Drizzt Books R. A. Salvatore (Spoilers!)

[Shingetsu]

I hadn’t planned on making this thread till I finished The Orc King, but damn thoughts won’t go away until I write this stuff now. I just read 16 of the Drizzt books in little over a month and just read the Prologue to The Orc King, the latest of the Drizzt books. I haven’t read the two side-series by R. A. Salvatore, not sure if I will or not yet since it’s not about the main characters.

I started the thread because I want to ask what is the future of the Drizzt books? The Prologue of The Orc King bothers me allot too. Is that really suppose to be the future of the Forgotten Realms with orcs running everything, or is Bob (easier than saying R. A. Salvatore all the time) just showing what it could be like?

After this current trilogy does he plan to move forward 100 years and only have Drizzt still there of the main characters? Or is he done with the series (certainly wouldn’t think so)? I don’t think I’d like reading the books without Bruenor, Regis, Wulfgar, and Catti-brie. Though I could accept it mostly if only Catti-brie is still with Drizzt. Which is why I think some magic, or item, or curse, should keep her young and able to stay with Drizzt for his entire life span. And if he is moving the story forward is it because Catti-brie is like 35 now and only getting older?

I’m probably just being paranoid or something since the rest of the book is normal and continues from where The Two Swords left off (except the Epilogue). But still wish to discuss the future of the series. Is the other two books in the series going to have the same future Prologues and Epilogues? To be setup for the next trilogy to be in the future or something?

 

[Joel007]

I think the answer to all that is: Only Bob knows.

It would be interesting to see Catti-brie gain a lifespan extension, and since it is fantasy that would be easily achieveable.
I do get a bit tired of Drizzt, I thought the Entreri - Jarlaxle relationship was something fresh and fun.
I have yet to read the Orc King, I tend to read Salvatore as something quick and light in between my bigger books. I imagine it will be a quickly changing world which exists to provide the characters we know with interesting challenges. You know, just like always: with the Dark elves attacking, trolls invading, power crazed wizards and demons scheming, and of course the orcs charging!

 

[Werthead]

What's happening is that the 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons - and simultaneously the 4th Edition of Forgotten Realms - are about to be released, and in the 4th Edition of Forgotten Realms the timeline has been moved forward 104 years (from 1375 to 1479 Dalereckoning). So Salvatore's new series is a 'bridge' from one timespan to the next. Most, if not all, new Realms fiction will be set in the new timeline and most human and non-elven NPCs will be shown to have died in the interim (is Bruenor gone as well? He wasn't that old for a dwarf and should still be around). This was because the Realms were getting a little over-complicated and the designers wanted a 'fresh start' by pushing the timeline forward and devastating parts of the continent with a magical cataclysm called the Spellplague.

As for Salvatore's attitude, he basically wanted to kill Drizzt in Siege of Darkness and have him give his life for his friends during the battle at Mithril Hall. TSR (who owned D&D at the time) wouldn't let him and threatened to have someone else come in and write the books. Salvatore reluctantly returned and wrote Passage to Dawn almost at gunpoint (explaining why it's such an amazingly bad novel). After WotC took over, Salvatore found he had a better relationship with them but they still weren't keen on him killing Drizzt. This is probably why all the Drizzt books since Passage, although readable, haven't been as good as the Icewind Dale, Dark Elf and Legacy trilogies.

For the future, only Salvatore and WotC know. Salvatore has become big enough that he doesn't really need Drizzt in order to go on making a living, and WotC probably aren't quite as desperate to keep hold of Drizzt as TSR were, so I wouldn't be too surprised to see Drizzt being killed off at some point in the future. Twenty novels is more than enough to explore one character, and I think Drizzt is starting to become a bit of a caricature of himself if Salvatore isn't careful.

 

[D_Davis]

There are 16 Drizzt books now?

Holy franchise Batman!

Wow, that is amazing. I liked the original Icewind Dale Trilogy, quite a bit really, but I thought the first Drizzt trilogy was really poorly written and executed. There comes a point when a character is just too cool, and too awesome. Drizzt became kind of boring, at least to me.

I'll have to look into these on going adventures.

 

[Shingetsu]

17 including The Orc King. Plus two side-series (but not centering around Drizzt). As for Bob killing Drizzt...Wow never would have thought that he would want to kill him off. And thanks allot for the info Werthead. I sure do hate the thought of moving forward 104 years. Bruenor should technically be alive still, but in the Prologue of The Orc King Drizzt made it kind of sound as if he were dead when talking to those CCC guys or whatever. Regis does have a longer life span than humans, but I don't think he'd still be around after a hundred years. Wulfgar and Catti-brie would obviously be dead without some sort of intervention (which I wish very much for at least Catti-brie).

Yuck, the future sounds like crap. Every friend dead. All he has is Catti-brie's bow, his two swords, and Guenhwyvar. And he apparently serves Orcs...Who believe they are more superior to the other races of course (at least that's how King Obould VI viewed things in the Prologue).

