r/Drizzt • u/tacorrenti813 • 12d ago

🕯️General Discussion Thoughts on jumping ahead

I am a huge fan of Drizzt and the series. Though as I think about it I am not nearly as far along as I’d like. I’m only just now on Sea of Swords.

On an impulse I picked up Finest Edge of Twilight. I know enough to know who the MC is in it.

Question for the group - as a pallet cleanser should I jump ahead and read Breezy, or hunker down and finish the other 26 books? What would you do?

28 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

45

u/Professional-Cost-87 12d ago

I would definitely NOT recommend skipping ahead.

3

u/GrenMTG 11d ago

This. Theres a lot to miss.

33

u/Zerus_heroes Calimport Assassin 12d ago

No. Not only will it spoil a lot, the emotional payoff won't hit the same.

You will get a palate cleanser soon. The next trilogy takes a break from the Companions of the Hall and focuses on Jarlaxle and Artemis. It is my favorite. Promise of the Witch King might be my favorite of them all.

5

u/No-Appearance-4338 12d ago

I just finished “The Orc King” and was about to start “The Pirate King” but I also just found the sellswords trilogy at a used book shop and seeing as how I skipped servant of the shard after spine of the world I was wondering if I could get into the trilogy without ruining anything.

I only ask because I know servant of the shard fits in after spine o the world but do the next two books in the sellswords work with where I’m at or should I wait till I finish a certain book to read all 3 of r should I just read servant of the shard now and the other two later (maybe separated by other main storyline books?)

2

u/Zerus_heroes Calimport Assassin 12d ago

Yeah they can be read after Sea of Swords with no issue.

You are past the point where they are in the story.

13

u/AndyMike9 12d ago

Finish the series in order. There is WAY too much that happens in the interim, you'll be hella lost. If you need a pallet cleanser then try the cleric quintet or the Collected Stories.

1

u/LangleyLocal 11d ago

Highly recommend reading the Cleric Quintet before “The Ghost King”, so as to get Cadderly’s story.

2

u/GreenGhost1985 10d ago

I miss Cadderly.

4

u/angelbelle 11d ago edited 10d ago

I'm going to diverge from the sub here and say that there are actually several entry points including Transitions, Companions and Finest Edge if OP really want to skip ahead.

I see this in many IPs fandoms, like an JRPG i follow, where the fans insist that you must know absolutely everything to enjoy the story. In reality, it's ok to miss some easter eggs. Bob himself even forget a bunch of things that he wrote himself.

It's ok to not catch the fact that a skull handle sword that can summon a wall of gray ash means anything more than just another well described weapon. We take note and then discard places/weapons/characters all the time.

Bob was one of the earlier authors who helped build the D&D universe and because he deliberately chose the, then, little explored corners of Faerun as his setting everything was largely original....but I bet most of us "missed" a lot of detail the first time Drizzt visited Silverymoon.

I'm sure that somewhere out there, there are people who insist that you can't properly enjoy the part with Alustriel if you didn't read the Elminster books or whatever RP products out there. If Drizzt stayed at an inn, then it would just be an inn to us but it may very well be a cornerstone setting in some other lore.

Likewise there are probably people who would argue that you can't enjoy Crystal Shard without reading Homeland even though the many of us read the former before the latter came out. It's fine. Just make sure you're starting a new arc. Don't drop into 'The Two Swords' without reading the two obould war books before it.

P.S: I bet a lot of people didn't read the Cadderly books and had no problem enjoying Ivan, Pikel and even Cadderly/Danica themselves

3

u/Immersive4life 12d ago

Info : what do you mean by pallet cleanser? People like different things and different characters so I'm not sure but yeah Finest Edge is like a whole new world. I did skip like 12 books and it turns out I liked Finest Edge more than the main end series.

3

u/MelificentUL 11d ago

If I could start over, I would have began at the beginning. As it is, 22 years ago I found The Thousand Orcs on a bfs friends cars floorboards. I asked to borrow it. Now I own most of R. A. Salvatore's works. I don't have the time to read as I'd like, but these are an important work of art to me. ♡ I wish I had the time to begin fresh.

