Customer Reviews

The Orc King: Transitions, Book I

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The Orc King by R.A. Salvatore is the first book in his new trilogy titled Transitions. The second book in this trilogy is titled the Pirate King and will be published in October, 2008; the third and final book of this trilogy is titled the Ghost King and is set to be published in October, 2009. For fans of the Mr. Salvatore's trademark character, Drizzt, this novel picks up right after the events of the The Hunter's Blades Trilogy Collector's Edition (Forgotten Realms)Trilogy, in particular The Two Swords (The Hunter's Blades Trilogy, Book 3). If you are just happening among the Drizzt saga, I highly suggest you go back and start from the beginning of his story with Homeland: The Dark Elf Trilogy, Part 1 (Forgotten Realms: The Legend of Drizzt, Book I) which is book one of the The Dark Elf Trilogy, Collector's Edition (Homeland, Exile, Sojourn). Of course, you can most likely read this book without the entire history, but several references and stories will lose most of their luster and meaning.

As I said above, the plot of this book picks up right after the events of the Two Swords in that Obould still has his orc army camped, and fortifying, outside of Mithral Hall. The main storyline of this book is how the dwarves want to deal with an uneasy peace between the two groups. There are also several subplots sprinkled throughout this novel as well. Things such as political infighting within the orc ranks, there is the story arc of Wulfgar and Cattie-brie trying to find Colson - and just what do they do with her if they find her, and then there is Breunor's quest to find the lost dwarven city of Gauntlgrym. There are also a couple other subplots included, but I will refrain from discussing those due to the spoiler potential. As with almost ever Salvatore book, the plot lines and overall story are well conceived and executed to near perfection. The pacing of this novel is also spot on. It's written in such a way as to defy the reader to put the book down. Fans of Salvatore will most assuredly appreciate the depth and scope of this novel.

The characters in this novel are largely the characters that fans have become familiar with over the past several years. Mainstays such as Drizzt, Cattie-brie, Bruenor, Wulfgar, and Regis all make appearances in this novel. While this book is billed as a Drizzt novel, and he is certainly front and center of many scenes, it appears that this book is really more about Obould and his situation. One drawback of reading about certain characters for so many years, is that the characters tend to become complacent and bland. After all, one can assume that there is really only so much character development that can go into a character. However, with this novel, Mr. Salvatore throws that out the winder and appears to be reshaping a few of his characters. There is a great deal of character development for several of the `big name' characters. Just who they are, and what those developments are, you will have to read the book for. I don't want to spoil anything. It is nice to see the sometimes subtle changes occurring, along with the blatantly obvious changes. It adds a sense of realism to the characters, but more importantly it adds a sense of uncertainty. All through the Hunter's Blade Trilogy I never felt that any of the main characters were in any danger, however, this book (and hopefully the trilogy) gave me a sense of uneasiness towards the characters. I didn't have that feeling that the characters were invincible. A subtle change, but a very important one in my opinion.

Traditional Forgotten Realms fans will be particularly interested in the prelude of this novel. It offers readers a glimpse of Drizzt's life one hundred years into the future. The title of this trilogy, Transitions, is a harbinger of things to come, both in the life of Drizzt and company, but also to the Forgotten Realms as a whole. It appears there are dramatic changes in store for the Realms, time will tell just how dramatic they truly are.

Fans of Salvatore will no doubt enjoy this book. It offers everything that he is known for; solid characters, enjoyable plots, and well choreographed fight scenes. Mr. Salvatore's prose is like wearing an old pair of shoes. No matter how many times you wear them, they are just as comfortable as before.

This novel is a very good addition to the Drizzt saga. It furthers the story of many characters and resolves several issues that have been left hanging over the past couple books. It also advances the Forgotten Realms a little, which is something that Salvatore does not always do. I am fairly confident that most Forgotten realms fans will enjoy this novel, I know I certainly did. You may be asking yourself, if I liked this book so much, why only a four start rating. While I really enjoyed this novel, I didn't feel the wow factor. I like to try and save the five stars for truly special books, and while this is certainly a very good book there is something missing, not sure what but there is just something missing to make it truly a great book. Never-the-less, I would still recommend this book to most fantasy fans.

(Spoiler Free Review)

This book begins with a Prelude that spoils parts of the book. But it really has nothing to do with the actual events in the story, so you should SKIP IT! I wish someone told me to SKIP THE PRELUDE. I would have enjoyed the book a lot more. If you really want, you can read the Prelude after you finish the book.

