#v is reading drizzt | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

shirefantasies · 4 months ago

Note

Thank you for the follower acknowledgment! I just followed you in the past few days and had looked through your work more than anything else and when you thanked us I felt kinda bad because I thought it was so so so nice of you to do but I hadn’t put much thought in the person behind it. I was so wrapped up in learning about a new character from a universe I loved that I’ve never noticed before and I took an effing Tolkien humanities collage class. 😅😂

But yeah I had never heard of the elf Feren before you or at least paid attention to him in the hobbit movies I went back and rewatched them to find him 🤣 so thanks a lot man, smh, now I have a new hot elf mans to simp over (I’m joking it actually renewed my interest and I started looking at more backgroundish characters I hadn’t noticed before which is normally my forte being an Infp. I’ve been slacking man.)

Also hello fellow Libra ♎️ I also enjoy dnd I’ve never played but have read a few of the older books, read the Drizzt comics, and haven’t played but watched the play through a of Baldurs gate 3 (Astarion and Sorn Orlith omg 😳) Also have you heard of chuckles the clown? 😂 my favorite race from dnd is half-elves (I was a gifted adhd kid so I can relate to the being picked on and not fitting in) and Drow they fascinate me.

Also Star Wars (there’s a comic from like the 1970’s with a character called Taikotelai who was a one and one like feral so I’m writing a fic to fix that I love him he didn’t deserve to die. Harry Potter too (Ravenclaw is my house, my collage professor also did a Harry Potter humanities class and sorted us into houses and kept score. It was awesome especially since he dressed as snape one time since he’s the same personality type and a Slytherin. (Ravenclaw won, Hufflepuff in second, Slytherin, and Gryphandor had negative points 😂 they kept saying the name Voldemort and he penalized for that.)

Star Trek (depending on the series), transformers especially tfp and tfa prowl (he loves organic nature and quiet which I get). Bluey don’t judge me I’m 20-25 (not comfortable with publicly sharing true age) I’m allowed to like children’s shows and books with some adult themes occasionally, life doesn’t give us a happy ending why should fiction. 😂 marvel, some dc, A-team. MASH klinger is the original Disney Princess 🤣 change my mind if you don’t know who that is you must google him.

*sorry for the ramble 😅 I was just shocked at the amount we had in common the rest is me seeing if there’s anything else 😂 but yeah always up for discussions. And really thanks again for all the hard work and creativity you put into your writing! I know it’s a lot of times thankless but discovering your writing really brightened up my week. Especially getting back into the hobbit like that it was almost like seeing it anew because I made it my mission to notice things and characters I hadn’t paid attention to before. Also I can tell you put a lot of thought and care into the characterization of the different characters in each one shot, story, headcanons, you do and that’s awesome! I hope you have a great rest of your week!

(I’m doing anonymous cause I’m shy 😓 and some social anxiety sorry if this was weird. I can message you later if you want to know. Or you can ignore me, like I said I went on a rambling tangent it was cool to find out we had so much in common and I’m like ‘that’s why I’ve liked SO much of her writing and not a select few!’ that’s so cool!)

OMG IF YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE 🅱️LS 🅱️LS 🅱️LS MESSAGE MEEEEE!!! Among so much other cool stuff you mentioned one of my favorite fictional characters EVERRRRRRRRRRRRRR one Mr. Maxwell Q Klinger and my eyes just saw MASH Klinger and hyperzoomed and I got so excited that someone else loves this amazing guy I could talk about for hours!!! M*A*S*H is my favorite show E V E R!!! I don't have to google him, but maybe I will anyway just cuz I like lookin at him 😌 fun fact: My dad and I both share a birthday with a M*A*S*H and LoTR cast member! Dad's January 28th which is Alan Alda and Elijah Wood, while I (October 20th) have William Christopher and Viggo Mortensen! My dad also gets John Banner AKA Schultz from Hogan's Heroes! Have you seen HH too?

Don't worry you can clearly see I go on tangents too 😂 I totally get feeling shy and stuff, so up to you! Background characters are the BESSSST though I too have an obscure Star Wars blorbo who popped up in a handful of expanded universe novels (and the comic rendition) and I just love him even though he's nowhere near major. I am not familiar with Taikotelai yet but I wanna read that fic! SW is the best fandom for the coolest small time blorbos I swear! I'm the opposite of you because I've played D&D but never BG3 even though I post about it on my personal a lot 😅 (it's @spacemanxpaninis if you wanna chat there too! That's where you can see all my fandoms and insanity hehe) I just don't have anything that can run it so I have to live vicariously through the playthroughs too 💔

do NOT be worried about me judging you for anything that seems cringe to you, cartoons/animation is a big special interest for me and I love most things animated! I am almost 25 and have been wanting to watch Bluey myself! Comfort content FTW! I hate things that have no happy ending BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 🍅🍅🍅 I don't pay to feel bad! Real life gives me enough negative emotions!!! 🍅🍅🍅 To help relieve any feelings of cringe: lemme let you in on a little secret: you know what I watch after the most heartrending draining breakdowns? Family Guy. I fucking watch Family Guy because it's the best turn your brain off mindless entertainment simple amusement with no big emotional stakes 9 times out of 10. If you ever feel bad about Bluey you can picture good ol shirefantasies sitting there post-breakdown tear-streaked watching Peter Griffin dance to Surfin Bird.

That class sounds like fun! Teachers bringing themes or fandoms into classes >>>> I need to watch more Star Trek! My dad started watching the original with my brother and I but we stopped because my brother didn't like it and bitched about 'every episode just being something getting on the ship' :( but I've also heard great things about Deep Space Nine and whichever the one with Patrick Stewart is (New Generation?????)! Love me some scifi. Usually I'm more of a Star Wars girlie but A. I don't discriminate B. I know how pretentious I sound specifying pre-2015 and expanded universe only even though it's true 💀

Bro (lmk if you don't like bring called 'bro' or 'girl' or either, I use those pretty indiscriminately of gender unless people don't like it or get confused, also feel free to tell me your pronouns and a name/nickname/even just emoji if you'd rather in your next ask or if you do message 🫶🏻) I will NEVER ignore you 😤 Legit this is the most exciting ask I've ever gotten on here because you're super cool and we have a lot in common and raaahhhh I wasn't that excited to get on here but E N E R G Y S U R G E I hope we can be friends!

#m*a*s*h #star wars #dnd #bg3 #bluey #family guy #star trek #marti rants about her blorbos #ask #anon #anon how does it feel to be this cool?#thank you for this. platonically smooching you #or if you do not like to be smooched I give you high fives or simply gift thee a cozy blanket

7 notes · View notes

dreamofhircine · 1 year ago

Text

okay so here is the 2023 books year-in-review, this is going to be v. long because I ended up reading & re-reading a lot of my backlog after rebuilding the bookshelves in our house. This is going to be roughly sorted, and I'll try and say a little bit about each thing.

