I have always had part of my heart in the world of fantasy and I know there are others out there who are the same way. I grew up with EverQuest and World of Warcraft in my life and it just bloomed from there. When I was old enough to read through it, I picked up the Legend of Drizzt series and fell in love with it. I was just like the games I was so fond of watching and playing! It has been years since I’ve read anything from R.A Salvatore, so when I recently found my edition of the book Homeland I was super excited and wanted to read it again. I fell back in love with it all over again. I am very glad I picked it back up and didn’t realize how many thing I had forgotten about! R.A Salvatore’s Homeland starts the Legend of Drizzt series in the Forgotten Realms world. This is quite a long series and I am looking forward to the challenge of going back through all of the books again.
So here’s the story:
Below the surface there is a race of dark elves, called the drow, that are hardened against any type of love and emotions other than anger or greed. They are full of power hungry individuals who only care about status in the world of Menzoberranzan. They survive in this vicious realm where the strongest survive and the weakest are killed or sacrificed to their wicked deity, the Spider Queen. Lost to the darkness, the drow females rule over the race and the males are practically slaves, there to simply serve their families. But such is the ways of the drow.
Drizzt from a young age understood that the race he was born into never completely fit into his ideas of life. He always tried to reason for the brighter side of situations, which was in complete opposition to the nature of the drow. Now, grown and a praised and skilled warrior, Drizzt uncovers more and more things that makes him question why the drow are the way they are. But when war comes, Drizzt is faced with choosing between the wishes of his evil family or his personal codes that have gotten him into nothing but trouble. Drizzt is balancing of the edge of a scimitar and if he isn’t careful things can get very bloody, very quick.
My Thoughts
I am very excited to be reading this series again and actually getting through all of the books this time. I really enjoyed them the first time and I was relieved when I finished it and enjoyed it all over again. When I was younger, I did remember struggling with some of the words and names Salvatore placed in this book. So when I found my physical copy, I was a bit hesitant to try and start reading again. So much so, I actually got the audiobook that way I would be able to hear what the names were (could) sound like. I wanted to be able to give the author’s world a true chance. – guilty note: sometimes if I can’t properly figure out how to pronounce locations or names they get shortened to a nickname or in the worst cases, the first letter of their names. I know its horrible, but sometimes you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do – SO, I didn’t want to just brush locations like Menzoberranzan into simply Menzo or change Drizzt’s house name Do’Urden into Do or something just because I struggled on the pronunciation in my head. I was pleasantly surprised about how much I enjoyed listening to this book! If you feel like this might affect your choice for reading this book, I would suggest the audio version. The reader is really good and I found it very nice to be able to hear how the words I once struggled with. And there are definitely a number of names that might cause someone to stumble across them.
I would recommend this book to any of my fellow fantasy lovers out there! This world has elves, magic, fights, beautiful weapon scenes, and so much more. There are a lot of moments when my heart ached for Drizzt and all the stuff the drow has to go through just to survive in this dark world. Then those moments when he finally gets a break from everything for a bit, I got so happy for him and simply wished Drizzt could keep those seconds in time for as long as he wanted to. But of course, that is not always the desired path from the author.
I am really looking forward to continuing Salvatore’s books. I hope you enjoy the book!
Favorite Quote
“To lose is to die! You may win a thousand fights, but you can only lose one!”
