R.A. Salvatore Worthy of Acclaim?

[Behelit]

Love him, hate him, able to bear him, never heard of him?

Whichever category you fall within, mentioned or unmentioned, at more than forty novels published to date, the New York Times Bestselling author can easily be found within any Fantasy book section. He is best known for his character Drizzt Do'urden and has written such books as The Highwayman, The Demon Awakens, The Crystal Shard, The Orc King, Canticle, and many more, each best known within a trilogy or series.



Though I can't say I believe his stories to be of Classic material, he does pen entertaining novels.

Please feel free to share your thoughts.

[Donny Bruso]

Personally I like him. Though that may have a lot to do with the fact that I've met him in person. The cleric quintet is probably the work of his that I prefer, because it doesn't have Drizzt in it. Now, I believe that Drizzt originally had great promise as a character, but I also believe that Bob has run him into the ground. And after about the third trilogy with the same characters, it began to feel like he was simply telling the same story over and over. That and every time I see the name Cattie-Brie on the page it makes me shudder, lol. I don't usually fault authors for their name choices, but that was just one I could never get behind.

[Greybeard]

Are his books connected to Dungeons and Dragons?

[Donny Bruso]

Is a round-about way, yes. They are set in the forgotten realms of the D&D universe, and a good number of them have been published by Wizards of the Coast, the company that currently owns D&D unless its been sold again. I believe that his settings have been used in certain D&D campaigns, though I'm not 100% positive on that, and wouldn't know which campaigns to send you out to look for.

[ZealPropht]

I enjoy his books to a certain extent. He's partly hampered by the constraints of the world (Forgotten Realms) that he is forced to work in, which means that I often feel certain scenes or scenarios aren't developed as well as they could be. That being said, I'm not really fond of his non-Drizzt books. I can't even really tell you why I don't enjoy them. Salvatore's writing style remains consistent, so I know it can't be that. I guess I just enjoy Drizzt so much more than Salvatore's "originals." Drizzt is undeniably bad-ass, and I just haven't found another character like him in Salvatore's other non-WotC-related material.

Do I find his work to be earth-shattering or revolutionary to the genre? Hardly, but that's no crime. I haven't found any author who has moved me to proclaim them to be a god among writers. But I have read several who I thought were very good, or at least, weaved an entertaining tale. I would count Salvatore among that number.

[Legerdemain]

My honest opinion: not bad for an afternoon of coffee and lounging in Barnes and Noble, but at the end of the evening, buy something else on the way out.

[Ophiucha]

No. When I hear somebody give me some exaggerated statement about why high fantasy sucks, I think: "you know what that sounds like? R.A. Salvatore." I remember, actually, on an early date with the man-who-would-be-my-husband, we were sitting in the fantasy section reading the backs of a few books, and a lady came up to us and said "oh, R.A. Salvatore will be here tonight at seven, you should stick around." We both just broke into hysterics at the idea.

[Phil the Drill]

I really liked R.A. Salvatore when I was 14 or 15. Seems like I flipped through some of the books I loved when I was younger, and I had that pang of "oh, to be young again." I have fond memories of his books but I am not sure I'd read any of them again. Same with some of the Dragonlance books by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Great memorable characters when I was in my teens. That's not necessarily a bad thing, I just prefer other styles of writing now. The Cleric Quintet I preferred to the Drow stuff as well.

[Mdnight Falling]

R.A Salvatore is a fantasy GOD. I don't read his other stuff... Perhaps I should since I've nearly completed the Legend of Drizzt series once I'm through with the Ghost King but yeah LOL He's epic. definately worthy of acclaim and more.

[Phil the Drill]

You should definitely read The Cleric's Quintet if you like the Drizzt books then. I actually prefer that series, even though I think Drizzt and company are more memorable characters. I grew up reading the first two series, so I have fond memories of Salvatore's early stuff.