Bob sure isn't making it easy for me to want to read the series anymore after this trilogy. I think I'd rather remember when things were better than too ruin it by reading about a future that has nothing good but Drizzt. And a Drizzt who is less without the friends he's had for the last 20 years.

 

[Werthead]

I was checking out the other new releases and the other new Forgotten Realms novel that came out this month (Blades of the Moonsea, I think) is also set in 1479, although in this case the whole book is set in that time period, not just the prologue and epilogue. So I think this is the way things are going to be from now on.

 

[Shingetsu]

I don't see why Bob or others have to move it forward just because of something else. Or do they have to follow whatever they say since they have rights to Forgotten Realms? Still, sounds like it's all for the worse to me.

 

[Werthead]

Wizards of the Coast own all the Forgotten Realms books and characters. They could take Drizzt off Salvatore and give him to someone else to write if they wished. However, they also know that Salvatore brought a lot of fans to the setting who would probably desert if they did that, so there's an agreement where Salvatore is the only person who can write Drizzt, but he has to follow directives from on high.

Drizzt should be around for the long haul though. He's only about 88 in the 'current' books, and will be about 190 in the new ones, still well short of middle years (drow live for up to 600 years, although given their dangerous lifestyles few make it past 400).

My understanding is that the entire Realms product and novel line has to shift to the new time period by the end of this year. Occasional 'retro' books set in the past are going to appear, but the focus is on the new setting and the new time period.

I think Paul S. Kemp - whose character Erevis Cale is attracting the beginnings of a fanbase which is rather reminiscent of Drizzt's early days - is rather glade he turned Cale into a Chosen of Mask, as that hopefully means he'll still be kicking around in the new Realms as well.

 

[Shingetsu]

I think it sucks enough and I've only known the characters for a bit over a month, it must be really bad to those who've read the series from when it first started. Unless they've come to accept the inevitable a long time ago, or have just become resigned to the fate of the series.

Oh well, I'm sure I'll stop thinking about it in a couple weeks when I've read a few more books of some other series. That's usually how it works for me. Then bring it all back when the next hardcover is released, then another two weeks...etc. and so on.

 

[dekket]

The whole Spellplague idea is to simplify the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, which was apparantly getting too crowded and complicated.
Unfortunately this is going to basically destroy civilisation as the Realms now knows it, and revert the setting to a 'points of light' style campaign (i.e. a few safe areas surrounded by monster/brigand filled wilderness).
The changes to the setting will naturally disrupt the books, and I really don't believe I will keep reading/collecting them post "spellplague".
Which is a pity, as I enjoyed the setting.

 

[Werthead]

The problem with the Realms is that the narrative airspace in the 'present day' got too crowded. If you look at the timelines, or The Grand History of the Realms that just came out, you can see that the years 1370-75 (the lifespan of D&D 3rd Edition) are packed with more events than the previous century combined, and some of those events are massive (the rage of dragons, the return of Netheril, the fall and rise of Zhentil Keep, Thay opening its borders, Mulhorand's invasion of Unther, Tethyr's reclamation, the war between Amn and the ogres, the founding of the Silver Marches, the rise of Obould and the Many-Arrows kingdom etc). Back in 2nd Edition they set maybe a few novels each year in the Realms and with very few exceptions they were adventure stories with no major impact on the world, like the earlier Drizzt books.

Now every series has a MAJOR impact on the world and all the events and characters are important and need to be cross-referenced and mentioned in every book and every gaming product. Wizards of the Coast did the exact thing that TSR were very careful not to: they let the novels take over the direction of the setting, whilst they should be ancillary. Wizards got themselves into this mess and rather than straighten it out logically (slow everything down, close off the narrative arcs left hanging from 3E) they've decided to nuke the setting instead.

It's massively controversial and a lot of fans have said they're going to ignore the Spellplague entirely when they switch to 4E.

 

[Shingetsu]

Thank gods, finally finished The Orc King. There certainly were quite a few depressing parts in that book. But nothing worse than the shadow over the book that none of it even matters any more since it's a hundred years later...I think I hate WotC. I think it's best to center my hate on them. Though if Bob had killed Drizzt I would have hated him too.

What kind of crap is Wulfgar giving Colson back to her birth mother, while she cries out "Da!" of course. He contradicts himself. He said the tundra is no place for a child, any child. Yet he wishes to start a family with a barbarian woman and have children, having them grow up on the frozen tundra of Icewind Dale. I think Bob might just be saying "F*** it," and trying to cause as much annoying drama to the fans as possible. I'd laugh if he kills Catti-brie or any of the other Companions of the Hall in the next two books.

Oh well, I suppose I should calm down now and charge into a new series. Thanks again for the more info Werthead, you've cleared allot things up for me (none of them good, but oh well).