We Finished This Today

"...I would love Catti-brie until the day of her death, if that day found her infirm and aged while I was still int he flower of my youth. To me there would be no burden, no longing to go out and adventure more, no need to go out and find a more physically compatible companion, and elf or perhaps even another drow." Drizzt Do'Urden The Thousand Orcs R.A. Salvatore

I make no apologies for selecting the quote I did, though I know it may be hard for some of you to read. I hope not to understand why I chose it. In The Thousand Orcs many people see a book that continues Salvatore's tradition of writing exciting stories where our heroes face overwhelming odds and survive... if not unscathed... then relatively so. Not so I. For me, the book represents the attempts the characters make to get their writer to see the stronger underlying factors through the whole of the story... the relationships to each other, and the power of emotion over all other things.

Villains in the book are not the usual unthinking, mindless killing automatons, while Orcs they are, and Giants too, they are thinking and feeling creatures that care about familial relationships, and the bonds of kinship.

Bonds of kinship are explored too in the conflict of the dwarves of Mirabar, and of course in the pain and heartache of beloved Catti-brie and Wulfgar... and of course of Drizzt himself, when they all believe their end has come and they have to face the inescapable truth that death is one of the only certainties in life.

Yes, Salvatore has to explore these things, and the subject of love, family and future - the conflict of what awaits Drizzt and Catti-brie further along the road, from the genre of Forgotten Realms fantasy. Yes he has to sneak it all in under the battle and politicing of the Realms, rather like hiding vegetables in a child's meal to get him to eat them, but given that, I believe he did an excellent job. I was left with wanting to read the second book of the trilogy...

But that is a way off yet on our reading list... so be comforted perhaps that to me... this feels like a true and accurate account - of then... and now.