The Crystal Shard is the first of a now 10 year-old and epic series, featuring the renegade drow (dark elf) Drizzt Do'Urden and his famous friends. It's not my favorite of the series, but it's one excellent book and a must read to understand the whole series.
Little is yet known about Drizzt, but it appears his race is one of the most feared and hated in the world. But if the dark elf rejected his kin's way of life, it's not without reason; it is because he does not share their ideals. Despite all that, he will have trouble convincing the people of the tundra community of Ten-Towns, around which he roams, of his honest intentions of helping them to prepare for an imminent barbarian assault. And barbarian tribes are the least of the population's problems; an ancient relic of great power has been found by a mage and may yet destroy them all.
For the author's first novel, it is rather well written. Salvatore already shows his ability to introduce us to interesting characters. Drizzt, after all, became the most popular hero of all the Forgotten Realms, but his friends Bruenor the grumpy dwarf, Regis (a lazy halfling) and of course the panther Guenhwyvar already catch the imagination. The scenes of action are also extremely detailed and depict very well each character's skills and fighting style. The story could have had a little more work though, but it does the job, with such fine characters. I just wish it had more layers to the intrigue, as everything is pretty much straightforward, but that's a minor complaint.
The cover artwork was painted by one of the most talented fantasy artist, Larry Elmore. It's his only Forgotten Realms artwork that I know of: his reputation comes more for his Dragonlance paintings. Bruenor seems a bit tall on it, but nonetheless the work is a great achievement; excellent portrayal of Drizzt, Wulfgar and the villages of Ten-Towns in the backdrop.
This novel has been my first foray into the Forgotten Realms novels series; I'm usually hesitant to read series of books due to my rather short (and easily distracted) attention span. After several recommendations from friends, I finally got off my lazy butt and bought The Crystal Shard, and I must admit that I am impressed. The narrative itself is quite impressive, especially for a first novel. Salvatore not only builds characters that a reader can quickly identify and like; he also writes believable dialog and damn good fight sequences. In the dialog, the characters talk and react to each other quite well with their unique personalities, without ever resorting to cheesy melodrama. The war/fighting sequences in the stories are machine-gun-paced yet quite detailed, giving the reader not only a sense of action but a sense of how the characters are actually fighting. The story does not dwell on blood in the fights, but the story doesn't suffer from a squeaky-clean lack of gore, which makes the fighting more believable.
Even with all these things, the true crowning achievement of the novel is that it never drags or becomes boring.There's always either plenty of action or a thread of interest that will keep the pages turning. The tone of the story is serious, yet not grave.
However, the story is not unwilling to have a little fun. There is a bit of comedy in the story, even though the story is really not trying to be funny. Salvatore doesn't crack jokes in the story; the occasional bit of humor is in character interaction, and sometimes even in the writing itself, which gives a slight chuckle with its morbid irony at times.
The only thing that The Crystal Shard really lacks is a strong central villain. While the protagonists in the story all have many troubles that take cleverness to get out of, the story really has no "anchor of evil." The main evildoer in the story, Akar Kessel, is a weak, wishy-washy, self-indulgent character that falls into power rather than earns it. He really amused me rather than made me love or hate him (he amused me because I know people who act like him), even though his sense of perversion makes him a rather dislikable character. Errtu, his demon vassal, is given a very minor and secondary role in the story, which left me wondering about his real importance to the tale. Even though the villains certainly do the job, it would have been nice to see a villain that could hold a larger presence to the story. Another thing that could have made the story a bit better is that there could have been a bit more to the sub-stories. While it's clear that this story is mostly for setting up the next two parts of the trilogy, it seemed that at a few points whole sub-stories are almost dismissed for a future tale. While this is not really damaging to the story, I did find myself saying "Wait, that's it?" once or twice. It's not a major point, but one that I thought needed addressing.
I liked Larry Elmore's cover art; it gave me a pretty good feel for what the characters looked like, and the art is very detailed. Overall, I really enjoyed The Crystal Shard, and look forward to reading the next novel. This is a novel that I had my doubts that I would enjoy it, but I was hooked from beginning to end. Dammit, now I have another thing I have to spend money on... hehehe.
RATINGS
Cover Art: 9/10
Quality of the Writing: 9/10
Story: 8/10 Characters: 8/10
Intrigue: 7/10
Overall: 8/10
Aurelis