POLL: The Spine of the World

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I'm reading through Salvatore's Paths of Darkness series again, and am almost finished with The Silent Blade. The Spine of the World is next, but I am considering just skipping it and going straight to Servent of the Shard. It's been a while since I've read The Spine of the World, but I don't remember it being very exciting or adding much to the series.

So, does anyone feel it's worth a re-read, or should I stick with my plan to skip it?

Poll Information
This poll contains 1 question(s). 15 user(s) have voted.
You may not view the results of this poll without voting.

Poll Results: The Spine of the World (15 votes.)

The Spine of the World (Choose 1)
* Read it! - 33% (5)
* Skip it! - 67% (10)

 

Unless you're a fan of Wulfgar, skip it. It's a "soul searching redemption" kind of book. Not that I have anything against books like those, but this one was just too damn boring. And far-fetched. (Yes,yes I realize it's fantasy fiction, but still )

 

I think you should read it, granted its not an exciting book but the message is good and you get to know Wulgar better. Its a good book.

 

Oi, the Spine of the World... When I read it, I hated it, but thinking back on it i can remember the message Rolsuk mentioned. I'd say it all comes down to your taste: Adventure or Drama. I can see more mature readers liking this book more than the others.

I, however, just couldn’t make it jive in with the other books in the series. In the end, after chunking my way through the 381 pages I just couldn’t understand... why. I think Salvy might have just been reminiscing about his drafts for the Icewind Dale trilogy, in which he had intended Wulfar to be the main character, when he wrote it. Problem is, how deep can you really take a young human barbarian who basically grew up with the books to begin with.

Thus I give it a reluctant nay. It has a pleasant aftertaste, but it could just be my mind trying reminisce about my days as a fresh adventurer in the Realms.

 

Yea I agree with Celesialraven, you don't need to if you want adventure but you may have trouble later on in the book when you do read.

 

So far, it looks like the most votes are for me skipping this book. I sorta figured that'd be the case. Maybe I'll just read the final chapter, just as a refresher. I think a book based on Wulfgar could be good, but from what I remember, this strayed too far from the other books in the series. I don't remember much in the way of fighting, magic, monsters, most of the standard fare from a Salvatore FR novel. Not that I need all those components in a book for me to like it, but frankly that's what I'm looking for in this series.

*EDIT: Well, while suffering from insomnia the last few nights, I decided to go ahead and re-read Spine of the World afterall. As I went through, I found myself just breezing past the chapters that didn't deal with Wulfgar...basically skipping every other chapter. I made it through the entire book in several hours. It wasn't so bad reading it that way!

[ February 02, 2005, 06:26: Message edited by: Shalladeth ]

 

It is the worst fantasy book I have ever read!Re-reading it will make you sick.

 

Celesialraven- don't get me wrong, I love adventure more than drama, I loathe drama. But I find it important for Wulfgar's character to read the book, it adds more depth to him. I found it boring yes, but still with a good message and character development for Wulfgar.

 

I'm actually reading the Spine of the World right now.

Good to see that other people find the book to be a departure from Salvatore's usual writings. I hadn't read a Salvatore book in quite some time, so I started to think that his previous books might have been the same. I remember the Dark Elf Trilogy being pretty awesome, and the Legacy of the Drow as well.

Anyway, I'm not too keen about the Kingdom of Auck, it's just not very interesting to read about a peasant girl's drama. And Wulfgar had nothing to do with that place for ages.

Plus there's no Drizzt, at least outside his journals -- or at least so far. I'm about 80% of the way through.

 

The Spine of the World was the best book out of all the Drizzt books. It is a more adult book for sure, and I found that the younger readers (which most FR books are targeted for) don't like it much. They get annoyed with the emotional aspect of the book because they have never experienced it for themselves.

They also get annoyed when there isn't a battle every few pages and are forced to use their heads to 'get' what is going on. If you are looking for the old action filled hack n' slash Drizzt books and aren't ready for a book with a little more meaning, then skip it.

*edit*

To elaborate, I'm not calling people who don't like the book stupid. I'm just trying to point out that a lot of people who read the Drizzt books, aren't really looking for a good story as much as they are looking for an action packed adventure, however cliche, from cover to cover. And this book isn't what they were looking for.

 

I don't think it's the emotional aspect that bugs me about it. The stuff dealing with Wulfgar's emotional turmoil is great. If anything, Wulfgar gets over it too fast. The rest of it though, the parts dealing with the goings on in the Kingdom of Auck, really just seemed like filler to me.

 

My sentiments exactly. More Morik the rogue

 

Yes, you should read it, but then again, you already read it once, so skip it now. Definately skip.