What Forgotten realms books did you read?

brus

I'm browsing some books in my bookstore and they are alot of them but also quite cheap.
Which books stand out as really good fantasy action mystery novels? I have read first two books of Drizzt.
What authors are good writers?

YupImMadBro

I've read the first 13 books of The Legend of Drizzt. You gotta keep going; they're so good!

GemHound

These are the series I've read:
1. All of R.A. Salvatore's books including Archmage(There are ALOT of them - I prefer Jarlaxle and Entreri though over Drizzt)
2. The War of the Spider Queen(Lolth goes silent, chaos descends on the Drow - it is decent considering every book was done by a different author)
3. The Lady Penitent(Branch off series about Halisstra Melarn after the War of the Spider Queen - do not read if you like Eilistraee)
4. The Empyrean Odyssey(Branch off series about Aliisza the Alu-Fiend after the War of the Spider Queen)
5. The Moonshae Trilogy(wasn't really as good as the other ones, yet it is about the rise of the creature Kazgoroth, a child of Bhaal)

I would have to say my favourite Forgotten Realms author is R.A. Salvatore, yet I haven't read any of the books on Elminster though. I'm more interested in the Underdark, Sword Coast, Icewind Dale and the Silver Marches than the Dales personally.

BladeDancer

I'm currently on a mission to read every single Forgotten Realms book in chronological order by purchasing the audiobooks off Amazon.com. I've recently read The Hunter's Blades trilogy, and Sea Of Swords, and the only book about Elminster I've read is the one about his origins, Elminster: The Making Of A Mage. I've also read the trilogy novels involving the fall of Netheril.

GemHound

@BladeDancer Good luck, there are hundreds of books.

DragonKing

I wanted to read some, but I sat them in my closet where they became, forgotten.

BillyYank

It's been a long time, but I think the series was called Sembia. Each book was about a different member of noble family. I read the first five, and I recall them being pretty good.

elminster

Novel wise I know I've read the Legacy of the Drow series. But that was probably 10 years ago. Now when it comes to DnD related books I mostly just peer through sourcebooks (for mod work).

Edit: I also recently ordered the Baldur's Gate books because I truly wanted a copy of their terribleness for myself.

semiticgoddess

My brother got me the BG books. I haven't looked at them, to be honest, but I don't think he'd be offended. He knew for a fact that they were terrible books, and got them for me for precisely that reason.

Gallowglass

I've never read any of the FR books.

Long ago, I had read a few tie-in books for some earlier RPGs, and they weren't very good. That experience put me off tie-in books, so I've avoided them in the expectation that I'd find them disappointing.

However, the fact that some tie-in books for some games are poor work, obviously doesn't prove that other tie-in books for other games are inevitably poor, so I realise that I may be doing some such works an injustice by avoiding them. Nevertheless, it's a risk I haven't bothered taking, since I've got plenty of other things to do with my time.

I hear that R. A. Salvatore makes a better job of tie-in books than most other writers, so maybe one day I'll give some of his FR books a try. Maybe.

brus

Well, first Drizzt book is excellent in my opinion. Second it not that great. First book is written in dark, witty and merciless tone.
I'm looking that in the book with the drop of mystery and action. Will Siege of Dragonspear have some tie-in book?

Which mage in FR lore is equivalent to Gandalf in LOTR lore ? In sense it's the most famous and memorable character mage.

Nimran

I have read a lot of novels by R.A. Salvatore, up until post-spellplague. I also read the Year of Rogue Dragons, War of the Spider Queen, and the Baldur's Gate novels. Those are the series that I completed, though I've read many more and haven't completed the set yet.

Mathsorcerer

Mostly the Salvatore books featuring Drizzt, Entreri, Jarlaxle, and company but I stopped after Road of the Patriarch. I did read the Cleric Quintet, as well, and I have a couple of Ravenloft books (I, Strahd and the two featuring Lord Soth). I think I still have the Avatar Trilogy somewhere (Shadowdale, Tantras, and Waterdeep); it culminated in a handful of new Forgotten Realms gods as well as the deaths of at least three of them (including Bhaal).

elminster

brus said:

Which mage in FR lore is equivalent to Gandalf in LOTR lore ? In sense it's the most famous nad memorable character mage.

