The Crystal Shard

You can tell this is an early work by RA Salvatore. The prose is a little more stilted and the dialogue a little too stylized. It's also a little sexist, which is a shame. We're given only one real female character, who's marginalized both by the other characters and the story itself. Still, it does set the stage for future stories.

I feel as though I have betrayed my kin by giving this horrible review to such a respected author in the field of fantasy fiction. But this book was the literary equivalent of a Saturday morning cartoon. There were big dumb giants who spoke like monsters in Monty Python skits, He-Man-like barbarians, a panther who served the same function as Battlecat, mean gargoylish demons, a stupid and thoroughly one-dimensional evil sorcerer who is exactly like all the other evil incompetent sorcerers in cartoon history, a halfling who looks, acts, and thinks like Bilbo Baggins, and a huge unnecessary mix of unimaginative fantasy cliches that have been around since 1960 or so.

This book is a perfect example of why the Show, Don't Tell rule exists. show more Every tiny little aspect of every plot development is painstakingly explained by the author, erasing all sense of mystery, intrigue, and interest. Instead of showing how Wulfgar (the strapping young barbarian who looks like He-Man with a better haircut, maybe) became integrated into dwarf society, befriending Bruenor (the dwarf who is an unimaginative replica of Gimli), it is told. In about a paragraph. About 95% of this book is devoted to boring descriptions of cartoon-like battle. The heroes are invincible, with their magical weapons. They exchange light banter while fighting. Death is treated as lightly as though they are playing a video game, except most video games are more engaging. There might have been some potential for character development, with the dark elf Drizzt and his disciple, Wulfgar, but the author killed it. Their friendship is explained, sort of like "And then they became friends." The rest is all (yawn) battle banter.

To fans of R.A. Salvatore: I apologize. I have strange tastes in books and films ... I'm not very entertained by Mr. Bean ... so let's go ahead and write this off as a matter of personal taste.

This review was originally published on my website. show less

I wonder if, had I decided to begin my reading in publication order rather than chronological order, I would have noticed how much the writing differs from the beginning of this trilogy to the beginning of the Dark Elf trilogy. I must say, the comparison is not favorable to this book. On the other hand, it makes sense that Salvatore's writing would improve with time and practice, and there are far worse places from which to begin.

I enjoyed this book, the adventure, the cast of characters, the moving parts of the plot all kept me engaged. However, I found myself taken out of the story a handful of times by sloppy and/or painfully trite writing. I also found the characterization of Drizzt in particular had taken several huge steps back, show more despite technically being later in his story than the series that chronicles his origins. Some of this is inevitable, some of this can be blamed on blatant ret-conning (note: I actually like the ret-conning done in the Dark Elf trilogy, which, to be clear, follows the Icewind Dale trilogy in publication order, but acts as a prequel - it makes the story better and the characters more interesting). It's the oddly sloppy moments in the writing that really highlight this as a debut book that perhaps did not receive the intense edit it deserved.

The fight scenes in this book were also noticeably more tiresome. In the Dark Elf trilogy, though there were certainly many, many fights, I never got bored or annoyed or even felt like any of those moments were unearned. I generally enjoy Salvatore's descriptive approach to fights, giving us multiple internal perspectives, while keeping up the pace and tension. In this first book, though, several of the fight scenes were borderline unbearable, boring, repetitive, and unconvincing.

I somehow left this book thinking that the intrigue between the fishing communities of Ten-Towns were the most interesting part of the story, and I kind of feel that if a DnD book leaves you thinking that the side character humans are the most interesting part of the story, you're not exactly succeeding. A dragon is killed in this book. A demon is also killed in this book. A wizard amasses an army of goblins and orcs in this book. And yet, I'm more invested in whether or not Spokesman Cassius will be able to keep the tentative peace among the bombastic leaders of the eponymous towns. Not a good sign. My final thoughts as I finished the last pages were, "I enjoyed that as a high schooler, I'm glad I reread it as an adult, and I never need to read it again". show less

Looking for a new fantasy series, I tried out Salvatore... I had played D&D when I was a kid casually, and a couple of the video games, but never read the books. The first books are pretty straightforward fantasy, but you can really feel Salvatore feeling his oats as these three books progress... by the end of the third one, he is already a much better writer than he was in the first one (this one).

i’m ordinarily in favor of reading/watching/etc things in order of production/release order rather than “chronological” order, since that usually will give you the best understanding of what audiences/creators were experiencing. like, prequels happen “before” the main stories they’re related to, but since they’re created after those original works, they’re able to react to them whereas the original works obviously can’t react to the prequels. does that make sense?