Hazel Jane Plante

Little Blue Encyclopedia (for Vivian) - I adored this! It's a slimmer book, closer to a novella, but it was maybe my favorite piece this whole year. The central premise of this is that in a haze of grief after the death of her bestie a woman gets way too into their shared fandom and writes a combination of TV show fandom zine, obituary & love letter. The two-part narrative structure is something that Plante would go on to play w/ more in

Any Other City - also a great book! This is written as the memoir of a trans punk rock star split between her journal style letters in the 90s as she navigated an art scene as a woman who doesn't realize it yet, and then picks up again in the 2020s after her own celebrity was cemented.

Casey Plett

Little Fish - Really rad slice of life about a mennonite trans woman in Canada who has a lot of feelings about that. This feels more than anything like a strong expansion upon several of Plett's short stories in A Dream of a Woman.

A Dream of a Woman - I got lost in so many of the stories in this anthology, Plett writes the lives of these women so vividly it feels like you know them. You probably *do* know them.

A Safe Girl to Love - Plett's first anthology, recently re-published. I was not *as big* a fan of this one, but it still holds up very well and is a good example of her style generally.

The Locked Tomb - I am gonna talk about all three of these in one go, actually. These were really sweet, really nice, I really like the approach to necromancy as just sort of another kind of science or physical force, worked through a process very close to magic. I've been seeing art of these characters around for a long time now and it is nice to finally put a personality to the faces. The pool scene in GtNth especially really hit.

Gideon the Ninth

Harrow the Ninth

Nona the Ninth

Peter Watts - This is also gonna get a block review because so many of the things here are interconnected to one another. Starfish to Behemoth are all in The Rifters Trilogy, and Blindsight & Echopraxia are a pair. Watts has a really great way of tearing down the human brain and playing with all the ways that trauma can influence it, how adaptational quirks can be weaponized. Starfish is probably the single best way to get into his work, but if 'vampires in space' sounds more your speed then Blindsight has it covered.

Starfish

Maelstrom

Behemoth

Blindsight

Echopraxia

qntm

There Is No Antimemetics Division - This is a republish of qntm's large body of work on the SCP wiki, sharing the same name. This is really solid, and the use of narrative negative space is interesting.

Valuable Humans in Transit and Other Stories - A slim collection of short stories and an overall much better showing from qntm, no longer tied up w/ SCP stuff. The things that delve into the implication of human mind based AI constructs especially is really strongly written and will leave you thinking for a while after.

The Division - Broken Dawn is the older entry and did not really capture my attention very strongly, it felt phoned in more than anything else. Recruited & Compromised by contrast could stand on their own w/o The Division branding though both are very well integrated into the game, w/ events going back and forth between the two now that the game is getting more narrative content to it.

The Division: Broken Dawn

The Division: Recruited

The Division: Compromised

D&D - You can probably guess why I jumped into these and what game got me to do it. Drizzt is something I avoided for a very long time because of the associations in the fandom and that was probably not unwarranted tbh. I probably won't continue w/ the series after Exile. It is competently written but these things are creaking w/ their own age and just don't have enough going on to stand on their own unfortunately.

Drizzt: Homeland

Drizzt: Exile

The Devil You Know - Another entry in the Brimstone Angels series, which is my favorite of any of the longer running D&D series. Centered around the misadventures of a Tiefling Warlock and how she gets pulled into the big-dick-swinging matches between various devils trying to make their weird little power plays.

40K

Horusian Wars: Incarnation - This was stellar. Great look at the Inquisition and how insular and back-stabby it can be, I hope more comes from this.

Kasrkin - A mostly by the numbers book that was written entirely to promote the 'kasrkin vs necrons' Kill Team box that came out a bit back. Competent but doesn't have anything new or interesting to say.

Pariah - Eh. This wasn't bad, but it wasn't that good either. Abnett has long been one of my favorite authors in general, not even just in 40k specifically, but I don't think it is controversial to say he has fallen off lately. Compared to his earlier stuff w/ the Inquisitors, hell even compared to stuff like that Horusian Wars book and Pariah just doesn't do enough and the whole Bequin sequence right now feels like it is mostly being done to shift things around in the meta-narrative rather than be good books that stand on their own feet.

The Armour of Contempt - I re-read this one recently and it was just as good as when I first picked it up in high school. Abnett is at some of his best here.

General Fiction (Unsorted)

The Archive Undying: The Downworld Sequence Book 1 - Homosexual activities in a sci-fi fantasy world once dominated by city-scale god-king AIs that went critically rampant a long time ago. This is a really great start to what I hope will be an excellent series.

The Darkness That Comes Before - Re-read after initially reading this when it was new and I was like a pre-teen. Definitely not a book a pre-teen should read and maybe some of that explains why I am like this now. Let's not look at that *too* closely, yeah? This still stands on its own after all these years, though I hear the series in general kind of flagged after a while. If you're into nihilist fantasy check it out.

Burning Chrome - Re-read and enjoyed yet again. Classic Gibson, lays the frame upon which the rest of his body of work would be built.

Pattern Recognition - Re-read this and it still holds up. Gibson is at his height here, calling shots that would start to land almost *immediately* after he published it. Reading this may re-orient your fashion sense entirely so be forewarned and have a bit of space in your wardrobe first I guess.

All You Need Is Kill - Another re-read! I got back into this after realizing that a lot of that traumatized mech pilot pornography I was writing drew so much inspiration for this. I still love the story, I still love the framing, I still love the short and brutal way it is written and the translation is very solid.

Wasteland: Stories of the Apocalypse - Yet another re-read. I originally read this in high school and I owe a great amount of creative debt to some of these stories, hugely influential works and I recommend picking this up.

This Shape We’re in - A tiny little novella by the author of Motherless Brooklyn (which is currently sitting in my 'to do' pile). There is no adequate way to describe this that wouldn't sound like a joke, it is Lethem's most unusual and maybe his best for that.

Poetry

In the Shape of a Human Body I Am Visiting the Earth - Mostly translated poetry, this was solidly collected and a great example of Global(tm) Poetry.

One Hundred Apocalypses and other Apocalypses - More microfic really but I liked this. The different ways the world can end, be it physically from bombs or emotionally in a bad text message.

Wound from the Mouth of a Wound - Simply beautiful collection of work by torrin a. greathouse, I *adored* this.

