Customer Reviews

The Hunter's Blades Trilogy Collector's Edition (Forgotten Realms)

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2 star:		(2)
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The Hunter's Blades Collector's Edition consist of all three books of this series, Thousand Orcs, Lone Drow and Two Swords. I enjoyed the series quite a bit although I was bit surprised by the end of the third book. This series contained the best and worst of R.A. Salvatore's writing and they are kind of mixed up from book to book, chapter to chapter and story line to story line.

The main characters are the stars here and even although they all have near death experiences, that is close to the end they get. However, Salvatore killed off secondary characters like the wave of black plague or something as everyone who is anyone likable in the series died off. That I thought was his weaker side where he wiped out hordes of under deveoped secondary characters. On the positive side, his writing is still smooth, the story flowed well and his books are never boring to read. It could be possible that his main characters are so well entrenched that the author find it impossible to kill any of them off.

The series ends with more questions then answers. The final solution is not yet available and even after three books, this may only be the first of several series regarding Forgotten Realms.

This series was perhaps the weakest of all R.A. Savatore's Drizzt adventures. I was excited to see a return to the Trilogy format that appeared to be centered around a common theme. Unfortunately the 3 books turned out to be a long and boring tale that did not evolve well over the series and ultimately did not resolve with the conclusion of the 3rd book. R.A. Salvatore's new book due out this Sept. could very well be book 4 of this series and not warrant a "Transitions" title as it appears to continue right where the previous book left off with no major advancements in the characters or story line. I also feel as if R.A. Salvatore's heart is elsewhere since the passion for his most famous character seems to have faded into an ongoing marketing push for Wizards than any real progression in story line.

If you take a look at the first two trilogies you can feel the danger and excitement of inventive and out of this world dangers that the heroes get exposed to. They have fought much more dangerous enemies than a bunch of orcs and yet it seems that they get their butts handed to them in this book so many times it makes you feel like they have lost their edge. Its almost as if the heroes are in their senior years and the challenges they face are watered down and boring.

Its time for Drizzt to evolve beyond Ice Wind Dale and the team that tags along with him from book to book. Its time for this hero to really shine and reach his full potential. Stop the re-hashing of old story lines and love affairs gone wrong between Wulfgar and Drizzt. Its almost teenish in its description.

Get darker. Get richer. Get more imaginative with these characters.

While this isn't my favorite of Salvatore's Forgotten Realms series, it would rank close to the top. The Hunter's Blades trilogy is much darker than his previous books, with a pervasive feeling of loss and doom hanging over nearly the whole thing. All of the characters go through pretty extreme emotional turmoil, but Drizzt in particular has a rough time of it, reverting back to the Hunter and struggling with his belief that his friends are dead. Regis, Wulfgar, and Catie-Brie don't know where Drizzt is and are watching Bruenor slowly die through much of the trilogy. And everybody is in very desperate straights as a seemingly unstoppable orc horde grows and grows to where there doesn't seem any way the people of the North can hold back the tide.

This trilogy greatly expands (sometimes temporarily) the host of characters, and is really a character-driven story. New allies such as Banak Brawnanvil, Tred McKnuckles, Dagnabbit, and Nikwillig expand the scope of the story. Also, great new villains are introduced, including Proffit the troll, Gerti Orelsdottr, Tos'un, Ad'non, and of course Obould. We get much of the story told from their perspective, which is a fairly new strategy used by Salvatore.

The first book, The Thousand Orcs picks up right where 'SEA OF SWORDS' left off. The companions are reunited (with the addition of Delly Curtie and baby Colsen), and Bruenor and the gang are setting off for Mithril Hall where Bruenor will take up the kingship. Unbeknownst to them, a powerful leader has emerged in the orc tribes of the Spine of the World, uniting the orcs and allying with a band of frost giants and renegade drow. As Drizzt and Co. travel to Mithril Hall they encounter many signs of heavy orc activity and decide to patrol the region and warn its inhabitants of the danger. They also make a stop at Mirabar, a rival of Mithril Hall, to stir up trouble and remind Mirabar's dwarves of their heritage. The whole book comes down to a desperate situation with the Companions being trapped in the town of Shallows during a siege of overwhelming strength. The final battle takes up the majority of the second half of the book and is quite intense.