Chapter 1 picks up, right where The Hunter's Blades Trilogy ended. Obould is camped right outside of Mithril Hall. Tensions are high as Buenor, Drizzt, and Company search for answers in the ancient city of Gauntlgrym. The dark elf Tos'un Armgo is still on the loose. The story progresses from there.

I have to admit, the last trilogy felt repetitive. Part of me actually started rooting for the orcs to kill one of the heroes to shake things up a bit. Well, this book shakes things up... quite a bit. The characters develop more in this book than any of the preceeding books; and it's a great change of pace.

I'm really looking forward to the next book, Pirate King.

The action ranges from overly complex to very good in this book. By overly complex, R.A. Salvatore describes some of the attacks in too much detail and it bogs down the action. In other parts, the action is what you'd come to expect in a Drizzt Novel: Very Good.

The book is well written and well paced. I'd say it's one of the better Drizzt novels. If you're a fan of Drizzt and you've been keeping up, then you'll really like this book. If you stopped reading Drizzt a while back, this book is a good reason to catch up again.

I've enjoyed all of the 19 Drizzt Books and I've got to say that R.A. Salvatore hasn't written a bad one yet. Some are better than others, but none of them are bad. That's pretty amazing.

First off, the book opens with a scene from a future that is a good leap ahead of the prior storyline. From that brief glimpse, a great deal of the bulk of the book is rendered dull since the suspense is gone. (I look at this the same as with various prequel movies. There is no suspense since we know who lives into the later movies, so a great deal of the drama is muted.)

Picking up where the prior novel left off, along with the tidbit in a short story in a recent anthology, Salvatore furthers the development of the orc kingdom growing outside Mithral Hall. I was pleased that there is actually some storyline resolution from prior books, though they are such a minor part of this book that they could have been omitted. These include the path that Wulfgar chooses even before setting off to recover his adopted daughter. If the reader had not read Spine of the World, then the details of Wulfgar's story might seem a bit confusing, but a decent enough job is done of filling in that blank.

We see Catti-Brie dealing with the severe injury she suffered in the last book, and perhaps choosing a completely new path as he abilities as a warrior are impacted perhaps beyond recovery. It's strange to think of her in the role that Salvatore seems to have chosen for her, though.

Drizzt and Bruenor get some actual development in this book, which is a nice thing to see from such well-established characters. Rather than allow them to coast, he again delivers significant challenges to them, both in terms of their philosophies and their opponents in combat.
Salvatore delivers his typically-detailed and well-written battle scenes, which despite my earlier complaint about knowing the outcome in advance, still kept me turning the pages without pause.

I liked this book, but I am hoping that the next in the series does a better job of moving things forward without having so many peripheral bits tacked on here and there. I think that his previous book (with Entreri and Jarlaxle) was a better read than this one, but I had no regrets in this one.

Why a "3"? Well, perhaps that's because parts of this latest "Drizzt" story merit a solid "4", while others barely earn a "2".

The fact of the matter is that it's painfully obvious that R.A. Salvatore long ago stoped caring as much about certain characters and elements within his greater storyline. With the "Orc King" , Mr. Salvatore has taken the opportunity to wrap them up as well as possible.

An example of this is Wulfgar, who has been bounced about in so many different directions ever since his return in "Passage to Dawn"--and mostly unsuccessfully. After turns as a hell-haunted wreck, a self-loathing alcoholic, a hard-bitten hero and a reluctant father, the once majestic barbarian finally seems to have been put out to pasture... and in a rather mediocre way, in my humble opinion. I say mediocre because, looking back at the Icewind Dale Trilogy and "The Legacy", I never imagined that Wulfgar's primary contribution prior to being shown the door would be to ENSURE US that Delly Curtie was, in fact, MUCH MORE than people assumed that poor barmaid was. Add to that a series of painfully forced scenes of the adorable adopted daughter cooing "Da" to him as he continues to lament his lack of legacy, and you have one of your "Transitions", wrapped up.

Catti-Brie seems to be taking a new direction as well, which is probably for the best seeing as how the Companions needed an additional fighter like I need another ear--and seeing as how Mr. Salvatore has been struggling for some time to make her a part of the action (most notably, in coming up with places from which she could shoot her bow). It remains to be seen how well this will work out... and how much time is alloted to her for this to happen. After all, Mr. Salvatore has dropped many more hints regarding her mortality and, ahem, biological clock, than he did for Wulfgar.