Non-Fiction

Underlands: A Deep Time Journey - This was beautiful, simply put. A deep dive (hehe) into places beneath the earth and the people that spend more time beneath the surface than above it. I especially loved the travelogue in the cordoned off sections of the Paris catacombs, you can really feel the claustrophobia and danger of it all.

Bitch: The Female of the Species - I picked this up solely because it had a picture of a hyena on the cover. I do not regret that, it was great and that is something I seldom stay about pop-academic gender books.

Emergence: Labeled Autistic - Temple Grandin's first autobiography. This has been heavily dated in how she talks about being autistic and she has changed her views on this several times, to the point where depending on the version you pick up there may be several introductions from the author in a sequence reflecting on this. It is rare to see autobiographies from notable autistic women, it is rare for there to *be* notable autistic women, so I am really happy that I read this.

Memento Mori: The Dead Among Us - Mostly a photo book that I picked up while on a trip to MFABoston w/ my girlfriend. This is a great little table book if nothing else.

Infrastructural Brutalism: Art and the Necropolitics of Infrastructure - A somewhat dry but well researched dive into massive infrastructure projects and the death cult attitude that empowers them.

Queering Mennonite Literature - A university press publication, you know the drill w/ these. Good base to start from if you want to get more into the intersection of queer & menno literature, which is why I picked it up after reading a lot of Casey Plett's books.

David Graeber

Bullshit Jobs - Maybe the best that Graeber has been, and also an example of him leaning really hard into the pop-science aspect of his public persona. If you've got an office job that feels completely fake please read this.

The Dawn of Everything - Graeber's last work before his death and... Well I think it is really good, well written, broadly researched, but much like Debt you're going to either agree w/ his premise or not. There are some rather radical takes here. I highly recommend it though.

Debt: The First 5000 Years - There has been a lot of back and forth on this and there will never be a solid answer. I think the arguments made here are fairly strong, pretty convincing, but if you're involved in this academically in any way you're liable to have a lot of strong opinions one way or another as you read it.

LitMags

Clarkesworld: Every sci-fi enjoying homosexual has a Clarkesworld subscription these days so I don't have a lot unique to say about this. Great year for work, I love the regular infusion of translated works as usual, and I hope that the recent business hits they've taken don't impact it too hard. Definitely re-subbing.

Alaska Quarterly Review: There were some good entries to this but for the most part it kind of felt like an 'eating your vegetables' situation. I probably won't renew for the next year, but I don't *regret* picking it up this year either.

McSweeney’s: Solid as ever, though I found the 'halloween' issue they did to be kind of boring overall. Everything else was primarily hits, and I'll be carrying this forward next year.

22 notes · View notes

artemis-entreri · 2 years ago

Photo

[[ This post contains Part 4 of my review/analysis of the Forgotten Realms/Drizzt novel, Glacier’s Edge, by R. A. Salvatore. As such, the entirety of this post’s content is OOC. ]]

Genre: Fantasy

Series: The Way of the Drow: Book 2 | Legend of Drizzt #38 (#35 if not counting The Sellswords)

Publisher: Harper Collins (August 09, 2022)

My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Additional Information: Artwork for the cover of Glacier’s Edge and used above is originally done by David Palumbo. This post CONTAINS SPOILERS. Furthermore, this discussion concerns topics that I am very passionate about, and as such, at times I do use strong language. Read and expand the cut at your own discretion.

As of this point, I am still finishing this document. I will be posting the subsequent sections. The table of contents will be updated when it is complete.

Contents:

Introduction

I. Positives I.1 Sublime Similes and Marvelous Metaphors I.2 Other Effective Imagery I.3 Consistent Lore and Decent Worldbuilding I.4 Respectable and Respectful Characterization

II. Neutrals

III. Negatives (Technical Writing) III.1 Punctuation Problems III.2 Shameful Similes and Maladroit Metaphors III.3 Other Imagery Issues

IV. Negatives (Characterization) [you are here] IV.1 Abrupt Transofrmations IV.2 Contradicting Portrayals IV.3 Telling, not Showing

V. World Breaks

VI. Religious Commentary

VII. Ego Stroking

VIII. Problematic Themes

IX. What’s Next

Negatives (Characterization)

With each new Drizzt book, Salvatore’s characterization has grown more lazy, and unfortunately Glacier’s Edge continues this trend. Inexplicable character changes range from a character deviating in how they’d usually behave to one being totally different from who they were without explanation. There’s very much a feeling that the characters are now this way because the author felt like writing them this way even if it’s totally inconsistent with how they were portrayed in past books. Consistency has never been Salvatore’s strong suit, but he falls to new depths here, which only exacerbates the decline in characterization. Some of the poor examples of characterization covered in this section are so questionable that I had trouble determining whether they should go in this section or other ones discussing why the portrayals are problematic.

Abrupt Transformations

The conflict in Menzoberranzan is one of the main focuses of Glacier’s Edge. While Salvatore may not have dictated the necessary reform of all drow, including the Lolthite drow, he certainly did determine how they are portrayed in his books, and it’s done in such a way that it feels less like the drow are developing as a people, and more like, at best, that Salvatore didn’t feel like writing aspects of them before that he is now writing. More often than not however, these characters have never exhibited the new behaviors ever before, and, in many cases they have not presented hints that they might be so inclined. Dinin, Drizzt’s returned older brother who now goes by Dininae, is one example of this. He might as well be a wholly new character, with how different he is from his past self. The old Dinin was a typical drow raised in Lolthite society: egocentric and cruel, with nothing standing between him and his opportunism. In order to gain higher ranking in his own house, he murdered his older brother in cold blood without hesitation or remorse, to say nothing about the countless other drow he’s killed as need or desire dictated in Menzoberranzan. In short, he was clearly evil.

The Dinin that was brought back from the Abyss and de-driderfied shows an instinctive proclivity towards helping others:

In the above passage, Dinin is watching Voselly fight Malagdorl Armgo, who looks so much like his predecessor Uthegentel Del'Armgo that at first, Dinin thought that Voselly was fighting the fearsome Uthegentel himself. Even though that wasn’t the case, Malagdorl was proving to be every bit as deadly, not only possessing the size of his ancestor but also having armed himself with Uthegentel’s weapons. Voselly is no novice to combat, but even she was struggling against the might of Malagdorl. It did Dinin little service to realize that Malagdorl wasn’t Uthegentel, for he might as well have been for all intents and purposes. Yet, faced with this terrifying memory, Dinin not only instinctively desires to help his friend, he actually literally throws himself into the combat to save her:

It’s made very clear that Dinin didn’t do this for a tactical reason either:

Dinin has been a proud member of a society that doesn’t possess “trust” in the way our society would define it. Yet, despite having been one who embodied that society’s tenets, and without having had a chance to experience differently, suddenly he not only trusts in the way that we do, but sees Voselly as yet another thing that doesn’t exist in his society’s gestalt: a friend. That’s not all, Dinin cares enough about their friendship that he makes efforts to spare Voselly’s pride in her defeat:

While Voselly, a large and deadly female warrior, is certainly intimidating, Dinin’s explanation here does not appear to come from a place of fear. Any fear that he might have wouldn’t have been of Voselly striking him, but rather of her rushing back into combat recklessly or doing something equally foolhardy should she meet Malagdorl in combat again. His improvised lie seems to come from a desire to protect Voselly, both now and in the future, from within and without.

