Forgotten Realms Books

[Ranis]

Okay guys, before I went out and bought a bunch of random books from other authors, I wanted to get some opinions of others before looking into anything.

I just finished Road of the Patriarch by R.A. Salvatore, marking the close of me reading everything by him that he's ever written for Forgotten Realms, and I would like to try other authors in the Forgotten Realms world for some more reading material. Author names and the titles of the books in the beginning of the series would be most appreciated, also why you like the author. What the books are about would be nice, too. :D

Oh, and disclaimer: I am not a "ZOMG DRIZZT IS SO KEWL!!!LOL!11eleven111" fanboy. I just like the way Salvatore writes in presenting plotlines and how he describes action. Thank you.

[Arang]

I might be a minority on this, but in my opinion, don't read anything that has "Elminster" anywhere in the title. Or in the description on the back. Elminster books are not fun in the same way that most other level 40 wizards aren't fun. There's nothing wrong with a little plot protection, but when your character is the personal favourite of a god as well as being pretty much the most powerful wizard ever, you've crossed a line.

[Ranis]

Noted. Anyone else have any ideas?

[DragonSlayerDan]

The Avatar series is good..there are a few different authors who wrote them so you get a variety.

Not to shabby.

[bosssmiley]

Old school Realms: the Horde trilogy (Horselords, Dragonwall and Crusade). Mongol horde vs. the Red Wizards, and the Zhentarim as the nick-of-time cavalry? Yes please!

[FdL]

As always with these topics, I really don't know why people could hate Drizzt.

And well, I'm more a spectator than a contributor here because I'd like to hear good reccomendations too.

It would be cool to have some sort of review of each novel series. At least now what they're about. For example, you may want to read about adventures in the Shining South, or by gnomes, or those which show the organizations of druids...

Is there any saga that features the Cult of the Dragon?

[bosssmiley]

Is there any saga that features the Cult of the Dragon?

The Spellfire trilogy did IIRC....

[Pink]

I always enjoyed what i read of the Harper series, if it can be called that. Basically separate authors each book just revolving around the organization. Good reads though but hard to find now. The song and sword series used to be part of it though.

I'm actually wishing i could find some of those books myself.

in any event, maybe this list (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Forgotten_Realms_novels) can be of some help.

[Sornjss Lichdom]

I just love spellcaster books, so I would suggest the war of the spidder queen, its got some bad parts including the ending, but there are some of the most describtive spell battles that are just sick. I also liked the Drizzt series. You can also try the wizards series, but ive only read the first one, which was only ok... but still, youll fall for the dark elves.

[Otto-Sieve]

I like all Forgotten Realms books, but the ones that really stick out in my mind are the Erevis cale Trilogy and the Sellswords trilogy
(Athrogate-WOO:smalltongue: )

[Ranis]

I just love spellcaster books, so I would suggest the war of the spidder queen, its got some bad parts including the ending, but there are some of the most describtive spell battles that are just sick. I also liked the Drizzt series. You can also try the wizards series, but ive only read the first one, which was only ok... but still, youll fall for the dark elves.

1. War of the Spider Queen was very, very good. It's ending was truly magnificent.
2. Spell battles? You mean just the descriptions of the two guys throwing spells at each other? My DM does better than those writers. Hell, I do better than those writers.
3. Wizard series? Umm.....description please?
4. Fall for the dark elves? Huh?


in any event, maybe this list can be of some help.

You are a goddess. My thanks.

[Pink]

You are a goddess. My thanks.


No problem, though, as for the goddess comment,

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v247/pink_lugia/Pink.jpg

:smallbiggrin: I should really put the gender there except that'd take all the fun out of it.

[FdL]

Regarding War of the Spider Queen, does it require reading previous novels about the drow to be enjoyed? I mean, some of the Drizzt books feature a lot of drow characters and the major players in Menzoberranzan.



:smallbiggrin: I should really put the gender there except that'd take all the fun out of it.

Um, not really, IMHO.

[Sornjss Lichdom]

Well i love homeland, but no, they explain it all. And man they are darn funny

[Dhavaer]

The Starlight and Shadows trilogy is quite good. Daughter of the Drow, Tangled Webs and Windwaker.

[thorgrim29]

I'll have to dissagree with the Elminster books, the first two are very good (making of a mage and elminster in mith drannor), basically before he was all epic. I likes Cormyr, a novel, and the year of rogue dragons.

[Ranis]

Regarding War of the Spider Queen, does it require reading previous novels about the drow to be enjoyed? I mean, some of the Drizzt books feature a lot of drow characters and the major players in Menzoberranzan.

If you'd really like to fully understand everything that has happened previously with the Drow in Menzoberranzan, you should probably read Salvatore's books up until Starless Night. That will put you up to speed in thorough detail, but everything is explained briefly, so that you're not entirely lost.

[Griemont]

The Return of the Archwizards Trilogy (The Summoning, The Siege, The Sorceror, and an anthology called Realms of Shadow) is quite good, plus there's a short story in Realms of Shadow that explains how Entreri gets that grayish pallor to his skin in Promise of the Witch-King. :smallwink:

[Matthew]

I enjoyed the Avatar Series at the time I read them. I would also second Bosssmiley's recommendation of the Horde Series, with the same caveat that it was about ten years ago that I read them.

[KnightErrantJR]

Is there any saga that features the Cult of the Dragon?



The Year of Rogue Dragons books has a LOT to do with the Cult of the Dragon.

