Customer Reviews

Icewind Dale Trilogy

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

If you really didn't like the books, why don't you post several you did like?

Drizzt is one of the finest and noblest characters ever written. The Crystal Shard portrays him best as wild and fearless, as well as honorable and stoic. I look up to his uncorruptable character in my own life.

The second half of Streams of Silver is at the very top of my favorite fantasy book list. The action, the fights, just blew me away the first time I read it.

It is true that the novels can be clownish, and lack dimension at times, but in the end there is much there to be discovered.

I bought the first book, the crystal shard back when I was in 9th Grade and just finished it the end of my junior year of highschool. (I put the book down for a while then lost it amongst other books later to be found and finished junior year). Not only was it a personal acomplishment being that it took me an great amount of time to finish such a small book, it brought me into a whole new world of hobbys. I finished Streams of Silver and the Halflings Gem on the following weekend. Just today I went out and bought The Legacy of the Drow, The Dark Elf Trilogy and The Cleric Quintet, in hopes to totaly bury myself within them till I have read them all. IM HOOKED!!! The Icewind Dale Trilogy byfar was a ground braking read for myself for I never really considered myself a "reader" and the thought of sitting down and finishing 2 books in 2 night sounded more of a punishment then pleasure. Now I find myself reaching for any R.A Salvatore book in reach, just trying even if for a split second to loose myself within his writing. I particularly took a liking to Artemis Entreri whom I now found myself wanting more of towards the end of the trilogy. Although his character eventually dimed towards the last few pages I was not disapointed by the way he handled Rassiter and his final dialogue. In conclusion I loved these books, all fulfilled my exspectations to a "T" and would now consider myself a fan of the master of Fergotten Realms, R.A Salvatore.

I have to say that I wasnt a big reader before reading this trilogy. After reading this I have to say that the Drizzt character grew on me real fast. Once I started to read this I didnt want to stop. Still my other favorite character is Artemis Antreri the assasin which in turn is Drizzt's arch-nemesis (badass)he rocks. This trilogy will bring all over different places in this world, non-stop action, interesting/mysterious main characters, Dragons!, enchanted weapons, Etc,etc. So far ive read 9 of The Legend Of Drizzt books & Im dreading the day that I finish reading them all. U must read these books Strech your mind use your imagination & loose yourself in this awesome adventure. So far ive gotten 3 of my friends to read this trilogy & all are now officialy fans of The Legend Of Drizzt.

Fantastic !! This kept me so very interested that I just had to continue with the series. R.A. Salvatore is an exceptional author and you know if you purchase any of his books that they will always hold your interest to the very last page. In reading his books, you feel as if you are involved in all of the breath-taking action !! C. Pekkala

I bought the first book, the crystal shard back when I was in 9th Grade and just finished it the end of my junior year of highschool. (I put the book down for a while then lost it amongst other books later to be found and finished junior year). Not only was it a personal acomplishment being that it took me an ungodly amount of time to finish such a small book, it brought me into a whole new world of hobbys. I finished Streams of Silver and the Halflings Gem on the following weekend. Just today I went out and bought The Legacy of the Drow, The Dark Elf Trilogy and The Cleric Quintet, in hopes to totaly bury myself within them till I have read them all. IM HOOKED!!! The Icewind Dale Trilogy byfar was a ground braking read for myself for I never really considered myself a "reader" and the thought of sitting down and finishing 2 books in 2 night sounded more of a punishment then pleasure. Now I find myself reaching for any R.A Salvatore book in reach, just trying even if for a split second to loose myself within his writing. I particularly took a liking to Artemis Entreri whom I now found myself wanting more of towards the end of the trilogy. Although his character eventually dimed towards the last few pages I was not disapointed by the way he handled Rassiter and his final dialogue. In conclusion I loved these books, all fulfilled my exspectations to a "T" and would now consider myself a fan of the master of Fergotten Realms, R.A Salvatore.

This is one of Salvatore's most brilliant works. From the opening paragraph of the first book to the last sentence of the final book, you are engrossed with the story. The will have to be some routine altering changes when you start reading this, you will never want to put it down.

I myself couldn't be torn away from it and was left anxious to read more about Drizzt Do'Urden and his friends. I am waiting right now on the next set of Salvtore's books that expands the tale the title character, Drizzt.

Read this! You'll never regret it if you are a fan of the genre.

Minus the long tedious comments, the book is excellently crafted and depicts well orchestrated battles and harmony of character development and story-pacing narration. Definitely will be pasted down to my next generation descendants. slightly mature (for the teenage audience)though. R.A. Salvatore has sold me on the Genre if not all his works.