Drizzt manages to kill a major demon (the equivalent of a Balrog) by himself. The book also has one of the big early disconnects between the capabilities of characters in the game and characters in the novel. Salvatore does have some fun with the concept – Errtu, the demon who wants the shard, is quite happy to wait around until Kessel dies to claim it – but the character really doesn’t work for me. “Kill him already!” is my ongoing reaction when he appears on the page. The artefact he wields, the eponymous Crystal Shard, possibly demands such an incompetent foe lest the heroes have no chance, but ultimate I prefer reading about competent characters, and Kessel is not that. There’s something about the ultimate foe – Akar Kessel, a spoilt apprentice with no morals or intelligence whatsoever – that irritates me intensely. I actually found the first section of the novel the most enjoyable. Wulfgar spends a lot of the book being pretty unpleasant (and I’m not convinced he ever gets much better), but Drizzt is a joy to spend time with – a very unusual and engaging character.
He gets more time devoted to him than Wulfgar, and he’s a far more interesting character. You can see elements of this in the story that eventually got released, but there’s little doubt upon reading The Crystal Shard who is the real star of the story: It’s Drizzt. Drizzt was meant to be just the sidekick. He’s occasionally mentioned that in the original books, it was Wulfgar (the barbarian) who was meant to be the hero. In the third part, the barbarian, having grown to adulthood and learnt the error of his ways, helps defend the Ten Towns against an attack from an evil wizard aided by a malignant artefact.Īt least, that might have been the story that Salvatore was originally intending to tell. In the second part, one of the barbarian youths is adopted by a dwarf who is allied with the Ten Towns and grows to adulthood. In the first part, the folk of the Ten Towns need to stop an invasion from the barbarian tribes. The dialogue, in particular, is much better. My impression? It was better written than Darkwalker on Moonshae. I read it a few days ago as part of my reread of all the Forgotten Realms novels. Salvatore’s first book of his many, many books about the dark elf ranger, Drizzt Do’urden, The Crystal Shard, was released.
0 kommentar(er)