In terms of sheer volume of appearances I would say Elminster. Naturally I'm a bit biased there.

Moradin

I've read almost every FR novel Salvatore wrote. I said almost because I promised to myself never to buy a Drizzt novel again. This is why: the first few books (from the IWD trilogy to Paths of darkness)
were quite good, inventive, entertaining, all in all a good read. Next, he wrote The Sellswords, which in my opinion is his best work. He focuses on Entreri and Jarlaxle and getting away from Drizzt and company felt like a breath of fresh air after so long. Homecoming, Transition, Neverwinter and the Companions I read and as I continued reading I realized that it was always the same stories over and over again, always the same characters doing the same stuff... It's all game and fun, but after a (long) while one gets bored.

he even had the audacity of bringing back four characters that had been dead for decades to centuries and reincarnate them in newer, more fit bodies. I really don't feel it was necessary to bring back all of them.

I felt with the last few novels he was just trying to scrape the bottom of the bucket and called it quits after the novel he published last year.
I've also read the cleric quintet, very good read. But his best work remains the Sellswords imho. To be fair, I did not read War of the Spider Queen and the Stone of Tymora stuff.

I've read almost every FR novel Greenwood wrote. Apart from the Elminster books, which are witty, funny read and always have the ability to expand a DM's knowledge on the history of a certain area/region, its places of interest and its people, you have Shandril's saga, which adds knowledge to the spellfire and how it works. So even when Big Ed's books are not particularly well written, they at least have something that can be of value. So I'd pick any EG novel above any Saltavore's future novels and the more recent ones.

I've read a whole bunch of other stuff, some I liked, some I didn't so much. The best I've read so far it is the Avatar Series, which focuses on the Time of Troubles and from a DM perspective, I believe it to be a MUST read.

brus

@Moradin ,what about Neverwinter series of Salvatore? Are they fun to read?

Moradin

brus said:

@Moradin ,what about Neverwinter series of Salvatore? Are they fun to read?

They're not particularly good. As I said, it's always the same old story, and at the end, Drizzt saves the day. Check the spoiler.

bruenor dies, which would be ok if he didn't come back later in other novels post spellplague. There's one interesting new character in Dahlia, but other than that, it's pretty repetitive novels.

One must wonder how many dwarven strongholds are hidden throughout the Sword coast ready for Bruenor to go reclaim. This is of course only one opinion, it doesn't mean it's the correct one.

brus

Which book has the most outstanding story (in terms to LOTR story telling)?

GemHound

@Gallowglass The Forgotten Realms isn't truly a tie in to D&D since The Forgotten Realms existed before D&D. It is the main reason the authors have as much authority with the lore as they do(The Sundering), instead of none at all.
@Brus Most outstanding setting? Hmm Maybe The Neverwinter series? That is late in the Drizzt series though. Like think book 40 of 50. Edit: No. Now that I think of it, the War of the Spider Queen and The Empyrean Odyssey both beat it.

I would have to say the offshoots of the Drizzt series have the best story telling.

Riderat

Hey, I'm currently on the Homeland book, doesn't go as fast as I would like to due to time restrictions and me plying bg series. It's quite cool bringing classes of games to the paper (or vice versa). I had a question though. Are there any books, that are somewhat related to the events of bg trilogy, iwd or nwn? I mean not only one character like Drizzt, but more about the lore, areas, dungeons or anything alike.

