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RPG/Drizzt/Forgotten Realms rambling, part the third
I have now finished Sojourn, the third book in the Drizzzzzt origin trilogy, and I have a confession to make...
...I actually kind of liked the book.
Don't get me wrong, it's still got huge wodges of OH R.A. SALVATORE NO and it's mired in the mud by Forgotten Realms wonky worldbuilding, but the thing is, there's actually a decent story hidden in there, one I'd have liked to read if all the RPG detritus were struck from it and the female ranger either written better or taken out completely.
And that was a pleasant surprise: that after that three-page intro of her acting coquettish I quoted earlier, her party went out to check out the reports of this weirdo drow hanging about, decided since he wasn't being all evil that they'd keep an eye on him instead of killing him, and other than a mention when another character reads a message from her later in the book, she never appears again. So I didn't have to chuck the book at the wall every time she showed up. I'd much rather read a book with no women in it and decide that okay, it's a sexist, misogynist society, and go with the narrative flow than read a book that's a sexist, misogynist society with a GIANT PINK LACY BOW ON TOP.
The prose is smoother, with much less stuff like "A raven's coat was its tested scales,"[0] and I don't think Drizzt flashed his lavender orbs once.[1] He started to be stoic, however, a condition which I am assured continues for a good long time. There's lots of monster-killing, of course, as it's an RPG book, but there's something about those scenes that just bothers me, although I can't place a finger on it. Maybe it's the lack of emotional consequences on others? Hrm. And Salvatore doesn't yet have a handle on disposing of characters memorably - a scarred bounty hunter tracking Drizzt strangles a secondary character who's been about over the course of the book - he was the elf keeping an eye on Drizzt as he learned to forage for himself in the wilderness and how to survive a winter - and ... that's it. That's the last he's mentioned. No account of how the rest of his band reacted, nobody even thinking "Hey, I wonder what happened to that elf?" A somewhat sympathetic character is murdered and nobody notices?
And the climax, such as it was, of the bounty-hunter part of the story is terribly lame. This guy who's hunted Drizzt for years, vowing revenge and inciting other, bigger, enemies to attack him, who follows him to the (almost literal) ends of the earth, then gets beaten up by Drizzt[2] and ... leaves town. Bzuh? I know that Salvatore wanted to show Drizzt not killing him as a moral characteristic, but this would have been the perfect moment for a Disney villain death, where the villain rants and raves and falls off a cliff[3], so he's thoroughly dead and it's not the fault of the hero, who probably threw himself after the falling villain in a futile attempt to save him. Or even show the villain leaving, threatening to form a largerlynch mob posse and hunt him down. Instead, we get an out-of-character event that makes no sense, and Drizzt sees a wagon leave town a few days later and muses that the bounty hunter is on it. ANTI-CLIMACTIC.
There was, however, humor in the book! Actual funny humor! Drizzt travels, and since nobody else will trust him and let them travel with him, he ends up with this group of mendicant monk-type guys who believe in self-flagellation and punishment who have a tendency to throw themselves in front of him and hope that his powerful evil true drow nature will manifest so he'll kill them.
The book, however, does have my One True Pet Peeve when it comes to medieval societies - the group wanders into a town and buys a horse. Uh, yeah. Do you normally carry the cost of a car on you? Because that's the rough equivalent. OKAY so they'd just robbed a dragon and had the money, but I really highly doubt that any random village that doesn't currently have a horse-market is going to happen to have a horse ready for sale. :/
One day, I promise, I'll get to the gender and racial politics in the drow. One day. But I'm sleepy now and am going to crash soon. So there. :P
ETA: Oh yeah: the bits of the story that I liked were about Drizzt, having ventured onto the surface world for the first time in his life,[4] learning to deal with the winter, surviving, and so on. But I love Guy Learns Stuff and Guy Builds Stuff books.
Also, when writing in a fantasy world, you should be REALLY careful with your metaphors. Drizzt is secretly watching a (DOOMED TO BE KILLED BY MONSTERS[5]) human family in the beginning, and Salvatore refers to one of the children as an imp at one point, which gave me a severe case of mental whiplash until I realized it was a metaphor, not an actual imp running around with the other boys.
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[0] Streams of Silver, second paragraph. GAH. A master of prose you are not, Mr Salvatore.
[1] And thank God for that.
[2] Mr Salvatore, a number of heavy blows to the temple from the hilt of a scimitar SHOULD HAVE KILLED HIM THOROUGHLY INSTEAD OF JUST SENDING HIM UNCONSCIOUS. My suspension of disbelief can only go so far! I have to pretend that he actually died, that Drizzt hallucinated he was still breathing, and that the dwarf told him the bounty hunter left on the next wagon out in order to spare his fragile psyche!
[3] They were even fighting on a mountain path! Plenty of opportunity to fall off!