The Lone Drow picks up with the dwarves falling back to Keeper's Dale outside Mithril Hall and Drizzt believing that all of his friends were killed. During his broken-hearted rampages against the orcs, Drizzt encounters Tarathiel and Innovindil, who help bring him back to sanity and then aid him in disrupting the greenskin army. Some characters from Mirabar, introduced in the first book, were further developed here, particularly Torgar Hammerstriker, Shoudra Stargleam, and Nanfoodle. The orc king, Obould Many-Arrows, through blessings from his god and increased support from his kin, becomes a worthy foe for the powerful Companions.

My favorite book of the trilogy was The Two Swords, in which Drizzt and Obould finally face off and the dwarves of Mithril Hall defend their home against a determined press and link up with their allies. Wulfgar's new wife, Delly Curtie, plays a major role in this one, as do all of the old characters we love so much. Also, we get the reunion of the Companions that we've been looking forward to so long. One very pleasing thing about this book was the emotional (and physical) play between Innovindil and Drizzt, perhaps the first time that we see some weakness in our hero. While the ending isn't as conclusive as I had hoped, I'm sure Salvatore has great plans for the next trilogy, Transitions.

If you liked the other Drizzt books, you'll probably like this one too. Its not really any better or any worse, and doesn't change too much except for possibly becoming a little more mature, with some rather graphic scenes and a couple of uses of the word 'bitch'. I was extremely pleased with this trilogy and look forward to reading the next one.

I've enjoyed Drizzt since I first picked up the Dark Elf Trilogy collector's edition years ago, which to this day is still my favorite of them all.

With this book, I couldn't put it down or I would spend time thinking about reading it when I could get a moment. All of which in my mind makes a great book, until the ending. The ending on this book felt so rushed and that there really wasn't any mortal danger to Drizzt. You knew he would survive and that he would defeat Oblund that I felt let down. I understand that characters cannot be killed off unless Wizards of the Coast gives their blessing, but this made me feel like I was robbed of an epic ending in a Marvel way (which is why I stopped reading those comics a long time ago).

This trilogy of books was my introduction to not only Salvatore, but also fantasy-- and also my interest in reading. These stories were well off for a first time reader of Salvatore's style, which jumps from character group to character group at every "story break" (separation of differing story parts in each chapter). That being said, Salvatore drew me into fantasy with these books, but I learned that they were crap.

The good about the books is Drizzt's several journal entries, spaced throughout the book. They show a great deal of character development. Since Salvatore does not come out and say "this made him feel upset" or have Drizzt talk about his feelings in the story, this part was very interesting; instead of reading a page of paragraphs to find out how something affected Drizzt, Salvatore explains it through Drizzt's journal entries. Some people may not like the entries (and that is a matter of taste in what you like to read) but it adds to the story by letting Salvatore keep the characters as they are, not making hardened warriors talk about their feelings through dialog or through paragraphs explaining the character's thoughts.

The action, as well, is very well played out. He became known for his intense battle scenes. The description is very nice in these books. Pages of the stuff and not weak stuff either. You get a blow by blow, not a "they locked swords and pushed. He broke free and slashed at him." These scenes are very descriptive and are nothing like you have read before (unless you read his earlier books).

BUT, that is also the bad in these books. The scenes seem to repeat in these three books. Reading his older works offer a larger variation in battles, but these books seem to be the same formula and the same blows. Added on to the repetition, when one person is killed in battle, it isn't as big of a tear jerker as I think it should have been. Some of the deaths I had to actually reread. It took me five minutes to understand one part because she was skewered then raised into the by the behemoth. And a sentence later, the character that saw this happened just ran off like nothing happened... I didn't like that about most of the deaths that occurred.

Also, the bad is that a lot of his descriptions on what is going on, aren't what is going on. They are full of information, but then it seems that what he said happened contradicts something else... For example(not from the actual books, just my example), "the bubble ran out of the water, up the vacuum and to the surface of the lake. After reaching the surface, it blew up in the water, sending a shockwave from the lake's floor that disturbed the boat on the surface... Stuff like that makes little sense, but it runs rampant in the books.

