Customer Reviews

Gauntlgrym: Neverwinter Saga, Book I

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Gauntlgrym by R. A. Salvatore- This is the first book in the Neverwinter trilogy as well as the twentieth novel in The Legend of Drizzt series. The next two books in the trilogy are yet to be named at the time of this review. The Legend of Drizzt series contains a number of trilogies and series and it all takes place in the Forgotten Realm universe of Dungeons and Dragons. The Dark Elf Trilogy (Homeland, Exile, and Sojourn), The Icewind Dale Trilogy (The Crystal Shard, Streams of Silver, and The Halfling's Gem), Legacy of the Drow (The Legacy, Starless Night, Siege of Darkness, and Passage to Dawn), Paths of Darkness (The Silent Blade, Spine of the World, Sea of Swords), The Hunter's Blades Trilogy (The Thousand Orcs, The Lone Drow, and The Two Swords), and Transitions (The Orc King, The Pirate King, and The Ghost King) are all apart of The Legend of Drizzt series. Some other characters in the saga are found in The Sellswords trilogy (Servant of the Shard, Promise of the Witch King, and Road of the Patriarch) and The Cleric Quintet (Canticle, In Sylvan Shadows, Night Masks, The Fallen Fortress, and The Chaos Curse). R. A. Salvatore has also written a few other books set in shared universes. He has written two Star Wars based books, Vector Prime and Star Wars Episode Two: Attack of the Clones, and he has also written a book based on Tarzan called Tarzan: The Epic Adventures. R. A. Salvatore has also written a few books in his on created worlds, Ynis Aielle (Echoes of the Fourth Magic, The Witches Daughter, and Bastian of Darkness), Spearwielders Tales (The Woods Outback, The Dragon's Dagger, and Dragonslayer's Return), The Crimson Shadow (The Sword of Bedwyr, Luthien's Gamble, and The Dragon King), Demon Wars (The Demon Awakens, The Demon Spirit, The Demon Apostle, and Mortalis), Demon Wars: Second Saga (Ascendance, Transcendence, and Immortalis) and the Saga of the First King (The Highwayman, The Ancient, The Dame, and The Bear). He also co-wrote The Stone of Tymora (The Stowaway, The Shadowmask, and The Sentinels) with his son Geno Salvatore. Along with all that, he has written a few short stories. Gauntlgrym was released in October 2010 and is published by Wizards of the Coast.

Years have passed since Drizzt Do'Urden's life changed. His love, Catti-brie, is dead, along with his friend Regis. The dwarven kingdom of Mithral Hall's peace treaty with the orcish Kingdom of Many Arrows has held over the years and a peace is found in the land. His other friend, the king of Mithral Hall, Bruenor Battlehammer, is nearing the end of his life. However, Bruenor still has the fire in him to find the lost dwarven kingdom named Gauntlgrym, so he brings Drizzt, the battlerager Pwent, an orc named Jessa, and a gnome alchemist named Nanfoodle along with him. Years upon years pass by with no luck finding the place. Even after Jessa and Nanfoodle pass away, Drizzt and Bruenor continue the search. However, another group stumbles upon the forgotten city. A Thayan named Dahlia is searching for what powered the Hosttower, a treelike tower that housed wizards in Luskan before the cities fall. Her search for answers leads her to Jarlaxle and his dwarven friend Athrogate. Little do they know that it was Gauntlgrym that produced the Hosttower. Unknown to the group, unleash a primordial and with it, devastation. After years pass after the devastation, Drizzt and Bruenor are still on the search for the ancient dwarven stronghold. However, they may need the help of Jarlaxle and Athrogate to find it.

