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Pantaloons

Greetings

I am wondering if anyone have any suggestions regarding books set in the Forgotten Realms. I am currently reading the Starlight and Shadows trilogy by Elaine Cunningham and have previously read the Elminster series up to and including Elminster Daughter, as well as The Icewind Dale Trilogy and The Dark Elf Trilogy.

The reason I don't want to continue on the Drizzt and Elminster books is, well, they are (in my opinion) godmoding. The Elminster books jumps too much around, making it hard to keep trach. They have too many pointless characters, and Elminster himself is being invincible and solves everything in the last chapter like it was nothing at all. The Drizzt books is kinda the same, with the heroes going around, easily deafeating villains left and right, with the baddies being bigger and more dangerous than the previous, yet falls just as easy, very much the same thing. Of course, this is merely my own opinion, and they should be interpreted as such.

So my question is, are there any books you can recommend without the flaws I pointed out above and set in the Forgotten Realms? If so, I would be grateful if you could post them here. Very grateful indeed.

DreadKhan

The Volo book Once Around the Realms or something worth a read. Not the best, but more entertaining than some.

If you don't mind branching out a bit, Ravenloft has some solid books (and some rather disapointing ones), some featuring Forgotten Realms characters.

Squire

Starlight and Shadows, is that the Liriel Baenre one? I read one of those and didn't like it. However, one of Cunningham's that I did quite like was the Songs and Swords books. I find Khelben Arunsun more interesting than Elminster, and I quite like Danilo Thann as a concept, although Arilyn Moonblade kind of suffers from the same flaws that Drizzt suffers from in the Salvatore books, just like Liriel Baenre (i.e. so damn perfect at everything that one has to wonder if there was ever a challenge there to begin with).

Another series that I did quite like was the Spider Queen one (can't remember the full name)...I'm not normally a fan of drow as a concept, but this one pulled it off really well, and I really liked Pharaun as a character. It's about proper drow, not chaotic good Gary Stu/Mary Sue drow heroes.

If you're not dead set on Forgotten Realms, I can definitely recommend the Dragonlance trilogy. That has a few interesting characters, and no Gary Stus/Mary Sues - a rarity in fantasy hero stories!

Night_Watch

@Squire I think the drow one you're thinking of is War of the Spider Queen. If I recall while R.A. Salvatore did not write any of them, he oversaw the novels being written by 6 other individuals (1 per book)

My memory is extremely fuzzy but:

I haven't read a Forgotten Realms book in a longtime, but one that sticks to memory is the Avatar series, dealing with the Time of Troubles.

Another series is the Cleric Quintet, although if memory serves I think towards the last 2 books it starts to fall prey to the same issues you have mentioned about Drizz't and Elminster. But again, my memory isn't too hot so I could be wrong.

Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor (novel, not the game) was pretty good. In my opinion it was even better than the game. A much better adaptation of a game into a novel as opposed to the BG novels. The old PoR books are worth taking a look at as well.

kiwidoc

I've read lots of FR books, and to be honest I think the most skilful of the FR stable of writers is Elaine Cunningham. As the friend who introduced her to me said - "She's no C J Cherryh, but she's a good writer." Try her other series, they are well worth it.

I found Salvatore frustrating - his characters are good, and the storylines are also pretty interesting but his actual writing skills leave a lot to be desired. He frequently uses the wrong word, which really bugs me - and he also writes some combat and arms practice scenes that are quite frankly laughable. But he must be doing something right, because I keep coming back.

TheGraveDigger

The Alabaster Staff is probably the best FR book I've read.

DreadKhan

The 2 Cyric novels after the Avatar trillogy were very entertaining iirc.

Squire

I've just remembered another FR book that I quite liked: one of the Moonshae Island books, I can't remember the name of it, but apparently it was the one that inspired Drizzt and his pet panther. I remember the main character was a nobleman called Tristan who had a pet dog called Canthus, but that's about all I remember. From what I do remember. In fact I always meant to re-visit this series, maybe now would be a good time.