[KnightErrantJR]

Just so you know where I'm coming from, I'm not a huge Drizzt fan these days, but I'm not a "Drizzt Sux" kind of person either. Oddly enough, I find it strange that he evinces such radical emotional responses in people. I know he makes money for WOTC, so they want RAS to write about him, but for me I've hit the saturation point and wish that RAS could move on, at least for a while. That having been said, I did kind of like the Sellswords books, though they weren't my favorites.

Now, with the disclaimer out of the way . . .

The Elminster Series, or anything that Ed Greenwood writes, you have to go in realizing that the man is talented, but not disciplined. He builds great worlds, has great ideas, writes great banter, and colorful and memorable scenes, but when it comes to wrapping up a novel into a streamlined, cohesive plot, he falls apart a bit. I love his sourcebooks for the details in information in them, but his novels read like sourcebooks that try to have a plot.

Richard Lee Byers is a good, solid action writer (Year of Rogue Dragons, the still running Haunted Lands books, and the first book of the War of the Spider Queen books). Best thing? Excellent pacing, likable characters, not afraid to do bad things to his characters, but doesn't do so randomly or to no effect. Good at writing game rules into the story without loosing the feel of a story. Downside: Sometimes he introduces too much from the game at one time, and it DOES start to feel a bit like he is cramming RPG material into the book. Still, I've seen authors that do it far less skillfully than he does.

Jeff Grubb (Finder's Stone Trilogy, Lost Gods, Masquerades): Very fun action writer that "got" Ed's original feel for the Realms and did a really good job of throwing enough of the setting into the books to make you care about the setting, but still writing a flowing action story that was about the characters. Much more of a swashbuckling feel (i.e. not TOO dark, fairly fast paced, fairly straight forward story).

Paul S Kemp (Erevis Cale and Twilight War books): Great writer for the seething under belly of Faerun kind of stories. Its not that he has evil protagonists so much as his protagonists run in those circles, so any moral decision is a momentous action for them. Detailed plots, grim stories, but fun, and well paced, and the characters that are likable really do shine.

Elaine Cunningham (Songs and Swords books, Councellors and Kings Trilogy, Starlight and Shadows Trilogy, Evermeet): Excellent writer, great character development, and right with Ed and Jeff as far as "getting" the feel of the original Realms. Much more coherent than Ed, and a wee bit darker than Jeff's stuff, she is absolutely excellent. Evermeet is the definitive work on elven history in the Realms (though people not versed in 2nd edition cosmology might get a wee bit lost when the spelljamming elves come into it).

As far as series go . . . I could take or leave the Empires Trilogy . . . the best part of it was Crusade by James Lowder, who also wrote the only part of the Avatar books that I cared for, Prince of Lies. The events are important to the Realms in both books, but the stories themselves aren't the greatest. Return of the Archwizards is similar. Its a momentous story, but especially in the 2nd and 3rd books the characters that appear don't really mesh well with how they have been portrayed in previous books.

As far as collaborative series go, the Cormyr Saga was probably the best in my opinion. Jeff Grubb and Ed Greenwood wrote the first one, Troy Denning the second, and Ed Greenwood and Troy Denning the third. It gives you a really good feel for Cormyr, which in many ways is at the heart of the Realms as a whole.

[FdL]

Thanks, KnightErrantJR, for an excellent and insightful post about the writers and novels out there.

I'm going to start reading a lot more of these, because I see that there's a lot of material and I happen to enjoy it. I'll just continue with Drizzt for now so I can finish what I've started, then I'll see what I read.

At some point I'd like to read Return of Archwizards because I think the whole thing about the shades as very interesting and I'd also like to bring it to my table.

[Sornjss Lichdom]

well this kinda goes hand and hand with the fav book question and its kinda been touched appon, but whats your favorite char form your favorite book. I personally like the drow books because of the plain distrust and power, and there fore like the most distrustful and most powerful people in the books, Pharuan and Gromph of WotSQ series, there just awesome, and they take part in some of the most graphic and game factual spell battles.

[Ranis]

KnightErrantJR, thanks for your wonderful insight.

[sapphail]

Is Daughter of the Drow any good? I only read the introduction (in the back of a Drizzt book) and the writing style didn't exactly knock me out ('chic cafes' in Menzoberranzan? Genre confused at all?) but the story looked decent enough.

[Dhavaer]

Is Daughter of the Drow any good? I only read the introduction (in the back of a Drizzt book) and the writing style didn't exactly knock me out ('chic cafes' in Menzoberranzan? Genre confused at all?) but the story looked decent enough.

It's good, though IMO Tangled Webs (the second in the trilogy) is better.

[Ranis]

Has anyone read the Double Diamond Triangle Saga?

[Lycurgus]

The Double Diamond books are good for a quick, entertaining read. I really enjoyed the Sembia series, the Erevis Cale trilogy, and the Twilight War. I've also really enjoyed whatever Greenwood has written. Whatever people say about his characters, you cannot beat him for feel and character interactions. The House of Serpents and Scions of Arrabar trilogies are also good and go into areas of Faerun that are less written about than others. The Watercourse trilogy is engrossing and does not read like a standard D&D trilogy, Phil Athans references Karl Marx and Ayn Rand in his writing.

[Otto-Sieve]

The Priests books are very good. They are stand alone novels about the priests of Faerun, most notably the priests of Talona, Shar, Umberlee, and Loviatar.
Also, though it's been mentioned before, read the Avatar series.