Criticisms:
1) Time Jumps. This is my major issue with Gauntlgrym, as well as any other book I read. I loathe time jumps. I am not a fan when a story jumps forty some odd years. I would have liked to see some of the adventures that Drizzt, Bruenor, Jessa, and Nanfoodle under took, I do hope that somewhere down the line there will be a short story involving one such adventure. I would have liked to see more of Drizzt and Bruenor failing at finding Gauntlgrym or their brief search for finding Catti-brie and Regis. I would have liked to see this, or even a chapter about some of these things. Now, I wouldn't have an issue if it was two or three years pass. I wouldn't even have that big of an issue with just one time jump. However, Gauntlgrym has two jumps. Two jumps that forcefully progress the story. While the first jump was about fifty years, the second is a more reasonable ten or so. However, this still bothered me. We never really see Dahlia's consequences for her actions she took in Gauntlgrym. We never see how Athrogate is effected, nor Jarlaxle. We do have little snippets, but there is so much more to be said. These jumps just make the story seem as through it was rushed. We have a lot of things happening, but nothing to really show for it aside from a line or two.

Praises:
1) Drizzt. Let me be honest here for a second. It's my opinion that after twenty-sum books, Drizzt Do'Urden has grown a little stale. Don't get me wrong, he still is great, but he never really seemed to undergo a major change that seems to last for an extended amount of time. Sure there were times were he let his savage side take over (The Hunter's Blades Trilogy) and the life changing event that he underwent in The Ghost King. But for the past twenty-two years, he has hardly changed. That being said, Drizzt does undergo a shift in personality, albeit subtle. In fact, I barely noticed any major change until Jarlaxle pointed it out. Before, Drizzt only killed when it was necessary. Now he seems to enjoy it. It's almost like the 'Hunter' in The Hunter's Blades Trilogy, but with more control. It's almost like he's becoming more 'Drow'. It is nice to see that everything that Drizzt went through in his life thus far is finally affecting him. He may seem like the Drizzt we all know and love, but now there seems to be something more, and darker, growing in everyone's favorite drow.
2) Jarlaxle. Jarlaxle really surprised me. I knew that Jarlaxle does have a somewhat noble streak to him, but I am utterly at a loss for words about what he does. Sure, he's still the pragmatic drow that we've known from before, but now there seems to be more to him than what meets the eye. He seems to be more disparate and uncontrolled. The best example is his one on one interactions with Drizzt. To put it simply, Jarlaxle yells at Drizzt for being what he's become. I never would have thought that Jarlaxle would do such a thing. But that's just not all he does. There were other things in the story that I would have never have thought Jarlaxle would do. It was just a nice surprise to see more character depth to Jarlaxle.
3) Forward. I do like where the series seems to be heading. Now it seems like there will be little reminiscing of the past, and the legend of Drizzt is going in a new, exciting direction. I'm just excited to see what happens next.

Side Notes:
1) Valas Hune. It was nice to see one of the my favorite characters from The War of the Spider Queen series make a brief cameo.
2) Barrabus the Grey. I hope this isn't who I think it is. If it is, all I can say is that I'm disappointed.
3) Cover Art. The first thing I noticed about the cover art is that it's bright. It really catches your eye and draws it in. After so many recent Dungeons and Dragons based books having darker coloring, it's nice to see something bright. The action scene between Drizzt and Dahlia is pretty epic looking, although it doesn't happen in the novel. That kind of bothers me. It would have been wonderful to see Drizzt and Dahlia fighting one another. The only major issue I have is that Dahlia looks horrible. She doesn't look the least bit attractive. In fact, her face just doesn't look quite right, almost as though everything is just squished together. However, the cover art is definitely a nice, bright change and I do like it.

Overall: 4/5
Final Thoughts:
Gauntlgrym is good. I wouldn't really expect any less from a Drizzt novel. However, there is one problem that I still can't get over. I hate the time jumps. I absolutely hate it when things are skipped over that could have made an interesting couple of chapters. In fact, I would have rather have had this book as the second in the trilogy. The first book could have been some of the events leading up to Athrogate pulling the lever. Dahlia seemed to need a little more development, and we could have had some time getting to know Jessa and Nanfoodle. That said, the rest of the story was great. It's nice to finally see everything impacting Drizzt and a new, unexpected look at Jarlaxle. I'm really liking where this story is taking Drizzt. So should you pick it up? Yes. Definitely. Even if you're not a fan of Drizzt, it's well worth a read. However, you should have a little prior knowledge before jumping in.

