Canticle - Introduction And Prologue
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i_read_whatNow that I've finished Renegades of Pern, it's time for a new book! And this one is going to be a very new book for me, because I've never read it.
Basically, while I've been (slowly) reviewing books in the Drizzt saga, I received a suggestion to review some of Mr. Salvatore's other Forgotten Realms books. It sounded like fun.
I don't think Salvatore's a bad writer at all. He delivers pretty fun action-adventure with characters that are vivid and engaging. Drizzt as a character annoys the hell out of me, but I actually really enjoyed his trilogy starring Artemis Entreri. I actually wonder if Salvatore isn't better at writing characters with more complex morality, rather than paragons of virtue. This might be an interesting test, because Canticle is the first book in the Cleric's Quintet. So I'm guessing the lead character, Cadderly, will also be fairly virtuous.
I think I might have encountered these characters before, in the Entreri books, but I don't remember them very well, so I shouldn't have too many preconceived notions.
So this book starts us with some doozies of names. "Aballister Bonaduce" is definitely a Forgotten Realmsian name, and not a particularly snappy one. I don't think we're going to see this guy in a list of great NPC wizards or anything.
He is a wizard though, as we see him talk to "Druzil", his bat-winged imp. He's planning a trip to "the most forbidding place in all the Realms" - the Great Glacier.
I think maybe Salvatore really just likes cold places. Anyway, I took a moment to google up a map of Faerun and the Great Glacier is not remotely connected to the Icewind Dale. It's actually really far to the northeast. It's a ways north of the Moonsea and above Damara. Good to know! (I vaguely recall Damara as that land Entreri visited, so that confirms my suspicion that I met these characters before. Entreri didn't much care for them, but that's pretty standard with villain protagonists. I'll see what I think.)
Anyway, neither Aballister or his familiar like the cold, but it's important to go to the Glacier for a "yote". I presume it's some kind of reagent.
Oh! We're also given a time indicator. This is something I don't remember popping up much in the Drizzt books, which often seem pretty disconnected from the greater setting (until Salvatore has to include stuff like the Spellplague.) But this is apparently two years out from the Time of Troubles.
I read those books! They were awful. Except for one, which was the best Forgotten Realms book I ever read. Weird how that works. (For the record, the amazing one was Crucible: the Trial of Cyric the Mad. Ask me about it sometime, I'll gush.) I might read them for the blog eventually. When I run out of obvious sources of pain.
ANYWAY. Aballister might be evil. I'm guessing this based on the fact that apparently, he was "shown the way" by an avatar of the goddess Talona. Talona, the narrative tells us, is the Lady of Poison. So yeah, probably a bad sign. Apparently Druzil had brought the recipe for a "chaos curse" and they need the yote as the last ingredient.
So they go through, and are greeted by some kind of yeti?
The hunched and hairy creature, resembling a more primitive form of human, grunted and growled and threw its crude spear, though Aballister and Druzil were surely far out of range. It howled again anyway, triumphantly, as though its throw had served some symbolic victory, and scooted back to the large gathering of its shaggy white kin.
Anyway, this guy's not friendly. Druzil's pretty enthused because he wants to watch his boss kick something's ass. Aballister, in good wizard fashion, clarifies that these guys are "taer". And well...
"They know not the might before them!" Aballister cried, his voice rising with his ire. All the terrible trials of two long and brutal years rolled through the wizard's thoughts in the span of a few seconds. A hundred men had died in search of the elusive ingredients for the chaos curse; a hundred men had given their lives so that Talona would be pleased. Aballister, too, had not escaped unscathed. Completing the curse had become his obsession, the driving force in his life, and he had aged with every step, had torn out clumps of his own hair every time the curse seemed to be slipping beyond his reach. Now he was close, so close that he could see the dark patch of yote just beyond the small ridge that held the taer cave complexes. So close, but these wretched, idiotic creatures stood in his way.
This provokes the taer. Aballister takes his time though, even when Druzil gets impatient. But then...
Just before his spell discharged, Aballister had a cruel thought and lifted the angle of his pointing finger. The fireball exploded above the heads of the startled taer, disintegrating the frozen bindings of the ice mountain. Huge blocks rained down, and a great rush of water swallowed those who had not been crushed. Several of the band floundered about in the ice and liquid morass, too stunned and overwhelmed to gain then-footing as the pool quickly solidified around them.
One pitiful creature did manage to struggle free, but Druzil hopped off Aballister's shoulder and swooped down upon him. The imp's claw-tipped tail whipped out as he passed by the stumbling creature, and Aballister applauded heartily.
Kaboom! I do admit, it can be really fun playing an evil wizard if you want a power fantasy.
The last creature dies from Druzil's sting. There are a few surviving taer struggling against the ice. Aballister doesn't care enough to kill them, but Druzil notes that Talona wouldn't approve. Aballister recognizes that Druzil just wants to go murder things and gives him the okay. He goes to get the yote.
A bit later, he comes back to where Druzil is tormenting the last, trapped taer. He tells him enough, and Druzil finishes the job by kissing the taer on the nose and then driving his stinger into its eye. Aw, poor thing.
So that's our intro. So far it's not terrible. Salvatore's gone back to his wizard-villain trope, but Aballister definitely comes across as more formidable than Akar Kessel was. He definitely seems inclined more toward restraint, while Druzil is the more openly sadistic. It will be interesting to see how that dynamic develops. I'm interested enough not to regret this choice.
