Dissolution Review

[HighLordDave]

A couple of weeks ago, a new Forgotten Realms hardcover novel appeared in bookstores; it's Dissolution by Richard Lee Byers, the first in a five book arc called R.A. Salvatore's War of the Spider Queen. Each book will be written by a different author, but borrowing a page from the Star Wars Expanded Universe, they have a common story arc and characters from one book will appear in the others with consequences for all throughout. While on vacation, I picked up Dissolution and it's pretty good.

Consider this my spoiler warning. If you do not want to be spoiled, stop reading now!

I will hide the major spoilers by making the text black; to read it, simply highlight the black text and it will appear before you. I will also apologise in advance for spelling some of the drow names wrong.

Byers is a fairly good heir to Menzoberranzan and its inhabitants. Unlike Elaine Cunningham, who wrote Daughter of the Drow and Tangled Webs (and should stick to writing about surface elves), Byers captures all of the atmosphere of the dark elf city and maintains a high level of continuity with the foundations of drow society laid down by Salvatore in The Dark Elf Trilogy and the other Drizzt Do'Urden books (The Legacy et al).

The gist of the plot is that Gromph Baenre, Archmage of Menzoberranzan, is trying to assassinate his sister Quenthal, Mistress and Holy Mother of Arach-Tinilith (the Academy) now that his other sister Triel has assumed the rulership of House Baenre and Menzoberranzan in the wake of Matron Mother Baenre's death at the hands of Bruenor Battlehammer.

The second major plot is that Triel assigns Gromph to find out why male drow are disappearing from their houses seemingly in droves. Not to be deterred from his main objective, Gromph passes this task off onto one of his underlings in Sorcere, Pharaun, who in turn recruits one of the masters of Melee-Methagre, Ryld.

As things turn out Pharaun and Ryld turn out to be the main characters of the book and Byers traces their various escapades throughout the city to find out what's up with the vanishing male drow. It turns out that not only are the drow eloping, but that someone is organising a massive slave revolt.

Pharaun and Ryld then find out who is behind the revolt and then try to warn the rest of the city before Menzoberranzan is burned to the ground. It turns out that the person behind the slave revolt is Syzian, an Alhoon (illithid lich) and along the way, the two discover the book's other major plot twist, that Lloth has abandoned her priestesses and that no clerical magic can be cast, not only in Menzoberranzan but throughout the drow race. This is causing panic among the city's females who fear that their tenuous hold on power may be endangered by the female's ultimate trump card and that their male underlings may revolt and overthrow the matriarchy.

Pharaun and Ryld manage to wrap everything up and save drow society in Menzoberranzan and set into motion the events that serve as the catalyst for the next four books, the last of which will be released in early 2004.

All in all, Byers does a good job with the characters. He takes a people who are evil through and through and manages to make at least a couple likeable enough to be good protagonists. The tone of the book is very Salvatore-like, although Byers is much more into the subtlety of drow society, probably because he's adapting Salvatore's rules, not writing the original book about how drow elves work.

All of the plot elements are well-set up with a few good twists here and there, although the reader must remember that Dissolution is not a stand-alone product; it's the first step in a quintology so there are more than a couple of loose end left wide open for the other four authors.

My one major criticism is that like Salvatore, Byers has a tendency to get bogged down in lengthy fight scenes that take up a lot of space and are hard to read because they get tedious and repetitive. At the same time, we finally get to see drow mages in some real action; Salvatore neglects them in most of his books instead centering on their fighting prowess and clerical power, but Byers uses Pharaun very well (and often).

If you liked The Dark Elf Trilogy, then you should pick this book up. It's well-written and unlike much of the stuff that has the Forgotten Realms logo on the top, it's worth the money.

Overall rating: 8 out of 10

[Gwalchmai]

A nice review, HLD. I am currently reading my first Salvatore book (Canticle), which is my second FR book. I found the first to be less than interesting, but Salvatore is doing a better job. I was avoiding any of the Drow series simply because I always avoid the most popular stuff on principle. But your review suggests a depth to the Drow culture that might be interesting to read. Thanks. I'll look into it.

[HighLordDave]

I didn't like The Cleric Quintet; in fact I got halfway through the third book, put it down and never finished the series.

Of the other Forgotten Realms books, Ed Greenwood's are hit-or-miss. His stories are generally good, but his prose tends to be flowery and boring. Elaine Cunningham is also pretty good, although she has a tendency to inexplicably jump from one subplot to another with little or no warning. I strongly recommend Salvatore's The Icewind Dale Trilogy and The Dark Elf Trilogy. The rest of his Forgotten Realms books are only of so-so quality.

If you choose to start the War of the Spider Queen series, you should probably read the four books in The Legacy of the Drow series (The Legacy, Starless Night, Seige of Darkness and Passage to Dawn) because there's some important backstory there that leads up to Dissolution.

[Gwalchmai]

Thanks, HLD. I've finished Canticle, and it was good, but not great. Now, I've picked up Exile (the first of the series wasn't available at the used book store), and so far his tone seems a little different. I recognize some phrases from later (and other author's) works. I can see how Salvatore might have set the tone for the Forgotten Realms novels that came after, though my limited readings don't prove this.

I wonder about his characterization of Drow society. One thing I've always admired in fantasy lit., was how certain books or authors are able to create a functional culture out of something alien. Ursula K. LeGuin comes to mind. You really get to thinking, and there are lots of 'Oh, yeah! So that's how that works' sort of moments. Do you think Salvatore has done this with the Drow?

