Author: Robert Anthony Salvadore
Themes: Community, prejudice
Quote:
"The halfling's father had once warned him that he would always be at a disadvantage when dealing with humans because they physically had to look down when speaking to him, as they would their own children."
Reading/Listening Time: 9 hours, 36 minutes
Review:
This story is about these people who live in a place called "Icewind Dale" and how they respond to external threats.
There's more than one main character, but to me the most prominent one is a guy named Wulfgar. He started out in Icewind Dale as kinda a prisoner of war: he was part of a raiding army and his raiding group lost the battle. Weirdly the Icewind Dalers didn't try to kill him, and he ended up being taken in by a dwarf blacksmith named Bruneor to become an indentured servant to him for a specific number of years and earn his freedom. Over time, the two develop an almost father-son bond and Wulfgar starts to fall in love with Bruneor's adopted daughter. And he kinda makes a place for himself in his new village, and the larger conglomerate of Ten-Towns.
As the start of the story Wulfgar is nearing the end of his indenture and Bruneor wants to help him learn what it means to be grown up; like, the proper way to go about making your way in the world etc. So he sends him on a camping trip with one of his ranger-buddies by the name of Drizzt Do'urden
Now, Drizzt looks kinda like this:
He's a dark-elf (Aka "Drow") and, just like Wulfgar, his race is not native to Icewind Dale. Not only does he stick out like a sore thumb, he also has to face a lot of prejudice because his native people are generally known to be really sociopathic and manipulative. Drizzt tells us himself that there is some truth to that, and that he believes his own tendencies to nonmaleficence and compassion to be the exception rather than the rule.
Wulfgar's training with Drizzt serves two purposes: it teaches him some sick survival and fighting techniques, but possibly more importantly it helps him to overcome his prejudice and keep an open mind.
One thing I thought was interesting was that they don't just blindly reject the notion of prejudice. Like, they explain that prejudice may have had (or once had) a basis in fact, and that the purpose of prejudice on a social level is to protect people. And protecting one's self and one's community is not a bad thing, the problem is maintaining that worldview even when evidence is shown to the contrary and it becomes invalid:
“The world is not static, and if the roots of our perceptions, traditions, hold static, then we are doomed, I say, into destructive dogma.”
So the focus is more on asking, like, "OK Why does this prejudice exist? Is it valid? How is it affecting my behavior? Is there anything else we should take into consideration when passing judgement?"
Which I thought was actually kinda thoughtful! Kudos to Mr Salvadore!
After Wulfgar passes the initiation, his community is beset by this power-hungry wizard dude and his minions.
No, not those minions
but really, I kinda felt they could have been. This was the weak part of the story for me, mostly because of the wizard character being so obviously incompetent and vain by himself. Like, we know from the very beginning what a loser he is and how he just happened to have found this incredibly magical artifact that allows him to summon demons and take all this power. I think it would have been more interesting if he'd started out kinda mysterious, and then over time we learn his background along with Wulfgar and Co. I think the surprise of his origins would have been delightful to watch if it had been delivered in that way, as it is I couldn't really take him seriously (even though, like the first thing he does is have someone killed. He's just so incompetent, nothing he does makes him seem like a genuinely menacing threat for our protagonists
)A lot of people who've read this book think that Drizzt kinda stole the show (ie even though he's not the main protagonist he's more interesting than them). I can kinda see where they're coming from, like, Drizzt is supposed to be "the outsider" wherever he goes he doesn't 'quite feel like he belongs He's an outcast to his homeland, because he's too nice. And he doesn't quite fit in the community of Ten-Towns because of prejudice against his race.
I think he might have resonated with me more if I'd have read the book when I was younger, what really stood out to me was the whole group dynamic of how these different people work together. "An Elf, a Dwarf, and a Human walk into a town council meeting." ;)
Rating: 4/5 Stars.
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