This is a degree of empathy that the old Dinin was not even capable of contemplating. While I do like this change for him, I’m not wholly convinced that it should’ve come about as spontaneously as it did. Since we last saw him, Dinin spent hundreds of years in the Abyss as a drider, serving Lolth’s whims and, as we’re told in Glacier’s Edge, being tormented by the other demons. While a traumatic life experience can certainly lead to a complete personality revamp, life as a drider was a constant state of pain, emotional and physical, as bad as it was the first day as the last, so it makes one wonder when he had time amidst the constant state of pain to learn empathy. He did spend two years in House Baenre with the other Blaspheme between the end of Relentless and this book, but that’s also an unlikely place to teach him this entire new personality. It is the case that both Quenthel and Yvonnel 2.0 became nicer as a result of Kimmuriel’s “I-make-U-Better Beam (™)”, but Yvonnel 2.0 spent most of her time on the surface and Quenthel still sees herself as very much a noble who doesn’t consort with the commoners. Dinin would’ve most likely been quartered with the other Blaspheme, most of whom were driders for longer than he was, all of whom realistically would be closer to insane than empathetic. Much of House Baenre itself is also torn regarding the new heresy against Lolth, as is shown in the tension with Sos’Umptu and Quenthel’s daughter Myrineyl, so who’s going to the Blaspheme and preaching to them about the virtues of trust, friendship and empathy? Where are their beliefs coming from?

Another strange and inconsistent change for Dinin is that all of a sudden, he’s now being extolled for his prowess in combat in multiple instances, like the four shown below:

First:

Second:

Third:

Fourth:

In all the times we’ve seen or heard about Dinin in previous books, he was always portrayed to be mediocre in all respects. This was part of the reason why he killed Nalfein from the shadows rather than fighting him straight on, despite Nalfein being a mediocre wizard as well. In fact, in Boundless, Zaknafein specifically comments on Dinin’s mediocrity. Perhaps all of it was in comparison to Drizzt, but never were we shown that Dinin could draw his swords as fast as he does now, nor was he ever capable of doing anything that did Zak’s training justice. Again, it’s not that I mind the change, but I do question where it came from, and how it came so quickly at that. Certainly he did not gain this new skill and speed from the Abyss, as one of the above passages makes it clear that the Abyss was more of a place for deterioration of skills than improving or even maintaining them. This is yet another example of Salvatore changing characterization into whatever is convenient to fit his current goals, with little respect for past works, including his own. Like his newfound feelings and beliefs, Dinin didn’t develop them, they were just written into existence by an author who didn’t feel like going through the development process. This is the power of a friendly script-writer on full display.

Undergoing the same treatment is Kyrnill Melarn, a member of the opposite faction in the battle theater of Menzoberranzan. Although not as evil and fanatic as Zhindia Melarn, the head of the zealous Lolthite faction, Kyrnill is very much a traditional high priestess of Lolth. After stepping out of the way of Zhindia for the position of matron mother upon the merging of their two houses, Kyrnill has been looking for a way to regain her position. Zhindia did not fall in the war she waged against the surface, but Kyrnill lost her daughter Ash’ala during Timeless, when Kimmuriel was captured by Zhindia and an illithid pulled the truth of Ash’ala’s betrayal of her house from him. Ash’ala was subject to a horrific, macabre and frankly unworkable punishment, by being submerged in rothé milk and then allegedly consumed alive by maggots (but more on that later). Before that fate befalls Ash’ala, Kyrnill seemingly willingly participates in torturing her daughter, which is quite in keeping with the (at the time) finest traditions of Menzoberranzan.

In this scene, although we see Kyrnill being pained over her daughter’s fate, that familial pain is overshadowed by Kyrnill’s devotion both to Lolth and to her station. Certainly, Kyrnill would’ve been in trouble with Zhindia had she gently applied the thumbscrews, but that doesn’t seem to be Kyrnill’s primary concern here. As the final phrase of the second paragraph illustrates, Kyrnill has written off Ash’ala as stupid and a failure, and chose of her own volition to add to Ash’ala’s torment.

In Glacier’s Edge however, Kyrnill’s attitude towards her daughter seems wholly changed:

Yiccardaria and Eskavidne are yochlols, Lolth’s handmaidens, but unbeknownst to the cast they have gone rogue and are not acting out Lolth’s wishes. To have a yochlol in their presence is considered an immense honor as well as a source of extreme terror to a Lolthite drow, as they believe that it signifies Lolth’s favor which can, of course be boon or bane. As a devoted priestess of Lolth, which Kyrnill has consistently shown herself to be in the past and continues to do so in Glacier’s Edge, it is highly unlikely that Kyrnill would allow a grimace to surface. By allowing that to happen, she endangers her standing in drow society and in Lolth’s favor, all for a daughter who she’d written off as a stupid failure. A typical priestess of Lolth would be delighted that a daughter who has shamed her family managed to retain some degree of usefulness by becoming a yochlol’s plaything, yet Kyrnill risks offending the yochlol and hence Lolth by grimacing at her daughter’s fate. But that’s not all, for Kyrnill plays a dangerous game indeed in the presence of demons who can easily read the minds of the drow. There’s zero doubt that Kyrnill would be aware of this, for she would not have survived for as long in Menzoberranzan and made it to the position of matron mother if she wasn’t. Yet, despite that, she still entertains notions of depriving the yochlol of its plaything:

One could make a case that Kyrnill can’t help herself from wanting to help Ash’ala because of the strength of the maternal bond between mother and daughter, but putting aside the fact that a maternal bond isn’t something that is inherently present as evidenced by the no small number of children in our world who suffer long-term abuse by their mothers, Kyrnill has never shown much maternal attachment. When the attachment was mentioned, it was shown to be overridden summarily by other priorities, so that it should suddenly exist now is artificial and forced. Besides, as a matron mother of Menzoberranzan, where supposedly treachery and mind games are played at levels that any other city can only imagine, mastery over her thoughts, feelings and facial expressions would be among the basic skills that Kyrnill would have had to develop. She shouldn’t be struggling in the following fashion, especially given that she herself had been unnecessarily cruel to apply the thumbscrews to Ash’ala:

