Drizz’t Du’orden. Sure, a cool character twenty years ago, but like a lot of people I’m pretty Drowed-out these days. Hell, a player in my current campaign and his Drow character have me pretty much never wanting to see or hear of another Drow ever again. In the 80’s they were one of my fave species, but nowadays blah.
So the fact that I have been reading a book about D&D in general, much less one with a Drow as the main character, is pretty WTF. Much as I love the game, I never had a desire to read a D&D based novel.
From what I understand, R. Salvatore created Drizzt at the last minute, when his publisher asked that he include a backup character to the ones already created. So comes a Drow, not just a good and kind one, but a ranger no less. Drizz’t lives in the snowy North, fighting Yeti and Frost Giants and generally helping out the ungrateful humans who live in the snowy hell. Other main characters include a dwarf, a young barbarian Drizz’t trains in combat, and a female human child raised by the dwarves (that I guess the Drow gets to nail sometime later when she hits that age, or a decent mirkin is found for her).
I’m not a huge reader of this kind of stuff, but I can tell it is very basic writing and very basic storytelling. But the big draw for me is the D&D references. It’s fun to hear about encounters with Verbeeg, frost giants, and white dragons. This is the same reason I enjoy the Baldur’s Gate video games; you get to fight rust monsters and beholders and gnolls and all that good stuff. If it is something out of Monster Manual 1 & 2, then consider me tickled pink.
I picked this thick book up at the Socal Minicon as a freebie earlier this year during the summer. I’m only a third of the way or so through it, so that gives you an idea of the level of thrill I get out of it. Let’s put it this way, yesterday I read almost 100 pages of a book called “Blood Meridian” (by the author of “No Country for Old Men), something it took me months to do with Icewind. So there, that’s my review. I get some enjoyment out of the D&D references as I said, but it is unlikely that I will finish this book. Especially right now when I have about three other books I am more excited about and trying to pound through. But when I feel like some light, Jr. High School level reading about creatures out of D&D, I can always grab up Icewind Dale. It’s in the back of my Jeep…waiting for me to finish the others.
Should I have titles this post "Icewind Fail?" Yeah, that would have been funny...
I just saw this at the library on Saturday and checked it out. I've never read anything with Drizzt D'urden (or however it is spelled) and was curious, although I remember reading and hating some Forgotten Realms books back in college.
ReplyDeleteIt'll be a change from the Gene Wolfe stuff I've been reading recently.
I expect this experiment will be a dismal failure.
BTW, Blood Meridian is my favorite novel.
I played a Drow one game but It never really took my interest.
ReplyDeleteAlternating Blood Meridian with Icewind Dale is like following a nice meal with a big glass of bum sweat.
ReplyDeleteHeh, I read the Icewind Dale books when I was 13 or so, and they were fine. Re-reading them now... Hell, even RA's new one is no great shakes.
ReplyDeletehttp://kootenaygamer.blogspot.com/2010/10/now-i-understand-book-review.html
He hasn't exactly matured as a writer. Maybe you'd read them so you understood the basics of the Drizzt phenomena, but great literature, it's not.
Of course, I'd rather be forced to chain-read everything RA has ever written than read anything by Goodkind ever again.
Here's the thing: you kind of HAVE to read these when your 10-13 to get the most enjoyment out of them. They're adolescent adventure stories, and I think they hold up on that level. The writing is elementary, there are no hidden depths, but if you want to read about actual D&D this is about the best there is.
ReplyDeletePat: Getting a book free makes it much more exciting to read for me! Besides my book exchange copy of Icewine Dale, I am also reading Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest, Blood Meridian, and Adam Carolla's new book - all from the Santa Monica Library. I was on what I thought would be long waiting lists for these, and they all freed up at the same time.
ReplyDeleteScott: two completley different types of reads no doubt. You never get to see a bush decorated with dead babies in any book that has a goblin in it.
Wickedmurph: last year I picked up a cheap (and mint cond.) copy of a big Drizzt graphic novel omnibus. It covered his Underdark days. It was pretty good, so that gave me some insight into these beloved Forgotten Realms characters, and hence a little bit of interest.
Nathan: I think one great thing about the writing is that it doesn't come off pretentious which this kind of stuff easily could do. It well depicts high level D&D characters in high fantasy adventure and light reading isn't always a bad thing I guess.
Thrilled to see you've definitely got some reading taste. Blood Meridian is probably one of the greatest American novels of the 20th century.
ReplyDeleteSalvatore's problems are that his writing is very simplistic and too heavily influenced by Tolkien. I read The Icewind Dale Trilogy just to say I did so. It would have been a better read in junior high. Unlike Weis & Hickman, who wrote D&D mechanics into a game pretty well, I think, Salvatore's writing is crippled by playing out all of the D&D mechanics in his story.
Drizzt won't touch her unless the mirkin found for her is of decent quality.
ReplyDeleteDaveC: I think I would have had more fun reading this in Jr. High, as opposed to struggling with some of the more boring parts of LOTR (such as the council of Elrond, the slogging of Sam and Fro through swamps, etc.).
ReplyDelete1D30: Now that is some good D&D humor! I'm going to guess that decent-masterwork mirkin is going to come from only the finest dwarven beard material (so it gets a decent item saving throw)!