Customer Reviews

Daughter of the Drow (Forgotten Realms: Starlight and Shadows, Book 1)

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Without taking anything away from RA, (without whom I probably wouldn't have heard about the FR world) I would like say how refreshing it is to see a complex drow. While Drizzt is definitely thoughtful and easy to love, he always does the right thing. Lireal however, does not reject everything Drow, and this leads to an interesting character mesh.

As Lireal is chased out of Menzo, she discovers how many options there truly are in Toril. She travels with a virtous human warrior and the romance that develops between them is not only free from the moral condescension of Drizzt's love life, but filled with doubt and uncertainty. By the end of the book I found myself really rooting for the two to get together.

The two main characters themselves were great. I really cared about them. As mentioned above, Lireal doesn't always do the right thing. She uses her looks to her advantage, she doesn't reject Lolth, she's not above kicking men in the groin.

On the other hand she isn't evil. You can follow her internal debates as her Menzo heritage tells her to handle a situation one way, but some inner feeling disagrees. Overall she comes across as a fun-loving adventure seeker who doesn't know any better. Fyodor (her traveling buddy) is constantly trying to reform her, but reserves the moral judgements that he could have applied.

This book is great. The characters, their interaction, the alternate Drow gods introduced, this was a fine work by Elaine Cunningham and the next book "Tangled Webs" is a great follow-up so you don't have to worry about being left hanging.

I love Drizzt and I wish the humans of Earth were all like him. I was very happy with this book. It takes us into the city of menzo and lets us know what happen after the drow war. For i as was wondering about that after i finshed R.A. Salvatore's books. I found that reading both of Elaine's books is important to understand the whole story.For true D&D fans know that there are good Drow as well as evil just like all other races. I hope that Drizzt and Liriel meet each other and become friends. Then Drizzt will know that he is not alone. That is what is so wonderful about TSR books, all the races blend together to make one whole adventure. I have read every single book of the forgotten realms and other worlds so i know it is true. If you love Drow and adventure then read Elaine's 2 novels of the underdark.

"Daughter of the Drow" is a book that can stand on its own. No, it isn't in the tradition of R. A. Salvatore; the drow are portrayed differently, and even Menzoberranzan seems to have changed. But all of this is readily explainable; Elaine Cunningham's book is set in a time when Menzoberranzan itself is going through change, and the character of the book is a female drow mage. If the character of Liriel Baenre had been modeled on R. A. Salvatore's Drizzt, it would have been much less enjoyable, not to mention somewhat false. I thought this book was fascinating for portraying another side of the drow (the description of the nedeirra dance is particularly good), for the character of Liriel and the way she managed to be both evil and humorous at the same time, and for the character of Fyodor. Finally, two characters in fantasy who are going on a quest to solve a problem for themselves, not to save the world! That was a wonderfully refreshing idea. In short, this is a book that is different from the "traditional" books about the drow. Reader expectations, not the writing, are what would drag it down.

Liriel gave me a different perspective on the Underdark. While Drizzt struggles against the ways of his people with a passion, Liriel is trying to have the best of both worlds, in true Drow fashion. She's not really good, like Drizzt, or really evil, the way most Drow are depicted. She sits on the fence, almost true neutral. She does what's good for her, and you see that quite a bit in the novel. To put nicely, she's very "practical". To be blunt she's a bit of a brat. The only complaint I have about the book is that it makes the killing and intrigue you expect a little too light. Salvatore's Underdark was extremely tense and the Drow seem paranoid in turns. In DOTD, especially at the start of the book, it seems like good old fashioned high society backstabbing and squabbling. The fighting and killing described in the book left me kinda cold. Since they are Drow, maybe that was the intent... The positive part of this is that you see some of the drow culture come out. I didn't think Drow dressed up and went out to party until I read this book. They almost seem like they have...fun. The other Drow dieties thrown in are a nice touch, and I would like to see more of that in other novels. The book doesn't run quite as smoothly as the Dark Elf Trilogy did, but it's a good read if you want more Underdark.

I love this book. I feel with the characters. I even find the bad guys interesting (I usually get bored with the vilians).

Maybe I like this better than others because I'm not a Salvatore fan. Only read the Icewind Dale trilogy, and wasn't impressed at all.

DotD has everything to make it great. It worked for me. I loved the way teh drow were. "Without joy." Striving for, not knowing it didn't exist. Liriel's first understanding of friendship was great. She never imagined a situation like that, a state of being like that, possible. To her frienship was hanging out with someone until they tried to kill her.