As is the case with the changes to Dinin, it isn’t that I dislike these changes to Kyrnill, for having the capacity to care for her offspring outside of how they might be useful to her own ascension makes her a more nuanced character. Furthermore, Lolthite drow caring for their progeny beyond considerations of what those progeny can do to elevate their station would be one of the fundamental ways of illustrating that they aren’t inherently evil, which is one of the core new changes that WotC has introduced. The problem I have with these “developments'' is that they aren’t developments at all, but rather phenomena that were never in existence before that have suddenly been written into being. Given that that’s what’s been done for an entire city of more than twice the population of Menzoberranzan, I guess it’s pretty futile to discuss it happening for a few characters. Nonetheless, be that as it may, I don’t believe that mediocrity conducted on a large scale sanctions smaller mediocrities. What’s bad remains bad even if there is more of it, so I’m not going to let Salvatore off the hook for comparatively small offenses. I don’t particularly care about these characters, and it's shocking to see that I still care more about them than Salvatore does.

The list of characters subject to artificial and forced changes continues with Kimmuriel, who has been undergoing the treatment since Relentless. To this day, it’s still not clear what exactly changed the drow psionicist, the explanation that Salvatore gives is that while he guided Quenthel and Yvonnel 2.0 through their implanted memories of Yvonnel the Eternal that he saw that their society was not always what it has become. Even though it’s not like the three hadn’t had access to this memory before, for some reason its effects kick in now, when it's most convenient for Salvatore. That realization that it wasn’t always the way it is now is what has kicked the city-wide civil war in Menzoberranzan into place, and it’s what’s supposed to be responsible for Kimmuriel experiencing thoughts and feelings that were totally alien to him before. For instance, his anger about the destruction of his house is a more recent addition; the Kimmuriel that we saw following the destruction of his house was coldly objective about it. He wasn’t the son of the house by birth but rather a nameless male adopted into the house after being scouted for his psionic potential. Yet, with the more recent books, we suddenly start hearing about how Kimmuriel has actually been angry about the destruction of his house all this time. At first, we could presume that it was because he lost his station and was relegated to the life of a rogue. In truth this also shouldn’t have mattered because we’ve been told repeatedly that he didn’t care at all about such worldly things and was entirely focused on furthering his knowledge with the illithids. Now, we’re being told that Kimmuriel’s anger at the destruction of his house is based on familial love:

This is coming from someone who didn’t care at all about his family, with us being told specifically that he didn’t care at all about the death of his “mother” because she wasn’t even his biological mother. They weren’t truly his family. But that’s not all:

First:

Second:

It certainly makes sense that he’d feel sad, even grieve, the loss of Jarlaxle, for it is the case that Jarlaxle has been his only close associate for centuries, and it’s something that Kimmuriel recognized some time ago. However, it’s rather ridiculous that he should grieve the others, namely Entreri, Catti-brie and Zaknafein. Kimmuriel has little reason to care about those three, especially as he, up until recently, could hardly form a care for Jarlaxle despite having spent centuries with him. It’s part of this tiring trend that Salvatore is currently asserting that everyone is good friends for reasons unbeknownst to anyone. I personally suspect that Salvatore felt the need to include “and the others” instead of leaving it at Kimmuriel mourning just Jarlaxle as an example of his NO HOMO stance when it comes to male characters, which manifests multiple times in Glacier’s Edge.

As little sense as it makes, the Kimmuriel who was defined by his absolute dedication to intellect and pragmatism has become Kimmuriel the compassionate. Azzudonna refuses to break her oath of secrecy, and out of all people, Kimmuriel is the one advocating the strongest against taking her to the illithid hivemind:

Yes, the experience that Kimmuriel describes is horrendous, but since when has he cared about that before, especially when it gets in the way of what he needs? Why would he care about this woman whom he just met, who chooses to stand in the way of his recovery of someone he has reason to care about? It’s already a stretch for him to be so concerned about the other three members of Jarlaxle’s expedition party, but now to apply it to a total stranger, and one that for all intents and purposes might as well be an enemy. Indeed, had he exhibited these kinds of actions earlier in his life, Menzoberranzanyr drow reasoning would judge it to be mind-boggling, nonsensical and perhaps even insane. Kimmuriel does refute Penelope’s claim that he wouldn’t take Azzudonna to the hive mind at all, but that has about as much teeth as one of Entreri’s threats these days. Who is this character that calls himself Kimmuriel Oblodra, and how did he come to be? He certainly didn’t come from the pragmatic psionicist, who’d already be back from the illithid hivemind with the information about Jarlaxle’s whereabouts. Sure, Jarlaxle wouldn’t have approved of totally destroying Azzudonna’s mind, but when has destroying a minor being that he should’ve viewed as being beneath him stopped Kimmuriel before?

There are other issues at work in the above passage. First, what Kimmuriel recounts is indicative that he retains trauma from his first illithid hivemind experience, if not full on PTSD. The symptoms he describes are characteristic of triggers. In fact, had Kimmuriel truly been suffering from such past trauma, it would make his habit of associating with illithids improbable at best. Much like most of the time that Salvatore mentions mental illnesses, as it doesn’t have to do with his golden boy, it’s not acknowledged as the serious topic that it should be and quickly swept under the rug. Second, an immense problem with much of the premise of the new drow and the revamp of the old drow is Salvatore’s very poor understanding and handling of memories. Memories, as objective stores of information, implanted into someone else would be more like installing an old harddrive in a new computer; just like how that wouldn’t affect the way the operating system of the computer runs, the memories shouldn’t impact a person’s personality. However, while our science doesn’t perfectly understand memory yet, studies have shown that it is about so much more than information storage. The problem is, Salvatore has it both ways when that is unreasonable at best and something he really shouldn’t try to do. With the Lolthite drow, Salvatore is using memory as a storage of complete experiences, whereas with the aevendrow, memory is more about simple storage of information, thereby glossing over the deeply problematic implications of removing someone’s memory, which will be discussed in a later section.

Voselly, albeit a newer character, is sadly subject to the same type of abrupt “re-characterization”. Formerly the leader of the driders called Malfoosh, this female drow’s lifetime predates the entire cast of living characters. She was the weapons master of the first house of Menzoberranzan during a gentler time for the city. However, perhaps it wasn’t so much more gentler, as Voselly had long buried her morality, which returns to her as she watches demons terrorizing drow:

It’s just horribly convenient that her sense of right and wrong awakens now, when it’s happening at the same time as it is to everyone else, regardless of their current alignment with Lolth.Voselly endured the torment of being a drider for millennia to Dinin’s centuries, and although it speaks to her exceptional willpower that she’s still sane after all that time, again, that wasn’t exactly an environment to nurture self-introspection. It’s just yet another characterization written in there because Salvatore needs it to be there but doesn’t want to bother with fleshing it out. Sad, but it does not bode well for having any organic developments for Voselly in her future.

