The second of the Forgotten Realms novels to be published is also the start of the second sub-series, The Icewind Dale Trilogy, and the first appearance of the most popular character of the entire series: Drizzt Do'Urden. Of the more than 50 novels Salvatore has gone on to write in his career so far, over twenty feature Drizzt.

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Dudley Ward, first ex-husband of opera singer Ellen Landini, has invited the diva's other two ex-husbands to his secluded mansion in the mountains near Lake Tahoe. He has also invited Inspector Charlie Chan of Honolulu, recently visiting San Francisco. Shortly after revealing the reason for the invitations (he is seeking information on the ( Read more... )

The first book of Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy is an excellent example of the fantasy sub-genre usually called "epic fantasy". Assassin's Apprentice tells the coming-of-age story of a young royal bastard named FitzChivalry (known almost exclusively as Fitz), and of his navigation of palace intrigues while being trained in secret as a royal assassin ( Read more... )

The first collection (by story chronology) of Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories features 3 tales, two from 1970 and one from 1962. Together they detail episodes from the youths of the two heroes, and their fateful first meeting. Although it is ostensibly the start of their story, it may not be the best place to get acquainted with them...

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After my initial discovery of heroic fantasy, via The Hobbit and Dungeons & Dragons, my next step was borrowing the books of Fritz Leiber from one of our local libraries. Now, I can't remember what, exactly, brought me to the tales of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser before Conan or Elric, or other of the usual suspects. Maybe it was because there were ( Read more... )

My recent re-infatuation with Heroic Fantasy is mostly fueled by my recent move to a different state than where I was living the past 20 years. My old position was being eliminated, and I took a position which opened up in another state. Now living a few hours' drive from my social circle, I found myself needing some local social contact. Being who ( Read more... )

Another bit of rambling with a sort of mission statement and a call for help!
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I'm going to try my hand at blogging properly. The site itself needs some work, but I need to start writing and get some momentum up. the blog, of course, will be about the same sort of things I've written of here off and on. Below the cut is a sort of definition of what I'm on about., an introduction to my tastes. Those who've known me many years ( Read more... )

I'm still pursuing my movie-a-day project. Obviously, the review portion of the project has fallen through, but I'll be posting lists of titles, starting today, with maybe a brief comment for each film. At this point I've just watched movie #190 for the year, which pits me about 40 or so movies behind. Of course, I can't count things like the ( Read more... )

Well, I'm hopelessly behind, but, on the bright side, back in 2004 I'd crapped out by the end of January, so at least I'm "much improved," as the report cards used to say. I'm not ready to declare the blogging portion of the move-a-day project dead just yet, so here's some more capsules:


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