The biggest thing these books lacked was the ability to make the reader give a hoot. I would speed read pages, skimming over paragraphs for the basic idea, and 50 pages later I would know everything that happened. Some people are into those books-- like Dungeons and Dragons, Eberron, and Forgotten Realms-- but I tend to like the more in depth books rather than books that tell battles of gore. I love those books, of course, that is why I read Salvatore and other select Wizards of the Coasts books, but I don't just want action. If I wanted to gore and violence I'd go to another country, pick up a spear and start killing people with it. I could find a group of other crazies to follow me and that would be more exciting than reading those books. But sadly, this book is only a slight step above that level- one of those steps that is too deep to skip to the next, but doesn't rise high enough to really get anywhere (those steps tick me off. Grandparent Steps =.=)

Salvatore's writing is a good introduction to the genre, assuming you aren't anti- violence, because they are good adventure books, but I would recommend buying his other series (preferably from the first series, The Icewind Dale Trilogy, and working your way up due to the fact-- as I learned-- that it makes a lot more sense seeing how all of the characters grew rather than trying to figure out why some people hate each other.

In the end, these books seem like they should be his first works of writing rather than his most recent. Do yourself a favor and pick up his first works.

I am thourghly impressed by Mr. Salvatores work I just hope this isn't the end of Drizzt and co. Its a series that grows on you and i would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the forgotten realms.

Okay i have brought all the seperate book sets, wanting to have every book of the series seperatly, but when I received this series its was the one collectors book. i was mad didnt want but i read it anyway, and i must tell you that I'm glad that I did get the coolectors book. This series IS the best ever. You have so much going on with the fighting and such but you still feel every hit, you smell every smell, you see the fine detail of Drizzt's weapons through the detail in which these books were written, If you claim to be a fan you must buy this series NOW.

This book is so terribly disappointing - not for just what it is but what it should have been. It appears as though Salvatore may have finally burnt out with respect to this series. Every single battle description makes you feal like you've read the same battle before - many times before. The fight scenes got old very quickly, and I found myself speed reading over them to get to something meatier - but that just never happened. The plot is the weakest of all the Drizzt books, and the last 50 pages seem like they were just thrown together to get the book published. It's all just a setup for another book anyway, which is extremely frustrating. When I finish a monster trilogy like this, I expect some finality, yet the main story arc didn't even have a conclusion! The last 50 pages introduce many side plots for the next series of books, and they all came from nowhere.

I've read every other Drizzt book and enjoyed them, but I think this might be my last. I wish Salvatore well, and I hope he finds something new to be passionate about. It appears that his passion no longer lies with Drizzt and friends. :(

James

In this book Drizzt finds he can't escape the "hunter" inside, in fact, it is good that it's there at times. He also gets involved with another woman, an elf, and it makes him a LOT more "human". There are more than the usual share of bad guys, a few surprises and some parts where you want to scream at him that his friends AREN'T dead!!! There should be more, to continue the thread at the end of the book, and I can hardly wait!

The book itself very nice the gold Guenwyvar is a nice touch. The series itself not so golden. These 3 novels in 1 are very close to what an editor should have seen, three horrible novels that could have been edited to one great novel.

If you are good at skimming then you will be able to read this book in a day and not miss anything of value. Nothing is the same the heroic band is present but in body only not emotion. Near death experiences happen to nearly all of them, but through the magic of writing they all survive.

Fans of the series will remember reading plot developments in each of the characters in previous novels to only have it be pointless because all of them take a step backwards to their previous selves. I think either Salvatore or WoTC is fearful to move the story forward scared that their money maker may deflate if characters develop into something else. This should be the goal to mature characters so that the reader can continue to be interested. For anyone wondering no interest and no ending in this trilogy.

Transitions is the next trilogy and in truth it is nothing more then a continuation of these three because so little happened three more books are needed to wrap up the mess. Let us all hope Transitons helps Salvatore "transition" into the writer we all remember.