When I admit to this with a sense of slight embarrassment that I have a childlike fascination for the tale of extremely powerful swordsmen and their prowess with the blades of the olden days and that is how I found Drizzt Do'urden, and also the Dark Elf trilogy as a result. While it's true, I knew of the book series beforehand, it being one of the high-fantasy series I haven't read—however the allure of a great swordsman residing in the tale was the final push for me. Many might not consider this motivation as embarrassing, but I do, as I do not pick books like this.
Naturally, I didn't have any expectations from the series but I was delighted right off the bat, noticing the rich prose R A Salvatore had. The story is in any book wouldn't matter to me, magnificent it may be, if the prose sucks. However, Mr. Salvatore had more for me in store. I met the enticing, intriguing, and fantastic world of the Underdark, a ruthless place in the world of the forgotten realms.
Underdark is a realm beneath the surface, where there's no sun or moon. The inhabitants of the Underdark vary in many species and races—known to us by other folklores and also unknown ones. The story mostly follows a single species, the dark elves, known as Drow Elves, and their city Menzoberranzan.
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The social hierarchy and customs of Menzoberranzan are a novelty to me. There are houses of dark elves that rule the city. Houses are ranked by how much power they have and how devoted they are to the reigning deity of the elves, the spider queen, Lolth. Houses can conspire and murder another house to oblivion to move up on the ranking—however, they have to do it so utterly and completely that there are no survivors. No one to place accusation. A clean wipe. Clean wipes are acceptable and rewarded in the drow society, but failing to completely destroy the rival house will bring about the destruction of the assaulting house by the deity herself.
The household of the drow is of a similar fashion. A matron mother rules each house, females are seen as superior in the family and males as lesser. Females are also more stronger and bigger in most cases as well as more skilled in battle. Family bonds are almost non-existent. Every one of the drow elves is seeking to improve their station and gain more power. Love doesn't exist in this reality, the spider queen rules through fear, indoctrination, and planned hatred towards other races, namely the surface dwellers. Children's innocence is taken away by the harsh conditioning they get at the academy.
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The world of Underdark is brutal, to say the least—and there born a young child, who was supposed to be sacrificed to please the spider queen/evil deity, but was saved by fate. We follow the child's journey, who inherently recognizes how merciless and cruel his people are.
That's the setting of the book, what the story is about—may that not be in this piece of writing. However, I can see Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey here. I don't mind that trope, as long as the prose is good, and the setting is interesting. The Dark Elf series definitely has those.
The first photo is mine.
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