Basically, while I've been (slowly) reviewing books in the Drizzt saga, I received a suggestion to review some of Mr. Salvatore's other Forgotten Realms books. It sounded like fun.
I don't think Salvatore's a bad writer at all. He delivers pretty fun action-adventure with characters that are vivid and engaging. Drizzt as a character annoys the hell out of me, but I actually really enjoyed his trilogy starring Artemis Entreri. I actually wonder if Salvatore isn't better at writing characters with more complex morality, rather than paragons of virtue. This might be an interesting test, because Canticle is the first book in the Cleric's Quintet. So I'm guessing the lead character, Cadderly, will also be fairly virtuous.
I think I might have encountered these characters before, in the Entreri books, but I don't remember them very well, so I shouldn't have too many preconceived notions.
So this book starts us with some doozies of names. "Aballister Bonaduce" is definitely a Forgotten Realmsian name, and not a particularly snappy one. I don't think we're going to see this guy in a list of great NPC wizards or anything.
He is a wizard though, as we see him talk to "Druzil", his bat-winged imp. He's planning a trip to "the most forbidding place in all the Realms" - the Great Glacier.
I think maybe Salvatore really just likes cold places. Anyway, I took a moment to google up a map of Faerun and the Great Glacier is not remotely connected to the Icewind Dale. It's actually really far to the northeast. It's a ways north of the Moonsea and above Damara. Good to know! (I vaguely recall Damara as that land Entreri visited, so that confirms my suspicion that I met these characters before. Entreri didn't much care for them, but that's pretty standard with villain protagonists. I'll see what I think.)
Anyway, neither Aballister or his familiar like the cold, but it's important to go to the Glacier for a "yote". I presume it's some kind of reagent.
Oh! We're also given a time indicator. This is something I don't remember popping up much in the Drizzt books, which often seem pretty disconnected from the greater setting (until Salvatore has to include stuff like the Spellplague.) But this is apparently two years out from the Time of Troubles.
I read those books! They were awful. Except for one, which was the best Forgotten Realms book I ever read. Weird how that works. (For the record, the amazing one was Crucible: the Trial of Cyric the Mad. Ask me about it sometime, I'll gush.) I might read them for the blog eventually. When I run out of obvious sources of pain.
ANYWAY. Aballister might be evil. I'm guessing this based on the fact that apparently, he was "shown the way" by an avatar of the goddess Talona. Talona, the narrative tells us, is the Lady of Poison. So yeah, probably a bad sign. Apparently Druzil had brought the recipe for a "chaos curse" and they need the yote as the last ingredient.
So they go through, and are greeted by some kind of yeti?
The hunched and hairy creature, resembling a more primitive form of human, grunted and growled and threw its crude spear, though Aballister and Druzil were surely far out of range. It howled again anyway, triumphantly, as though its throw had served some symbolic victory, and scooted back to the large gathering of its shaggy white kin.
Anyway, this guy's not friendly. Druzil's pretty enthused because he wants to watch his boss kick something's ass. Aballister, in good wizard fashion, clarifies that these guys are "taer". And well...
"They know not the might before them!" Aballister cried, his voice rising with his ire. All the terrible trials of two long and brutal years rolled through the wizard's thoughts in the span of a few seconds. A hundred men had died in search of the elusive ingredients for the chaos curse; a hundred men had given their lives so that Talona would be pleased. Aballister, too, had not escaped unscathed. Completing the curse had become his obsession, the driving force in his life, and he had aged with every step, had torn out clumps of his own hair every time the curse seemed to be slipping beyond his reach. Now he was close, so close that he could see the dark patch of yote just beyond the small ridge that held the taer cave complexes. So close, but these wretched, idiotic creatures stood in his way.
This provokes the taer. Aballister takes his time though, even when Druzil gets impatient. But then...
Just before his spell discharged, Aballister had a cruel thought and lifted the angle of his pointing finger. The fireball exploded above the heads of the startled taer, disintegrating the frozen bindings of the ice mountain. Huge blocks rained down, and a great rush of water swallowed those who had not been crushed. Several of the band floundered about in the ice and liquid morass, too stunned and overwhelmed to gain then-footing as the pool quickly solidified around them.
One pitiful creature did manage to struggle free, but Druzil hopped off Aballister's shoulder and swooped down upon him. The imp's claw-tipped tail whipped out as he passed by the stumbling creature, and Aballister applauded heartily.
Kaboom! I do admit, it can be really fun playing an evil wizard if you want a power fantasy.
The last creature dies from Druzil's sting. There are a few surviving taer struggling against the ice. Aballister doesn't care enough to kill them, but Druzil notes that Talona wouldn't approve. Aballister recognizes that Druzil just wants to go murder things and gives him the okay. He goes to get the yote.
A bit later, he comes back to where Druzil is tormenting the last, trapped taer. He tells him enough, and Druzil finishes the job by kissing the taer on the nose and then driving his stinger into its eye. Aw, poor thing.
So that's our intro. So far it's not terrible. Salvatore's gone back to his wizard-villain trope, but Aballister definitely comes across as more formidable than Akar Kessel was. He definitely seems inclined more toward restraint, while Druzil is the more openly sadistic. It will be interesting to see how that dynamic develops. I'm interested enough not to regret this choice.