[4] The Forgotten Realms world is totally honeycombed with huge networks of caverns deep under the earth that support massiv epoplulations of creatures. There really ought to be way more sinkholes.
[5] Drizzt gets to be emo about that for years.
...I actually kind of liked the book.
Don't get me wrong, it's still got huge wodges of OH R.A. SALVATORE NO and it's mired in the mud by Forgotten Realms wonky worldbuilding, but the thing is, there's actually a decent story hidden in there, one I'd have liked to read if all the RPG detritus were struck from it and the female ranger either written better or taken out completely.
And that was a pleasant surprise: that after that three-page intro of her acting coquettish I quoted earlier, her party went out to check out the reports of this weirdo drow hanging about, decided since he wasn't being all evil that they'd keep an eye on him instead of killing him, and other than a mention when another character reads a message from her later in the book, she never appears again. So I didn't have to chuck the book at the wall every time she showed up. I'd much rather read a book with no women in it and decide that okay, it's a sexist, misogynist society, and go with the narrative flow than read a book that's a sexist, misogynist society with a GIANT PINK LACY BOW ON TOP.
The prose is smoother, with much less stuff like "A raven's coat was its tested scales,"[0] and I don't think Drizzt flashed his lavender orbs once.[1] He started to be stoic, however, a condition which I am assured continues for a good long time. There's lots of monster-killing, of course, as it's an RPG book, but there's something about those scenes that just bothers me, although I can't place a finger on it. Maybe it's the lack of emotional consequences on others? Hrm. And Salvatore doesn't yet have a handle on disposing of characters memorably - a scarred bounty hunter tracking Drizzt strangles a secondary character who's been about over the course of the book - he was the elf keeping an eye on Drizzt as he learned to forage for himself in the wilderness and how to survive a winter - and ... that's it. That's the last he's mentioned. No account of how the rest of his band reacted, nobody even thinking "Hey, I wonder what happened to that elf?" A somewhat sympathetic character is murdered and nobody notices?
And the climax, such as it was, of the bounty-hunter part of the story is terribly lame. This guy who's hunted Drizzt for years, vowing revenge and inciting other, bigger, enemies to attack him, who follows him to the (almost literal) ends of the earth, then gets beaten up by Drizzt[2] and ... leaves town. Bzuh? I know that Salvatore wanted to show Drizzt not killing him as a moral characteristic, but this would have been the perfect moment for a Disney villain death, where the villain rants and raves and falls off a cliff[3], so he's thoroughly dead and it's not the fault of the hero, who probably threw himself after the falling villain in a futile attempt to save him. Or even show the villain leaving, threatening to form a larger
There was, however, humor in the book! Actual funny humor! Drizzt travels, and since nobody else will trust him and let them travel with him, he ends up with this group of mendicant monk-type guys who believe in self-flagellation and punishment who have a tendency to throw themselves in front of him and hope that his powerful evil true drow nature will manifest so he'll kill them.
The book, however, does have my One True Pet Peeve when it comes to medieval societies - the group wanders into a town and buys a horse. Uh, yeah. Do you normally carry the cost of a car on you? Because that's the rough equivalent. OKAY so they'd just robbed a dragon and had the money, but I really highly doubt that any random village that doesn't currently have a horse-market is going to happen to have a horse ready for sale. :/
One day, I promise, I'll get to the gender and racial politics in the drow. One day. But I'm sleepy now and am going to crash soon. So there. :P
ETA: Oh yeah: the bits of the story that I liked were about Drizzt, having ventured onto the surface world for the first time in his life,[4] learning to deal with the winter, surviving, and so on. But I love Guy Learns Stuff and Guy Builds Stuff books.
Also, when writing in a fantasy world, you should be REALLY careful with your metaphors. Drizzt is secretly watching a (DOOMED TO BE KILLED BY MONSTERS[5]) human family in the beginning, and Salvatore refers to one of the children as an imp at one point, which gave me a severe case of mental whiplash until I realized it was a metaphor, not an actual imp running around with the other boys.
-----
[0] Streams of Silver, second paragraph. GAH. A master of prose you are not, Mr Salvatore.
[1] And thank God for that.
[2] Mr Salvatore, a number of heavy blows to the temple from the hilt of a scimitar SHOULD HAVE KILLED HIM THOROUGHLY INSTEAD OF JUST SENDING HIM UNCONSCIOUS. My suspension of disbelief can only go so far! I have to pretend that he actually died, that Drizzt hallucinated he was still breathing, and that the dwarf told him the bounty hunter left on the next wagon out in order to spare his fragile psyche!
[3] They were even fighting on a mountain path! Plenty of opportunity to fall off!
[4] The Forgotten Realms world is totally honeycombed with huge networks of caverns deep under the earth that support massiv epoplulations of creatures. There really ought to be way more sinkholes.
[5] Drizzt gets to be emo about that for years.
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