Category: Adult

The Dark Elf Trilogy #3 (Legend of Drizzt)
Like its predecessor, Exile, Sojourn felt very much like a transition novel. It started off well, with some humorous interactions between Drizzt and the children of a nearby village, but quickly declined into another directionless wandering through the world. While he makes friends and enemies, makes discoveries and overcomes conflicts, it’s all just frankly boring! When I read a high fantasy book, I want a grand adventure. I was hoping that with Drizzt finally getting to the surface that we would get some of that, but instead he runs away from society and continues to live like the hermit he was for 10 years in the Underdark. Finally at the end of Sojourn we begin to see a glimmer of the relationships that Drizzt will build, but it was too little, too late.

So why do I keep reading? Because I’ve heard so much about the Legend that is Drizzt that I know they have to get better. And I can understand that this series really was intended to be a prequel, telling the story of a character that people loved from the Icewind Dale trilogy. So I will continue with the Legend of Drizzt, waiting for him to become the legend I expect him to be.

The Dark Elf Trilogy #2 (Legend of Drizzt)
Exile felt like a transition novel.  With the exception of the time that Drizzt spends in Blingdenstone, this book mainly consists of a series of random Underdark encounters, with Drizzt defeating the monsters with his bad-assery and then moving on.  There is one enemy that Drizzt comes across that he seems powerless to defeat, which was refreshing and provided a nice contrast to his earlier encounters.  It makes me wonder if he will cross paths these creatures again in the future.

Overall, I felt the pacing was slow and except for the few glorious chapters in Blingdenstone, which bring depth and growth to Drizzt’s character, the novel was overall kind of boring.  The few great scenes in Blingdenstone are actually what elevate this book to a 2.5 (it would be a 2 otherwise), but it’s not enough for me to really recommend this book.  Unless you are a completionist, you could probably read a plot summary of this novel and move on.

The Dark Elf Trilogy #1 (The Legend of Drizzt)
So, after playing RPGs for the last 10 years, I figured it was about time that I gave the novels a shot. I’ve heard a lot of good things about the Drizzt novels, and Homeland was quite the immersive journey into Drow culture and society.  I always knew about the evil’s of the Drow race, but I’m not sure I fully understood their fanaticism until reading this novel.    Drizzt’s character development was superb, and we really get to see in him a heart and morality that is so different from the rest of the drow race.

While I really enjoyed getting to learn about Drizzt’s beginnings, it wasn’t quite the epic adventure I was hoping for.   Don’t get me wrong, there was definitely action and adventure, just not in the “legendary” way that I was expecting.  But I guess that all legends need to start somewhere, and the young Drizzt has potentially hundreds of years ahead of him to become the legend that I’ve heard of.  And  while this is chronologically the first Drizzt book, this series was published after The Icewind Dale trilogy, so I guess that prequel feel is appropriate. I look forward to Drizzt’s foray out of Menzoberranzan and for the real adventures to begin.