In _Gauntlgrym_, Salvatore has changed his method of writing Forgotten Realms novels. While those in the past have focused on short periods of time in the grand scheme, the story has never had significant breaks. This book has breaks of decades between the intro and Book 1, and another decade between Books 1 and 2. A number of characters have returned, but only those of races possessed of long lives. Bruenor and Drizzt are the only survivors of the famed Companions of the Hall, and they wander the north seeking the ancient Dwarven homeland, but like a classic sitcom, though they seek and seek in the right area and pass it by many times, they never seem to find. Enter some other familiar faces, at times antagonists and other times allies of convenience, sharing the Dwarven and Drow ancestry, and the sitcom parallel is completed. Jarlaxle and Athrogate find the ancient Dwarven homeland and play an unwitting part in releasing a terrible secret at its core.

A number of new characters are introduced, including an elf woman warrior serving Thay, a sorceress vying with her for favor of Thay's master, a tiefling (that is, a half-demon) warlord of Netheril wielding a familiar red sword that leaves trails of ash in its wake, and a gray-skinned assassin in the tiefling's thrall. The assassin and the elf are enemies though they both share their lack of control of their own fates, being essentially enslaved to their various masters.

Drizzt and Bruenor appear less than the others, but are clearly the linchpins with Drizzt's familiar essays opening the different sections of the novel. His behavior, though, is not as reminiscent of the Drizzt of old as the readers might like, with his lost friends always in his heart and battle the only way to avoid their ghosts in his thoughts. Bruenor is aged and it seems at times that only the quest for the ancient city keeps him going, for he is older and has shared those same losses.

Inevitably, all roads lead to the ruined city and combat on a scale not printed since the dark elves assailed Mithril Hall some dozen books past. Divine intervention meets hellish devils, while elementals fight primordials. Truly, Salvatore elevated the degree of combatants beyond the superheroic drow and dwarf characters so well-known by this point.

The story keeps the pages turning. The two thralls carry out their orders, while the two drow/dwarf pairs pursue their own agendas for different reasons. Toss in a lot of undead and Salvatore's characteristic fight scenes, and the book's a winner. However, it's not as much in the vein as the old books in the series, now over two decades since The Crystal Shard, since most of the supporting cast has passed on. They longer-lived are faced with genuine feelings of loss and the reader feels those losses along with the characters, most poignantly early on when they visit Icewind Dale seeking Catti-brie's and Regis' shades in a rumored magical wood (see Realms of the Dead for Savatore's short story that sets this up).

The book has its disappointments in a few places, but it's a solid read. For those new to the series, the issues with antagonists presenting a real challenge to Drizzt won't matter a whit, while for old grognards like me it might niggle a little. I recommend it for all on either side of the fence, it sure kept me engaged from the start. I'm hard-pressed to recall any book that made me cry more than once, but this one gets the highest of marks for doing so. While the next book will be markedly different from any before, it will have to do quite a bit to measure up to this one.

The need to write or read a review of any of R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt books is somewhat moot for those who have read the earlier novels. By now, I am sure that anyone who is familiar with the story of the Dark Elf Drizzt will want to continue reading the latest adventures of his life. Overall, the entire saga of Drizzt is amazing, and Gauntlgrym is no less than excellent. The book takes place 100 years after the events of the Ghost King, and while some choose to write a book summery in these reviews, I choose not for two reasons: 1. you can read a plot summery on the cover, and 2. these always lead to just being spoilers of the book (which means they are only useful for those people that have already read the book- thus have already formed their own opinion and have no need for the review).

I will say what I do like about the Drizzt story, in order to entice anyone who has not read any of Salvatore's books to begin reading. That is, if you like fantasy and have tried several authors - they simply use the same formula for each book. That is, "there is some underdog who discovers he is supposed to save the world and somehow beats a dark lord against all odds". There is only one author that successfully pulled that off - and that is Tolkein himself. Therefore, if you are longing for a fantasy novel that is not the old broken storyline that several authors try to revive - look to the legend of Drizzt.

