Audiobook Review: The Legend of Drizzt: The Collected Stories by R.A. Salvatore
The Legend of Drizzt: The Collected Stories by R.A. Salvatore
Genre: Fantasy, Gaming
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast (February 2011)
Author Info: rasalvatore.com
Wendy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars
I call myself a geek, and yet, up until last year, I had not watched any Doctor Who. Similarly, I play roleplaying video games, but I have never played Dungeons and Dragons and know very little about the vast lore behind it. Thanks to this book, I have since remedied both of these problems and can now truly fly my geek flag high.
The Legend of Drizzt is a collection of Salvatore’s early works, read by a star-studded cast. It is introduced by Salvatore himself, who recognizes the flaws of his earlier writing, but none the less presents these stories proudly as part of the continuing process required of a writer. For this intro alone, I give the book four stars, and will be lenient on the stories themselves because they are his early works, and because they are pieces of a much greater whole.
Still, not knowing much about the greater world of DnD did not preclude me from understanding and enjoying the tales. The characters were all unique, interesting, and memorable, and I am sure I would easily recognize them if I did ever sink myself into this world.
Perhaps the more frustrating part was the fact that each story was delivered by a different narrator, with varying success. This first came to my attention when the internet got wind of Ice-T’s complaints about all the fantastical names, and while he probably had the toughest time of it, everyone stumbled or at least differed on the pronunciation of the legendary Drizzt Do’urden’s name.
If I have to choose, I will say that Felicia Day did the best job in her tale, and of the stories, my favourite is “Guenhwyvar,” which tells of how the deadly panther companion came into existence.
The BiblioSanctum 
“I call myself a geek, and yet, up until last year, I had not watched any Doctor Who. Similarly, I play roleplaying video games, but I have never played Dungeons and Dragons and know very little about the vast lore behind it.”
This is also me. But I don’t think it matters. We don’t have to like and know all the geek to be Geeks, right? 🙂
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But.. but it’s the Official Geek Checklist! 😉 lol just kidding. I’m quite fine with my state of geekdom, but I do like to peek into the other major geeky things to see what I’m missing. Usually I am satisfied with that peek. I have no interest in exploring DnD further, though I do want to try out some form of table top gaming one day.
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I also have not watched Dr Who, nor played a single table top fantasy game, nor read any Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms books. I admit it is a problem. I even look longenly at Warhammer figurines and then remember I can’t get anyone to play Monopoly with me, most these games are not in my future.
I think it may be too late to start Drizzt books for me though.
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This is a good place to start. And finish, frankly. It gave me a nice little insight into the character and the world, and now I can cross it off my geek check list.
When I was younger, I played Monopoly by myself. My nephew was teaching me all the DnD rules over Christmas though and he plays online. Maybe one day I’ll check it out. But most likely I will be the crazy elf dancing on the table and will end up getting kicked out of the game.
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fantasy/gaming isn’t really for me I confess. tricky genre for me but I’m glad you liked this one.
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I do not know if I am a Drizzt girl
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I actually have these on Audible! They were free in an e-mail they sent me last year so I downloaded them, but I forgot I had them. I thought the cover looked familiar so I checked my library, and yep, they were there!
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I think I got is as part of their daily deals.
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I have this audiobook, but keep passing it over. Maybe one of these days. Seeing you gave it 4 stars helps. Also, you don’t want to know all of my violations that would make me lose my Geek Girl card. (No Dr. Who, no DnD, no role playing games, no Tolkien, no…. The list goes on and on. I’m not worthy am I? )
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LOL we all geek in our own way. It’s okay 😉 I just like to at least have a taste of all the major ones. I did jump a bit into Doctor Who last year and was pretty impressed with what I saw. But not obsessively so. If anything, I’d just suggest watching The Girl in the Fireplace and decide from there if you want to watch more.
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Reblogged this on D.e.e.L's Writing and Various Nonsense.
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