Forgotten Realms (Fantasy books)

[KindGrind]

During my weekly stop at a very particular bookshop (people give away books to them, and those fit enough to sell are sold at a very low price, the others, recycled... pretty much a charity thing), I stumbled upon the first 45(!) books in the Forgotten Realms series, apparently unread. I instantly recognized the face of Drizzt on Homeland, Sojourn and Exile, and several other books I had read when I was a teenager. I brought the lot home (for roughly 20$, which was ridiculous) and read through Homeland again, the first book of the Dark Elf Trilogy. As far as fantasy goes -even though it's a tad generic- it really gets the job done... very likeable main character, interesting world... Would definitely make for an excellent movie. Question: I'm I the only one to like/know these?

PS. I'm not into AD&D and the like, never interested me. Yet I have very fond memories of these books in particular, although I'm fully aware that many people consider these "lesser lit"... but that's another story.

[jonny5]

haha...as soon as I read Forgotten Realms in the title I thought of Drizzt before I even read your post. Can't remember much of anything from the books, but I remembered that name.

I was also into fantasy books and role playing games in high school.

Always more of a sci-fi fan though; fantasy stuff just helped fill the queue and my role playing buddies had stacks of them to borrow out and were always recommending them to me.

[BPzeBanshee]

I'm not a fantasy guy anymore myself but I did actually go to a bookstore and saw the Forgotten Realms series there (scattered few though).

There was actually one fantasy book I read years and years ago about a guy that had lost his memory, woke up in a forest with nothing but his clothes and a staff which had a metal tip at the end and a star engraved into it. Whack that staff to the ground and WHOHO! enemy destroyed. Cant remember the damn name at all though.

[PainAmplifier]

I still have a pile of those stacked away...there were some really good books written under the Forgotten Realms banner. I'm not to familiar with them these days, so I don't know if they are still putting new ones out though.

If you liked those though, you may want to look at the Warhammer Fantasy/40,000 books. There have been some really good books in those worlds as well. The Warhammer worlds are a bit more 'believable' and somewhat less generic fantasy which can at times make the books better than the Forgotten Realms or other TSR books can be. Speaking of TSR, they put out more than just the Forgotten Realms books. There were a couple of good 'Dark Sun', 'SpellJammer', 'Greyhawk' and a few other imprints that where all put out by TSR back in the day.

Although if you really want to branch out, you could also try to find some of the FASA/Shadowrun books or try some of the Vampire the Masquerade books as well. VtM is probably the closest that you will find to the current 'Urban Fantasy' setting that is quite popular these days. (AKA, Anita Blake, Mercy Thompson, etc)

And actually, I've come to find that some of the older books actually appeal to me more in certain genres. SciFi in particular has suffered in recent years with far fewer good books compared to years past. I'd say that the 70's-90's had some of the best. Although there's a pretty big difference between the more hard core SF of writers like Isaac Asimov (I recommend some of his short story compilations over the big Foundation series and such.) and those of the more 'fantasy' styled stories that where just using space as a backdrop. (Alan Dean Foster's Commonwealth books for example.)

[BPzeBanshee]

I didn't realise SciFi was suffering, but then I only read Peter F Hamilton and Alastair Reynolds titles. Have you read any of their titles PainAmplifier?

[Heartwork]

TSR also published the Dragonlance series, which was pretty similar to Forgotten Realms. I read a bunch of both of those series when I was younger. Drizzt is a boss.

[Herr Schatten]

I read the first couple of Forgotten Realms books by R. A. Salvatore. I didn't like them all that much, they felt very run-of-the-mill to me, although the characters were very likeable. I read the first two series of the Dragonlance novels at around the same time and I found them much more interesting, especially the Legends series and Dragons of Summer Flame.

[PainAmplifier]

I didn't realise SciFi was suffering, but then I only read Peter F Hamilton and Alastair Reynolds titles. Have you read any of their titles PainAmplifier?

Hmm, perhaps suffered is a bit strong of a word to use here. 'Diluted' might be a better way of phrasing things. Some of that you can attribute to the proliferation of various media alternatives and the rest due to changing expectations/exposure. There are just so many more options as far as movies/games/books/manga theses days, that what used to be a strong base style is more of a 'niche' these days. (Hard-SciFi) I think that SciFi is far more of a 'flavoring' these days and makes up less of a definable genre than it did before, with the 'Science' part of SciFi taking a backseat to the 'Fiction' part of that word. Perhaps 'SciFan' (Science-Fantasy) would be more descriptive of what we've been seen the last 15 years or so.

