R.A. Salvatore is the man!!!!!!!

[supercowman]

R.A. SAlvatore is known best probably for creating Drizzt Do'Urden one of my favorite charcters in all fantasy novels and of all Faerun. Drizzt is a beast, he is awesome. The writors works are as good if not better than Lord of The Rings and I could quote every line from those books. but the Dark Elf Trilogy has captured me and won't let me go, it's one of the greatest literay works of all time. the philosophy and goodness of drizzt and montolio, the evil of the drow, the friendship of Catti-Brie, Wulfgar, Regis, and Bruenor, creates an incredible enviroment.

[Harkoliar]

i agree.. and also i agree this is in the books forum . so just dont be surprised if your thread was moved there.

have you read the latest one of drizzt adventures? its the one where he is fighting 1000orcs or so

[Timber Loftis]

Yep. Books and movies forum.

Nice that you like him supercowman, but I consider him to be a hack. He created some good characters and then told some interesting tales, but he can't resist the Monty Haul urge. He can't kill his characters, and worse, he kills them and then brings them back -- over and over and over. It's worse than Days of Our Lives with him.

Plus, his style is not... well, it's not the grand style of Tolkein nor the involved realistic style of GRR Martin. Rather, he writes rather mundane narratives that any college student could hack up.

He also has a problem developing dynamic characters, though he has come a long way in this regard, particularly with Artemis and Drizzt. Now, don't get me wrong, the recent stuff with Artemis was entertaining, but was crappy writing for other reasons.

And, you can have my copy of that piece of crap sea of swords if you like. It still smells like urine because I thought it was so bad I took a leak on it.

[Harkoliar]

is it that bad timber? thanks for the warning.. you just saved me 30AUD

[Pirengle]

Originally posted by Timber Loftis: And, you can have my copy of that piece of crap sea of swords if you like. It still smells like urine because I thought it was so bad I took a leak on it.

I wouldn't be that harsh, Timber.

I'd gladly bear Salvatore's children. He writes neat stuff, and pretty good action sequences. However, he's a writer that won the market not by talent, but persistence. He cranks out a LOT of stuff and writes for several series, not just Forgotten Wars. It's the quantity that gets him published, not the quality.

[Memnoch]

Books and movies it is, then.

[Morgeruat]

Originally posted by Timber Loftis: Yep. Books and movies forum. Nice that you like him supercowman, but I consider him to be a hack. He created some good characters and then told some interesting tales, but he can't resist the Monty Haul urge. He can't kill his characters, and worse, he kills them and then brings them back -- over and over and over. It's worse than Days of Our Lives with him. Plus, his style is not... well, it's not the grand style of Tolkein nor the involved realistic style of GRR Martin. Rather, he writes rather mundane narratives that any college student could hack up. He also has a problem developing dynamic characters, though he has come a long way in this regard, particularly with Artemis and Drizzt. Now, don't get me wrong, the recent stuff with Artemis was entertaining, but was crappy writing for other reasons. And, you can have my copy of that piece of crap sea of swords if you like. It still smells like urine because I thought it was so bad I took a leak on it.

I agree with most of this, except that his worst book was Spine of the World, not Sea of Swords, after reading some of the thieves world antholgies I can see where he tried to pull Morricks personality from, and it doesn't work with his writing style, dark brooding literature isn't his strongpoint, neither is sublty, but for a light read with high fantasy all the way, he's a pretty decent read, and definitely a step or five above greenwood.

(Read the Cleric Quintet eventually, preferably before you get to the books with cadderly cameo's - the cameo's really pissed me off because it trivializes the ending of the cleric quintet, but that's just my opinion)

[Sythe]

For me I actually thought the Cleric Quintent and Sea of Swords was the absoloute WORST!.Salvatores books started to go down after he wrote Icewind Dale Trilogy (IWD was the best of all!) .

[Darkman]

***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?

[The Fallen One]

Originally posted by Harkoliar: ...have you read the latest one of drizzt adventures? its the one where he is fighting 1000orcs or so

i think salvatore's newest book is called "The Lone Drow"

EDIT: darkman, the newest book is the book i mentioned aboev and i think it came a few weeks ago. after that book, i think its the two swords ( sequel to 1000 Orcs and The lone drow) is comin out in October 2004

[ 02-26-2004, 04:55 PM: Message edited by: The Fallen One ]