Book Review - Homeland by R.A. Salvatore book one of the Dark Elf trilogy

I grabbed this at the library after starting to listen to Legends of Drizzt as it is the first in Drizzt's origin story. I remember seeing my younger sister read this when we were in high school, but didn't think much of it at the time. The Forgotten Realms is a world created by TSR as part of their Dungeons and Dragon's universe and having read some of the Dragon Lance books (also TSR D&D based) I knew what to expect. On a side note, I've recently finished listening to Into the Storm by Larry Correia which is a game tie in with Warmachine and I'm glad to say that despite what many people might expect of books based on role-playing games many game tie-ins are very well written and tell very compelling stories. Homeland was one of them. It accomplishes a couple different things. First, it shows us how a society can be evil and still function, and second, it gives us a hero to cheer in that society - two actually. All in all it was a good read and I'm glad that I have the accessibility to finish out the trilogy.

Plot: The Drow elves of the Underdark live in a subterranean world far from the light of day. Menzoberranzan is a city of 20,000 drow living together, but not always peaceably. The one rule of the drow is, "don't get caught." If you were to attack a rival house you must kill each and every man, woman, and child. So begins Drizzt's life. Born during his houses attack on another he didn't learn until he was much older that his life was saved when his 2nd oldest brother assassinated the eldest during the battle. Nor did he learn the politics of the drow, but rather he learned how to fight and how to survive. As he grew and matured he found that he had a sense of honor and integrity that did not allow him find a place within the cruel, matriarchal society that was Menzoberranzan. Honed to be his house's weapons master - a warrior of unmatched skill - Drizzt sound came to realize that this world was no place for him. However, being male and a youngest son left him with few options. Not to mention that the world outside, in the Underdark, was potentially far more dangerous than the world he had been born into. Drizzt is left with the choice to stay with the devil he knows or to try to grapple with the unknown.

My personal favorites: Drizzt is a fun character. In some ways he comes across as a "can't do wrong" sort of person, but the challenges he faces are more of the internal type, trying to find his place in his world and coming to terms with non-physical challenges. It was interesting to see how an society of "evil" creatures could function effectively.

Considerations: There is little of language and sensuality - something that I've noticed in books based on game worlds. The violence is not very graphic in nature. In many ways this is a great book for young teens looking to enjoy fantasy, particularly if they enjoy gaming.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It had the feel of the classic high fantasies and good characters. The total length was just over 350 pages.