Book review: Legend of Drizzt book I: Homeland

Introduction:

Two years ago, as I was browsing in the bookshop, I came across a boxset of books that captured my attention. It was entitled "The Legend of Drizzt". My guess is, if you lived your teenage years in the middle to late 1990's and was into some sort of dungeon and dragon stuff (whether it be the boardgame or the video game), you will probably have heard of the character Drizzt. Initially, I wasn't really sure about these books, I mean, fantasy novels based on a character from the Dungeon and Dragon universe? My instinct told me do not pick up these books because they will probably have meaningless stories and empty characters with endless combat scenes.


However, I was really attracted by the cover design, so I bough the first set of Legend of Drizzt, and it costed about 30 bucks for the trilogy. Later on that night, I started reading the first book called "Homeland". I realized these novels are written more for young adults, but oh boy after reading a few chapters I was totally hooked, and went back and bought the next box set.

Up till now, I have all thirteen books of Legend of Drizzt on my bookselve, written by RA Salvatore. I haven't finish reading all thirteen books yet, but I will start off by reviewing the first book out of the thirteen.

First of all, I have to say, Drizzt is probably one of the my most favourite character of all time, and I will explain why in this review.

Amongst the Drizzt books I have read, Homeland is my third favourite Dizzt book. This is the "origin" story, the introduction of who Drizzt is, and gave a good background into his story. I am not usually the kind of person who will get very emotional from watching a movie, or reading a book, but here I admitt that tears came out of my eyes a few times while I was reading Homeland, especially at the end, I got really really emotional.

Story:

So what is this story about? Well, the story of Drizzt is set in a realm that is similar to the Middle Earth, so you have elves, human, dwarves, halfings, gnomes, orcs, goblins, demon kinds.. so on and so forth. In Homeland, the reader is introduced to the birth of a boy named Drizzt, who is born as a race of elves with ebony skin, his people are known as the "drow". The dark elves/drow are reputed to be the evil race of people across the world, their society is constantly filled with power struggles, death, murder and polotical conflicts arising for the sake of personal ambitions. The drow culture is a female dominant society, where the female children are raised to be priestees and usually hold high position in a house. All the drow worship an evil goddess which known as the Spider Queen. The male children, are treated as less important, and are usually trained to be fighters or wizards.

So Drizzt was born into the second most powerful house in the drow city, being a male he was treated with cruelty by his mother and sister, and at young age, he was sent to the fighter school, to be trained as a fighter so he can carry out his duties as an assassin or a solider for his mother. There he met the best drow weapon master who ever lived, Zaknafein, Zak trained Drizzt in the art of sword fighting, but also taught him in secret, moral codes and principles totally against the self centred culture of drow. As Drizzt grew up, Zak and him became very close friends. Also because the way Drizzt has been taught, when he left the fighter school to rejoin his family and the society he became foreign to the selfish and self centred cultur of the drow society. In other words, Drizzt couldn't fit into the selfish and self centred ways of his people because he belives in different things. The story then goes on to show Drizzt's struggle to keep up his principles, and there are some tear wrenching moments of sacrifices and determination.

What I got out of it:

To me, the main theme of Homeland is about the difference between living a real life and simply surviving. Towards the end of the book, as Zak, who turned out to be Drizzt's realy father sacrificed himself to save Drizzt, he said " Do more than just survive, my son, as I have done, Live!" Two years ago when I was reading this book, as I read this sentence it really put a question in my mind. What does it really mean to live? What is the difference between being alive and just survive?

I was thinking, I wonder if I am living in a society much like the Drow society described in the book, where every decision and acts from people are driven by selfish ambition and survival instinct. In the book, Zak, Drizzt's father realised something is wrong with the drow society, and therefore installed Drizz with different values and belief, but Zak ultimately was unable to live his life according to the values that he belives in, because he just wanted to survive in the Drow society by acting like everyone else. There was much regret in him, therefore at the end of his life, he called out for his son to "live and not to just survive". I think there is a lot of similarity between my situation and Zak's situation. This really made me reflect on myself as a Christian, was I really living for Chrit and is living out my live as a real Christian? Or was I simply trying to survive and fit in? Then I realized I was simply surviving more than really being alive, how many times had I taken short cuts to achieve a goal, and how many times have I decided to join the crowd instead of having the courage to speak out what is true? I was indeed, surviving more than living.

For me, even though this is a secular book written by a secular author, written for young adults, but this is also one of those stories that really challenged me and made me think about myself and where I was with God. I also have to admit, two years down the line, the challenge to be really alive for Christ rather than just survive is a daily struggle I am still facing, and i have no doubt that this struggle will continue till the day I die.

Writing and style:

The character of Drizzt is created by the author RA Salvatore, I have never heard of him unti I picked up the Drizzt books. Salvatore is really good at writing combat scenes, it's almost like if you can picture the dance of Drizzt's sword in your mind as you read the words. However, some people have said the first novel "Homeland" has a very slow pace and is difficult to get into. My view is that, if you get through the first 3 chapters, the pace picks up. However, Homeland also has a lot of character development and there are many things worth thinking about as you read it, so take it slowly. Having said that, I do have to say Salvatore is by no means a literature award winning writer, so do not expect to see use of wordy and complex words in his books.

Final verdict: (4.5/5)

As I said earlier, personally Drizzt is one of my most favourite characters. "Homeland" really is a great book to get insight into Drizzt's story, and a lot of the context reminds me of the things that I should be reflecting about, and things that I used to believe but don't believe anymore. Besides the action scenes and the cool characters, personally I was realy moved by the story and its underlying implications. If you are like me, the kind of person who enjoys stories about things taking place in a fantasy world, then you might find some heartwarming and tear wrenching entertainment about this very human character.