Forgotten Realms Novels

armored22

I love reading and i really want to get into the Forgotten Realms Lore and i'm wondering where is the best place to start?

I was thinking of starting from The Icewind Dale Trilogy and going from there.

The Icewind Dale Trilogy - 1st Series

The Crystal Shard (1988)
Streams of Silver (1989)
The Halfling's Gem (1990)

The Dark Elf Trilogy - 2ed Series

Homeland (1990)
Exile (1990)
Sojourn (1991)

Legacy of the Drow - 3rd Series

The Legacy (1992)
Starless Night (1993)
Siege of Darkness (1994)
Passage to Dawn (1996)

Paths of Darkness - 4th Series

The Silent Blade (1998)
The Spine of the World (1999)
Servant of the Shard (2000) *
Sea of Swords (2001)

* Servant of the Shard was moved to The Sellswords trilogy, which follows the adventures of Jarlaxle and Artemis Entreri.

The Hunter's Blades Trilogy - 5th Series

The Thousand Orcs (2002)
The Lone Drow (2003)
The Two Swords (2004)

Transitions - *Follows The Hunter's Blades Trilogy*

The Orc King (September 2007)
The Pirate King (October 2008)
The Ghost King (October 2009)

The Neverwinter Saga

Gauntlgrym (2010)
Neverwinter (2011)
Charon's Claw (2012)

That would be a LOT of reading and i would love to learn as much as i can about the back story of Neverwinter but in a timely manner as to finish reading before the game launches. Would reading just the Neverwinter Saga be enough? or reading Transitions & The Neverwinter Saga be good as well?

slowshield

Hey there!! I have read every book listed here.. Hehehe.. Ra Salvatore fan and all.. so I would recommend reading every book! But you do know that you definitely have to read the first 3 starting with .. Homeland , Exile, Sojourn... then I bet you can't stop reading the rest

Also, to appreciate the sell sword trilogy with artemis entreri and jaraxle, you need to first read about Drizzt Do'Urden, so you definitely need to read the 3 books above hehe! Hope you like the read!

armored22

Well i guess i'll have a lot of reading to do ^_^ My question is, if i want to just get a good lore lesson to understand the setting of the game a bit better would reading just the Neverwinter Saga be enough? I do plan to read every book by R.A Salvatore but i don't think i'd be able to read all of his books in time before the game launches.

My main reason for wanting to learn as much as i can about the back story and lore of the game is for creating rich content in the foundry. Thus my main reason for wanting to play Neverwinter tho reading all of the books will without a doubt help me create even better story driving Foundry content.

slowshield

Nice! I shall look forward to your foundry content too then! :-)

The first 3 books will get you acquainted with Menzoberranzan, the home city of the dark elves, the culture and all.. its a great start! As for neverwinter saga, I wouldn't say it would be sufficient just reading the neverwinter saga.. but thats just my honest opinion

viledeeds77

If your just wanting to get a good lore lesson I would suggest reading the 4E Forgotten Realms campaign guide and/or the 4E Neverwinter campaign guide. The reason I say this is 1. there is tons more lore and explanation in these guides. 2. If you read them instead you won't ruin the entire storyline of RA Salvatore's book series. I think skipping ahead to the end of the line will only get you so much in the way of lore and you will mostly be left wondering what this or that plot point is about which will only make you want to stop and read from the beginning or get frustrated.

shaudius

faleth77 wrote: »

If your just wanting to get a good lore lesson I would suggest reading the 4E Forgotten Realms campaign guide and/or the 4E Neverwinter campaign guide. The reason I say this is 1. there is tons more lore and explanation in these guides. 2. If you read them instead you won't ruin the entire storyline of RA Salvatore's book series. I think skipping ahead to the end of the line will only get you so much in the way of lore and you will mostly be left wondering what this or that plot point is about which will only make you want to stop and read from the beginning or get frustrated.

I very much agree with this. I'd go with the sourcebooks over novels to get a good idea of the setting and lore. I would add the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide to that list, and if you can find it(it may be hard) a great resource for foundry authors is the Grant History of the Realms. It won't get you recent information like the two faleth listed, but it will allow you to incorporate a ton of information, if you so desire, from events in the Forgotten Realms past that aren't detailed fully in the 4E books.

Edit: Oh also another good jumping off point for foundry authors is the Forgotten Realms wiki. Although, as with any Wiki, if you really want to use the information and want it to be canonically correct or want more information, I would verify with the source the wiki cites.

viledeeds77

shaudius wrote: »

I very much agree with this. I'd go with the sourcebooks over novels to get a good idea of the setting and lore. I would add the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide to that list, and if you can find it(it may be hard) a great resource for foundry authors is the Grant History of the Realms. It won't get you recent information like the two faleth listed, but it will allow you to incorporate a ton of information, if you so desire, from events in the Forgotten Realms past that aren't detailed fully in the 4E books.

Great Idea I forgot about the Grand history of the realms! It is a very long and detailed accounting of the history of the realms from the time of creation up until just before the 4E timeline.

bobcat1313

I've read the first 3 of neverwinter saga, I put stuff together and I feel like I understand most of it. My wife has every book listed plus other Forgotten relm books, and has answered any questions I needed.

