R.A. Salvatore recently made a new book deal with Wizards of the Coast for six new books, all of them about his favourite character Drizzt Do’Urden, the renegade Dark Elf who has spawned countless dual-wielding Dark Elf Rangers in D&D sessions across the world. This is news that both made me happy to read yet another book about Drizzt, but also made me groan a bit because it’s yet another book about Drizzt.
Salvatore has written 20 (!) books about Drizzt, which is surprising because if any author would try to write a fantasy series of 20 books he would be stoned to death by his readers. If you even try to write only half of that you would have a series that eventually start to decline in quality* until you just try to keep things rolling for the planned end.
What makes the never-ending books about Drizzt work is that they are not part of a single series, instead consisting of six different series of 3-4 books. You have The Dark Elf Trilogy (3), The Icewind Dale Trilogy (3), Legacy of the Drow (4), Paths of Darkness (4), The Hunter’s Blade Trilogy (3), and Transitions (3). I have read them all, and I can guarantee that the books actually gets better.
Drizzt was never even intended as a main character. He was created as a sidekick for the Icewind Dale Trilogy, and afterwards got a series all on his own where his past is told. The very same thing happened to Artemis and Jarlaxle, who went from being enemies of Drizzt to their own series, The Sellswords (also very good by the way, I would probably want to read more about them than Drizzt). It seems like something that would happen to a TV series, where a side character steals all the show and get a spin-off.
So maybe Jordan shouldn’t have planned The Wheel of Time to be gigantic, but instead set the aim low and build on it from there? Losing a bit of that epic’ness but hopefully gaining focus and quality.
Maybe we could even have ignored Perrin.
* Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind.**
** What? I’m just sayin’…
I never read beyond Icewind Dale, and while I do think Drizz’t was a cool character in that series, he wasn’t that cool. I think he picked up because of that sort of ‘bad guy chic’–you know, he’s supposed to be bad but battling his own demons, and he’s just different enough from the other good guys to stand out.
But I think any series, regardless of whether the writing gets better as the stories go on, gets tired after so many books. Look at Xanth, these, the Dragonlance books, anything about Star Wars or Star Trek, the WoT books, etc. After around 8, give or take 3 or 4 depending on the series, there’s little freshness that can be found in the character or the setting.
So, while I’ve been enjoying the Dresden books, I hope Butcher can come up with another setting for some stories and start a new series. Codex Alera was such a new take on a fantasy (despite the Vord being like Aliens or the bugs from Starship Troopers), I think he has it in him to create some great stuff.
I think that his books are enjoyable, without having to switch on too many higher brain functions. Which is not necessarily a bad thing.
Of course when I read Steven Erikson’s, Malazan Empire books I have to be really switched on.