anyway, the reason i didn’t do that in this case is because i wasn’t sure how many of the drizzt books i was going to read, and if i only read one series i definitely wanted it to be the dark elf trilogy based on everything i had heard about it, so that show more felt like the right place to start and if i got to any of the other books, great! so yeah, that’s how we ended up here.

frankly, i’m pretty glad i read them in the order i did, because i’m not sure i would’ve read another drizzt book if this were my first? like, don’t get me wrong. it’s not bad per se, but it definitely didn’t hook me the way the first two books of the dark elf trilogy did. i’m guessing that’s a function of the fact that drizzt was meant to be a mere supporting player in r.a. salvatore’s original plans, and frankly i’m just kinda not really into wulfgar? i’m somewhat seriously considering just reading spoilers for the other two books in this trilogy and moving on to legacy of the drow, which i’m to understand has a lot more stuff in it that i’ll like. we’ll see!

oh, to end on a positive note. there was some super kinky shit in the background of this, so that was awesome. i have no idea if it was intentional or not, but tbh it’s happened often enough in these books that i’m willing to assume it is, and obviously my take on that is pretty much “fuck yeah!” show less

**I purchased this book for my own enjoyment with no expectation of a review**

I first read RA Salvatore's The Crystal Shard many moons ago. The Drizzt novels helped me through a tough time of my life, and are still comfort books. This reread marks the 2000th book I've read since Jan 1993. I wanted number 2000 to be a special one!

Drizzt, a rogue dark elf, has made his home in the wilds of Icewind Dale, one of the most remote places of Faerun. The drow ranger patrols the tundra, keeping vigilant watch over the scattering of towns along three lakes, despite being despised by many humans. He has friends, though, in Bruenor the dwarf and his adopted daughter Catti-bre, and in the handling known as Regis, Spokesman for the town of Lonelywood. show more

Drizzt happens to discover a plot by the tundra barbarians to attack the towns. He gives warning, and Regis and Bruenor are able to convince the towns to put aside their native rivalry and work together. They grudgingly do so and manage to defeat the barbarians, though the alliance falls apart quite literally as soon as the battle is won. One young barbarian, left for dead on the field of battle, is taken in by Bruenor to serve a five year and a day penance for the attack. Meanwhile… elsewhere… a failed mage apprentice named Alarm Kessel has come in possession of a powerful artifact known as Crenshinibon, that grants him the magic he'd always before failed to truly connect to.

As Wulfgar grows from boy to man under Bruenor’s tutelage, Kessel is gathering together an army of goblins, orcs, and other fell beasties. As Wulfgar’s time of penance is drawing to an end, Bruenor sends him to Drizzt to train in fighting and defense. Wulfgar quickly comes to respect Drizzt, and it is together they discover Kessel’s plot against the lake towns. As the towns once again try to come together for a common cause, Wulfgar departs, embarking on a mission that will ensure his people come to the aid of the townspeople. If he can succeed, that is.

I love this series! Like I mentioned earlier, it pulled me through some rough times and they are still comfort books. Drizzt is such an unusual character, and the challenges he must face are something that resonates deeply with me. That, and his morals. He stands firm by what he believes. My only qualm is the repetition of 'evil’ and 'mighty’ as descriptors, however, my brain now just supplies different words in their place.

🎻🎻🎻🎻🎻 Highly recommended if you love fantasy, or enjoy Dungeons & Dragons/ DragonLance/ Forgotten Realms. show less

Fun book. Not perfect. Read this series years and years ago. I was looking for a simple fun series I could read mostly before bed and on he weekends. This fits the bill.

If you're going to pick up the Drizzt Do'Urden books I'd recommend starting here rather than the Dark Elf trilogy. These come later chronologically, but they were written first. I think the story flows better when you start here.

Quick reads. Pretty much straight down the middle "sword and wizard" fantasy stuff here. What raises these above the crowd is the character Drizzt Do'Urden. He's got a little more depth than you're typical fantasy character, but I don't know if I'd go so far as to call him well rounded. But you'll like him.

He's batman (not the recent show more physcologicly tortued one, the *WHAM* *POW* one).

He's spiderman. Only he doesn't like spiders much.

He's John Reeese (from Person of Interest. You should watch that show. ya - I'm talking to you. Watch it. Stick it out through the first few episodes, it pays off).

He's going to make things work. He's got a plan, and when he doesn't have a plan he makes it up as he goes and it's going to turn out okay.

He's got a good heart and always tries to do the right thing. But sometimes when the bad guys hurt someone good he goes into a rage and kicks butt on a large scale.

Don't expect a character that would fit into The Game of Thrones. Expect a character that you could easily throw into a comic book.

And sometimes that's okay.

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