![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
And a last few notes...
On the Forgotten Realms reading project, I am one-third through Elaine Cunningham's Tangled Webs, which features a female drow. Who is just too damn normal, and the rest of the book is just too damn boring. OK, yeah, I missed the book that's her origin story so perhaps I missed a spectacular transformation from a whip-wielding evil dominatrix* to this sort of boring normal woman who happens to have pitch-black skin and white hair. And whose author handwaves the canon that drow are evil so everyone's supposed to be wary and frightened of them by having an entire shipful of sailors accept her for who she is with little drama. Well, all people who are her enemies are terrified of drow, and all her friends are easily accepting. Convenient, that.
The cover of the book also has a squidheaded illithid with a rather large rack shooting lightning at a dark green woman with white hair and really awful fashion sense standing and looking bored who I gather is supposed to be Our Drow Heroine. Never fear, there is a much better cover
.
And for a novel subtitled "A Tale of the Underdark," there's an awful lot of not being in the Underdark (the subterranean realm where the darker races live) so far.
I still owe you the drow sexism/racism rant, I haven't forgotten. I'm just trying to figure out how to say it and if there's enough other than "Yeah, sexist and racist" to say.
I am also halfway through The Thousand Orcs (Forgotten Realms: The Hunter's Blades Trilogy, Book 1)
, which I picked up solely because the second book in this particular trilogy is titled The Lone Drow, which sounded delightfully emotastic. Unfortunately, it's a long slog getting there.
Let me explain the plot of The Thousand Orcs so far:
--A bunch of orcs attack some dwarves, for some reason I've forgotten. Possibly simply because they're orcs.
--There's some sort of dull politicking going on in a city in the mountains between frost giants, dwarves, and orcs.
--Bruenor Battlehammer, one of our previous heroes and now King of Mithril Hall, is leading a bunch of dwarves, Drizzzzt, Cattie-brie, Regis, Wulfgar, and a woman and child with absolutely no personalities that apparently Wulfgar ended up married to in one of the books I haven't yet read. Cattie-brie appears to be OK with this.
--Speaking of their destination, Mithril Hall has undergone a change, possibly prompted by the Tolkien estate, and is now Mithral Hall.
--Bruenor does some politicking of his on in the abovementioned city, which doesn't like Mithral Hall for some reason, probably because Mithral Hall dwarves can sell better stuff for cheaper, and sows a little dissent among the city dwarves.
--They continue to wend their way through rocky mountains.
--They continue to wend their way through rocky mountains.
--They continue to wend their way through rocky mountains.
--They continue to wend their way through rocky mountains. A wagon falls off a cliff. Nobody is seriously hurt and nothing seems to happen.
--There is boring politicking among characters whose names and races I can't even keep apart.
--They continue to wend their way through rocky mountains.
--They continue to wend their way through rocky mountains.
--They continue to wend their way through rocky mountains.
--They continue to wend their way through rocky mountains. Orcs poise to attack.
--There is boring politicking among characters whose names and races I can't even keep apart.
--Wulfgar's new wife is Deeply Understanding of Wulfgar's Deep Friendship with Cattie-brie and encourages him to go with her adventuring or fighting or something and not to worry about her and the child because she knows he'll come back when it's his time to come back. All said with a straight face and utmost sincerity, and with nothing spurring it on other than Wulfgar's looking at Cattie-brie. At least I don't recall them thinking about going off to adventure or fight or anything and at the moment, everybody in the entire wagon train is still expecting to head to the same place. I think I preferred Salvatore's other female type, the jealous one who smacks Wulfgar every other minute for looking at other women. At least there's some sort of personality there.
--The copy editor still hasn't learned the difference between "principle" and "principal".
It is entirely possible that something happened in amidst the rocky mountains, but I probably missed it, having fallen asleep on the journey.
And so to bed.
--
* Yes. Every female drow is a whip-wielding evil dominatrix. They get their whips when they come of age. No, really.
