Drow life. However, in the follow-up books, the moral lessons start to become ridiculously absurd and boring to boot. The Spine of the Wolrd has to be more of the worst books I've read. It was ridiculouos, absurd, and boring - not a good combination.

So, I went from loving Salvatore to despising him. I don't think I could enjoy rereading Icewind Dale or Dark Elf after what I've been through in the other Drizzt books. It has become clear (at least to me) how superficial each of the main characters are. It's too bad because this series of books really could have been special. I would love to see how a real Drow elf with a bit of a moral conscience would interact with the surface world of Faerun. Instead I got a damned paladin in an elf suit with a bunch of stereotypical companions. [img]graemlins/1disgust.gif[/img]

So when does the next Drizzt book come out?

02-26-2004, 04:47 PM	#9
Darkman Avatar Join Date: July 11, 2001 Location: Austin, Texas Age: 44 Posts: 525	*WARNING: Do not read if you are overly sensitive to criticism. This review of Salvatore may ruin future readings of his novels* - - - - - I'm a bit of a Salvatore fan as well. He lured me in with the Icewind Dale Trilogy and captured my heart with the Dark Elf books - or so I thought. I've kept on reading all his follow-up Drizzt books since then and I seem to be more disappointed with each one. After you read enough of Salvatore's work you realize how cookie-cutter and predictable his novels are. While some of his characters are interesting on the surface, they have no real depth and the few character changes they go through are either superficial or over-written. As Mogeraut mentioned earlier, one of Salvatore's biggest weakness may be his lack of subtlety. I don't know who he thinks his audience is, but his books are so dumbed down they make Dragonlance look like college level material. Even when Salvatore occaisionally breaks out of his standard mold, he ruins it by over-explaining what emotions the reader should be feeling at that particular moment in the story. What a mood breaker. It's hard to take dramatic events seriously when they are written in such a childish fashion. My biggest complaint though, is how Salvatore likes to include moral undertones (if you could call them that) throughout his novels. It's not necessarily a bad idea in general, but with Salvatore's writing techniques, it just serves to chafe the reader over time. He is incapable of subtley tying in a moral lesson into a series of events; instead, he hits you over the head with it. This style worked fine in the Dark Elf Trilogy where most of the moral crap involved interesting background into Drow life. However, in the follow-up books, the moral lessons start to become ridiculously absurd and boring to boot. The Spine of the Wolrd has to be more of the worst books I've read. It was ridiculouos, absurd, and boring - not a good combination. So, I went from loving Salvatore to despising him. I don't think I could enjoy rereading Icewind Dale or Dark Elf after what I've been through in the other Drizzt books. It has become clear (at least to me) how superficial each of the main characters are. It's too bad because this series of books really could have been special. I would love to see how a real Drow elf with a bit of a moral conscience would interact with the surface world of Faerun. Instead I got a damned paladin in an elf suit with a bunch of stereotypical companions. [img]graemlins/1disgust.gif[/img] So when does the next Drizzt book come out? __________________ There more of it there is,<br />The less you see.