I would suggest not beginning with this novel in the Drizzt saga, however. I suggest going back to the chronologically first novel "Homeland" and read all the books in chronological order. With that being said, if you don't want to take the time to do that, this is the best book to pick up with the life of Drizzt (as he moves into a new chapter in his life). The pitfall of doing this is much of Salvatore's writing successfully attempts to tug at the reader's emotions, and without a historical background of the main character, a new reader in the series will not feel the emotion the author is portraying.

All that being said, this book is a solid read and does not disappoint.

This is definitely not Salvatore's best work. I understand that given his main character Drizzt's extended lifespan the subject of leaving his old life decades behind must be addressed, but he does it in this novel in such a disjointed fashion that you feel like this book was just a bunch of notes that should have been put into a prologue instead of being made into a whole novel. Every character and plot line in the story is given only cursory attention, and that left me feeling very unsatisfied and in some cases disappointed. Drizzt throws away the morals that are central to his character through most of the novel, and his closest friends take nearly a century to confront him about this? His morals developed while living in Menzoberranzan and in the Underdark, and then he tosses them aside even with Bruenor at his side as a moral compass? It makes no sense. Dahlia is an incomplete and inconsistent character that is supposed to be some kind of fill-in for Cattabrie. Barrabus is probably the most interesting character in the story, and that only because he is a shadow of Drizzt's earlier enemy. My biggest disappointment of the novel though is the world setting. After Salvatore's earlier novels where every Forgotten Realms setting he depicted with vivid detail and imagination, the world now is just a smeared out dark and dusty ruin. Gauntlgrim is such a sad copy of the Mines of Moria that it is painful to read through the descriptions, and Salvatore even throws in a whole balrog scene if you were doubting the plagarism.
R.A. Salvatore is one of my favorite authors, but this is the first Salvatore novel that I can say I wouldn't recommend reading.

While I had read a few R.A. Salvatore books about the Dark Elf champion Drizzt Do'Urden a few years ago, I didn't really start reading them as they came out until the "Transitions" series, where Salvatore started making huge changes to the mythos. I had thought the major changes were done with at the end of "Transitions," but I was very wrong. Salvatore's new book, Gauntlgrym, continues the frenetic pace of change even as Salvatore starts to take it slower in the story department. While the pacing in the book is a bit off and some of the plot twists are presented like a pig on a platter before they're actually revealed, Gauntlgrym gets the "Neverwinter" series off to a rip-roaring start.

Decades have passed since two of Drizzt's longtime companions (one of whom was also his wife) crossed into Death's realm, and both he and the Dwarf King Bruenor Battlehammer are growing restless. Bruenor has decided to give up the throne and go on a quest to find the fabled Dwarven kingdom of Gauntlgrym with his old friend Drizzt by his side. Elves and Dwarves being very long-lived, they no longer feel the lust for life that marked their younger years, the passage of old friends taking a great toll on them. But other forces are at work, also looking for Gauntlgrym and the natural force that inhabits it. Will Bruenor and Drizzt find it before the evil is unleashed? And will Drizzt continue to lose himself in battle lust, no longer caring what happens to him after the long, lonely years he's spent?

Gauntlgrym is a typical R.A. Salvatore Forgotten Realms novel: full of action and fighting, with some decent character work, though some other characters are too broad for my taste - namely the villains. Dahlia gets the most development, for reasons that become evident as the novel progresses, but even she is a bit too perfect a character at times. As for the vampire? The lich? And Sylora, the evil sorceress who is Dahlia's rival, the broadest of them all? I didn't find any of them interesting, though Dahlia becomes moreso as the novel goes on. I prefer my villains with a few more facets.

