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The Crystal Shard: The Legend of Drizzt, Book 4 (Forgotten Realms), by R.A. Salvatore
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The fourth in a series of premiere hardcover editions of Salvatore’s classic dark elf tales.
This new release of the classic R.A. Salvatore novel continues the classic tale of Salvatore’s signature dark elf character Drizzt Do’Urden™. Although this was the first title actually published about Drizzt, it has now been placed in its proper chronological order as fourth in the series. Each title in The Legend of Drizzt series showcases the classic dark elf novels in new, deluxe hardcover editions. Each title will feature all new cover art and new introductions written by those who have become familiar with Salvatore and Drizzt over the years.
AUTHOR BIO: R.A. Salvatore was born in Massachusetts in 1959 and still makes his home there. He has published numerous Forgotten Realms novels with Wizards of the Coast, Inc., most of which have been New York Times best-sellers. He is also known as the best-selling author of the Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones novelization from Del Rey.
From the Hardcover edition.
- Sales Rank: #89102 in Books
- Brand: Wizards of the Coast
- Published on: 2007-01-09
- Released on: 2007-01-09
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 6.89" h x .95" w x 4.16" l, .38 pounds
- Binding: Mass Market Paperback
- 344 pages
Features
About the Author
R.A. Salvatore is the New York Times best-selling author of more than forty novels, including the popular Forgotten Realms series The Legend of Drizzt. He's an avid gamer, father of three, and loyal citizen of Red Sox Nation. Residence: Massachusetts
Most helpful customer reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
A good first novel by R.A. Salvatore, and an easy entry point into the Forgotten Realms and D&D-style fantasy adventure.
By Lewis D. Medeiros
While nowadays labeled as Book 4 in the "Legend of Drizzt" series under the many-authored shared universe of the Forgotten Realms (itself one of a number of campaign settings for the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop roleplaying game, and a popular choice for videogames of a few genres), this particular entry, The Crystal Shard, was originally released in 1988 as R.A. Salvatore's first published work, and the first volume in the "Icewind Dale Trilogy," a slightly misleading series name since this is the only book of the three set in the region of Icewind Dale. It's worth noting that while this book provides a lot of world-building for that part of the Forgotten Realms, there's also no direct story connection between the Icewind Dale Trilogy and the PC roleplaying games released under the name Icewind Dale--they simply take place in the same area within of the campaign setting.
The Crystal Shard, set against the many Forgotten Realms novels that exist nowadays, is easy to consider inferior to many of its brother and sister works. Before picking this one up, it's worth knowing that at the time of its publication, the Forgotten Realms setting itself was very new as a D&D product line, the first game products being released in '87, the year before. Together with Douglas Niles's "Darkwalker on Moonshae," this book is a pure example of an entry point. Together with the following two works in the trilogy, "Streams of Silver" and "The Halfling's Gem," this book thus focuses on three elements:
- An endearing and eccentric cast of heroes to familiarize the reader into with the archetypal Dungeons & Dungeons adventurer's ensemble
- Establishing the region of the Forgotten Realms in which the story takes place, to be give both readers and D&D players a feel for the universe this and other stories would take place in
- Setting the norms by which the Forgotten Realms label would be judged, in other words, the standards of its brand of fantasy adventure.
As such, The Crystal Shard is characterized by its adherence to the basics. The principle characters are an elf, a dwarf, and a man. The villain is a vain, bumbling wizard who stumbles upon an ageless, evil artifact of great power and sentience (the eponymous Crystal Shard). The chief threat to the safety of the region arrives in the form of a legion of goblins, orcs, lesser giants, and trolls which serve this evil wizard. Throughout the adventure, the action-packed tempo is kept moving from beginning to end, starting with the first act's preliminary war with the unified barbarian tribes of Icewind Dale, a shorter peril which runs parallel to the slower introduction and development of Akar Kessell, the wizard who finds the Shard. And over the course of the story, both a demon and a dragon stand as adversaries for the story's two chief protagonists. Magical trinkets and weapons are forged and found, and though the story splits off to follow several characters on their different paths through the adventure--much as J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" did on a larger scale--the story never deviates from the tried and tested basics of what makes a fantasy adventure feel magical. In that sense The Crystal Shard is simply an example of good, old-school fantasy fun.