Finally, the motivations behind the political endstate seems somewhat contrived and illogical--the product of a need to follow an established game world's direction rather than sensible story-telling. Ultimately, that's the problem with writing novels based on a gaming world. The greater metaplot will force contrived, ill-fitting concepts on stories that largely were intended for different directions. It's either that, or Salvatore undertook an almost schizophrenic change of direction with the relations between Dwarf and Orc.

Having said all that... The action sequences are very well written. The villains, especially those new ones (and some of the established ones), work very well. "Transitions" is a theme that also applies to characters outside of the Companions... and I think one of those will be a pleasant surprise to the readers.

Established fans of the series will obviously enjoy this book, but those of us who were spoiled by the far superior Sellsword novels and the earlier Drizzt yarns will likely be somewhat ho-hum about this one. Sit back, enjoy, but don't expect anything mind-blowing.

(edited on 25 May, for clarification and grammar)

Excellent book which picks up where The Two Swords left off. Salvatore writes in his usual action packed style here, and the flow is good. What I especially liked about this book was that we see each of the companion's inner struggles as they move on to the next chapter of their lives. Truly, there are transitions occurring, at many levels.

The prelude and epilogue are glimpses of the future, which really leaves me wondering what the second book of this series will be about, and how this will affect each character's continued journey.

Fans of Forgotten Realms will be intrigued by the changes occurring in the world, while fans of the stories will be excited by the changes in the characters.

As a side note, this is really the 4th book of the Hunter's Blades Trilogy, which neatly sews up that series. It really should have been a quartet, with this being the final book. Highly recommended for all fans of fantasy.

Overall:
I am rating this 4 stars for the overall effect of the book. The character development is fairly good (a nice change for a Drizzt novel) but the rest of it feels a bit worn as well as a social comment on the current times not high fantasy.

Detail:
The book opens with a scene from Drizzt in the future 100 years. The scene is an interesting idea but really should have been saved for the end of the book. It ruins the little suspense that is present in any of the recent Drizzt books. The foreshadowing technique being used in the scene is ham-handed at best.

Quite a few minor plot lines are closed in some rather brutally short ways. The number of side characters killed is fairly high which actually makes sense given the orc army situations. It is good to see the orc using some actual tactics and strategies...evil does not mean you are stupid.

The truce between the Dwarves and the Orcs is an interesting plot twist that has reach into the very structure of the Forgotten Realms multiverse. R.A. Salvatore pushes a philosophy of live and let live through Drizzt's musings and the truce. The entire book seemed to be an analog for the US involvement in the war in Iraq where the US are the Dwarves. The message is not necessarily one of appeasment but rather what is the point of fighting as you can not completely wipe out your enemy so you will have to deal with them at some level. So, why not pick the place, time and define the relationship to be one of mutual benefit -- live and let live. The war of conflicting cultures and value systems are boiled down to a simplistic view which seems naive and counter-productive to me.

The pragmatic Obould is a nice change from the mindless typical goblinkind(goblic, kobold, orc, orge, etc). However, the reason for the change to pragmatixm and civilization building by Obould is not clearly defined but implied. The 180 degree turn by Obould is a bit hard to believe. He maybe showing some great wisdom but the entire time Salvatore is implying the nature of the goblinkind will take over at some point and go to chaotic evil mode again. Frankly, the concept of a high Orc civilization does not make sense given everything in the Forgetten Realms multiverse.

Drizzt, Breunor, and Wulfgar get some nice character development. Wulfgar is transitioned to get his own series aka all dangling plot ties are cut. Regis, Breunor, Drizzt and Cattie-Brie are clearly going to be adventuring in the next books. The addition of To'sun as a recurring character is a good thing (hopefully, he will not just be a warmed over version of Drizzt).

Ratings:
--------
Plot: 3 stars (predictable and unsatisfying)
Characters: 4 stars (nice shake up)
Action: 3 stars (predictable)
Pacing: 4 stars (once the side plot lines were dispatched quickly)

I just finished this book. Salvatore has written another winner. The choices the characters have to make, the emotion that is in the book, the life struggles are simply awesome. The love story between Drizzt and Cattie are shown and talked about but it doesnt turn the book into a seedy romance novel, its just enough to know its there and plays in the back of your mind. Salvatore didnt let me down in his description of the battle scenes in the book, again I felt like I was right there watching the flashing metal, the sound of sword on sword.

