A Reader's Guide to R.A. Salvatore's The Legend of Drizzt by Phillip Athans

Drizzt Do'Urden is a dark elf, one of the most hated and feared races among the world of Faerún. But unlike most of his race, he is a genuinely good person, even if most people fear and distrust him because of the color of his skin and reputation of his people.

From the time of his birth in the Dark Elf city of Menzoberranzan, he was trained to be a loyal son of his house and a fearsome fighter. But while the second took, the first did not, and the attempts by his own kin to kill him drove him from his home city and to the surface, where he was mentored by a Blind Ranger named Montolio, But even here, attacks from people afraid of his heritage were numerous, and he finally fled to the north, where he settled down close to the area known as the Ten-Towns, where ten villages cluster around icemelt lakes and rake in a profit from fishing knucklehead trout and carving scenes in the trout headbones known as Scrimshaw.

Here, he befriends a Dwarf named Bruenor Battlehammer, and defends the town against a concerted attack by the Uthgardt Barbarians. The Dwarves and Drizzt help the townsfolk fight off the Barbarians, aided by Regis, a halfling with a magical ruby who uses its power to bring the Ten Towns to the field together. In the fighting, Bruenor takes prisoner a young Barbarian boy named Wulfgar, and he makes the boy work in his smithy for five years.

Five years later, the boy is massively-thewed, but has respect for Bruenor and his kin, and also his adopted human daughter, Cattie-brie. Then a mage named Akar Kessel slays his master for power, is rejected by his fellow mages, and finds an artifact named Crenshinibon that allows him to become a power in his own right...

The first battle of Drizzt and his new friends is against Akar Kessel and his army of monsters, but further adventures afterwards took them practically across their home world fighting all manner of evil. The series starring Drizzt Do'Urden is now over 14 books long, and this book is a guide to the first 10 of those books. Covered are each character, including ones like Drizzr's magical onyx panther figurine Guenhwyvar, longtime foe Artemis Entreri and Drow Jarlaxle. Each of the prominent characters gets 2 (or more) pages to themselves, while lesser foes, such as Akar Kessel, Matron Mother Yvonnel Baenrae or Gromph Baenrae, get only a single page to themselves.

More than just the biographies are the pictures that accompany them. But don't look here for much new stuff, pictures included. The picture of Regis doesn't give a very good idea of what he looks like, and many others are taken from the covers of their respective books. As for me, I got into the series with the first (Chronologically) book, The Crystal Shard, and I remember Bruenor looking quite different back then. Not that the new illustrations are bad, but just... different from what I remember.

And in addition to the friends and foes, this book also pays attention to places and shows us what Menzoberranzan looks like as well as the Ten-Towns, Waterdeep, the Shilmista Forest, and other places we have visited in the series.

This isn't a bad book. In fact, it's very good, but it's limited to the first ten books, and I'd like to see an updated version. It's rather pricy for its size, but not for its content. but I'd rather spend my time re-reading the series than pay for a book like this. Nice, but rather superfluous to my way of thinking.

Still, with an abundance of pictures showing everyone who was anyone in the series, this book has a lot to recommend it. Well-written and bursting with illustrations, most of the pictures of the series regulars seem to have been taken from the covers of the books. Again, not bad, but you'd be better off spending your money on the original books if you haven't read them. This is more fluff. Harmless fluff, but not really essential.