I have only read some of the books about Drizzt and I'd recommend them for sure. Books with Abdel Adrian, that I don't know. From time to time I read Forgotten Realms lore from here http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
The 2nd edition AD&D material is out of print now, best I can tell. A lot of source material was once available for free in a 'free classic download' section at WotC, but last I checked I couldn't find it anymore. If you wanted to buy ebooks for a lot of this stuff I don't even know where you would go now. Some of it might be available free on Google Books.
@artificial_sunlight the Moonshae books are good. also relevant to Baldurs Gate is the Avatar trilogy about the Time of Troubles and Bane's, Bhaal's and Myrkul's fall and the ascension of Cyric. not terribly well written but fun easy reading
The 2nd edition AD&D material is out of print now, best I can tell. A lot of source material was once available for free in a 'free classic download' section at WotC, but last I checked I couldn't find it anymore. If you wanted to buy ebooks for a lot of this stuff I don't even know where you would go now. Some of it might be available free on Google Books.
Definitely Avatar Trilogy! It is interesting to see how Bhaal dies, and Cyric becomes god, how he turns crazy and loses and then he gets better etc.. Read Prince of Lies and and Trial of the Cyric the Mad after Avatar trilogy the books shed much light on how gods think/act in D&D world. Fantastic reads.
Legend of Drizzt. It should give you a good idea of the areas north and around Baldur's Gate. Only problem is, they are bloody long: There's over 20 books, last I checked.
From what I understand a lot of the specific details and some NPCs (Bentley Mirrorshade and Governer Kelddath being two examples) where inspired by Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast. It was basically used as a guide for the designers to accurately build the city of Baldur's Gate and the surrounding area as best they could.
From what I understand a lot of the specific details and some NPCs (Bentley Mirrorshade and Governer Kelddath being two examples) where inspired by Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast. It was basically used as a guide for the designers to accurately build the city of Baldur's Gate and the surrounding area as best they could.
Although not credited, Ed Greenwood is the author of the BG manual's "An Overview of the Realms: the World of Baldur's Gate" (aka Volo's Guide of Baldur's Gate). Most of it is taken word for word from Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast.
Harper Series is quite good too. Each book is about a Harper and his/her friends battling against some evil and most often Zhentarim, all across Fearun. One book is in Chult forests (africa or amazons analogue) other is in Anauroch deserts (Arabian deserts or egypt), big cities, frozen north etc. Evil is everywhere in the realms and a Harper must be prepared to journey far and risk all to stop it.
Parched Sea was exciting and fun and shed light to different customs and dangerous/exciting lives of Bedine people, those people in the desert. Red magic is fun because it has Thay and Red wizards in it, Edwin would approve. Crypt of the Shadow king is a Harper duo's struggle to rescue a port city from the clutches of the evil Zhentarim.
But my all time favourite is Alias series, Azure bonds. It has everything a fantasy novel needs, interesting and curious plot, well developed characters, loveable side characters, like Fearun's only halfling 'bard', a noble and exotic race, and powerful and wicked evil enemies like a mad sorceress, a lich, an assasin organisation, a red dragon, a mysterious stranger, a dead God, Demons, etc. Simply epic. After three books Azure bonds end but the story continues with Finder's Bane and my favourite is the Masquarades book, from Harper Series but continuation of Alias's story. It reallyaffected me with the Alias's conflict and quest. Most recommended.
Oh I forgot, Cleric Quintet! You know, Cadderly, the guy you meet in game when you return to Candlekeep! Cadderly's story is very similiar to BG story, with some important changes. He starts as an inexperienced, idealistic, young monk (not the fighting kind) in a Library/Temple fortress very similiar to Candlekeep. And through some horrible happenings he has to step up and become a hero to save the land from a terrible evil, with the help of a few friends, ofcourse. Epic journey and adventure, battling undead, evil clerics/wizards, helping elves, rooting off the evil that threatens to seize the land, along with Cadderly and his stead fast friends, badass fighting, a romance, rivalry, sacrifice, heroism, even comedy relief characters, the books have all! Just like the Baldur's Gate game!
Another resource I greatly enjoyed is Heroe's and Villain's Lorebooks. I found them as pdfs on the net. The books have character sheets of all the characters in the novels I recommended. It is fun to read about a character in a book and then open up the Lorebook to see his level, alignment, stats, inventory, skills, etc. No novel tells you directly these things, ofcourse, but as you read about a character's adventures you get to understand their traits and guess their ability scores etc. It is fun to see their original stats and compare them with what you thought of them. Like, 'I knew he was chaotic good!' 'Whoa he has only 17 dex?' '13 charisma?! But he sounds sooo cool in the book!' 'she used this skill in the book, yay!'
