Customer Reviews

Icewind Dale Trilogy: Collector's Edition (Forgotten Realms: the Icewind Dale Trilogy)

5 star:		(119)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

After reading the Icewind Dale Trilogy I have again been immersed into the rich plots of the Fantasy genre. I read this book due to a recommendation of a friend and I was overjoyed when I found that Salvatore's writing kept me hooked. His plot development through all of his Forgotten Realms novels are excellent and the Icewind Dale Trilogy is just the beginning. I find that it is hard to stray from superlatives when describing the Icewind Dale Trilogy and Slavatore's writing in general.

The real low-down on these books is the character development. Drizzt Do'Urden (the main hero of most of Salvatore's Forgotten Realms novels) is expertly developed. Drizzt is a dark-elf that must overcome the nightmares of his own heritage, and most importantly, gain acceptance among the highly paranoid and unwelcoming surface dwellers. Throughout his travels in the frigid wastelands north of the Spine of the World, Drizzt finds many good friends and fights against unspeakable terrors. Yet, he upholds his own personal code of ethics and virtues like that of a noble paladin. The reader can't help but feel empathetic to him and the entries of his personal memoirs gives an insight into the very essence of Drizzt.

Upon finishing the Icewind Dale saga, I have become an avid reader of Salvatore and I would highly recommend all of the novels in his series. If you are a Tokien fan, this is a must buy. I've debated whether Icewind Dale or the Dark Elf Trilogy would be the best place to start in this series, but I've determined that Icewind Dale is your best bet. On top of everything, this collector's edition (while containing some typos) is well bound in a very attractive package. Make yourself a good cup of coffee and get comfortable, because you've got an excellent read ahead of you. Just remember to allocate plenty of time because I gurantee you won't be able to put this one down.

I know well that this review is just another in a long string. I know that it will likely not be read by anyone. However, this series though certainly not a timeless classic is a lot of fun to read. I take personal offense the the reviewers who decide to attack my maturity and intelligence level for enjoying these books. Is the writing top notch in these? No. But it is a wole heck of a lot of fun. I agree that George R.R. Martin is top tier fantasy literature at the moment. But I unlike other reviewers am able to get my mind shifted into all types of other gears. Salavatore's books are like reading the fight scene's from the LOTR movies. These books are action packed and a ton of fun. They are not trying to fool you into believeing anything else. Salavatore never attempts to come across as the next coming of Tolkein. It's worth mentioning that this is his first series if you read the entire Drizzt series through you can mark a steady increase in his ability to craft a story.

Read these books if sometimes you like your fantasy to be basic, in your face and fun escapism. Drizzt is a cool character. But apparently because I like him I'm stupid. Can he and all his friends escape situations that are overwhelming and unlikely? I don't know. I'm sorry I have no frame of reference for how well a Dark Elf, Mountain Dwarf, Halfling, Barbarian and Human archer wielding a magic bow would fare against a horde of Trolls and Goblins. I'm not so riduculous and egotistic as to think that I can apply real world standards to totaly imaginary situations.

In short your brain is a big place. It has numerous facets and and levels. Give it a try. Not every book has to impact you deep in your soul. Basically Drizzt and the gang are like a non-stop summertime blockbuster movie.

This is the trilogy that launched the career of one of the greatest fantasy characters ever in existence, the Dark Elf, Drizzt Do'Urden. Such a wonderful character! (It didn't do too much harm for Salvatore's career either!) This trilogy is heavy on the action and fighting sequences but they are balanced with thoughtful character-driven insight and development. And I can't forget to mention one of the best villain's ever to grace the written page, Artemis Entreri. You will rarely see a better written bad guy. If you have stayed away from Forgotten Realms books or others based on games, don't pass this one by. And don't miss the Dark Elf Trilogy either, for a wonderful taste of the early life of Drizzt and the world of the Underdark. Both volumes have a very special place on my crowded book shelves. Good reading!

The story is wonderful. Salvatore is a magnificent author, who thouroughly develops his characters, and keeps you glued to the storyline. However, the book is utterly littered with typos. (No kidding, I'd say on average a typo every 2-3 pages.) This interupts the continuity of the book greatly, as you are forced time and time again to stop and figure out what he meant to say. Lack of quotes, misplaced letters...and exactly who is Br~enor (page 775)? It's almost like they scanned in the origional documents into a text recognition program, where random y's turn to v's, u's to ~'s, and punctuation is disregarded. Very dissapointing. I love the books, but don't buy the hardback. Get them individually in soft cover.

Set in the Forgotten Realms Dungeons & Dragons campaign world, The Icewind Dale Trilogy is the first novel by R.A. Salvatore and introduces the most famous D&D character - Drizzt Do'Urden. The funny part is, only the first book takes place in Icewind Dale.

This is often compared to J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings," but it really shouldn't be in the way that it is. The only thing I noticed, really, was in the first book it mentions how Bruenor's clan, Battlehammer, had "delved too greedily and too deep," almost an exact line from the books. However, when they do reach the mine, you will find it is wholly unlike Moria (the mine from Tolkien's work). Also, these are, for the most part, three seperate stories which are strung together by the assassin Artemis Entreri who quickly becomes Drizzt's rival, the conflict finally coming to a head in the final novel.

You will be brought in by these books in a way Tolkien could never bring me in (it took me a year to read his series; I read this in four days), you will believe these characters are real, you will believe these fights actually happened and Salvatore just happened to video tape them so he could write down what happened later. His descriptions are very good (though they do not tend to drone on like Tolkien's), and his fight scenes are very detailed. Wulfgar, the mighty Barbarian King, does not merely swing his warhammer; he arcs it down upon his enemies side, sending him flying backwards and into another.

