Elitist Book Reviews

As part of the festivities to promote R.A. Salvatore's newest novel, GAUNTLGRYM, Wizards of the Coast has been putting on a special online scavenger hunt.

Here's how it works:

The question shown in the graphic above relates to the riddle that @Wizards_DnD tweeted Sunday. Solve this question for a prize. And a clue! Because the answer is the seventh of eight clues that will help you solve the riddle at the end of the week when the online tour wraps up. The first person to comment on this blog post with the correct answer to the following clue question, including his/her Twitter user name, wins today's prize. Please note that in order to be eligible you must: 1) Follow @Wizards_DnD on Twitter; 2) Read the official rules and complete the online entry form -- both of which are available at: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/promotions.aspx

FROM WIZARDS OF THE COAST: Visit all the stops during R.A. Salvatore’s week-long Gauntlgrym online tour to find the seven other clues. At the end of the online tour on 10/22/10, put all the clues together, be first to solve the riddle and tweet about it, and win a signed copy of Gauntlgrym and a trip for two to D&D Experience in Fort Wayne, IN. You must include @Wizards_DnD and #gauntlgrym in your tweet. Riddle-solving tweets won’t be accepted until 12:01 a.m. EST on 10/22/10.

SCAVENGER HUNT UPDATE:
Congrats to Mousyman, the first eligible participant who correctly answered today's clue question! In the image now you will see the correct answer, since everybody will need it in order to solve the riddle at the end of R.A. Salvatore's online tour beginning 10/22/10. Remember to visit all the other tour stops to find the other seven clues. Schedule, contest details, and official rules are available here: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/promotions.aspx

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Also, please check out our interview with Bob Salvatore. We promise you will be entertained. Follow the link for quick access, or take your time and peruse our infinite wisdoms...or something...

http://elitistbookreviews.blogspot.com/2010/10/ra-salvatore-interviewthe-sequel.html

You know you love a good sequel! As Emeril would say, "BAM!!!" (Yeah, we went there...)

Hopefully you all remember last year when R.A. Salvatore dropped by Elitist Book Reviews on his blog tour for THE GHOST KING. Bob is just one of those guys who is a pleasure to interview, and that really came through during that interview. If you didn't read it then, check it our HERE.

Well, Bob is back, and he is as awesome as ever. You see, Bob just gets us, and he gets our blog. So when we were approached to host Bob Salvatore to promote his latest novel, GAUNTLGRYM, you know were jumped at the chance.

'Cause Bob is easily becoming one of our favorite people.

***The Interview***

Elitist Book Reviews: Well, Bob, back for more punishment we see. It’s been nearly a year since we last chatted. How has the last year treated you?

R.A Salvatore: Punishment? Well, you guys do fancy yourselves elitist, don't you? Won't work, sorry... I know you're just sniveling fanboys in the end. Just kidding... please, put down that pen! No, don't write that review... ahhhhhh!

Seriously, the last year has been an amazing one for me. I became a grandfather in March and I love it even more than I thought I would (and that was a high bar)! I've been busy, as always, but since I finished up my Saga of the First King series with TOR Books (The Bear came out in August), I've cut down to one book a year. We'll see how long that will last, but I have to tell you, having a couple of months to just sit back and enjoy my grandson and my family without a deadline hanging over my head is pretty wonderful.

Things have moved along splendidly with 38 Studios. I can't wait for "Reckoning" to come out next fall, as I think we're knocking this RPG out of the park. It really is beautiful to behold. And Copernicus (still using a code name for our MMO game) is going in marvelous directions; the team at 38 and Big Huge Games (BHG) stuns me every day. So all is well.

Still playing softball, still working out, and spent most of the summer floating in a pool. It's easy to complain, but no one listens or cares, so why bother?

EBR: With Gauntlgrym, you are treading into one of our favorite areas of the Forgotten Realms: Neverwinter. Was it just right place, right time, or had the idea for Drizzt heading to Neverwinter been brewing for quite a while?

