The Icewind Dale Trilogy Collector's Edition (A Forgotten Realms(r) Omnibus)

Rating:
Summary: Rock'nRoll
Review: People who dont appreciate books like these must be either illiterate, or people that have a horrible taste for books. I love these books and the way that they're written....anyone that doesnt can go watch a harry potter movie.

Rating:
Summary: Save the trees (and your money)! Avoid this book!
Review: Talk about a waste of paper, this book is up there with Dan Brown's work. I bought it expecting at least a worthwhile read on a trans-atlantic flight (keep in mind, it's difficult to be less entertaining than a plane loaded with drowsy businessmen and their families). Boy, was I disappointed.

Salvatore's style of writing, which seems to favor fragmented sentences like "He reached for his knife. Bad decision." and "He tried to run away. He didn't make it." Lacks any suspensful overtone he may have thought he was creating. The villain in the first book, a deluded and pathetic wizard who becomes the puppet of a malevolent stalagtite, leaves much to be desired. There doesn't even seem to be a villain in the second book, although there are some blatant rip offs of Khazad-Dum from the Lord of the Rings. Come on, how many dwarves can possibly lose their cave mines when they dig to deep in search of mithril and awaken some terror. Maybe that's why there are none of them left. And finally the third book, which is based on rescuing a rogue from another rogue who is Drizzt's "polar opposite". Am I missing something?

Move to Drizzt Do'Urden "one of the most beloved characters in fantasy literature" as the blerb on the book cover assures me. I can't comprehend why, as he is just another scimitar swinging loner who happens to have black skin and white hair. Teamed up with a hammer swinging loner and an axe swinging loner, Drizzt has all the company he could ever need in his fight against a rapier swinging loner.

Bottom line, this book just isn't worth your time. Read "The Lord of the Rings" or even "Dragonlance" (which is not high literature either, but has considerably better plot and character development). Just don't bother with this one.


Rating:
Summary: Good, light reading for the fantasy fan
Review: These are the first Forgotten Realms books I have read, my only other experience with the setting being the computer role-playing games (e.g. Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale). On their own, these are great books, and highly recommended to fantasy readers interested in a fairly fast pace, with more action than details. In terms of how much of your attention they will require, I would place them closer to Harry Potter than Lord of the Rings: something you can put down for a day or two if you need to without worrying about forgetting the name of an obscure character or location. In my case, these books also gave me a better appreciation of some of the locations and creatures that are only lightly touched upon in the games. The books span a wide range of locations, more than just the titular Icewind Dale.

Just a few negatives: By the end of the trilogy, the characters have been through enough far-fetched and dangerous situations that they all should have been killed several times over. (Nevertheless, a fun ride if you don't think about it too much.) The second and third books in this edition have more typos than I have ever seen in a work of fiction; I can only hope that problem is limited to this edition. More annoying was that the first map of the first book is swapped with the second map of the second book, which of course I didn't realize until after I finished the first book. Also note that this is actually printed as *one* thick book with rather large type (note carefully the dimensions), so don't expect to carry it in your pocket.

I give "The Icewind Dale Trilogy Collector's Edition" four out of five stars.