Moradin

@Riderat
As pointed out by @GemHound , the FR existed way before the creation of the games, so there are no books out there (as far as I know) which were used as base for the games. There are however novelizations of the events reckoned in the games. You can find more information here:

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Baldur's_Gate_trilogy_(novels)

Mind you, if you do a quick research of the forum, you will find that the majority of people/players do not much appreciate the books, for a variety of reasons. Sincerely I tried to read the second book and set it aside, simply because it was boring, badly written (imo) and did not succeed in making me feel involved in the story or the character.
A different way to approach your question is: "are there any novels that influenced the games?". The answer to this question is yes. As I wrote above, the Avatar series deals with the Time of Troubles, so in many ways these novels constitute a prologue to the events in BG.
As for IWD, I found RA Salvatore's IWD trilogy very intriguing and well written, but they have nothing to do with the games. IWD I takes place in 1281 DR, which is about 16 year before Drizzt was even born (1297) and about 60 years before he came to the surface (1340). The only link between IWD I and any novels is the artifact Crenshinibon, which will later reappear in, you guessed it, The Crystal Shard by RA Salvatore.

The events depicted in IWD II on the other hand take place 30 years after the events of IWD (1310), but there is no mention of the Legion of the Chimera in any of Salvatore's works (of course, the game was not going to be out for another 20 years...).

Finally, as far as I know the events described in NWN I & II have never been touched by any novel, although I would really like to read about a young Aribeth and what happened to her after NWN 2. The FR is full of magic, for all we know she could have been resurrected. What about the Sleeping Man? Great stories could be written there ("She will wait at the gates of Cania").

kanisatha

I own and have read almost all of the FR novels. My very first one was RAS's Homeland, and to this day consider it one of the best ever. I generally like RAS's books but have to agree he's been phoning it in with the more recent books. But all of the earlier Drizzt books are great.

I also like Ed Greenwood's books even though he's not as good a writer as some of the other authors because he really knows FR lore inside-out and you get some great exposure to that treasure vault of lore from his books.

A couple of other must-read authors for me are Elaine Cunningham, Paul Kemp, and Troy Denning.

So I'd recommend: Avatar series, Cleric Quintet, Cormyr Saga, Elminster series, Erevis Cale trilogy, Harpers series, Knights of Myth Drannor trilogy, Lady Penitent trilogy, Moonshae trilogy, Return of the Archwizards trilogy, Sembia series, Shadow of the Avatar trilogy, Songs & Swords series, Starlight & Shadows trilogy, Twilight War trilogy, Wizards series, and the standalone novel Evermeet.

elminster

Riderat said:

Hey, I'm currently on the Homeland book, doesn't go as fast as I would like to due to time restrictions and me plying bg series. It's quite cool bringing classes of games to the paper (or vice versa). I had a question though. Are there any books, that are somewhat related to the events of bg trilogy, iwd or nwn? I mean not only one character like Drizzt, but more about the lore, areas, dungeons or anything alike.

These aren't novels, more reference books. But if you want to learn more about the area the games are set in then there is Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast (this covers many things but includes the area of the Sword Coast the game is set in), Volo's Guide to the North (this covers at least the Ten Towns of Icewind Dale), the 2nd edition Campaign Setting, Adventures, Lands of Intrigue, and (for someone like Drizzt) Heroes Lorebook.

Novel wise as others have mentioned there are the BG novels. But they are notoriously terrible.

Moradin

elminster said:

[...]Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast (this covers many things but includes the area of the Sword Coast the game is set in), Volo's Guide to the North (this covers at least the Ten Towns of Icewind Dale)[...].

Agreed and let's not forget the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting that came out with the 3rd edition rules. Lore-wise, that's probably the best manual Wizards has ever published. Does anyone know if they're planning to release/are releasing anything similar for 5e?

elminster

@Moradin
Do you mean other than the Sword Coast Adventure's Guide? (this honestly gets pretty mediocre reviews from what I've seen)

Buttercheese

I am not that much into novels (anymore), but I read the entire comic series based on Salvadore's Drizzt novels. I love that series, still bummed out that it was discontinued midway through the story

I also read the old as hell Dungeons and Dragons: Forgotten Realms Classics comic. It's cheesy as Jan Jansen's feet but I dig it :P

Well, and then of course there is last year's Legends of Baldur's Gate, which I also really liked