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Fantasy. Fiction. HTML:Now settled in Icewind Dale, Drizzt Do'Urden finds new friends, foes�and a young barbarian ward with the makings of a hero With his days in the Underdark far behind him, drow ranger Drizzt Do'Urden sets down roots in the windswept Ten-Towns of Icewind Dale. A cold and unforgiving place, Ten-Towns sits on the brink of a catastrophic war, threatened by the barbarian tribes of the north. It's in the midst of battle that a young barbarian named Wulfgar is captured and made the ward of Bruenor, a grizzled dwarf leader and a companion to Drizzt. With Drizzt's help, Wulfgar will grow from a feral child to a man with the heart of a dwarf, the instincts of a savage, and the soul of a hero. But it will take even more than that to defeat the corrupt wizard who wields the demonic power of Crenshininbon�the fabled Crystal Shard. The Crystal Shard is first book in the Icewind Dale Trilogy and the fourth book in the Legend of Drizzt series..… (more)
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Still, it was reasonably diverting, and I don't regret the fairly minimal time investment required to read it. There were a few surprises, and a bit of effective humor. And I cared at least a little bit about each of the four main characters (without ever particularly worrying that any of them wasn't going to best the peril du jour).
Having said all that, there were far too many awkward phrases, misused words, and just plain bad grammar (reread the short Prelude carefully and you'll find plenty of examples). Whomever copy-edited this book didn't do much of a job.
The story is
There's never really any doubt about how it is all going to play out. And although our heros do come up against vastly superior numbers, there lives are in little risk. A coupel of bruises and one scrape is about all. Huge numbers of minor characters get killed of course, but as there is absolutely no characterisation we don't care about them.
I was aprticularly impressed with the inversion of the old Light and Dark, Good and Evil theme. This was inventive and well handled - clear without being rubbed in. I quite like the jump straight in approach to a character's backstory. Although there are lots of tantalising hints about what has happened in the past, (and in fact an entire prequel trilogy) everythign we need to know is spelled out, and the rest is unimportant. A lto of the padding in normal fantasy book has been cut out. All the meetings between heros and various chiefs are gone. As is any tactical discussion, plans, thoughts, or pondering. In fact their is very little dialogue at all. Although this occasionally seems a bit abrupt it works well at keeping the pace moving along. The onyl descriptively heavy areas are the battles. Here at times it seems as if every sword stroke, axe parry and hammer thud are described. Fortunetly all the enemies are weakilings and quickly fall to our heros magical weapons. Although perhaps not quite as good as the early parts of Dragonlance, this does capture some of the feel of ADnD playing.
Very good for a debuet novel, and overall not a bad easy fantasy read.
I will give Salvatore credit for his sheer enthusiasm. It is evident that enjoyed himself in the writing.
If you're going to pick up the Drizzt Do'Urden books I'd recommend starting here rather than the Dark Elf trilogy. These come
Quick reads. Pretty much straight down the middle "sword and wizard" fantasy stuff here. What raises these above the crowd is the character Drizzt Do'Urden. He's got a little more depth than you're typical fantasy character, but I don't know if I'd go so far as to call him well rounded. But you'll like him.
He's batman (not the recent physcologicly tortued one, the *WHAM* *POW* one).
He's spiderman. Only he doesn't like spiders much.
He's John Reeese (from Person of Interest. You should watch that show. ya - I'm talking to you. Watch it. Stick it out through the first few episodes, it pays off).
He's going to make things work. He's got a plan, and when he doesn't have a plan he makes it up as he goes and it's going to turn out okay.
He's got a good heart and always tries to do the right thing. But sometimes when the bad guys hurt someone good he goes into a rage and kicks butt on a large scale.
Don't expect a character that would fit into The Game of Thrones. Expect a character that you could easily throw into a comic book.
And sometimes that's okay.
I first read RA Salvatore's The Crystal Shard many moons ago. The Drizzt novels helped me through a tough time of my life, and are still comfort books. This reread marks the 2000th book I've read since Jan 1993. I wanted
Drizzt, a rogue dark elf, has made his home in the wilds of Icewind Dale, one of the most remote places of Faerun. The drow ranger patrols the tundra, keeping vigilant watch over the scattering of towns along three lakes, despite being despised by many humans. He has friends, though, in Bruenor the dwarf and his adopted daughter Catti-bre, and in the handling known as Regis, Spokesman for the town of Lonelywood.
Drizzt happens to discover a plot by the tundra barbarians to attack the towns. He gives warning, and Regis and Bruenor are able to convince the towns to put aside their native rivalry and work together. They grudgingly do so and manage to defeat the barbarians, though the alliance falls apart quite literally as soon as the battle is won. One young barbarian, left for dead on the field of battle, is taken in by Bruenor to serve a five year and a day penance for the attack. Meanwhile… elsewhere… a failed mage apprentice named Alarm Kessel has come in possession of a powerful artifact known as Crenshinibon, that grants him the magic he'd always before failed to truly connect to.
As Wulfgar grows from boy to man under Bruenor’s tutelage, Kessel is gathering together an army of goblins, orcs, and other fell beasties. As Wulfgar’s time of penance is drawing to an end, Bruenor sends him to Drizzt to train in fighting and defense. Wulfgar quickly comes to respect Drizzt, and it is together they discover Kessel’s plot against the lake towns. As the towns once again try to come together for a common cause, Wulfgar departs, embarking on a mission that will ensure his people come to the aid of the townspeople. If he can succeed, that is.
I love this series! Like I mentioned earlier, it pulled me through some rough times and they are still comfort books. Drizzt is such an unusual character, and the challenges he must face are something that resonates deeply with me. That, and his morals. He stands firm by what he believes. My only qualm is the repetition of 'evil’ and 'mighty’ as descriptors, however, my brain now just supplies different words in their place.
🎻🎻🎻🎻🎻 Highly recommended if you love fantasy, or enjoy Dungeons & Dragons/ DragonLance/ Forgotten Realms.
I slogged down a bit on all the Ten Towns politics, history, descriptions, etc. There was a lot of bickering. It was part of the story, but I didn't care that much about it. I read and watch enough grisly things where I have to be pretty attached to a place before I'll worry about the welfare of the populace over that of a dragon or a demon. Honestly, I was more worried about Drizzt's cat.
The development of the other main characters, a barbarian, a halfling and a dwarf, was good and it was a kind reprieve that Drizzt had some loyal friends he didn't lose, for a change. We'll see how they all fare in the next adventure.
What's there to say? You *can* hear the dice rolling, but that's also
This was in actuality author R.A. Salvatore's first
Drizzt, and his bestie cat Guenhwyvar, seem to able to survive and thrive even with many of the surface races downright hostile to them.
He has met new friends that are pretty great: Regis & Wulfgar, Bruenor & Catti-brie are back and as fun as ever. The reader discovers early on that the enemy is not a who (it is but it isn't) but a what. And boy does that what wreak havoc... There are wizards, and giants, there are demons and trolls and more Orcs than you can shake a stick at. All ready and willing to get after the Ten-Towns of the humans and raze it to the ground so they, more accurately the wizard Akar Kessell can then take over. We've even been introduced to a future enemy!
While Salvatore struggled a bit with the truncating of the story lines, that doesn't mean that this lacked in drama. How can they get out of these sticky situations? Who is going to step up next and be the hero...or the villain. How will this resolve itself, can some of these characters do these things that is needed, will they even do anything?! Read book four of the "Legend of Drizzt: the Crystal Shard" and find out for yourself!