The characters are very vividly described, and they are extremely believable. Drizzt has a very hard time trying to fit into the surface world, as he is a Drow; a dark elf. The dark elven society lives deep underground, in the Underdark, and are quite evil. Everyone fears the drow elves, and not only is he often refused to enter towns, he is quite frequently attacked by the guards. This causes great inner tormoil, as all he does is try to do good, but he cannot live down the reputation of his people. Bruenor Battlehammher is a surly old dwarf, who has trouble expressing himself to his friends, but they know he cares just the same. His adopted human daughter, Cattie-brie, keeps everyone sane (and alive) with her blatant logic and intelligence. And then of course there is the assassin, Artemis Entreri. The polar opposite of Drizzt, he abandoned his emotions long ago, but still matches Drizzt's skill in battle, and they both strive to prove that the path they chose in life was right The other characters you will simply have to meet for yourself.

There is of course a reason I gave it four stars. The manuscript was quite obviously scanned, and never read over. M's turn into two r's, y's into v's, stuff like that. It is still quite readable, and only happens every few pages, not every few sentences. If it would really bother you, just buy the seperate books.

If you liked Tolkien, you will like this. If you like fantasy novels, you will like this. If you can read, you will like this.

Salvatore is brilliant. There's no doubt about that. Heck, if I could make as much money off of one of my characters as Bob's made off of Drizzt, I could die a happy man. The Icewind Dale Trilogy is a work of art, beautifully written and wonderfully played out. Within this book, you will find some of the best characters in ANY novel, fantasy or otherwise. The only problem is the typos. There's probably 1 typo every 3-4 pages. y's become v's, l's become I's, etc. It seems they scanned Salvatore's hand-written work through a text analyser and didn't thoroughly proof-read it. It doesn't destroy the book, not by any means, but it does become a bit irritating. This is one of the best stories I have ever read, and would LOUDLY suggest it to anyone who can read the English language -- or any language this book has been translated into. But, if typos really bother you alot, buy the seperate paperbacks instead of the hardcover, because there's definitely a healthy amount of em.

First of all, let me say I was not much of a fantasy fan. I am a die-hard horror fan, so I passed all the opportunities to read any fantasy novel.

That ended when I started playing D&D and decided to buy the Icewind Dale Trilogy. Let me just say this, Salvatore's characters--the drow elf Drizzt, the HUGE barbarian Wulfgar, the battle hardened dwarf Bruenor, the lovable young lass Cattie-Brie, the mischievous but kind-hearted halfling Regis...even Gwenhwyvar, Drizzt's other-planar panther familiar--are greatly fleshed out, and the adventures they participate in are nothing sort of spectacular.

Why didn't I give this book five stars? Well, because of the annoying typos. And let me say that there are a lot of typos throughout this version. I've read below that the separate paperbacks are free of these typos, but the complete version is riddled with them. But anyway, this was no obstacle to enjoy this masterpiece.

So, is this book worth buying? Surely, if it made a hardcore horror fan like myself be interested in the fantasy genre, I bet any fantasy fan will love this book.

This is an example of how important all elements of the book production proccess are. R.A Salvatore, in his first crack at being a writer, has come up with some of the most real fantasy characters ever. The stories are great. 5 stars to him.

But this isn't the book to get - go for the paperback, or the individual books of the trilogy.

Other reviewers have hinted at the typos, and they are everywhere. This is a hardback, a "Collecter's Edition", even, and a book-loving customer should be able to expect a certain amount of quality for the price. Nice pages, fine printing, a good heft, etc.

Having some experience with scanning and optical character recognition, I can confidently say, from the kinds of mistakes, that this book is a scanned-in version of the originals. How in the abyss that happened I'll never guess, but it did. A 'u' was mistaken for 'ij' - many 'y's are 'v's. A BRACKET showed up in place of an l. Even a tilde '~', the symbol that basically means "Hey, user, I can't figure out what this letter is supposed to be" is in there. Some pages have two or even three errors.

It is almost as if the first draft out of the OCR program got sent to the printers. For the price of a few copies of this "Collecter's Edition", a high-schooler could have spent an afternoon catching 90% of the mistakes.

It's fair to say I expected more. Shame on Wizards of the Coast.

I have to admit I was not a very big fan of the D&D world. But after reading Salvatores Icewind Dale Trilogy, I am hooked. He has a way to make almost anything seem interesting, and takes enough time to vividly describe whats goin' down.

I had no problem understanding what most of the monsters looked like, or the characters for that matter.

If you are a D&D veterain or just a newb wanting to get into the D&D universe, I highly recomend getting any of Salvatores books. I did, and I love them all.

I do however recomend this series order below. For all of his books with Dizzt in it.

1) Icewind Dale Trilogy
2) The Dark Elf Trilogy - This is a prequal to Icewind Dale but you should read Icewind Dale before reading this.
3) Legacy of the Drow - four book series
4) Paths of Darkness - four book series
5) The Hunter's Blades Trilogy

While not a huge fan of huge fantasy collections such as Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms, R.A. Salvatore has made me reconsider my position. This series is simply fantastic! It is full of non-stop action by characters I quickly learned to love for their deep, well-crafted personalities. I guess I first read the series years and years and YEARS ago shortly after it first came out, but it had been so long I remembered almost none of it. The Icewind Dale Trilogy brought me back to my younger days of hard-core fantasy reading. Only one bad thing to say -- reading this particular edition is an absolute horror as to typos. Definitely read the series, but buy the paperbacks separately. It will save you money and vastly improve your enjoyment, plus get the cover art for all three!