Peter F Hamilton - I can't say that I'm familiar with his work. None of the book covers stand out in my mind, but that could also be because they change them for a US release. Still none of the titles stand out either.

The art work though does look familiar, enough so that I'm pretty sure that I have several books in a 'series' that use that same artist. It's another SciFi setting, which I'm not certain, but I think is British as well. (Which would make sense if they use the same cover artist.) I can't recall the series name off hand though...I'll have to look again.

Alastair Reynolds - I got nothing on this person. None of the titles, covers or descriptions seem even vaguely familiar. Then again, most of the covers seem to be so sci-generic (Spaceship in front of moon/planet/star/space) that he could have been on the cover of one of the scifi magazines and It wouldn't register for me at all.

I read the first couple of Forgotten Realms books by R. A. Salvatore. I didn't like them all that much, they felt very run-of-the-mill to me, although the characters were very likeable. I read the first two series of the Dragonlance novels at around the same time and I found them much more interesting, especially the Legends series and Dragons of Summer Flame.

I'll agree with you on RA Salvatore. Once you get past the Drizzt books, his writing style tends to stand out over the actual stories to the extent it does feel a bit generic. You could also say that with so many Fantasy books out there now it's easy to draw connections between them and see how much they are alike. It takes a lot for a writer to come up with enough of a setting twist that it stands out over the well known stories that have come before. I haven't been able to really sit down and read any of his post-Drizzt books for pretty much that reason...I just keep coming up with other stuff I'd rather read instead.

[Khan]

I've always wanted to read the books, but I first heard of forgotten realms and drizzt through a game called Baldurs gate on the PC I lost around 2 months of my life with that game so many late nights romping through dungeons loading and reloading save files just to see other dialogue options.

I will definantly check out the books sometime.

[BPzeBanshee]

I didn't realise SciFi was suffering, but then I only read Peter F Hamilton and Alastair Reynolds titles. Have you read any of their titles PainAmplifier?

Hmm, perhaps suffered is a bit strong of a word to use here. 'Diluted' might be a better way of phrasing things. Some of that you can attribute to the proliferation of various media alternatives and the rest due to changing expectations/exposure. There are just so many more options as far as movies/games/books/manga theses days, that what used to be a strong base style is more of a 'niche' these days. (Hard-SciFi) I think that SciFi is far more of a 'flavoring' these days and makes up less of a definable genre than it did before, with the 'Science' part of SciFi taking a backseat to the 'Fiction' part of that word. Perhaps 'SciFan' (Science-Fantasy) would be more descriptive of what we've been seen the last 15 years or so.

Peter F Hamilton - I can't say that I'm familiar with his work. None of the book covers stand out in my mind, but that could also be because they change them for a US release. Still none of the titles stand out either.

The art work though does look familiar, enough so that I'm pretty sure that I have several books in a 'series' that use that same artist. It's another SciFi setting, which I'm not certain, but I think is British as well. (Which would make sense if they use the same cover artist.) I can't recall the series name off hand though...I'll have to look again.

Alastair Reynolds - I got nothing on this person. None of the titles, covers or descriptions seem even vaguely familiar. Then again, most of the covers seem to be so sci-generic (Spaceship in front of moon/planet/star/space) that he could have been on the cover of one of the scifi magazines and It wouldn't register for me at all.

I suppose when you put it that way SciFan would be more accurate, especially in the case of Hamilton's Void Trilogy which has two separate scene settings that leer toward either genre.
The guy started writing pieces in scifi magazines in the 80s I think, and some of his earlier works are based on what he wrote as short stories for those editions. The British cover art for the books are way better (and more true to the story) than what's in the American book releases, and I think the cover artist has done work for a few different authors. Thank God Australia gets the British book versions though.
I gotta admit Reynolds' books are a bit flawed. I can't figure out which book is which in the series, or if it's connected at all. Some of his books are good once you get into them, though at least with Hamilton you don't get 'dud' books.