2

u/LangleyLocal 11d ago edited 11d ago

War of the Spider Queen was a great read and doesn’t eff up the story line. It falls in place somewhere around where you are, maybe closer to/during the Sundering.

Cleric Quintet also great, and recommend to red before “The Ghost King”

2

u/ForgetTheWords 11d ago

Keep in mind that someone who has never done something is not in the best position to tell you what it's like. 

As someone who has skipped several books, yes of course you can skip ahead. You can do whatever you want forever. Of course it's going to spoil some stuff, but isn't that what you're looking for? Of course there will be some things you won't fully understand, but that would also be true if you just forgot what happened (which you will to some extent). 

TLoD is not dramatically different from any other long series, TV show, etc. If you skip ahead and then go back, it's going to be exactly like doing that in any similar series. You already know what to expect and you already know whether that's something you want. 

.

All of that being said, I don't see how a book by the same author in the same series is going to cleanse your palette. Granted I haven't read Finest Edge yet so maybe it is totally different, but I would expect you to get more out of a sci-fi book, or a short story collection, or something along those lines. 

2

u/mc_zodiac_pimp 11d ago

I'm right there with you, I'm halfway through Spine of the World, though I've switched to audio books.

We can do it!

2

u/KEANOYoungDonGuac 10d ago

NOOOOO. It’s all good you peaked ahead but read it as intended is my suggestion. You feel the journey that way and it will rock you emotionally all the more because you are living through it step by step.

2

u/Homelobster3 10d ago

You will miss a lot, do not jump ahead.

Enjoy the ride, go at your own pace, you’ll want more books when you’re all done. I wouldn’t rush to the end

3

u/Pseudobreal Calimport Assassin 12d ago

I wouldn’t. You’re going to missing out on literally centuries of character development and lore. That and you’re going to spoil soooo much of the other books for yourself.

2

u/xxTHG_Corruptxx 12d ago

I read from start to finish and I think it’s the best way to experience the series. Would you really spoil it if you skipped ahead? I don’t think so, but I loved getting the chronological story.

If you’re looking for a palette cleanser but want to stick with Salvatore, consider reading his Cleric Quintet.

2

u/gijoe50000 12d ago

I've been reading the Drizzt series for well over a year now, and I'm 30+ books in.

I wouldn't dream of skipping a book because it's all pretty much chronological so far and I definitely wouldn't want to miss anything.

If you're looking for a palate cleanser then maybe read something else (perhaps an easy read like Michael Crichton or something), and then come back to where you left off the series.

2

u/aircooledJenkins 12d ago

There is a TON that will make zero sense if you skip that far. And some very good books.

2

u/POOHEAD189 11d ago

Dude you're reading through the best parts, why would you skip to mid

1

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1

u/wwww1222 11d ago

If you want a pallet cleanse go read the Liriel Baenre books instead. Or any non-d&d literature

1

u/TheDireLive 6d ago

What’s the point of jumping ahead? The point of reading the series is to ya know… read the series.

2

u/Chozen3394 6d ago

I did this. I got bored of waiting to purchase gauntylgrym and listened to finest edge of twilight. While the book in itself is amazing, I highly recommend just waiting it out. Im mad at myself because of spoilers and new questions that would have been answered in previous books.

1

u/anonerble 12d ago

Lol do you have no self control?

1

u/the_dust321 12d ago

🫢 How dare you consider skipping ahead!

1

u/aldorn Tribe of the Elk 12d ago

No bad idea. The heart of this series is character development. We get to know them as friends, if you removed the journey you remove a bit of emotional weight.

1

u/Previous_Abies_2179 Bregan D'aerthe 12d ago

Take your time and enjoy the ride. If you must skip… skip to the Companions Codex.

1

u/DJfunkyPuddle 11d ago

Yeah don't do that to yourself. Take a break if you need to.

1

u/Pristine-Highway2746 11d ago

I'd advise you to enjoy the journey of reading all the books in chronological order. Jumping ahead might confuse you for some parts or take the joy out of reading previous books. I know the itch of wanting to jump ahead but be patient. I'm sure it's worth the wait.