[Nippy]

Well, continuing on the Forgotten Realms theme, you know I was in Canada not long ago, I picked up a couple of books.

The Savage Caves by T.H. Lain Based on the characters in the D&D PHB, it was a moderately entertaining read. I enjoyed it, though the writing style was relatively basic, it lacked some of the nuances of some other writers, it still held a quality to it. probably because it is D&D. I'd say read it to see if you like it, and then follow up with the rest.

Temple Hill by Drew Karypyshyn I was a little bit wary about picking this up after the works of Baldurs Gate, but am at the moment pleasantly surprised. A little way through, the storyline is, I feel, sound, and contains promise. I'll report back when I'm done, but it looks good so far...

[HighLordDave]

Originally posted by Gwalchmai
Do you think Salvatore has done this with the Drow?

In the case of the black elves, Salvatore essentially wrote the book, both figuratively and literally. When the drow were first introduced in the old Fiend Folio, they were given an extraordinarily long entry, but then it seemed that people forgot about them and no D&D author touched them as major enemies for years.

They had a minor presence in the Forgotten Realms and are entirely absent from Dragonlance/Krynn, TSR's major franchise of the 80s and early 90s. I've read a couple of interviews with Salvatore (they used to be avaliable at his website http://www.rasalvatore.com but I can't find them there anymore) where he said that he came up with the character of Drizzt Do'Urden only because his editor with TSR needed a name and he spouted off some nonsense that later ended up seeing the light of day.

I think people have always been fascinated by the possbilities of creatures who are innately good (elves) turning bad. The original incarnation of the drow exemplified this, both in the Fiend Folio and in articles that appeared in Dragon Magazine, but no one put it all together and made it come to life like Salvatore did.

It it interesting to notice that Salvatore frames his narrative of the most vile of the faerie races with one who is good and virtuous. Within the character of Drizzt Do'Urden, we can truly appreciate how evil the drow are because we know the dark elf ranger; he's a classic literary archetype, the lonesome hero, noble to the core, outcast from his own society, living with honour and inner peace. Salvatore contrasts this with a race that is physically beautiful but evil through and through.

It is my belief that Salvatore is the most successful of the Forgotten Realms authors because he has been given the most leeway with creating new characters and his own part of the world. If you read through some of the original Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting stuff, you see that many parts of the realms have established leaders, politics, villains and subplots. Authors dealing with those parts of the realms can't kill characters like Fzoul Chembryl, Manshoon, Khelben or Elminster. Not so with the drow; Salvatore had nearly complete autonomy because there was nothing to stop him. So he picked up the ball and ran, the result of which is a best-selling series of books, not just mass-market paperbacks, but hardcovers and omnibus collections. Plus, everyone who gets a chance rolls up a drow (or drow-looking) character for their CRPG and PnP RPG games.

[Gwalchmai]

I certainly don’t deny the current popularity of the Drow, and that Salvatore is largely responsible for making them popular through good and detailed writing. I’m wondering if his characterization of Drow society rings true? Does it make sense from an anthropological stand point. Drow can levitate and live in a matrifocal, evil-dominated society. What aspect of living underground causes these phenomena? Does his explanation of these characterizations give you the feeling of “Ah ha!”? Or are the Drow characteristics simply trait lists that demonstrate the ways they are different instead of why they are different?

I hope to figure this out for myself while reading the books, but I was wondering if (any of) you had an opinion?

[HighLordDave]

I think part of it can be explained by the fact that elves (in general) are innately magical folk. When the Fiend Folio came out, they didn't really explain how or why dark elves could do things surface elves couldn't do; we (as players and DMs) just accepted it.

It seems to me that Salvatore skirts around the issue of the drow elves's natural abilities (faerie fire, globe of darkness, levitation, magic resistance, etc.) and attributes it to centuries of living in the Underdark. This is farily plausible, because the "underdark radiations" are what empower the drow (and svirfneblin and deurger) magic items and it could affect the creatures as well.

I don't completely by this because radiation would cause as many (if not more) harmful mutations than helpful ones. As a DM, my explaination to players is that the Underdark is a more dangerous environment where there is a higher premium on survival than on the surface. As such, only the strongest and most evolutionary successful individuals are going to pass on their traits (such as a naturally high magic resistance) and when faced with the eradication of a race, evolution happens more quickly. This coupled with the magical nature of elvenkind is a plausbile reason for the high level of innate magical ability in the drow.

I don't know what the official line is, but it's worked for me with players for years, so that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I think for Salvatore, he sets up an environment with such authority that readers can't help but be drawn in and buy into the world he's created, much like the way Stephen R. Donaldson did with The Land in The Chronicles of Thomas Convenant. Whether or not a matriarchial society of evil elves could survive in the Underdark is an academic point because they did. Unlike some other authors, Salvatore inspires a willing suspension of disbelief in creating his own little world that readers accept the way he tells them the world works without question.

[Nightmare]

Just a note on Salvatore's books: I fully agree with HLD that The Dark Elf Trilogy and the Icewind Dale Trilogy are very good books. Most of the Legacy isn't that good, although I did like Siege of Darkness a little. Also, Servant of the Shard is a must read, although it may be a little confusing if you don't read the two books prior (don't read them anyway, they're a waste of time). Sea of Swords wasn't bad either.