Bob: I'll be perfectly honest here: I know what stories I want to tell. I knew where the road was heading for the remaining Companions of the Hall and knew the thematic beats I had to hit to bring these characters forward. The surroundings, the dressing on the story cake, are far more malleable to me. Wizards of the Coast asked me if I could set the book in the region of Neverwinter and could I do certain things to help them and Cryptic with the changes they needed for the upcoming Neverwinter for PC. Well, I've been near to Neverwinter since the beginning of the Drizzt tales, traveling to Luskan and the Crags (which I actually named), and riding the road to Waterdeep. I was passing right by Neverwinter before the city was developed for the computer game. And honestly, I intended to journey to that region, though not specifically Neverwtinter itself, in this book before Wizards even approached me with the idea.

So I agreed; my favorite part of working in a shared world are those times when I get to play off the work of other creative people. Isn't that the whole point of the place, after all? I went to a summit last summer out in Seattle with the folks from Wizards and Cryptic, and we hammered out the general things Cryptic wanted me to accomplish regarding the city and the region. Many people around the table had bits and pieces of little side streets I could explore. Most fun of all was when Rich Baker and I got into a one-upmanship game. I have a curious relationship with Rich. We don't really know each other all that well, but something pretty amazing happens when we're sitting at a table: we just play off each other like a shortstop and second baseman who have been on the same team for a decade. It's very cool and very inspiring.

So basically, at that summit, I had to digest the things they wanted me to accomplish physically with the area and see if I could create details within the framework of my story that would get us to that point. That process continues as I go through the series. Still being perfectly honest, it was a blast. I felt like there was a life to this book, a freshness to it, as if I was exploring the world beside my old friends. Which is exactly the point of the dramatic changes in the Realms, and exactly where I knew I had to place Drizzt.

EBR: How does the destruction of Neverwinter by the Spellplague affect Drizzt in this new series, and do you as a writer look forward to these types of big, landscape-changing events?

Bob: Why, whoever told you that the Spellplague destroyed Neverwinter? Oh come on, I can come up with something more explosive than that! I finally get to trash a section of the Realms (sorry Ed [Greenwood]!) and I wasn't going to let that happen without putting my touch on it. Come to think of it, I took care of Luskan, too, a couple of books ago. I sense a trend here...

Generally speaking, I don't look forward to these big landscape-changing events in a shared world, because the nature of the place puts too many limitations on what I can do versus what I want to do. I went through this from the other side of the coin during The War of the Spider Queen series, where I had to put the brakes on the level of destruction and carnage in Menzoberranzan, because I, after all, am likely to be the guy who will go back to the place in future works and I didn't want to set a book amidst smoldering ruins.

In this instance, though, I didn't really mind it. The big events for the book physically aren't the big events for the book emotionally. That's not a subtle distinction. The physical landscape, the city of Neverwinter, are more affected by the big events than are my characters and ultimately, this book, like all of the others, is about the personal journey of those characters. I realized early on that I could accomplish what Wizards of the Coast and Cryptic needed from me, not only without detracting from the story I wanted to tell, but through actually tying together the big events here with things I had written about previously. Surprisingly, the earlier tales dove-tailed beautifully with the events of Gauntlgrym, and so tied the journeys of Drizzt even more tightly than I had anticipated.

EBR: You’ve been killing off characters lately. Personally, we love it because it lends more danger to the situations you put your characters in. Has there been any thought to the possibility of Drizzt meeting his end?

Bob: Glad you love it, because for me, it hurts like hell. That aside, death is a necessary element of an action/adventure series that has gone on for 22 years, I suppose.

Any thought of killing Drizzt? Only for the last 22 years. Seriously, there was a time in the mid-90s when I came to actually resent the Dark Elf. I'm not kidding. Drizzt was my blessing and my curse, I thought. My blessing because what writer wouldn't want a breakout hero and a breakout series? And my curse because the popularity of the Legend of Drizzt overshadowed all of the other work I was doing, including some work which I thought very important (to me, at least). When people ask me my favorite book, I tell them Mortalis, the 4th book of my DemonWars series, and I mean it. I don't think I've ever written anything better than that, and doubt I ever will, and yet, more than half the people who know of my work, know only of my Dark Elf work.

