|
In
Icewind Dale, the people of Ten Towns do not get along. When the
barbarians band together, through the magical persistence or Regis, a
halfling, the towns band together to defeat the barbarians. All of the
giant warriors die except for one, whom Bruenor had knocked unconscious.
Named Wulfgar, and just a boy, Breuner, kings of the dwarves, takes the
boy under his wing and sends him down into the mines to work, grow, and
learn dwarvish ways. Five years pass and Wulfgar emerges as a giant of a
man. Bruener uses his dwarvish special powers and creates a weapon that
is equal to none: Aegis-fang. Giving Wulfgar this battlehammer, he then
had Drizzt Do'Urden, a drow, spend many tendays training the barbarian.
Near the end of his training, Drizzt and Wulfgar run across two slain
dwarves. They wait in hiding and slay the three giants that killed their
two friends the next night. Soon, they battle and kill six more, who
come out looking for the their three missing friends. Bruener shows up
with a force of 50 dwarves after learning of the two dead dwarves.
Drizzt learns that a wizard has gathered and army of goblins, orcs,
giants and barbarians to invade Ten Towns. Bruener and his pack of
dwarves go off to intercept reinforments of the wizard's army while
Drizzt and Wulfgar enter the cave where the giants were stationed.
Gathering more information about the invading army, Wulfgar heads back
to his homeland to confront the king of his tribe while Drizzt meets
with Bruener. Meanwhile, the wizard's army has started the battle and
taken out some of the towns. Drizzt learns that a demon, Errtu, is
leading the army and must stop this foul being. The only problem is that
he does not have a weapon that will harm Errtu.
The Crystal Shard is the fourth book of sixteen
in The Legend of the Drizzt series. This new series is putting
all of the books about Drizzt in chronological order. These sixteen
books originally appeared in the the following series: The Icewind Dale
Trilogy, The Dark Elf Trilogy, Legacy of the Drow, Paths of
Darkness and The Hunter's Blade Trilogy. This Forgotten Realms fantasy tale features R.A. Salvatore's signature character, Drizzt Do'Urden, the dark elf.
Other main characters in this story are: Guenhwyvar - a 600 pound black
panther from the Astral Plane, Wulfgar - a young barbarian whom Bruenor
raises, Bruenor
- leader of the dwarves in Icewind Dale, Catti-brie - the the
human female and adopted daughter of Bruenor, and Regis - a halfling who
would rather lay around and eat than do anything else.
The Crystal Shard is
the first book about Drizzt Do'Urden that R.A. Salvatore wrote. The
character is not as well developed as he is in
Homeland,
Exile &
Sojourn, but still a lot of fun to read about. It is interesting
to see Drizzt's early development, doing some things I would not expect
him to do. The first half of The Crystal Shard is a little light
on action, but focuses on the development of the characters. It is great
to see where Wulfgar comes from and learn more about Bruenor. The second
half of the book rocks as the action is hot and heavy. The entire siege
at Ten Towns is awesome and once again, R.A. Salvatore shows why he is
the best Fantasy writer out there today. His descriptions of blow by
blow melee fight scenes are unparallelled. Why they haven't made a movie
about Drizzt Do'Urden is beyond me, but I know a lot of fans out there
would love to see him on the silver screen. Overall, The Crystal
Shard is another excellent book by R.A. Salvatore and should not be
missed by any fantasy reader, be they young or old. I look forward to
seeking out Mithral Hall in Streams of Silver.
I rated this book a 9 out of 10. |
