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What's the creature code to spawn this arch-nemesis of Drizzt anyways ? (Man, I could just see the line of action figures already)
Back to the off-topic.

There's plenty of action, and if you had read more than a "sampling" you would feel the same bond to his characters that all his fans do. Even the villain, Artemis Entreri, has his place and the parts of the books he is in wouldn't be the same without him. HOWEVER, if you don't get off on the ultimate Good VS. Evil plots, then chances are these books are not for you.

Plenty of action.... I don't read to read 'action'. Any idiot with a pen can write good 'action'. It requires the same amount of mental dexterity to enjoy big boobs, and big explosions in a movie, as it does to enjoy some decent swordplay in a piece of writing.

Sometimes, I wonder why people watch wrestling. I guiltily enjoy it, but deep down I'm just saying to myself 'the plotline is so damn transparent, the ridiculous dialogue and situations are just plain ... "stupid" , but why the hell am I watching ?' Basically, the same answer I come up with everytime is that, it's addictive. Even though the product is inferior and doesn't offer much in the way of anything, somehow you just can't turn your eyes away.

Even Artemis has a place........ As opposed to not having a place ? Everybody is supposed to have a place. Every rock and pebble should have it's place when the author is putting his vision into ink and paper.

No, I do get "off" on ultimate good vs. evil, but this just does not do it for me, in any way shape or form.

[ 08-31-2001: Message edited by: transcendent two ]

Writing good action is tough, because good action isn't a book in itself, but part of much larger works. Good action has to bind seamlessly into these works, and it has to flow along with them. It has to be realistic, within the confines of a given universe, and be placed at just the few right moments to make an impact.

One of the best "action" authors was Dashel Hammet, and he hardly used action at all. But when they do happen, the short moments are harsh and vindictive; they strike out of the book at you, and then they vanish quickly, right back into the understated prose that seems so grey. You could almost figure they never occured, if you didn't notice your split lip, or that bruise on your side.

Planning big action sequences is also difficult--almost an art in itself. Fletcher Pratt did a great job of it in The Well of the Unicorn, in part because he was a great historian of medieval Scandanavia, and in part because he played out tabletop war games. He knew the armaments and he knew how people reacted, in times of battle and off the field, too: so his battles arise naturally out of peace, and movements towards war.

Salvatore uses a lot of action, but I don't think he's particularly good at it. That doesn't mean action is an easy thing to write well. And there's a lot to be said for providing quality entertainment to a lot of people, if you have the knack--like Hammet and Pratt did.

If interplay decided not to use Artemis, then why on earth did they put him in the game so litterally thet he could be summoned. Hey! maybe on insane you might meet him, because the reason why he wasn't put with Bodhi was because It would be to hard to kill both of them straight away, or maybe cos it would be a coplex story line to explain how Drizzts arch-enemy just turned up where he was to have there own personal battle while your fighting a pain in the @$$ of a vampire, when he should be helping you. "pant"

He was probably in the game for the same reason that there are empty potion bottles in the Guarded Compound: They had him in and took him out at the last minute. My bet as to why they didn't pull him is either it a)wasn't worth the effort or b)they figured people would enjoy the easter egg. As to why he's not in there, maybe it's for balance reasons, or maybe they didn't want another Artemis vs. Drizzt fight, or maybe there was another reason (come to think of it- does anyone have a timeline on the drizzt books? it's possible that entreri stopped going after drizzt before bg2 happened, in which case they didn't include it...or bg2 may happen after the last book written, in which case they didn't want to preempt the writers)

To get Artemis, type in CLUAConsole:CreateCreature("ARTEMIS"). And he doesn't show up either if you play on insane level, I've tried that. It's probably something that Bioware scrapped.

I have no idea how to get the MDK2 summons to work either. I like books that does not have that much action. I think action is hard to write, if you are not really good at writing action, then don't write it. Focus on something else.

Ehm...
I could be mistaken, but I actually thought Artemis Enteri was in the game... Isn't he the one who spawns in when you go around on a killing spree in the Thieves Guild while you actually need the help of the Thieves to continue the story? And who backstabs you almost to death with one stab, to make sure you're going to reload the game so you never attacked the thieves in the first place, just to save the story? Some sort of Biff the Understudy, only different...

Originally posted by Grojlach:
<STRONG>Ehm...
I could be mistaken, but I actually thought Artemis Enteri was in the game... Isn't he the one who spawns in when you go around on a killing spree in the Thieves Guild while you actually need the help of the Thieves to continue the story? And who backstabs you almost to death with one stab, to make sure you're going to reload the game so you never attacked the thieves in the first place, just to save the story? Some sort of Biff the Understudy, only different... </STRONG>

Arkanis Gath...

I've never thought well of salvatore...IMHO, I have read the Tea with a green dragon and the rafael books, when he first started publishing books. I was not impressed, and since I started reading Barry Hughart's books soon after, he suffered extremely in comparison.

As for really good fantasy writers, I tend to avoid the ones which are set in a mythos...like the battle tech books or the star trek books. in my expeerience, they tend to be crafted with less love by the author than if the author created the mythos him/herself.

Thinking of starting the brian jaques books, since I've caught episodes of redwall the animated series on television.

Originally posted by rapier:
<STRONG>Arkanis Gath...</STRONG>

Ah yes, I remember it now... Thanks for pointing out my mistake.
Sorry, it's been at least half a year since I played SOA...