The major story hook of this novel that sets it apart from other novels of its type released around the same time is its main character, who at this point requires no introduction. Drizzt Do'Urden, a heroic ranger of the "dark elf" sub-race which at the time was considered universally evil in D&D, does not dominate the adventure as an almighty invincible swordsman as he would come to in some later novels, nor does he weigh the story down with undue focus on his own troubled life as a drow who has forsaken his heritage. It is in this novel that Drizzt, not identified by his author or his publisher as the quintessential D&D cash cow, made his debut, and it is partly this even-handed use of the character that made him so interesting at the time. Over the course of The Crystal Shard, and the following books in the Icewind Dale Trilogy, Drizzt stands out as a fantastic protagonist without being hyper-competent or stealing the spotlight from either the setting itself or the rest of the cast, feeling as much like another player at the D&D table as the main character of a novel. Start-of-act journal-like essays (added to later editions of the Icewind Dale Trilogy, I think) provide additional insight into Drizzt's character and outlook and speak directly on the story's themes without intruding on the plot or bogging the overall product down with preachiness. The pacing of Drizzt's portrayal in this book, which I can't help but feel tapered off somewhere after the later novel Starless Night, is very well-done here, and in re-experiencing this book again after so many years, I find myself remembering quite fondly why I loved the character so much in his heyday.
The rest of the cast is likewise entertaining, although coming at this book after the rest of the series is a little awkward in several aspects. For one thing, the first three books listed under the Legend of Drizzt title, the Dark Elf Trilogy, are Drizzt's origin story but were written later, so reading the books in chronological order does for the writing what watching the Hobbit Trilogy before the Lord of the Rings movies does for the action and special effects: it's pretty obvious that Salvatore had improved by the time Homeland, Exile, and Sojourn were written, so without knowledge of the series history, The Crystal Shard can appear to be an inexplicable dip in quality and complexity. Furthermore, the inherently "basic" nature of this Dungeons & Dragons story, while serving well as an entry point, can feel underwhelming compared to the more inventive and complex stories later released under the Forgotten Realms brand, a theme that continues to a lesser extent throughout the two books immediately following, with The Halfling's Gem being the least by-the-numbers adventure of the three.
There are only two parts of his story in particular that feel unwieldy to me, however. The first is the character of Catti-brie, who in later books is written as both a more prominent character and speaking with a dwarf-like accent which she inexplicably does not have in her appearances here (despite having it at the end of Sojourn, Book III in the Drizzt line, and in Streams of Silver, immediately after this one). She does absolutely nothing worthwhile but the narrative insists that she is strong, fiery, and independent, which kind of feels like the book wanted to make her the token female warrior but gave up halfway through and settled for having her say some mildly interesting lines of dialogue here and there while taking great pains to describe how much her eyes sparkled. Drizzt mentally refers to her as his most trusted friend and companion, but we are given no context for this connection within the book itself, resulting in Catti-brie's inclusion here feeling forced and awkward. This is doubly stark if the reader happens to be a long-time fan of Drizzt and his companions prior to reading The Crystal Shard, as Catti-brie is one of the most interesting and frequently-utilized members of the "Company of the Hall" in later stories. Seeing her so minimalized is, in retrospect, kind of insulting to the character.
