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Posted By: Linda Gruber Aug 31, 1998 - 10:19 am

Other than Robert Jordan, my favorite fantasy author is R. A. Salvatore. I love his TSR Forgotten Realms series of books. He wrote three series. The Cleric Quintet, The Icewind Dale Trilogy and the Dark Elf Trilogy which continued from the Icewind Dale series with the same characters but focused more on the underdark and the society and customs of the dark elves.

Salvatore creates characters that you really care about, and he keeps up the action throughout so you end up staying up all night to finish the book. He does not meticulously describe every slash of Drizzt Do'Urden's blade in the action scenes, but you can still 'see' lightning fast speed and precision as the dark elf wields the twin scimitars in his deadly dance with an opponent.

Drizzt is the pinnacle character of the Icewind Dale and Dark Elf trilogies. He is a good guy, but most folks have a hard time accepting it since that has never been their experience with dark elves. He is one of the few males to have ever escaped the spider worshiping, male bashing, matriarchal society of the underdark. He does make some steadfast friends above ground, however.

The Cleric Quintet series is about a young and highly inventive priest named Cadderly. Other major characters, and I do mean characters, are the Bouldershoulder brothers, Ivan and Pikel. They are a hilarious pair of giant killing dwarves currently employed as cooks at the monastery. It is Pikel's single minded ambition to become a druid which Ivan insists is utterly ridiculous. Dwarves simply do not become druids.

If you have not read any of the Forgotten Realms books, I highly recommend any by R. A. Salvatore. I like a lot of the others, but I love Salvatore's

Posted By: Brian Sep 20, 1999 - 05:57 pm

His books are great, though I've been a little disappointed by the "Demon" books he's released. I'm not even sure why, really... I just don't care about the characters as much or enjoy the story as his other books. His very first two books, however, are definitely worth finding (though they've recently been republished)--"Echoes of the Fourth Magic" and "The Witch's Daughter". They're ~excellent~, and I'm hoping he'll get back to them one day, since "The Witch's Daughter" ends in a way that just cries out for more...

Posted By: RokChild Jan 09, 2000 - 12:45 pm

If you like R A Salvatore, and I am a big fan myself, you should read some David Gemmell books, Legend is a good starting point as it was Gemmell's first published Novel. The writing style is similar to Salvatore's and he manages to keep you in suspense whilst making the characters believable. Once you have read one Gemmell you will soon be searching bookshops for more

Posted By: SBarker Jul 24, 2001 - 11:24 am

I love RA Salvatore and I have ever since I picked up the "Crystal Shard" way back when. A friend introduced me to David Gemmel maybe three years ago and he has risen to my "top five" list as well. If you like these guys, you might like an author we have been discussing on another group I am involved in (www.shadowkeepzine.com). The editor reviewed a book by JS Gates, called "Return To Glory" this month and he loved it. You can view the review on the ShadowKeep site. Anyway, a few of us ordered the book and it is a great find! Just thought I would pass it along.

Stephen Barker

Posted By: blaquedeth Nov 01, 2001 - 12:24 pm

If you like Salvatore's work, check out Vector Prime, his Star Wars novel. It's better than most of the others in the series. He's also signed to write the Episode II novelization.

Posted By: Nest'a Rault Mar 24, 2003 - 06:40 pm

i would just like to state the pikel dose become a druid...i love him