Electronic Resource | eBook, 352 pages
English language
Published May 27, 2009 by Wizards of the Coast.
Isolated in the barren stretches of Icewind Dale the villages of Ten-Towns come under attack by a tribe of barbarians. In the midst of battle a young barbarian named Wulfgar ends up owing five years of his life to a grizzled dwarf. With the help of Drizzt , a renegade dark elf, the dwarf strives to mold the barbarian into a warrior with both brawn and brains.
Meanwhile, there is no peace for the people of Ten-Towns. The fractioned tribes of barbarians continue to pose a threat, and Wulfgar may be the only person who can avert a deadly battle. But an even more dire menace appears when a weak-willed apprentice mage stumbles upon a magical crystal shard. The evil shard directs the hapless mage onto a course of destruction that all of Icewind Dale may be powerless to stop.
from the paperback
This work is in the following series: …
Isolated in the barren stretches of Icewind Dale the villages of Ten-Towns come under attack by a tribe of barbarians. In the midst of battle a young barbarian named Wulfgar ends up owing five years of his life to a grizzled dwarf. With the help of Drizzt , a renegade dark elf, the dwarf strives to mold the barbarian into a warrior with both brawn and brains.
Meanwhile, there is no peace for the people of Ten-Towns. The fractioned tribes of barbarians continue to pose a threat, and Wulfgar may be the only person who can avert a deadly battle. But an even more dire menace appears when a weak-willed apprentice mage stumbles upon a magical crystal shard. The evil shard directs the hapless mage onto a course of destruction that all of Icewind Dale may be powerless to stop.
from the paperback
This work is in the following series:
This work is in the following collections:
See also the [Graphic Novel Adaptation][3] of this work
The following ebook links were found elsewhere online: - ten-towns.narod.ru/library/fr_iwd_1.pdf
[1]: openlibrary.org/works/OL516718W/The_Icewind_Dale_Trilogy [2]: openlibrary.org/works/OL14960754W/The_Legend_of_Drizzt_Collector%27s_Edition_Book_II [3]: openlibrary.org/works/OL15333836W/The_Crystal_Shard
Rough, formulaic opening act, but once Wulfgar is introduced to the rest of the cast, the story speeds along at a great clip. I expected to hate Drizzt Do'Urden based on his reputation, and I was surprised at how charming he actually was. A worthy beginning to a long-running series.
After several years I did return to the roleplaying games, especially, Dungeons & Dragons. One of my favorite campaign settings over there is Forgotten Realms, known because of its diversity and how it portraits the best of High Fantasy tropes (and, of course, its clichés). But of all Forgotten Realms, I've always liked Icewind Dale.
Icewind Dale has this name because of the unrelenting snow storms and the harsh life style at the faerûnian tundra. The Ten-Towns can be seen as the last bastion of human civilization in the end of the world, beyond the mountains of the Spine of the World and far from the luxurious and vivid cities of the south.
The Crystal Shard was the first time we get to know better Icewind Dale and its people, introducing a Dungeons & Dragons/Forgotten Realms adventure in a new way. The first time I read this book, I found …
After several years I did return to the roleplaying games, especially, Dungeons & Dragons. One of my favorite campaign settings over there is Forgotten Realms, known because of its diversity and how it portraits the best of High Fantasy tropes (and, of course, its clichés). But of all Forgotten Realms, I've always liked Icewind Dale.
Icewind Dale has this name because of the unrelenting snow storms and the harsh life style at the faerûnian tundra. The Ten-Towns can be seen as the last bastion of human civilization in the end of the world, beyond the mountains of the Spine of the World and far from the luxurious and vivid cities of the south.
The Crystal Shard was the first time we get to know better Icewind Dale and its people, introducing a Dungeons & Dragons/Forgotten Realms adventure in a new way. The first time I read this book, I found it rather dull. In that time I found the characters hallow and superficial, with equally weak motivations. However, during my second reading of the series, I was able to have more fun leaving all those expectations aside.
The Crystal Shard is a simple, fast and plain reading, without great pretensions. Do not expect a great classic of the Fantasy genre, but rather a fun story that is able to entertain the reader for several hours, and maybe that was the author's goal when he wrote this classic in the 1980s.
We have the first appearance of Drizzt Do'Urden, Bruenor, Wulfgar, Regis and Cattie-Brie, characters well known in the world of roleplaying games. My impression is that the book has two main arcs, the first being the introduction of the characters, at a quite different pace than what happens in the second half of the book. Although loosely connected, the second part of the book presents an epic adventure to save the towns of Icewind Dale.
In this sense, I find problematic to read this book as a single story, because it is in the second part of the book that we have several elements of action that will unfold in the other books in the series. The way the author introduced the characters in the first half of the book might have been done differently.
However, The Crystal Shard entertained me a lot in the last few days, which was quite differently from the first time I read it, several years ago. If you're looking for a simple and fast reading Fantasy book, surely this is a good choice. I could clearly see that the narrative in this book is very similar to an RPG adventure, with its various heroes completing different missions (the adventures) for a larger purpose (the campaign).
A fun enough story, but had a difficult time finding either the characters or their relationships particularly convincing.
This series of adaptations of the popular Drizzt series continues to be entertaining. I think the first three so far are still the best, which I wonder if that is the case with the novels as well. As a note of disclosure, I have not read the novels, but I have enjoyed these graphic novels so far. In this particular story, Drizzt has found some sense of peace in the faraway outpost of Icewind Dale. Sure, he is still not trusted by most of the humans there, but he has made a friend or two. A failed wizard finds an artifact of immense power, and he decides to try to conquer the region. It's up to Drizzt and his friends to get the people of the land united.
This made a good adventure and fantasy story. Fans of the series will certainly like it, but they may feel it was …
This series of adaptations of the popular Drizzt series continues to be entertaining. I think the first three so far are still the best, which I wonder if that is the case with the novels as well. As a note of disclosure, I have not read the novels, but I have enjoyed these graphic novels so far. In this particular story, Drizzt has found some sense of peace in the faraway outpost of Icewind Dale. Sure, he is still not trusted by most of the humans there, but he has made a friend or two. A failed wizard finds an artifact of immense power, and he decides to try to conquer the region. It's up to Drizzt and his friends to get the people of the land united.
This made a good adventure and fantasy story. Fans of the series will certainly like it, but they may feel it was a bit short. It was a pretty quick reading, and it was pretty light. The art is colorful, and I think it brings the tales to life well, a reason I like the series. The end does set up for the next story in the series. Overall, a nice entertaining read.