I plan on starting with the first you listed and continuing on. Untill the last Neverwinter saga book comes out. I feel like I have a little feel about the game now. Wish I would of found out about the game sooner so I could of learned more lore.

I will continue to read novels and gain as much knowledge as I can. Those 3 books are really wonderful, and I'm about to start another book as soon as I'm done posting this. I would do what you want, start where you feel you should start. I plan on reading them all and I don't feel like I ruined anything by starting where I started.

apostles

Of the newer books, I would suggest reading Brimstone Angels and it's fresh sequel Lesser Evils.

They tell of the adventures of tiefling twins and their dragonborn foster father. One of the tieflings makes a devil pact and starts training as a warlock... and that's where the trouble starts and it all takes place around Neverwinter

veltor1234

the series about lolths silence... cant remember the names at the moment, was good reading

armored22

Thank you all for the feedback. I think i'm going to hit the book store on the way home from work tomorrow and see if i can at least grab Homeland and maybe start from there

wulfster42

There are so many good forgotten realms books, it's very hard to just choose a few. I would start probably with the Exile/homeland/sojourn series though and then keep reading all the drizzt and party books from there. That will take awhile, but they are all worth reading in my opinion.

Before getting too far into the Drizzt series (after the icewind dale books probably take a break) and read his Cleric Quintet series. The two series cross a bit later on, so it would be good to have read the cleric books before getting too far in the Drizzt books (also the dwarven brothers in the Cleric books rock).

Ed Greenwood is also another good author in Forgotten realms and well worth reading. His characters are wide ranging, and so we may see some of them at some point (And a few are seen briefly at least in the drizzt books I believe). In addition, his books (at least the Elminster ones) deal with spellcasters alot more then R A Salvators..which will give you a bit more of a feel for that type of character.

I liked the Avatar series as well, although it may be a bit dated at this point (things have changed so much).

For me most of the best books were before the spell plague , which doesn't give you that much back story into how the world of forgotten realms is set up now. The above books are all good to great reads though...and enough to keep you occupied easily up till NWO is released (Even when I used to read a book a day, that would have lasted a good month between all of them!!).

armored22

Thank you wulfster42,

So from my understanding from doing some searching online and from all the info you guys gave me in this post this order here would be the correct order, yes?

The Drizzt Series in Chronological Order

1. The Dark Elf Trilogy
A. Homeland
B. Exile
C. Sojourn

2. The Icewind Dale Trilogy
A. The Crystal Shard
B. Streams of Silver
C. The Halfling's Gem

3. Legacy of the Drow
A. The Legacy
B. Starless Night
C. Siege of Darkness
D. Passage to Dawn

4. Paths of Darkness
A. The Silent Blade
B. The Spine of the World
C. Servant of the Shard
D. Sea of Swords

5. The Hunter's Blade
A. The Thousand Orcs
B. The Lone Drow
C. The Two Swords

So after reading The Icewind Dale Trilogy (The Crystal Shard, Streams of Silver, The Halfling's Gem). It would be a good idea to toss in the Cleric Quintet and read all 5 books (Canticle, In Sylvan Shadows, Night Masks, The Fallen Fortress, The Chaos Curse) before continuing with Legacy of the Drow?

After The Hunter's Blade do i start with The Sellswords then move onto Transitions and then finally start reading The Neverwinter Saga? Which i assume after finishing with The Hunter's Blade i'll have that knowledge to fully understand whats going on within The Sellswords, Transitions and The Neverwinter Saga?

razorrxgdb

Since Neverwinter takes place in the 4th edition setting, it may behoove you to actually read some of the novels set there.

Cold Steel and Secrets takes place in Neverwinter and deals with the Sons of Nasher among other groups.

Brimstone Angels also takes place in Neverwinter and shows us a glimpse of some other players besides Valindra who are trying to take over.

Shadowbane will take you into Luskan.

Then there are the general 4th edition storylines: Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep series, The Wilds, Sandstorm, Sword of the Gods, The MoonSea Series, Dawnbringer, etc.

All of these actually take place in the proper timeframe, showing how the world changed after the spell plague. Various places are shown (Calimshan, Baldurs Gate, Waterdeep, etc.)

wulfster42

Yes, you need to read the cleric quintet before passage to dawn (believe that is the first appearance of Cadderly in the drizzt series and it contains spoilers for the Cleric Quintet series (big time), so it's best to start reading the Cleric Quintet before The Legacy of the Drow.

The Sellswords is meant to be read right after the path of darkness series (it continues 2 of the characters adventures)....but..you may want to hold off. Neither characters appear in the Hunters blade trilogy if I remember right, and both the hunters blade and transitions series are a bit.....gloomy. Also Jaraxle (one of the characters) plays a large role in Transitions, so reading about him right before you move on to that series might be better.

So I'd say something like this:

The dark elf trilogy
Icewind Dale Trilogy
Cleric Quintet
The legacy of the drow
Paths of Darkness
The Hunters Blade
The Sellswords
Transitions
Neverwinter


Think I got them all, and that should work out pretty well. Tons of great reading in there.

wulfster42

razorrxgdb wrote: »

Since Neverwinter takes place in the 4th edition setting, it may behoove you to actually read some of the novels set there.

