Canticle (Forgotten Realms: the Cleric Quintet) (Bk. 1) [Paperback]

R. A. Salvatore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1991 | Series: Forgotten Realms: the Cleric Quintet

High in the placid Snowflake Mountains lies a little-known conservatory for bards, priests, clerics, and others who wish to study and meditate. There, a scholar-priest named Cadderly must contain a malevolent, consuming essence that's been uncorked, before his brethren turn against him. From the author of the bestselling Halfing's Gem.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Tsr (December 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156078119X
• ISBN-13: 978-1560781196
• ASIN: 1560761199
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,093,287 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

R.A. Salvatore has spent so many years winding himself into fantasy worlds that he's still trying to figure out how to unwind. He is the author of more than forty novels and more than a dozen New York Times best sellers, including The Two Swords, which debuted at or near the top of many best seller lists.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Actually Quite Good, February 23, 2006

By 

Kyla - See all my reviews

This review is from: Canticle (Forgotten Realms) (Bk. 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

Going into Canticle, I had incredibly low expectations. I had been happily going along reading Salvatore's books about Drizzt, and occasionally checking online to see what book was next, when suddenly, there, between Siege of Darkness and Passage to Dawn I see the Cleric Quintet listed. So I was like "Oh great. Now I have to read five books about some stupid cleric. Yay."

How very wrong I was. Canticle was actually quite good. It certainly rivals many of the Drizzt books, and surpasses fair amount of them as well.

Cadderly (the Quintet's hero) is a nice change from Drizzt. Cadderly comes across as a legitimately good guy (without the hypocrisy that acompanies many fantasy heroes), and his relationship with Danica is refreshing. Unlike most romances in fantasy, there's no angsting over whether or not they love each other, they just do. Period.

The villains are somewhat stereotypical, with the whole "Let us release chaos on the world because our goddess Talona (who we don't even really seem to worship) says so", but they're still amusing, and there's a nice twist at the end.

I imagine that most of the people reading this will have read some of the Drizzt books, and are now questioning whether or not they want to read the Cleric Quintet. My suggestion is to do so. You may find yourself pleasantly surprised.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Great story by the master Of Fantasy, December 17, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Canticle (Forgotten Realms: the Cleric Quintet) (Bk. 1) (Paperback)

ever since I read "Homeland" I have been hooked to Salvtore's unique sense of writing. He is, in my opinion, among, if not the best, fantasy writer ever. I have been extremely pleased with his Dark Elf series (Although Passage To Dawn was a bit of a letdown, which was not his fault, as he was forced to write it in six months!). Canticle is another masterpiece of fantasy, and should not be overlooked. I first learned about Cadderly from "Passage To Dawn" and I bought and read the book in as quick as possible. This is a must-read. I have also been told by Salvatore that there will be another Drizzt novel, and he will have no time limit to write it in. I am extremely excited about this, and look forward to seeing an excerpt from it in his sequel to "The demon Awakens."

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting fantasy with an original setting, July 30, 2002

By 

Bruce H (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Canticle (Forgotten Realms) (Bk. 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

When I think of a fantasy setting, whether it be in the tradition of Tolkien's, "Lord of the Rings," (see my reviews of this excellent novel), Arthurian legend or a Dungeon's & Dragons (D&D) game, I think of underground catacombs, caves and other such places. The unexpected setting for this novel is a library, with a priest (cleric) as its protagonist.

I have played D&D for some time and I enjoy the interactive story-telling aspect of it. I was unsure how this element of the game would translate into a novel. While there was one or two plot devices in this novel that I didn't particularly like, I enjoyed it overall. This novel forms the first part of a five-part series. The main character, Cadderly, is a cleric of Deneir (god of knowledge and beauty) was abandoned as an orphan to live in the Edificant Library. He subsequently develops into an accomplished scholar (Salvatore never lets you forget it; he constantly refers to Cadderly as "the young scholar") at the Library.

While I recognized some of the plot right away, it was nonetheless an interesting. I'm reading this novel as part of the 1000 page "Cleric Quintet, Collector's Edition." The author's foreword is interesting; he discusses the meetings he had prior to writing to the book and of one interesting letter he received from a reader. The reader is a born-again Christian who congratulated Salvatore on his portrayal of Cadderly; the reader says that Cadderly's stuggle with religious duty and with doubt paralleled that of his one life.

As I continue to read through the series, the inner turmoil that affects Cadderly slowly becomes more apparent. He begins his life as a scholar who rarely ventured beyond the walls of the Library and slowly changes into an adventurer.

Before I read this novel, I asked some of more well read what sort of fantasy novels or authors they could recommend (while I have some familiarity with science fiction, history, religion and philosophy, the fantasy genre remains new to me), they mentioned Salvatore. This author is most famous for his "Dark Elf" trilogy, but I decided to read this somewhat lesser known work first.