Another drow who is subject to this sudden character change is Saribel Xorlarrin/Baenre/Do'Urden. Saribel, the youngest and weakest of the female offspring of Zeerith Xorlarrin, made up for her shortcomings with cruelty. In that regard, she was the perfect match for rash and brazen Tiago, whom she married and managed to hold in check. It wasn’t by sheer luck that Saribel outlived her husband, but instead of the ruthless young priestess that we’ve known Saribel to be, in Glacier’s Edge, she shows herself to be kind, even considerate and sociable:

Aleandra, despite being a female drow, is one of the Blaspheme, who are equivalent in rank to a house’s foot soldiers. To a Priestess of Lolth, a Blaspheme would be even lower than an iblith slave, for their very existence is an affront to Lolth.. Saribel has always been a proud Lolthite noble, and it would’ve been customary for her to punish a mere commoner for daring to crash into her, even if it’s accidental. Instead of that, Saribel not only doesn’t get mad, she doesn’t even want Aleandra’s apology. She then goes on to converse with Aleandra, not talking down to her but rather treating her as an equal. This behavior is not only unthinkable given how Saribel has been shown to us to be, but completely antithetical to everything we’ve known about her. The fact that Aleandra is a fellow female drow doesn’t suffice as an explanation for Saribel’s clemency, as millenia of war between the priestesses of Lolth have proven that female drow only show consideration for fellow members of their gender when in comparison to males. However, now that Salvatore needs the drow to change, and to change quickly, Saribel, like all the others mentioned before, goes through a revamp so drastic that most readers would likely assume that this Saribel is a new character.

Another example of poor characterization due to inconsistency, lack of previous backing information, and spontaneous existence is the apparent closeness between Ivan Bouldershoulder and Regis:

The context of the above passage is Regis informing Ivan and Pikel Bouldershoulder that he and his friends are mounting a rescue mission up north and that they need Pikel, but not Ivan, to accompany them. Ivan is not at all pleased with the arrangement, in large part because he fears the loss of his brother without him there to protect him. Ivan finally stops arguing after Regis agrees that he’d jump in front of a killing shot aimed at Pikel like Ivan himself would. Nonetheless, why does Ivan trust Regis dearly? Where is the precedence for this? Presumably, as Regis is the one sent to convince Ivan, Regis must have a better relationship with Ivan than the others, including Bruenor. However, it could just be my memory failing me, but I don’t remember why this would be the case. It would make sense if it were Bruenor, whom all dwarves apparently recognize as their king, and with Ivan being a loyal Delzoun subject it would’ve been little matter for Bruenor to order him to stay behind. It’s understandable though that Salvatore didn’t want to go that route, but that doesn’t make inventing ties that don’t stand up to logical analysis any better. In his second life, Regis did forge strong bonds with a whole cast of characters beyond the Companions of the Hall, however the Bouldershoulders were not within those spheres of influence. One of Regis’ specialty hand crossbow bolts does take its inspiration from something Cadderly used, but other than a vague recollection about Ivan bringing him the oils of impact for those bolts, I don’t remember any circumstances for Regis and Ivan becoming particularly close. Is this just a case of, because Regis is a heroic Companion of the Hall, that others would trust in him as strongly as Ivan apparently does without any history to inspire that trust? If that is the case, it sadly would be far from the first time, as the primary reason why the more recent books are drastically deteriorating in quality is that Drizzt and his buddies are changing the character of people around them simply by getting them into Drizzt��s gravitational field.

Contradicting Portrayals

I’ve never cared for Drizzt, and with each new book that dislike becomes closer and closer to hate, and this is because it’s repeatedly shoved down our throats how he’s the perfect paragon of all that is good, but the way that he is written that is very much not the case. Now that Drizzt has a child, of course he’s supposed to be the perfect father like he is the perfect husband and perfect friend, yet again, what’s declared to us is very different from what we’re shown:

Here, on the brink of death, faced with the belief that he’s going to die, that he’s not going to see his daughter ever again, and that his daughter is also going to die (most likely in a horrific way), the only ways he thinks of to describe his daughter are “beautiful” and “wonderful”. You know what’s beautiful and wonderful? Objects. Even as someone who dislikes children and never plans to procreate, I know immediately that this is not how a good parent would think and feel. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that literally any other description would be better, but I’m pretty close to doing that. Heck, even exaggerated and corny hyperboles like, “the one thing more important than the entire universe” would be better here, as that would accurately convey, albeit in an uninspired way, how a doting parent, especially a new one, feels about their child. Similarly, if Salvatore must use the words “wonderful” or “beautiful”, it would’ve also been better to instead write, “the most beautiful/wonderful child ever to exist”. Potentially obnoxious, sure, but still, if you’re a dad on the brink of death and the only thing you think of your child that you’re failing to rescue are those two words, you should not be a dad. In the unlikely scenario that Salvatore didn’t want to extol Brie too much because he’d suddenly achieved awareness that he’s been extolling everything about the Companions of the Hall too much, he still could’ve conveyed Drizzt being a good father without exaggeration. For instance, focus on Drizzt’s feelings, the thought of not being able to rescue his daughter makes him feel more pain than if the gnolls that he’s battling had literally ripped out his heart, or had gnawed a hole into his stomach and were feasting on his entrails while he still breathed. Or, if that’s too gory, have Drizzt regret that he was ever so foolish as to put her down, let her out of his sight, take her out of a mountain full of dwarves who would give their lives for her and travel the dangerous world with her. Really, there are so many things that even a person who dislikes children can think of that it’s maddening that this is what a man who has fathered multiple children writes to convey what’s supposed to be the deepest of bonds that ever existed between a parent and their child.

Sometimes, Salvatore’s characterizations are so off that there’s no reasonable or logical way to reconcile them. The following is an example of this, as pertaining to Pikel Bouldershoulder:

Out of context, it can make sense why others might not think very much of Pikel. He’s very old even by dwarven standards in the current timeline, and the passage of time has not improved his speaking skills. On top of muttering gibberish more often than not, Pikel is eccentric in appearance, with his hair and beard dyed green and wearing a cooking pot as a hat. He doesn’t look particularly formidable either, with one of his arms having been severed.