Cold Steel and Secrets takes place in Neverwinter and deals with the Sons of Nasher among other groups.

Brimstone Angels also takes place in Neverwinter and shows us a glimpse of some other players besides Valindra who are trying to take over.

Shadowbane will take you into Luskan.

Then there are the general 4th edition storylines: Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep series, The Wilds, Sandstorm, Sword of the Gods, The MoonSea Series, Dawnbringer, etc.

All of these actually take place in the proper timeframe, showing how the world changed after the spell plague. Various places are shown (Calimshan, Baldurs Gate, Waterdeep, etc.)

I still need to get/read the new Elminster books. I havn't read many 4th edition FR books (other then the Neverwinter series). I'll be reading the last book in that next, but will probably get the Elminster books afterwards.

Speaking of which, I know the TC has alot on his plate, but tossing in the Elminster series as well (especially since it transitions into 4th edition) would be nice as well. You could toss a few of those in if you ever get depressed/bogged down in the drizzt series (I had a hard time with a few of them and I was reading them like a year apart when they first came out!).

Humor is important and the Drizzt series seemed to lose alot of that as time went on. Not a totally bad thing, but....it can be nice to have a lighter read every once and awhile. If I read all of the hunters blade trilogy and transitions trilogy back to back...I might get seriously depressed.

armored22

I'm going to start buying all of these books over the next few weeks, as i'm pretty sure i'll be reading one book a day lol. So here is my list and my only question is about the book "Servant of the Shard" in Paths of Darkness. Should i skip that book when i get into Paths of Darkness and just read it as the first book in The Sellswords?

The Drizzt Series in Chronological Order

1. The Dark Elf Trilogy
A. Homeland
B. Exile
C. Sojourn

2. The Icewind Dale Trilogy
A. The Crystal Shard
B. Streams of Silver
C. The Halfling's Gem

3. Cleric Quintet
A. Canticle
B. In Sylvan Shadows
C. Night Masks
D.The Fallen Fortress
E. The Chaos Curse

4. Legacy of the Drow
A. The Legacy
B. Starless Night
C. Siege of Darkness
D. Passage to Dawn

5. Paths of Darkness
A. The Silent Blade
B. The Spine of the World
C. Servant of the Shard (first book of The Sellswords trilogy)
D. Sea of Swords

6. The Hunter's Blade
A. The Thousand Orcs
B. The Lone Drow
C. The Two Swords

7. The Sellswords
A. Servant of the Shard (re-released in 2005, but is the same book as that released in 2000)
B. Promise of the Witch-King
C. Road of the Patriarch

8. Transitions
A. The Orc King
B. The Pirate King
C. The Ghost King

9. Neverwinter
A. Gauntlgrym
B. Neverwinter
C. Charon's Claw
D. The Last Threshold (March 5, 2013)

firesnakearies

I started doing this recently, going back and re-reading all of these. I read them originally when they were released, but only up to Passage of Dawn before I stopped. So I haven't read the last 12 or so Drizzt books, or the Sellswords.

I got through the Dark Elf Trilogy and have started on The Crystal Shard again. I forgot how much I actually LIKE Drizzt. It's been so many years since I read these, and since then Drizzt has become just this sort of overused name/concept that everyone makes fun of. But he's a great character.

I can't wait to get to the actual Neverwinter books, I'm eager to see how things are after the Spellplague, and all that time having passed.

wulfster42

No, finish the paths of darkness series. Servant of the shard is part of the paths of darkness series so you can't skip it (well you could, but it wouldn't make much sense). I didn't read the second and third book (really should just call it the first and second book) of the sellswords for a long time after reading the first. I don't remember when they came out, but they are the only books in the series I didn't read when they were released. I read them together in fact, so the first had been out long enough for the second to be released already when I did read them.

I may have even started reading The Pirate King, and found out I had missed some of the story, stopped and grabbed the sellsword books and read them before continuing (think that is what happened but it's been awhile and I don't remember individual books as well as I used to).

Anyway your setup looks great, should give you a ton of hours of enjoyment. I envy you being able to read all those for the first time:)

wulfster42

firesnakearies wrote: »

I started doing this recently, going back and re-reading all of these. I read them originally when they were released, but only up to Passage of Dawn before I stopped. So I haven't read the last 12 or so Drizzt books, or the Sellswords.

I got through the Dark Elf Trilogy and have started on The Crystal Shard again. I forgot how much I actually LIKE Drizzt. It's been so many years since I read these, and since then Drizzt has become just this sort of overused name/concept that everyone makes fun of. But he's a great character.

I can't wait to get to the actual Neverwinter books, I'm eager to see how things are after the Spellplague, and all that time having passed.

I need to re-read all of them again just so I can start liking Drizzt again myself. He doesn't become unlikable exactly, but things become more morose or less fresh I guess over the years/books. By the time Pikel and friends showed up I was already in real need of some lightheartedness big time in the series. The last 3 series in drizzt's saga, while still quite good, have been much harder for me to read then the early ones.