So for a while, I admit it, I came to resent Drizzt. I wasn't working for TSR (the previous publisher of the Drizzt books, before Wizards of the Coast bought them) at that time, however, and fortunately so, I guess! I did have this story of Drizzt tripping on a root and falling in a hole and dying of exposure.

You know, just because.

That's all long past, however, and I no longer view Drizzt as a blessing and a curse. Rather, I've come to realize that my work, particularly my Drizzt work, is a shadow of my own personal journey. Through this character and his friends, I've been given the opportunity to not only share my point of view, my fears and my hopes, with others, but to explore those things within myself. I can relate to Carl Sagan when he wrote Cosmos and called it his "spiritual journey." As that was his -- searching for the universal truths of the universe -- so this is mine, searching for that which is in my heart and soul.

And now you come along and ask me if I'm going to kill the bloke!

To that, I can only answer, "I don't know!"

EBR: Where do you go from here, Bob? Any surprises in store for your readers?

Bob: Of course. Surprises for the reader, and for me, or I'll stop writing these books. I've always maintained that I'd write Drizzt books as long as people want to read them and they're fun for me. The way I know it's fun for me is when I'm surprised. I don't write like many other writers I know. I have an outline, sure (that's part of getting the advance checks, after all), but once I get going, I might as well not have one. I write the same way other people read. I don't know what's coming on the next page, so I have to get to it. That's always been the joy of writing for me.

I always find it interesting when some reader proclaims that he knew I was going to kill Character X several books ago. Interesting and amusing, because I assure you that I had no idea such a thing was going to happen. Perhaps I'm tipping off the readers as I'm tipping off myself, subconsciously, as I write the stories.

Or maybe people just want others to think they're really smart.

So yes, to answer your question directly, there are certainly surprises to come. And changes, so many changes, in the life of Drizzt Do'Urden. I wouldn't have it any other way.

EBR: Again, Bob, thank you for stopping by our blog. What do you say we make this an annual deal? Before you go, any parting words for our legions of faithful readers?

Bob: Seems to be morphing into an annual deal, doesn't it? And that's great with me. I love your site and the way you guys treat books: with a sharp eye, a dose of honesty, but always with respect for the effort.

To the readers, I can only say, please don't stop reading. And I don't even mean my works, necessarily. We've lost 3,000 bookstores over the last few years and the industry is in a state of flux. These are scary times, but also promising ones, with the new technologies coming on line -- and by that, I mean not only the e-books and the greater ease in producing audio books, but the technologies that allow for smaller inventories and just-in-time printing and shipping, and even self-publishing. When you see a book you love, don't be quiet about it, please! And I mean that doubly for beginning or lesser-known authors. I've watched publishers brought to tears over their inability to break out wonderful new authors in this difficult corporate framework, and far too many important voices are being silenced because of sales numbers.

So keep reading and keep championing those authors who have brought you joy, or entertainment, or enlightenment. The only person who really matters in the production of a book is the reader, after all.

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What can we say, Bob Salvatore is one of the classiest guys in the business. Period.

Below are the links to the prior stops on Bob's blog tour, as well as links to the next stops. We suggest you show these other bloggers some love by visiting them and clicking all over their sites. Being a blogger takes more work than you think...