The thing is, even though Pikel hasn’t by the point of the above passage performed feats that show him to be more Mary-Sue than even Drizzt (in Glacier’s Edge at least), it makes zero sense that anyone in the party, let alone all, would think Pikel to be the least of them. The “all” qualification is null from the get go, as Pikel is specifically requested and included at the exclusion of other options because:

There are several points of ridiculousness in the above passage, such as how what we know as The Sundering is not known that way to the inhabitants of the Realm. This is also true of the Spellplague, albeit to a lesser degree. Regis referring to both in that manner is the equivalent of players in a D&D game having their characters use knowledge that the players have but that the characters don’t have, aka metagaming. The more problematic aspect of the passage above is that Pikel would have access to the “spells of old”, as that’s not how magic works in that world, but more on that in a later section. For now, the expedition group is going into their endeavor knowing that Pikel has very formidable protection against cold spells. Even if they doubted Regis’ words, they soon experienced that formidability for themselves:

In this passage, Kimmuriel is under the effects of Pikel’s protection against cold spell. Even Catti-brie, whom Salvatore takes every opportunity to remind us is as powerful as she is beautiful (and she’s apparently the hottest thing to have ever set foot on Toril), could only cast an anti-cold spell that partially fended off the brutal cold of Faerûn’s arctic north. Pikel’s spell not only completely nullifies that same cold, but he can cast it on far more people than Catti-brie could.

That’s far from the only trick up Pikel’s sleeve however, and the eccentric dwarf does not hesitate to pull more out. Simply protecting his companions against the cold is not sufficient, Pikel has something to say about their traveling conditions as well:

In doing so, Pikel has negated the difficulty that weather imposed upon the expedition’s progress across the snowy wasteland. Moreover, he does so in such a flashy way that it’s impossible that anyone in the party didn’t notice. In fact, it’s specifically noted that Dab’nay, Drizzt and Azzudonna all take note.

Once the storm is calm, Pikel pulls out yet another trick, with little apparent concern for conserving spell slots. Rather than hitching a ride on Regis’ steed, Pikel has his own answer:

While wildshaping into an eagle is itself somewhat ridiculous as Pikel would have far better flying choices (assuming he is a Moon Druid), such as a Giant Owl or a Quetzalcoatlus (if we assume access to “legacy” forms like one would have if one had access to the “druid spells of old”). His casual use of his wild shape would imply that he is a 20th level druid, which would have implications of its own that are largely ignored by Salvaltore to no one’s great surprise.

You’re probably getting a good sense of why I said that Pikel is as overpowered as he is in this book. The storm calming spell doesn’t exist in the current edition of D&D, which might be justified by the “druid spells of old” line, but he is clearly casting while being wild shaped which both confirms him as a Moon Druid and also tells us he is at least level 18. Regardless of how he’s pulling it off however, Pikel is making it abundantly clear, yet again, that he is far, far from the “least of the group”.

But that’s not all. As the expedition enters the icy cave where their rescuees are entrapped, the casters prepare spells to help clear the way:

The implication here is that Pikel’s ball of flame is even more intense than Gromph’s, or at the very least, sufficiently powerful to earn the respect and acknowledgement of the deservedly arrogant archmage. Even though Gromph doesn’t make the top 20 list of the most powerful wizards of the Forgotten Realms, he probably could make the top 50. Pikel’s ball of flame isn’t just for show either. Together with Dab’nay’s and Gromph’s, it makes quick work of a bunch of opponents:

So, to recap, thus far the expedition party has witnessed Pikel cast impressive spells that not only can alter nature, but offer significant offensive ability as well. Even though his offensive spell was sufficiently impressive to earn the respect of Gromph, that’s not all Pikel’s ball of flame can do:

From ball of flame to fiery horse, but that’s not the end stage of this spell. It needn’t be however, because Pikel’s already demonstrated that he’s anything but the least of the party. Yet, despite all of this happening before the “least of the party” bit, that’s still how his companions apparently thought of him. I’m honestly not sure how to make sense of this. The only explanation I have for it to be true is that every single member of the party is either possessed of memory spans shorter than a goldfish’s, are incredibly intellectually challenged, or most likely, a combination of both. That explanation doesn’t hold because Jarlaxle’s supposed to be this mastermind and Gromph’s a magical genius, not to mention that Kimmuriel has been the embodiment of intellect all this time. So, in the end, it comes down to Salvatore being a terrible writer, but at this point who’s surprised by that?

The final example of poor characterization absent of other issues that stands out in Glacier’s Edge is the lack of synergy and teamwork that the Companions of the Hall displays. When Jarlaxle is choosing members for the expedition team, a team that’s supposed to be a small strike force consisting of only the most skilled and necessary members, it’s without question that every member of the CotH is included. The inclusion of Drizzt is a no brainer, with how much of the book is dedicated to make him even more overpowered, but Bruenor, Wulfgar and even Regis are all given the same honor of not being questioned, an honor that applies to an archmage, the Grandmaster of Flowers, two definitely adult and possibly ancient copper dragons, and a drow psionicist whose powers rival an illithid’s. It’s not that Wulfgar, Bruenor and Regis aren’t good fighters, but even with their specialty weapons they’re really more on the level of Thibbledorf Pwent and Ivan Bouldershoulder, both of whom are excluded because it’s decided that they don’t bring anything unique to the table.

Perhaps, it’s assumed that the CotH must all go because their fellow member Catti-brie is in danger, but even then, that justification is a weak one. Even if Drizzt were not as overpowered and coated in as much plot armor as he is, it does make sense for him to go, as Catti-brie is his wife and the mother of his child. An argument for Bruenor can be made, being the adoptive father of Catti-brie and all, but as he’s also the king of Gauntlgrym and recognized by all Delzoun to be their king, it’s mighty irresponsible to just forsake all of his duties to his kingdom and his people to chase after a personal goal. This is to say nothing about the rest of his family, namely his two queens, that he is leaving behind for the sake of Catti-brie. Mallabritches and Tannabritches Fellhammer are certainly more than capable of looking after themselves and the kingdom should Bruenor fall, and all things being equal it absolutely makes sense for someone to go help a family member who’s in trouble even if it means leaving other family members behind. The thing is, Bruenor doesn’t bring much to the table other than arguably his ridiculous shield. He’s a fighter in a world in which magic dominates, bringing the same level of worth to the fight that Pwent would.

The same is true of Wulfgar, whose primary things going for him are his knockoff Mjolner and his strength. Despite being a barbarian, we’ve never seen the type of prowess an actual barbarian exhibits in a full on rage. Wulfgar brings even less to the table than Bruenor does, with even less of a reason to be there. Ever since he fell out of the picture as Catti-brie’s intended, Wulfgar’s always had a third wheel feel to him, and it’s no different now. Including him among what is supposed to be the extremely limited slots for the party is just silly and nonsensical.

