I Read What?!

Sorry about the temporary hiatus! But I'm back now. As I recall, we left off with Cadderly uncorking a bottle. Oops.

Now we get to see if it lives up to the hype.

( Evil potions are evil, after all! )

So last time, we hung out with a druid that I forgot existed. I'm kind of assuming he'll die soon. Just because.

( He's got death bait written all over him )

It's been a while! Let's catch up!

So last time, we got to know one of our adversaries, the priest Barjin, a bit better. We're long past the days of Akar Kessel, I have to admit. If anything, I think Salvatore's stronger at writing villain or anti-hero protagonists than he is standard heroes. I don't dislike Cadderly and company, but I'm actually quite a bit more invested in Aballister's side of the plot.

( I don't want Aballister to WIN in the end, but I'd love to see Barjin lose first... )

So last time, we met the love interest. And well, it seems like there's no need to build up there. Those kids are a-banging!

So let's see what the villains are up to?

( hopefully not a-banging... )

So last time, we met our hero. He's not bad! I rather like him! And we got to see life around a big fantasy library. Seems nice actually!

( So...back to the villain! )

Now 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.

( Let's start with a prologue! )

So, there we go. Finished the book and finished the second trilogy. Did it pass the test of time?

Honestly, yes. It did. Let's talk about it.

Plot:

I mentioned in my Exile review that I didn't really remember much about it. Exile turned out to be better than I expected, but rereading Sojourn reminds me exactly why I forgot about Exile. Because where Homeland is the ultimate origin story, Exile is basically a placeholder (albeit a very enjoyable one), and Sojourn is where the real transformative aspects happen.

There's a lot that has to happen to take Drizzt from the surface newbie that he starts as to the experienced ranger that has a comfortable (if angsty) home in the Icewind Dale. And the book does a good job of taking him through that journey.

The Thistledowns give us a nice tragedy to start with. It's not Drizzt's fault, but his curiosity combined with his inability to communicate ends up getting him making him the perfect scapegoat for the Thistledowns' murder. He can't explain or defend himself among people who are set to believe the worst of him. The chase/investigation is legitimately suspenseful, and it's interesting to see the other characters piece together what happened and draw their own conclusions about him.

The Montolio section establishes a lot of the set pieces of Drizzt's character: being a ranger, worship of Mielikki. It also lets Drizzt develop some much needed general skills when it comes to surviving on the surface: language, cultural awareness, understanding of climate, vegetation, and all the stuff that he'd never have learned in the Underdark. It even gives us some justification for all the miscellaneous knowledge Drizzt had in the Icewind Dale Trilogy. (Though I still think his ability to follow Wulfgar into Icingdeath's lair was kind of bullshit.)

The Hephaestus bit was a fun interlude, firmly establishing Drizzt as the familiar figure we know and...tolerate from the Icewind Dale Trilogy. It's a fun sequence, albeit one that raises some interesting moral questions.

And of course, the Icewind Dale Trilogy gives us the opportunity to see how Drizzt made at least some of the friends that are so important to him going forward. God knows how and when Regis actually showed up, but the rest made sense.

Everything flows reasonably well and very little of it drags. Roddy McGristle, on his own, is not a terribly impressive villain, but he's got some interesting symbolic importance. He's most threatening at the beginning, when he's the only one able to explain his side of the story. Once Drizzt is able to communicate, his effectiveness decreases sharply. The more Drizzt is able to make allies, or even just demonstrate who he is through his conduct, the harder Roddy finds it to get any real momentum against him.

Poor Roddy goes from having legendary heroes helping him, to nameless orcs and gnolls, to no one at all. In the end, he's just a single pathetic asshole terrorizing a child. And then, he just leaves. Neutralized and powerless.

Characters:

I mean, this is Drizzt's show. As someone who doesn't particularly LIKE Drizzt, I've got mixed feelings about that. I liked him as a kid. I liked him as a young adult. But once he settles in to his usual sanctimonious bullshit, I'm back to rolling my eyes.

Don't get me wrong though, Drizzt is a very consistent and well developed character. He just annoys the crap out of me.

Montolio was a great mentor - I could see why he was so effective at teaching Drizzt, and I thought Salvatore did a good job with making him feel like a real person with his own substantial history and biases.

Catti-brie and Bruenor were recognizable as younger versions of the folks we've met before. I appreciated that Bruenor, in particular, hit the right notes. He was suspicious of Drizzt, but not unreasonably so. He was concerned but willing to let Drizzt exist without interference. He didn't want his kid hanging out with a potentially dangerous person, and I think that's fair. It made his leap from distrust to gruff friendship believable.

Dove Falconhand was interesting. Obviously she's one of Greenwood's stable of beautiful uber-powered ladies, but Salvatore writes her with a fairly deft hand. Her abilities seem reasonable. Her insights fit with her observations. She manages to come across as a hero of her own story without overshadowing the hero of this one.

And then there were the smaller roles: Kellindil, Tephanis, the Friars...I liked all of them, and I find it a little tragic that Drizzt will never know what Kellindil tried to do for him. The only memory he'll have of the guy is that initial, hostile confrontation. Drizzt will never know how his conduct won over the first of his surface cousins that he's ever met. He'll never know that Kellindil was murdered trying to bring Roddy McGristle to justice.

I'd like to think somehow Dove Falconhand will learn what happened to her ally and track Roddy down But that's not this story. Alas.

--

So, do I think people should read the Dark Elf Trilogy before the Icewind Dale Trilogy?

I mean, people should read what interests them, so in the sense that the Dark Elf Trilogy is a better written series, then yes, sure.

But honestly, personally, I'd start with Icewind Dale. For all it's flaws, the Icewind Dale Trilogy sets up who Drizzt is, who the Companions are, and the status quo of Drizzt's life that the Dark Elf Trilogy is building toward. It provides a direction and a destination for Sojourn that pulls what might otherwise be a kind of scattered narrative together.

Besides, if you actually want to care about the life that Drizzt has that's about to get torn apart again in Legacy (especially poor Wulfgar, who is not shown in the best light as I recall), you kind of have to read Icewind Dale. And in my opinion, it's always better to start with a weaker, earlier story and watch the author improve, then it is to start with something good and have to backslide.

Either way though, the Dark Elf Trilogy is very readable. Sojourn is very fun, and I think it definitely passes the test of time.

Now, I need to figure out what's going to replace this book. Wish me luck!

So last time, we got our chronological first appearances of Bruenor Battlehammer and Catti-brie, as well as the first seeds of friendship between Drizzt and the latter. It's quite sweet really, and surprisingly not creepy.

( Still got mixed feelings about their romantic partnership...but it's better than Drizzt and Dahlia... )

Last time, Drizzt outwitted a dragon. It was a pretty impressive feat, not going to lie, even if it did raise some interesting questions regarding comparative morality in this series.

But that's probably just me being a nitpicker.

I do enjoy when Drizzt is put in positions where he can't just Mary-Sue fight his way out.

( He has OTHER traits beside unstoppable fighting skills as extreme sanctimony after all... )

So last time, we finished up an important arc in Drizzt's life. He's now a ranger and a follow of Mielikki. He's lost his mentor, but in a much more peaceful way than the previous guiding figures in his life. He's ready for a new stage...

( But there are still adversaries out there... )