The second unwieldy portion of the book is the dragon that happens to be involved in the barbarian Wulfgar's portion of the plot. While the scenes involving this dragon are well-done on many levels, this particular part of the story feels awkwardly tangential when it occurs, because all of the other plot threads involved in The Crystal Shard--from the barbarians to the political conflicts of Ten-Towns to the dwarves to the demon who ends up being summoned by coincidence to the world during the story's events, right up to the primary conflict with Akar Kessel's army--the dragon is the only part of the story that receives no build-up and only a very small token bit of foreshadowing before it happens. When it does happen, it happens with style, but it feels almost like a one-chapter sidestory than a real part of the novel. The inclusion of a dragon feels forced, as if it were an item on the checklist of Fantasy Adventure Staples the author needed to include, and compared to other dragon encounters in fantasy fiction, such as Tolkien's Smaug, or even Shimmergloom the shadow dragon in the book immediately after this one, this one falls flat and leaves a lasting legacy not so much in the imagination of the reader as on Drizzt Do'Urden's own weapon belt.
Apart from those stumbling points, though, The Crystal Shard is a great time from beginning to end. If ever there were an example of reading a Lord of the Rings *movie* in book form, it would be this. While there are certainly better fantasy novels out there, and far more interesting ones to choose from within the Forgotten Realms line itself, The Crystal Shard is one I'd recommend that every fan of the genre read at least once, either to re-acquaint themselves with the basics of these kinds of stories, or to see one of the earliest examples of what made both the Forgotten Realms and Drizzt himself so popular amongst fantasy RPG and novel fans.
A note about the audiobook:
Victor Bevine's narration is quite good, giving the characters suitable voices and adjusting the drama level suitably for most scenes, however, I feel that some of the subtleties of tone are lost in the narration and there were definitely a few places where the narrator mis-spoke or mis-read a word. The audiobook also contains the prologue, opening Drizzt essay, and first chapter of Streams of Silver as a teaser at the very end, after the credits.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
I quite enjoy the D&D universe
By TK1
I could not finish this book. I really tried to, but couldn't. I made it near the end, but was losing interest well before this point and eventually I just put it down and had no desire to pick it back up. I quite enjoy the D&D universe, heck I even play D&D 5th edition as a tabletop group. I've played the games on PC, even IceWind Dale. I especially liked the idea of this book because it takes place in IceWind Dale and the main character is perhaps one of the most popular in all of Fantasy literature.
The problem with this book is it's just passable entertainment. There is no real depth here, it's just straight up adventuring, fighting, good vs. evil etc. I expect a bit more from the books I read. I need more depth in the character development, more thought provoking situations and plot.
It's not a bad book, if you are just looking for a typical fantasy adventure, look no further. It has all you need for a light read in the Fantasy genre: Orcs, Goblins, Trolls, Giants, Elves, Swords, magic Dwarves etc.
If you want something new, fresh, gritty, innovative, thought provoking...this isn't it.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Written First, but Don't Read it First
By K Pearson
You can read the other reviews to get the gist of this first book written in one of the more popular fantasy series about an unlikely hero, Drizzt Do'Urden. This is one of my husband's all time favorite characters. I finally decided to read the books with my son who is now old enough to appreciate the story and not be too negatively impacted by the sometimes quite violent fighting scenes and characters in the book. The Crystal Shard was the first R.A. Salvatore wrote in the series. However, at some point he went back and wrote a prequel trilogy. I usually like to go in the order that books were written, but we decided to go chronologically per the story line this time. I am REALLY glad we did. It is obvious that this was the first book and that Salvatore benefited from more writing experience and probably better editors as the books grew in popularity. The prequel books are far better written than this first book. The language in the Crystal Shard is less sophisticated and flows less easily. The formula used in many suspense novels of leaving the reader hanging and switching back and forth between character story lines is one that Salvatore uses fairly effectively in the first 3 books. However, in this first book he wrote the strategy is more disjointed as though he is trying a little too hard to make it work. The story is much more confusing in terms of who the characters are and what they are doing. My son is asking far more often what is going on in this book than any of the three we have already read even when he is already familiar with many of the characters from the first 3 books and from the board game.
Needless to say, I would definitely recommend reading the books one, two and three first. You will certainly fall in love with the character in those books, which will allow you to be more forgiving of some less effective writing when you get around to book four.
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