I cant wait to get my hands on the next one. I only wish Salvatore could write as fast as I read, but it keeps me coming back for more.

I must say that even though I love this series, the past few trilogies have been repetitive, very repetitive and somewhat bland. The Orc King is different than those others: it reshapes virtually everything we have come to know in Salvatore's world.

For example (without spoiling):

-Boundaries are shaped.
-Revelations are made
-A character's plot is finished or at least halted
-A character comes to look at battle in a whole new light (and I must say I love this little turn and have been wondering why a character didn't turn this way previously)

Read this book! It will not disappoint.

The orc king Obould, has been slowed, but now he seems to have adopted other tactics. Is he waiting, hoping to lull the dwarves, humans and elves to complacency, or does he really envision a world where orcs can live as other sentient beings, existing in their own kingdom, ruled by members of their own race, and trading with, rather than raiding their traditional enemies? Of course, even if Obould does want peace, that doesn't mean he'll get it. Many within the elf, and especially dwarf kingdoms steam for revenge. And more and more orcs, emerging from dark caves where they've long hidden, want war no matter what their king may claim.

Dark Elf Drizzt Do'Urden sees the potential for peace, but he sees its costs as well. With both orc and dwarf crying for war, and with virtually nobody trusting a drow, it doesn't seem likely he'll have any say over the future--especially when his own wife is one of the loudest in calling for revenge.

Author R. A. Salvatore (see more BooksForABuck.com reviews of novels by Salvatore) spins his continuing fantasy series in a direction that's been foreshadowed in the past few novels, but that nevertheless offers an exciting change in pace. Rather than seeing orcs as convenient fodder for more beautiful heroes, Salvatore conceives them as sapient entities, driven by the same motives that drive all other sapients. Obould represents a possible new direction, but Salvatore is careful to give us hints that there was a time before, in the forgotten past, where orcs and dwarves worked together. Was that time undone by treason, or could it come again? Those of us who have been calling for something a bit more thoughtful than the usual mindless killing will certainly welcome this direction.

Although THE ORC KING is about the potential for peace, Salvatore gives us plenty of violence and individual heroics to keep us turning the pages. Epic battles between Drizzt and fellow Drow Tos'un, between Drizzt and Jack the Gnome, between the dwarf-king and the orc chieftain, and many others are intricately choreographed and exciting.

Although Salvatore is writing epic fantasy, it's hard not to see how his story is influenced by the destructive forces of war in our own world. The hope for peace, not with those we love but those we itch to battle with, is the great challenge of the day. Salvatore suggests that easy answers may not exist, but that there is room to hope. I certainly hope he's right.

I have loved the Drizzt stories for so long, but the last 3 books have really let me down. The characters are not who we fell in love with.

"Spoiler Alert"

Cattie-Brie can't fight anymore alongside Drizzt, in fact the whole Drizzt & Cattie-Brie relationship build up was an entire let down (Salvatore can write about swords slashes and shoulder slams but has no ability to write about love). Wulfgar's character has been completely ruined, he should have stayed dead and not brought back to just torture him. Broenor isn't his reasonable self anymore, granted he's always been brash and quick tempered but in this novel and the previous few he simply refuses to listen to advice and it gets rather annoying. Even Regis who has become a favorite character since he now enjoys adventure isn't himself. Everyone knows that a good story needs a great character surrounded by a great cast. Salvatore's latest installments in this storyline seem to be tearing this stellar cast apart. He introduces great new characters just to kill them off. The more I read his works, the more I seem to get annoyed by the predictability, as an aspiring author myself I know that stories need a good conflict to draw interest, but Salvatore's conflict is always the same. Grossly out numbered, Enemies always have better magic, and the odds are always astronomical and unbelievable. This book finally concludes the last 4-5 books main plot, the orc war, and its rather an unremarkable ending. It did not bring any kind of satisfaction. I bought this audio book and the latest two of this series from Audible and I couldn't even finish listening to the last two cause the characters have been ruined. I understand that all authors seem to lose interest in their characters after awhile, I would have rather seen this story just have a simple conclusion then to see it just become a terrible storyline. This is actually my first book series that I have begun loving and later began to hate and not even enjoy reading/listening to. Many obviously disagree and I wish I could have enjoyed this series as much as I loved the earlier books. I truly believe this is the Transition to the end for Drizzt and his companions. It makes me sad. It has caused me to write my first ever book review on Amazon.