Yes, she was a spoiled brat. She was meant to be. Nobility and honor were things she had to learn. So was the reality of consequences for actions. She had to grow up. By the end of Tangled Webs, we believe she's done it well.

I enjoyed Cunningham's portrayal of Liriel and Fyodor, two radically different characters brought together by destiny. Rarely in fantasy novels do characters ask themselves basic questions about their own evolving worldviews, and it is a treat when someone creates fiction with that level of depth.

The cross Cunningham bears is that anything about the Drow will always be compared to Salvatore, which really isn't fair to Cunningham but such are the travails of writing about the same topic as one of the greats. Her style is different than that of Salvatore but is entertaining in its own way.

Worth the read.

At first, I was reluctant to read a book by another author of the Underdark. We all know that Mr. Salvatore is the master! The book easily flowed and by the time I was done. I couldn't believe the book was over. I can't wait for the next book! I loved the fact, that there were other Gods & Goddess besides the infamous spider queen. I was also fasinated with the community of drow outside of Menoberranzan dancing in the moonlight praising another Goddess.(I would like to see a cat fight between her and Lloth) I found Fyodor an interesting character even though little is known about him. All in all, this book is an interesting read. The transition from the underdark to the surface, I sensed that E.C. felt more at ease when the story took place on the surface. To be honest, if your a diehard Salvatore fan, I doubt you will like this book. I had to read this book with a new pair of eyes. Just remember that this is Liriel's story & not a female copycat of the well known powerful, but lovable hero from Menoberranzan.

Cunningham seems to have been the last person who should have taken over the dark elf world Menzoberrenzan after Salvatrore left it. Aside from the contradictions, a lot of it is just stupid. Salvatore created a world of dark elves who were ambitious, unfeeling, and killed when it served their purposes. Cunningham turned them into loving, caring, mass murderers who attack everything and everyone on a whim. I mean, I thought it was unrealistic that the death rate was pretty high compared to the birth rate of the city when Salvatore wrote it. Now it seems like the average life span of a drow is 6 days. The lead character has a friend of 7 years who attacks her for no reason whatsoever. Gee, you'd think after 7 years they would have had an argument that would have spurred the inevitable battle. Then, there were human traders in the drow city. The Underdark is suppossed to be dangerous! Are these 30th level merchants daring the dangers of the underworld to find a city that ! surface dwellors are not suppossed to know about to trade with a race of people so feared, seeing one of them on the surface sends people running and screaming for evacuation? The drow, needing the trade because of their devastated economy, ofcourse kill them for no real reason. So when do the drow actually surpress this unprecidented amount of murder lust? Why only when they are actually come across a surface dweller that they view as a threat ofcourse! A threat that happens to be a main character and therefore, once they cast a paralyzation spell on him, rendering the secondary star of the book helpless, instead of killing him, the leader of the violent drow raiding party says the most outrageously stupid villian comment ever (not to mention the oldest), "Let's leave him here to die." The really sad thing is, Goldfinger and the Joker would usually say this after they have trapped the hero in some cunning and devious death trap. Here, the drow and the fighter are in! a simple wooded area. They saw the fighter made it there b! y himself, so there is no reason he would die at all. The reader wasn't even expected to consider the character's death. What the hell? Cunningham created creatures whose characters don't even seem to have the intelligence of gnats, much less "dimension".

As shallow as it might sound, I had never been interested in fantasy novels apart from the casual reading of Tolkien stuff. But found myself captivated by the dark female elf on the book cover whilst browsing my local bookshop.
Life screamed to a halt for the next couple of days as I found myself drawn deep into the story and Elaine Cunningham's book flew straight up into my list of favorite books.
The characters are well written and after a short while you feel like you come to know them like friends (albeit friends that would probably kill you in a heart beat)
Great story and memorable characters.
Why are you still reading this? Go buy this book!!

"Daughter of the Drow" is yet another foray into Forgotten Realms by Elaine Cunningham - and her first attempt at Underdark novel. This may not be her best book, but it showed once again that even at her average, Cunningham is miles above the other Forgotten Realms writers. Her flowing language, intriguing plot, likable characters make a delightful combination and a worthy read. It seems even better when compared to Salvatore's Drizzt Do'Urden novels with its blatant moralizing, two dimentional characters and linear draggin'n'stamblin' plot. Menzoberranzan, the City of Boredom, finally gets to show its true colours; and even though at the end of this book our two heroes leave the city, never to return, I will be eagerly awaiting the continuation of their journey in the form of another Cunningham's book - "The Tangled Webs."