I had tons of geeky fun and immersion with the Forgotten Realms world with the Lorebooks. Ofcourse, character biographies in the Lorebooks are choke full of spoilers, they detail what happens in the books, so should be avoided before reading the actual novels the characters are in. Peeking at character sheets and inventory and spells are okay though, and quite fun. Lorebooks are extremely consistent with what you read in the novels, and every major character and even some minor characters have their entries. Fun!
Anything by R.A. Salvatore, the creator of Drizzt, is a decent read. I really enjoyed his Underdark trilogy which follows Drizzts early years.
Shadowdale, Tantras, and Waterdeep, the trilogy the chronicles the events of The Time of Troubles and where the characters Midnight (who became Mystra), Kelemvor, and Cyric come from. Great read, especially the second book, where Bhaal is a major antagonist.
I forget the name of the series (and would LOVE is someone else knows), but it involved a group of DnD players who's DM transports and traps them in their game world. Had a Fighter with seven fingers, an adolescent dragon, and a mage character who, because he doesn't actually KNOW any magic, re-invents gunpowder and becomes a gunsmith. One of my favourite lines is from that series...
*Dwarf is injured* "Give him a healing potion, quick!" "He's unconcious, what if he chokes on it?" "It's a healing potion! The only way it could hurt is if you hit him with the bottle!"
I am going to echo most other posts and say The Avatar trilogy for BG based literature. BG is pretty much based right after the Time of Troubles. It is also the series in where Bhaal gets murdered, ironically.
Comments
Read the Moonshea trilogy to learn about Bhaal, Druids, Kazgaroth and a lot more.
I ended up getting mine from ebay however, there is still a lot of stuff on there.
A PDF of it can be found here
http://www.holscher-larsen.dk/Adad Books/TSR 9460 - Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast.pdf
Maby some are free to download like the one @Darrylson provided.
There are almost 270 FR novels and at least 200 of them are worth to check out.
Parched Sea was exciting and fun and shed light to different customs and dangerous/exciting lives of Bedine people, those people in the desert. Red magic is fun because it has Thay and Red wizards in it, Edwin would approve. Crypt of the Shadow king is a Harper duo's struggle to rescue a port city from the clutches of the evil Zhentarim.
But my all time favourite is Alias series, Azure bonds. It has everything a fantasy novel needs, interesting and curious plot, well developed characters, loveable side characters, like Fearun's only halfling 'bard', a noble and exotic race, and powerful and wicked evil enemies like a mad sorceress, a lich, an assasin organisation, a red dragon, a mysterious stranger, a dead God, Demons, etc. Simply epic. After three books Azure bonds end but the story continues with Finder's Bane and my favourite is the Masquarades book, from Harper Series but continuation of Alias's story. It reallyaffected me with the Alias's conflict and quest. Most recommended.
Another resource I greatly enjoyed is Heroe's and Villain's Lorebooks. I found them as pdfs on the net. The books have character sheets of all the characters in the novels I recommended. It is fun to read about a character in a book and then open up the Lorebook to see his level, alignment, stats, inventory, skills, etc. No novel tells you directly these things, ofcourse, but as you read about a character's adventures you get to understand their traits and guess their ability scores etc. It is fun to see their original stats and compare them with what you thought of them. Like, 'I knew he was chaotic good!' 'Whoa he has only 17 dex?' '13 charisma?! But he sounds sooo cool in the book!' 'she used this skill in the book, yay!'
I had tons of geeky fun and immersion with the Forgotten Realms world with the Lorebooks. Ofcourse, character biographies in the Lorebooks are choke full of spoilers, they detail what happens in the books, so should be avoided before reading the actual novels the characters are in. Peeking at character sheets and inventory and spells are okay though, and quite fun. Lorebooks are extremely consistent with what you read in the novels, and every major character and even some minor characters have their entries. Fun!
Shadowdale, Tantras, and Waterdeep, the trilogy the chronicles the events of The Time of Troubles and where the characters Midnight (who became Mystra), Kelemvor, and Cyric come from. Great read, especially the second book, where Bhaal is a major antagonist.
I forget the name of the series (and would LOVE is someone else knows), but it involved a group of DnD players who's DM transports and traps them in their game world. Had a Fighter with seven fingers, an adolescent dragon, and a mage character who, because he doesn't actually KNOW any magic, re-invents gunpowder and becomes a gunsmith. One of my favourite lines is from that series...
*Dwarf is injured*
"Give him a healing potion, quick!"
"He's unconcious, what if he chokes on it?"
"It's a healing potion! The only way it could hurt is if you hit him with the bottle!"