RA Salvatore

[ZFR]

I'm thinking of reading his Trilogies, the ones that start with Icewind Dale Trilogy... So 2 questions:

1) In what order should they be read? I read that there are some spin-offs to the main books...

2) How good are they? I'm asking because I was slightly disappointed when I finally read LotR. They were good... but there was just too little witty dialogues and action that makes you want to continue reading and not put the book down ("The Hobbit" was an exception - it was slightly better in this regard). While everyone is praising Salvatore's works, are they similar to LotR?

For bonus points:
Any good place to buy them? I'll look through amazon and ebay, but if you could suggest a better online place that ships to Ireland (or a bookshop near Dublin for that matter) I'd be happy to hear about it.

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

I'm actually reading Road of the Patriarch (2006) now!

I'm a really big fan of his, so there may be some bias on my part.

I like everything I've read so far, which is most of what he's written. I would say he's not like Tolkien at all. He's more like Terry Brooks.
The reading level is easy, which is good for me.

You could start with the Icewind Dale series, or The Dark Elf Trilogy, if you want to get Drizzt's back story.

Legacy of the Drow is another good series and I definitely recommend The Cleric Quintet. Cadderly is the main character in this series and there is some cross over of the two series in later books.

The Sellswords series are two good books, which revolves around Artemis Entreri and Jarlaxle (another dark elf). Both are great characters.

Crimson Shadow is an entirely different series. I really enjoyed this one as well. It's lighter on the "magic" side, but not devoid of it.

I have the first book of the Saga of the First King series (The Highwayman (2004)). This book was excellent IMHO. A new book (The Ancient (2008)) was just released some months back and sounds very promising.

As you can see, I could go on!

As far as "where" to get them:
I always recommend the library first. Don't buy something you may not like. It should not be too hard to get one of the older books. Or, if you have flea markets, or used book stores, you may find some stuff there.

This site has all the books:
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/s/r-a-salvatore/

[ElfBane]

Salvatore writes professionally, 2-3 books a year. Almost exclusively fantasy fiction. They are paced well to keep things going(or he wouldn't be selling much).

Tolkien wrote literature, perhaps. The jury of History is still out. That being said, I agree that parts of the LotR moved glacially slow. I especially wanted to get through, and quickly, the SLOOOW part of the Two Towers...the part where Frodo, Sam and Gollum are making their way to Mordor.

Another Drizzt list..http://www.librarything.com/series/T...%20of%20Drizzt

[Cerek]

I highly recommend R.A. Salvatore books. His writing style does keep the story moving along very quickly.

Way back in 1989, I had just moved back to NC from FL. I was in-between jobs and looking for something to occupy my time (Al Gore hadn't invented the internet yet ). So I spent a lot of time at the local bookstore browsing through their fantasy section. I read several books set in the Forgotten Realms and - quite honostly - most of them were very forgettable. The ONE exception was a new book (at the time) called The Crystal Shard (1st book of the Icewind Dale trilogy). This book was so captivating that - for the first time ever - I asked the bookstore owner how I could contact the author. He got me an address a few days later and I sent a letter to R.A. Salvatore praising his book and characters. A couple of weeks later, I was shocked to find a handwritten letter in the mailbox from Salvatore. He thanked me for my comments and told me some of his thought process for continuing the Icewind Dale storyline and about this new series he was working on with a cleric as the main character. We corresponded for maybe a year (this was way before he became the mega-popular author he is now) and I think I got a total of 3-4 letters from him. I still have a couple of them.

All that aside, he does have a very good style and comes up with some of the most interesting characters I've ever read. As with all successful authors, some of his books tend to start following the same formula after awhile. I can fully understand, when you're writing 2-3 books per year, you're going to end up following a familiar pattern, whether deliberately or unintentionally. But I still highly recommend his books, especially the earlier works. They are all very good.

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

Please ignore Cerek's post!!

While he is exactly correct, I think he only posted because he noticed I passed him on the post count.

Ahh well, what I can say; I love 'im anyway!

Edit: ..plus, I'm better looking!

[Bungleau]

Both of you are having bad hair days...

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

Hey, I saw that!!

[Armen]

Originally Posted by ElfBane That being said, I agree that parts of the LotR moved glacially slow.

i'll agree on re-reading but first time round, definitely not (imo of course) - it's even easier to ff the film through the whining hike to the volcano of course . . .

OP: salvatore is nothing like LoTR (and not as 'good' of course) but they're very entertaining with enough depth for what they are

i'd start with the icewind dale ones (the first written too) - although some of the later written ones are earlier in drizzt's chronology they're also better written i think and the icewind dales (good as they are) might seem a bit lightweight in comparison

i've picked up a fair few other FR books at 2nd hand shops too and i've got to say the the salvatore ones are the best - a slight downside for me is that D&D game mechanics are sometimes a bit too foregrounded but for what they are that isn't really an issue i don't think

[ZFR]

Thanks all.

Since no definite answer was given to question 1. How's this:

1.Icewind Dale Trilogy
2.Dark Elf
3.Legacy of the Drow
4.Paths of Darkness
5.Hunter's Blade
6.Sellswords
7. Transitions (when the rest come out... so I'll probably start reading no. 8 on list first).
8.The Cleric Quintet.

Is this okay, or should I shift the Cleric's position? Does the Cleric follow the same storyline as the other ones? It was actually realeased early 1990s so a)will reading it first help in any way understanding any of the following ones better. and b) will reading any of the following ones first (i.e. in the order above) contain spoilers for the Cleric?

[ElfBane]

Originally Posted by ZFR Thanks all. Since no definite answer was given to question 1. How's this: 1.Icewind Dale Trilogy 2.Dark Elf 3.Legacy of the Drow 4.Paths of Darkness 5.Hunter's Blade 6.Sellswords 7. Transitions (when the rest come out... so I'll probably start reading no. 8 on list first). 8.The Cleric Quintet. Is this okay, or should I shift the Cleric's position? Does the Cleric follow the same storyline as the other ones? It was actually realeased early 1990s so a)will reading it first help in any way understanding any of the following ones better. and b) will reading any of the following ones first (i.e. in the order above) contain spoilers for the Cleric?

Life is about choice. While neither Variol nor I gave you a 'definitive' answer to your question of read order, we provided resources that gave publishing orders and 'in-story' chronological order. I prefer chronological order when trying to "catch up" on a series. Is that sufficient enough advice? My bill is in the mail.

I have just started the Cleric Quintet, so can't tell you about that one.