The cover of the book also has a squidheaded illithid with a rather large rack shooting lightning at a dark green woman with white hair and really awful fashion sense standing and looking bored who I gather is supposed to be Our Drow Heroine. Never fear, there is a much better cover
.And for a novel subtitled "A Tale of the Underdark," there's an awful lot of not being in the Underdark (the subterranean realm where the darker races live) so far.
I still owe you the drow sexism/racism rant, I haven't forgotten. I'm just trying to figure out how to say it and if there's enough other than "Yeah, sexist and racist" to say.
I am also halfway through The Thousand Orcs (Forgotten Realms: The Hunter's Blades Trilogy, Book 1)
, which I picked up solely because the second book in this particular trilogy is titled The Lone Drow, which sounded delightfully emotastic. Unfortunately, it's a long slog getting there.Let me explain the plot of The Thousand Orcs so far:
--A bunch of orcs attack some dwarves, for some reason I've forgotten. Possibly simply because they're orcs.
--There's some sort of dull politicking going on in a city in the mountains between frost giants, dwarves, and orcs.
--Bruenor Battlehammer, one of our previous heroes and now King of Mithril Hall, is leading a bunch of dwarves, Drizzzzt, Cattie-brie, Regis, Wulfgar, and a woman and child with absolutely no personalities that apparently Wulfgar ended up married to in one of the books I haven't yet read. Cattie-brie appears to be OK with this.
--Speaking of their destination, Mithril Hall has undergone a change, possibly prompted by the Tolkien estate, and is now Mithral Hall.
--Bruenor does some politicking of his on in the abovementioned city, which doesn't like Mithral Hall for some reason, probably because Mithral Hall dwarves can sell better stuff for cheaper, and sows a little dissent among the city dwarves.
--They continue to wend their way through rocky mountains.
--They continue to wend their way through rocky mountains.
--They continue to wend their way through rocky mountains.
--They continue to wend their way through rocky mountains. A wagon falls off a cliff. Nobody is seriously hurt and nothing seems to happen.
--There is boring politicking among characters whose names and races I can't even keep apart.
--They continue to wend their way through rocky mountains.
--They continue to wend their way through rocky mountains.
--They continue to wend their way through rocky mountains.
--They continue to wend their way through rocky mountains. Orcs poise to attack.
--There is boring politicking among characters whose names and races I can't even keep apart.
--Wulfgar's new wife is Deeply Understanding of Wulfgar's Deep Friendship with Cattie-brie and encourages him to go with her adventuring or fighting or something and not to worry about her and the child because she knows he'll come back when it's his time to come back. All said with a straight face and utmost sincerity, and with nothing spurring it on other than Wulfgar's looking at Cattie-brie. At least I don't recall them thinking about going off to adventure or fight or anything and at the moment, everybody in the entire wagon train is still expecting to head to the same place. I think I preferred Salvatore's other female type, the jealous one who smacks Wulfgar every other minute for looking at other women. At least there's some sort of personality there.
--The copy editor still hasn't learned the difference between "principle" and "principal".
It is entirely possible that something happened in amidst the rocky mountains, but I probably missed it, having fallen asleep on the journey.
And so to bed.
--
* Yes. Every female drow is a whip-wielding evil dominatrix. They get their whips when they come of age. No, really.
no subject
I think you missed a lot of the painful stuff with Drizz't/Wulfgar/Cattie-Brie. Maybe it's in the book I sent you.
(no subject)
(no subject)
no subject
Erm, there is nothing, absolutely nothing worth reading in the Hunter's Blade trilogy. I mean it. There are orcs, and then there are some dead orcs....and then some more dead orcs....and then some more....and then...just skip to "The Pirate King" which made me laugh out loud.
Btw, did you see RAS has written a young adult novel? NOW THAT IS WORTH THE READING FOR ALL THE AWFUL...ahem...I haven't laughed that hard in awhile. I even reviewed it. I never review things.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)