The other problem with the book is the pacing: long stretches don't seem to go anywhere. I'm as big a fan of character-building as the next guy, so I guess these slow passages are the character-building of characters that I don't really care about, making them seem awfully slow. Then Salvatore explodes into frenetic action, making years or even a decade go by, and setting the situation up for more violence and fighting. It's an odd mix that is occasionally satisfying but too often jarring.

I do love the exploration of Drizzt's character, in regards to how he really lives for nothing but the fight now. Considering how long-lived Elves are - and the fact that decades pass for him just in this novel alone - his living this way since the death of his wife is almost heartbreaking at times. This actually makes the budding romance heartening to see, even if Salvatore lays it on the reader with the subtlety of a brick through a window.

The prose is typical Salvatore: you'll either love or hate how intricately he describes all the battle scenes. There is no middle ground. I actually do love it, though I do wish the quieter moments were better written. Nobody, other than Michael Stackpole perhaps, can write action like Salvatore. You can almost see it happening in your head, and if movies are ever made of a Drizzt series, the director will have his stage direction right there.

Gauntlgrym is a very good book, especially for fan of Drizzt or the Forgotten Realms. Non-fans probably won't get much out of it, even though Salvatore does do a good job of writing it so that newcomers will not be lost. It's not that they will have trouble following the story. It's that they won't really care to follow it.

But if you like good fantasy hack and slash with some pathos to help it go down, you'll probably enjoy this one.

Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book © Dave Roy, 2011

It's been at least ten years since I picked up a "Drizzt" book, maybe more. I adored the first six books or so and found the next four or five readable, but gradually grew tired of the characters and the adventures. A lot of the middle books seemed aimed at a younger audience with goofy sidekick characters.

I happened upon Gauntlgrym in the new releases section at the library and picked it up on a whim. I'm not sure exactly how many books I've missed in the series but a lot of time has passed and some of the characters have died (apparently for good this time). I liked the somber tone the book opened with (seemed more mature than some of those middle books I remembered), and I just treated it as a new adventure. With all the new characters introduced, it definitely feels like the start of a new series.

I was pleasantly surprised and breezed along, reading the book within a couple days. Drizzt has definitely changed from the character I remember, but it'll be interesting to follow this new arc. I'm curious to find out what happens next and plan to continue on with the trilogy.

¨The Ghost King¨ represented the closure of the adventures of the Companions of the Hall, but a lot of questions remained to be answered. From a glimpse of the future we already knew that Drizzt was alive after the Spellplague but what had happened to Bruenor? This book starts a new chapter of Drizzt's adventures and answers all those questions. It covers quite a long period (1409 DR-1462 DR), but Bob Salvatore uses skillfully the passage of time to give sense to the plot. While Bruenor continues searching for Gauntlgrym with Drizz tagging along, Thayans and Netherese clash around Neverwinter. New and intriguing characters show up, like Dahlia, a deadly elf warrior with a haunting past and a signature weapon, Kozah's needle, who fights for the Thayans while the Netherese have a stealthy assasin called Barrabus the Gray who reminds us powerfully of a certain southern killer... Jarlaxle and Athrogate enter the action and help the Thayan expedition to find fabled Gauntlgrym but it turns out to be a trap that results in the liberation of a fire primordial that provokes a volcano eruption and the destruction of Neverwinter, all part of a plot by Szass Tam to create a dread ring, a nexus of negative energy that raises undead creatures. 11 years later, Jarlaxle and Athrogate enlist the help of Bruenor and Drizzt to set right the mess they helped cause. Dahlia, now a renegade of the Thayans, is also helping them. The book arrives to staggering climax where the salvation of Gauntlgrym and the destiny of Bruenor are at stake.

I must confess that initially I wasn't very caught up, not caring a lot for the new characters, but Salvatore's mastery shows and all the disperse threads converged towards a really exciting climax: I think this book is an excellent and definitive closure to the adventures of the Companions of the Hall and at the same time a really exciting introduction to a new and darker age of adventure. I'm really looking forward to the next book of the Neverwinter Trilogy.

Long live King Bruenor Battlehammer!!!