As for Regis, although he’s certainly many times more formidable than in his past life, that’s really not saying much as he was basically totally useless in a fight in his past life. What Regis mostly has going for him in his reincarnated iteration is his genasi blood that lets him hold his breath for long periods of time and his tricksiness, both of which do not help at all against the type of opponents that they’re facing. Unlike Pikel, Regis is the least of the party, and not by a small margin either. It makes the least sense for him to be there, as like Bruenor he has more family waiting for him. Sure, he has a neat hand crossbow that can shoot bolts that can explode, but that’s fundamentally insignificant, and doesn’t at all make him worth his slot. The justification that Salvatore gives for Regis needing to go is something having to do with his closeness with Catti-brie, which is yet another one of those “since when?” moments. Yes, he accidentally sacrificed himself when he failed to bring her out of her Spellplague-induced coma, and yes, Mielikki’s ghostly unicorn carried both of their souls away together, but aside from that, we’ve hardly seen Regis and Catti-brie display any greater closeness than they have with other members of the CotH.

There’s an issue in which there’s quite a lot of hypocrisy and double standards here as well, as Ivan Bouldershoulder is excluded despite him having at least as much claim based on the familial argument, and really quite a lot more. Ivan and Pikel have always been together, we’ve seen the two looking after each other, being exasperated by one another, and just being closer-knit than we see in the CotH. Heck, even in Glacier’s Edge, we’re shown the degree of the brothers’ bond, a bond that is more poignant than us being told about how much the CotH supposedly love and are devoted to each other:

First:

Second:

Third:

Fourth:

Regis even recognizes that Ivan has as much claim to the spot in the expedition as he himself does:

Yet, it’s just assumed that Regis’ own claim is greater. This is the latest instance of a member of the CotH understanding empathy with others only as it furthers their own agendas. There really isn’t much distinction to be made in this circumstance between going to rescue someone and taking along someone to rescue them, as the former is in a death trap and the latter is walking into that same death trap. Regis, by insisting on going personally rather than giving up his slot to someone more capable, is negatively impacting the chances of success for the mission.There’s nothing noble or heroic about that, it’s plain stupidity and self-aggrandizement.

The Companions of the Hall are not portrayed any better collectively. When we get to the final battle in Ygorl’s icy cave, Salvatore’s buildup is complete by having all five members together again. Unfortunately, the only synergy present between them is that if they were in a video game, they’d all wear the same faction tag, for they don’t fight together at all. In addition to their contributions during the fight being the least memorable, Each Companion acts like a single component much of the time rather than a gear in a well-oiled machine. Wulfgar is off swinging and throwing Aegis Fang about, Regis is shooting things in another area, Bruenor is blocking stuff with his magical shield and chopping stuff with his notched ax, Catti-brie is mostly out of the action recovering from being thawed, and of course Drizzt, who has by this point far exceeded the rest of the Companions, is doing ridiculous monk-fu shit on his own. It isn’t even that they’re holding off a different area and working in synergy that way. There’s an occasion where Bruenor blocks something for someone else, and Regis explodes something that was about to hit someone else, but those actions are at most having awareness of your allies. These are supposed to be legendary heroes who understand each other so well and so thoroughly that the whole is many times more effective than the combination of the parts, but in actuality, they’re just individual pieces of a puzzle that don’t even have the right tabs and sockets to fit together.

To give an example of how the CotH could work together synergistically, Wulfgar could take advantage of his mighty strength and Regis’ small size to launch the halfing into the air so that Regis could shoot at airborne enemies that even Aegis Fang in flight cannot reach, or rain down destruction from above. Bruenor could be there on Regis’ downward trajectory and use his expanding shield that doesn’t appear to have a size limit to provide a ramp for the halfing’s safe return. Or, Bruenor could use the shield in the same way as a ramp for Drizzt to scale and leap higher into the air to slash at the flying Ygorl. The nature of Bruenor’s shield does make him more useful in a supportive or defensive role, which is probably perceived as being not as “cool” for the dwarven king, but when you give a character a shield like that, being the tank is the price that they have to pay. It’s a good thing for Salvatore that the enemies are all too dumb to focus the healers. All in all, the single most memorable moment featuring the CotH in the final battle, which also happens to be the most synergistic moment that they have, is when Regis and Wulfgar are sliding away on the ice, Regis standing on Wulfgar as though Wulfgar were a skateboard. In other words, the best portrayal of members of the CotH working together is when they’re failing together.

Telling, not Showing

In multiple places of Glacier’s Edge are there sections that claim too much of the word count, so much so that it begs the question of why better characterization was forsaken for the sake of including those pointless passages. One such example is the spelling out of Voselly’s briefing to the Blaspheme soldiers:

When I first started reading the Drizzt books, I enjoyed referring back to the maps included at the fronts of the books as I followed the characters through locations that they’d visit, but I haven’t done this in a long time, and not at all due to my becoming very familiar with the same maps that are often included with different books. With time, the Drizzt books have departed from the contextual relevance of the maps such that the maps have become more like neat flavor inclusions. I’m not quite sure what Salvatore’s goal was with the above passage. The quick succession of foreign-sounding names is off-putting not only to new readers but also disorienting for long time readers who don’t invest time in studying the maps. On the other side of the spectrum, as someone who DMed campaigns that spent extensive time in Menzoberranzan, I can immediately make a mental association between the locations that Voselly tallies off and their positions on the map of the city, but Voselly’s orders do not paint a more vivid picture for me either. The above passage sounds like it’s denoting a complicated plan, but in reality is pointing at large swaths of the city with each named destination, such that a great number of possible paths could be taken through them in the way that she describes. The conclusions that Dinin and Aleandra draw hardly follow from Voselly’s details, which makes me wonder why the words are wasted here. It’s certainly not an example of showing rather than telling, for the exchange that purports to demonstrate the situation doesn’t show anything, and the only information we glean is what we’re told by Dinin and Aleandra. In addition to everything else, Voselly’s instructions are both a poor characterization of Menzoberranzan as well as of her as a tactician and the drow as an efficient army.

The characters are one of the facets that make the soul of a book, so when those characters are like cheap cardboard cut-out figures, the book in turn loses its soul. While the Drizzt books have never been near the pinnacle of literature, at least in the past they had some soul. Now, it’s as though Salvatore views the characters he writes more like action figures to bend and pose as he pleases rather than living entities. It’s truly a shame, especially for how much he purports that his characters take on a life of their own and decide how their story unfolds and that he’s only the guy recording it. Perhaps those characters once had a story to tell, but they’ve long since lost the lives of their own, replaced by strings pulled by a lazy and sloppy puppetmaster.

#legend of drizzt #Forgotten Realms #Drizzt #Drizzt Do'urden

13 notes · View notes