Sojourn

this is probably my least favorite of the dark elf trilogy. like, i still like it well enough! but pretty much only because i got so invested in drizzt’s character in the first two books.

like, i get that pretty much all of the drizzt books after this prequel trilogy take place on the surface, and i’m honestly kinda excited that i don’t know what to expect from those yet? and i know that it’s something i’m going to get used to, but honestly part of what i loved so much about the first two books was drizzt dealing with drow society and the horrors of the underdark, because i’m a loser who wants to be bullied & mistreated lmao.

(yes, i liked the concept of that order of monks who go around intentionally trying to get themselves show more into scrapes so they could decrease the amount of suffering that existed in the world by taking more of it on themselves, but the execution was pretty meh except for that one thirsty bitch who got drunk & tried to throw himself at drizzt like a power bottom.)

admittedly the book starts pretty strong in terms of things i’m horny for by just immediately throwing some gnolls at drizzt, but not much happens there sadly! tie that twink up, ffs! it’s like these books aren’t always catering to me specifically or something, gosh.

kidding aside, one thing i was pretty genuinely disappointed by was this book’s treatment of race in the world of d&d when comparing it to previous books? i mean, i know i can’t look at d&d novels for like expert opinions on racism & multiculturalism, but drizzt’s uncritical acceptance of mooshie’s identifying men, elves, dwarves, etc as “goodly races” & orcs, goblins, gnolls, etc as “evil races” was a very sigh out loud moment for me.

like, it’s presented as like “on average” most members of the “evil” races is more evil, and “on average” the members of the “goodly” races are more good, which is like… i know that’s a super common 90s woke lite for white people approach, so it’s not surprising that that’s what we get in these books. and for what it’s worth, r.a. salvatore himself has said that he regrets the framing in these books, so that’s nice to hear. i just, as someone reading this for the first time in 2023, would not feel right not saying something.

obviously i’m not saying to reject the books out of hand because of this. obviously that’s not what i’m doing, i actually enjoy these books a heck of a lot in spite of these problems? and i don’t want to be like the people who reject drizzt, i want to be like the people who see him for who he is. and this very much reads like exactly what r.a. salvatore said it was, a flawed but good-intentioned story by someone who knows better now, but who was always a good person underneath. show less

I confess I listened to this while playing an old SSI Forgotten Realms game and probably paid attention to about half of it. I mostly checked out during the battle scenes, particularly the battle with the orcs in the middle of the book. I suppose it is marginally more interesting than Books 2 and 4-6, as Drizzt acclimates to living above ground and there is more character development. But he is such a boring, cardboard hero and the villain of the novel, a bigoted human bounty hunter, is also quite a comedown from the Drow matrons Drizzt faced off against in Books 1 and 2.

A really fun read. As this was a reread, I did end up skipping/skimming a section towards the beginning that centers around an attempted deception and the subsequent consequences. I found it tiring the first time around, and as soon as I recognized it, I knew I did not want to subject myself to it again. I did read a little from every page, but only to confirm I was where I wanted to be when I started to thoroughly read again. It consists of probably about 30 pages all told, but still, definitely a mar on the reading experience. Otherwise, it was nice to revisit this part of Drizzt's tale, seeing his beginnings. the meandering path feels somewhat indulgent, with several detours that amount to little more than side quests, but I suppose show more what else can you expect from a Dungeons and Dragons book?

Towards the end of this book, as the setting began to take on a familiar shape, and names began to appear as old friends between the pages, I could feel my excitement for the Icewind Dale trilogy building. I had thought to take a break on my Drizzt-centered reread after completing this origins trilogy, but now I am too excited to not start the Crystal Shard right away. show less

In some ways, this is the best of the Dark Elf Trilogy, as it has the least moping from Drizzt and plenty of interesting characters. However, in a book about rangers and with such a reverence for life, there's an odd amount of violence against a couple of dogs, culminating in a dwarf eating the leg of one of them, which seems to be written off as a joke. It made me very uncomfortable.

Okay... quickly blowing through the unavoidable need to justify my thoughts.

These are fun books. Not great books, but in the context of your "straight down the middle fantasy" they are good books. I read them first in highschool many years ago. I wanted something right to read while I'm working weird hours, and going to sleep by 5 in the afternoon. Something where if I forget most of what I read the day before, it wouldn't matter. So I'm burning through this series again.

Here are some thoughts.

When I read these books the first time I was playing D&D pretty regularly. I'm not now (unfortunately, if anyone is looking to put a group together and you want a middle aged white guy with self esteem issues who works stupid hours and has a habit show more of cancelling social engagements because his reclusive life in IT has caused his burgeoning social phobias to blossom into full blown phobias - give me a call).

What I'm noticing is that these books are written like someone took a D&D character and wrote a story about them. That's almost kinda fun if you play, or played D&D.

(Possible spoilers, but if you've made it it to book three I really really hope not)

Like Drizzt's globe of darkness or levitation as innate drown abilities. Or when something takes a 1 or better weapon to hit.

But there are times when it makes the books feel a bit clumsy. And I imagine even more so for someone who hasn't played D&D. For example, is Sojourn Drizzt begins his career as a ranger. D&D players will go "ohh, he get's an affinity with animals, a racial enemy, and tracking abilities". And in the books, all those things happen. But they kinda just happen. The animal handling/empathy for example. Works prefectly fine in the context of a D&D campaign. But in the context of a novel, a dark elf who has always lived underground, in a city most of his life, then in the wilds killing most of the creatures he came across, suddenly being able to calm wild beasts seems a bit out of the blue.

Not a huge deal, but it's there.

Here's another reason to start with the other trilogy (The Icewind Dale trilogy, that comes after these chronologically, but were written before the Dark Elf trilogy.) Continuity isn't perfect. Nothing plot breaking. But when you go from the Dark Elf trilogy into the Icewind Dale trilogy you notice them. On the other hand, they are small enough that if you read the Icewind Dale trilogy first, which takes a littel bit of time telling you aobut Drizzt's past, by the time you circle back to the Dark elf trilogy you'll have forgotten the details that don't match up.

Okay. Like the others. This was a fun book. It has some issues, but I don't think it's aspiring to be anything more than a fun book. show less

The most satisfying of the three books in the Dark Elf Trilogy, probably because Drizzt finally leaves the dark underworld and begins to explore the surface world. The story’s roots as a game are never too far away, but this installment both wraps up the tale of Drizzt’s early years and sets the stage for further adventures.

Fun! Takes a bit of a disjointed ramble through a few different 'sections' of Drizzt's life, and sometimes a bit cliche but it's a fun and fast read. Enjoying D&D definitely makes it more...interesting to read. You can for sure pick out that parts that tie in to Dungeons and Dragons, but given I'm reading through the Realms books BECAUSE of enjoying D&D that's not so much of a negative.