Although I've read almost 500 fantasy/science fiction novels, the R.A. Salvatore novels most particularly have always had a dear place in my heart after I originally picked up The Crystal Shard at a garage sale one afternoon in 1988 as a teen. Since then I've stopped whatever I was doing at the time to pick up each one over the last 22 years on the day it was released, and Gauntlgrym was no different.

I'm no professional critic, so I'll simply say that I thought this book was fantastic. Even despite the classic characters we are well familiar with, he still wastes no time introducing a plethora of new and interesting characters as well. *or reintroducing others, such as Barrabus the Gray, :-)*

The pace was perfect, the environments exciting, the action superb, and the emotions deep, I would rate this in the top 5 of the series so far. *Beaten on my list only by Homeland, Silver Streams, and Servant of the Shard* I am very excited that this is the first in what is shaping up to be a great new trilogy... Salvatore has still got it!

I have been following Salvatore's Drizzt since the late 80's and have to admit to being somewhat hooked. The early stories reminded me so much of my D&D days - they were fresh, easy to read and full of great characters. However, as the years passed, Salvatore kept coming back to the same heroes and with one or two exceptions, the stories from the last decade have been disappointing.

The author split up our heroes, and took them places where in my opinion they should not have gone. But these poor quality story lines weren't the worst of it... all to frequently entire pages were filled with Drizzt's battles described in way too much detail - this was fine back in the 80's and 90's but after the first dozen or so books I've had enough of reading about double sweep this and single thrust that.

But still I buy his books (as soon as they are published in hardback) always craving a return to the early days, the fresh stories and surprises - This isn't the best Drizzt novel that Salvatore has written - but it is definitely a major step in the right direction. Yes, it's a little disjointed - but it must be remembered that Salvatore doesn't own the Forgotten Realms world which he shares with numerous other writers. Other stories have had a profound effect on the world in which Drizzt exists and I am sure that Salvatore struggled mightily to adapt the story he wanted to write into a world constantly being pushed and pulled in all manor of directions by any number of other writers.

There was a time when I believed that the Author needed to leave Drizzt behind and start work on something new (ideally within the same world). I am very happy that he persevered! This is a great story in its own right, and an excellent portal to future adventures.

Once again, I find myself looking forward to the next installment.

Gauntlgrym: Neverwinter, Book I is R.A. Slavatore's newest Drizzt novel, telling the tale of Drizzt and Bruenor as they, and others, search for the fabled dwarven homeland. Drizzt and Bruenor leave Mithral Hall with two others and search for 40 years for Gauntlgrym, finding nothing. Jarlaxle and Athrogate return to help Dahlia, an elf working for Thay, find her way into the Hosttower in Luskan from the underground. What they find causes a catastrophe of course in the favor of Thay, and it is up to Drizzt, Bruenor, Jarlaxle, Athrogate, and Dahlia to prevent it from hapening again 10 years later. I am leaving a lot out so as to not spoil the book, Thats why the description may not make sense in context.

Pros:
1. Drizzt is back, though mightily changed. He still grieves for Catti-Brie and accompanies Bruenor in the hopes of finding some clues. During this time Drizzt almost reverts, not only accepting the fact he has to kill, but enjoying it, much like The Hunter.
2. Jarlaxle grows as well, he tries to hide behind a mask of profit for his mercenary company, but he truly wants to right the wrong he unwittingy wrought and discover the change behind Dizzt.
3. Old Favorites die. Yes it is slightly upsetting to see some of the oldies go, but I believe it leaves Drizzt with a clean slate and a fresh start in a new frightening world.

Cons:
1.Time Jumps, plain and simple. There are two time jumps in the novel. The first major one being 40 years and occurs during the time the 4 from the hall were searching for Gauntlgrym. I would've appreciated one or two chapters detailing this time period and the people involved. The next which is about 10 years is also dissapointing as it would've been nice to see how the region recovered from the catastrophe.

All in all, a decent Drizzt novel, with new characters and old characters making re-appearences, and oldies dying. It shakes the Drizzt universe up and hopefully, brings it back to greatness.