1 - http://thetome.podbean.com/
2 - http://lordsoftyr.com/
3 - http://www.dungeoncrawlersradio.com/
4 - http://www.flamesrising.com/gauntlgrym-interview-salvatore/
5 - http://agentlethal.com/talking-with-ra-salvatore-about-gauntlgrym
6 - Uhh, you're already here...you know, Elitist Book Reviews...
7 - http://suvudu.com/

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Lastly, go take a peek at the online scavenger hunt that is going on. You have a chance to win all sorts of prizes; from a signed copy of GAUNTLGRYM and a D&D Starter Set, to stuff even MORE full of win. Go to our other post to check it out:

http://elitistbookreviews.blogspot.com/2010/10/online-scavenger-hunt.html

We were approached by Sara Easterly to do this interview at the same time as she asked us to do participate in Margaret Weis' blog tour. Needless to say, when R.A. Salvatore, much like Weis, comes-a-knocking for a tour, there is only one answer you can give. Of course! And when they say we can give away 5 free copies of Salvatore's latest novel, THE GHOST KING? Sounds like a deal for YOU! All you have to do is post a comment. So, without further ado, here you go:

EBR: We want thank you for stopping by our blog on this tour of sorts. Right out of the box, we want you to brag a little. We aren’t exactly humble around here at Elitist Book Reviews, and we see no reason for you to feel like you have to be humble either. Don’t pull any punches and don't be shy; tell us why you are so great.

RAS: Because the amazing people at Elitist Book Reviews want to interview me. They’ve actually taken the time to direct questions to me! Doesn’t that say it all? Seriously, though, you’ve asked the wrong guy this question. It’s not that I’m modest to a fault or anything “aw shucks” like that. It’s just that I honestly keep looking over my shoulder, expecting the devil to come and collect his end of the bargain.

I don’t know what works and what doesn’t work, what to write and what not to write, on a logical, rational level any more than the next guy on the street. But I do think that I instinctively know the difference between Writing 101 (“The road to Hell is paved with adverbs!” “Show, don’t tell!” “Don’t change POV!” – in other words, all the typically cliché criticisms you can see on any message board or review site) and Writing 102. Writing 102 is simply understanding and believing that the English language is a set of tools, not rules. For example, take any college writing class and you’ll be told that you shouldn’t use adverbs to characterize dialogue, that the words spoken by the character should convey the way they’re being said without the helper adverb (sarcastically, slyly, dryly, sardonically, etc.), and also that good dialogue needs no attribution. I argue that those “rules” missed the internet revolution. My readers, mostly younger folks, do a large part of their interpersonal communication on message boards and instant messaging and Facebook and such. Message boards without emoticons (adverbs) become flame wars, and all dialogue in such places is attributed. So while younger readers are far more sophisticated in some areas, such as multi-tasking and handling ten conversations at a time, and in extrapolating much more information from bare-bones sentences, they are usually less sophisticated in the areas that come from face-to-face communication. Sarcasm involves tonal changes and facial expressions; if you hear that and see that enough face to face, you will be more able to inject that properly into the dialogue in a book. If you’re unsophisticated in that manner of interpersonal communication, however, the sarcasm flies right by without note. Class over.

Well, wait a minute, not completely. The other thing that I have going for me is that writing a book gives me the same feelings that most people get when reading a book. My own books constantly surprise me, and I find myself typing faster just to find out what the hell is going to happen. And when I’m writing battle scenes, I don’t consciously shorten sentences, and don’t go back through the scene with a shotgun, blowing out all incarnations of the passive verb “to be.” No, I just get into the action, watching it in my head, my own pulse quickening as the characters go through the dance. And somehow – I have no idea how! – it works. In the end, I’m really lucky in that the way I tell a story seems to resonate with enough people to, well, get me interviews on blogs like Elitist Book Reviews. The style doesn’t work for everyone, but that’s okay, and that’s why there are so many varied and successful storytellers in the world.

EBR: Some people (us included) would say that you are one of the stones in the foundation of Heroic Fantasy. Where do you see this brand of fantasy going over the next decade? How do you figure to be a part of it? What do you think fantasy readers, today, are looking for in their books?

RAS: I’m going to put these two questions together. Heroic fantasy, adventure fantasy, sword and sorcery – whatever you want to call it – has some common threads and themes that hold true. Sometimes they’re not considered “cool,” oftentimes they’re considered cliché, but to me it’s not about that. What I’m talking about here is the morality offered in the fantasy genre, the idea that good will overcome evil. Cool or not, cliché or not, that’s a fundamental hope that sits in the hearts of most people. We want to believe in it – I do believe in it.

