Icewind Dale Trilogy [Import] [Hardcover]

R.A. Salvatore (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast (December 31, 2002)
• ISBN-10: 0786929065
• ISBN-13: 978-0786929061
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

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

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Action Filled Journey in the Classical Fantasy Light, April 13, 2005

By 

George L. Dziuk III "Grimwyrm" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Icewind Dale: Gift Set (The Icewind Dale Trilogy) (Paperback)

R. A. Salvatore can be credited with single handedly bringing The Forgotten Realms and Drizzt Do'Urden into the minds and hearts of fantasy lovers everywhere. Being one of his first serious works, The Icewind Dale trilogy is a fun and action packed story with it's strongest trait being the extraordinarily detailed characters that inhabit it's pages.

The first book tells the tale of a community located in the ice filled north. These harsh conditions set the tone for a book filled with magical beings, dragons, and fantasy races of all kinds (namely dwarves, humans, elves, and dark elves). While the central conflict remains the defense of Ten Towns against a maddened wizard, what the story really focuses on is the central characters: Wulfgar the Barbarian, Drizzt the dark elf ranger, Bruenor the dwar, Catti-Brie the mage, and Regis the halfling.

The second book whisks the main characters off to the warmer and more dangerous southern coasts along the Sea of Swords. Salvatore increases his boundaries and really fleshes out the world he is slowly creating. It is really in this book that the story begins to really focus on Drizzt Do'Urden: his past, his present, and his future. Some critics have stated that Salvatore focuses almost too much on this much-loved dark elf. I would tend to agree, but that does not mean that this wonderful character and his night-filled past isn't worth exploring.

The concluding book in the trilogy remains (in my opinion) the least powerful of the three books, while introducing one of the more enjoyable villains who goes on to become a regular feature of future Salvatore books: Artemis Entreri. As with the other two books, you find yourself less and less caring about the overall story and just waiting for the time to come around when Drizzt and Artemis are going to square off.

The work itself exemplifies what R.A. Salvatore is very good at: creating characters that are filled with emotions, experiences, and character that are put in situations where you learn more and more about them. What you find is that you could care less about the overall story and look forward to the interactions between these very diverse people as they interact (or sometimes are forced to interact) with each other.

Overall, I recommend this book as a fun-filled summer read which is relatively light, but full of adventure. As the characters, especially Drizzt, hack and slash their way through hordes of undead, goblins, dragons and demons they endear themselves to you in a way where you want to pick up the next trilogy just to see where they will go next. In a way, these characters are the equivalent of fantasy superheroes and the story is almost a drawn out comic book in that the characters may find themselves tore apart, but they always manage to come back and save the day.

The one discredit I will give this book is that it, along with The Dragonlance Chronicles, began the era of cookie-cutter fantasy books which now fill the shelves of numerous bookstores around the country. Dragonlance is particularly prone to this problem. That being the case you have to be very selective in your choosing a book set in either of these two realms as you never know the quality of the story you are about to read. With that in mind though, a rich world full of delightful characters await the reader who turns their mind onto The Icewind Dale Trilogy.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Series, October 2, 2005

By 

Shadow (Kearney, Ne United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Icewind Dale: Gift Set (The Icewind Dale Trilogy) (Paperback)

The Icewind Dale trilogy is an excellent story, and is originally the first set of books that introduced the character of Drizzt, who is well known and loved among many people who know of the Forgotten Realms universe. And I really recommend the trilogy in the boxed-set form, even if you already have the series in loose form or all-in-one form, because the art work on the slip cover for the boxset is beautiful.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some of the best fantasy you'll ever read., July 19, 2005

By 

I-Zombie "iz" (Right Behind you) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Icewind Dale: Gift Set (The Icewind Dale Trilogy) (Paperback)

I went from reading light fantasy and sci-fi to this trilogy. R.A. Salvatore opened my eyes to the world of high fantasy, deep plots and well developed characters. He draws you in to his world and makes you feel and care about the people and places he describes. Icewind Dale is some of the best fantasy I have ever read. I will be sure to read Salvatores entire catalog.