So whatever new races become the norm for fantasy (we’ve watched that happen with dark elves over the last twenty years), the idea that characters who do the wrong thing will be punished and characters who do the right thing will be rewarded is going to be reflected in heroic fantasy today and tomorrow. In other words, the trapping might change, but some basic truths will remain. The hero of tomorrow’s books would fit into the heroic fantasy books of today.

Where will I fit in? Well, I’m past 50 now, but have no intention of fading away. Slowing down, maybe, but not fading away. I’m having too much fun with this, and learning so much about myself through my writing, that the road continues before me. I hope.

EBR: What book, that you wrote, did you learn the most from and what did you learn?

RAS: My favorite book is Mortalis, the bridge book between the two trilogies in my seven-book DemonWars series. I wrote that book while watching my best friend, my brother Gary, fading away from cancer. That book was my salvation, my catharsis. In its pages, through the character of Brother Francis, I came to terms with Gary’s looming death, and to a large extent, with my own inevitable end.

The funny thing is, I never expected Francis to play a major role in the book at all. Up to that point, he had been the fill-in monk in the DemonWars series, the sort of major domo who was always in the scene when I needed an extra monk, but didn’t want to create even more characters in an already huge cast. It wasn’t until I had finished Francis’s part in Mortalis that I even came to realize that I had told such a complete story of a flawed but ultimately heroic man. He taught me how to live, and how to die.

EBR: The Ghost King was released on October 6th, more than 20 years since The Crystal Shard was published back in 1988. What keeps you coming back to tell stories about Drizzt the Dark Elf and can we expect to see a separate original creation on the horizon?

RAS: The easy answer is that the readers want more Drizzt. No matter what I write, no matter whether I think it’s as good or better than dark elf, my audience is for Drizzt, most of all. For a while, many years ago, this truth bothered me a bit. Certainly from a business perspective, things would have been more lucrative if I could just take my entire Drizzt readership with me wherever I chose to go, but that simply wasn’t the reality. I was watching one of those “Behind the Music” shows on VH1, the story of John Fogarty, when I heard him talking about how he wouldn’t play Credence Clearwater Revival songs for a long time after he left the band. But then one day he realized that it wasn’t about him. It was about the people who came to see him, and they wanted to hear those songs. So he started playing them again. He’s right. I feel the same way. So I came to terms with my ridiculous little gripe, and came to appreciate how lucky I was to have hit such a chord in so many people with Drizzt. I came to say, and believe, that I would write Drizzt for a long as people wanted to read Drizzt and as long as I was still having fun with him, I’m still having a blast. That doesn’t mean I will be exclusively writing Drizzt, by any means, however. I love DemonWars, and I’ve got some more creations in me.

EBR: Once again, we want to thank you for taking the time to answer our questions. Any last comments you want to leave with us and our readers?

RAS: I go back to CS Lewis in reminding everyone that no one can determine the relationship between a reader and a book, except the reader of the book. The internet is a great place to discuss and argue about this book or that book, but find what you love, not what you’re supposed to love.

Oh, and stop gaming every now and then and read a book!

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The Important People(TM) who made this interview possible:

Wizards of the Coast: http://wizards.com/
R.A. Salvatore: http://www.rasalvatore.com/
Sara Easterly: http://www.saraeasterly.com/

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The exclusive, seven-part interview series with R.A. Salvatore continues throughout the week. Be sure to check out these other stops on the blog tour:
Monday, 10.12.09
SciFiChick
http://scifichick.com/

Tuesday, 10.13.09
BSCreview
http://www.bscreview.com/

Wednesday, 10.14.09
SciFiGuy
http://www.scifiguy.ca/

Friday, 10.16.09
Sci-Fi Fan Letter
http://www.scififanletter.blogspot.com/
Suvudu (7:00 to 8:00 p.m. EST)
http://www.suvudu.com/

Saturday, 10.17.09
Fantasy Book Critic
http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/