The Legend of Drizzt: The Collected Stories

Barely readable, and only because it was a collection of short stories that I could listen to very sparsely.

The only redeemable story was the one with the Lich and the Dragons, and not because it was well written, but because it gives a taste of what kind of stores are possible to be told in the D&D world.

Very much recommended for Salvatore fans, especially fans of Drizzt and the Companions of the Hall. Each story is prefaced with comments and notes from the author himself, and they proved interesting reading in themselves.

I've already read a couple of these stories when they were originally published in other anthologies; I've enjoyed them then, and still enjoy them now. There are several new ones I haven't read before, and the overall theme of all of it is to provide more background stories, character insights, and closures.

The stories are not all focused around Drizzt. In fact, stories with Drizzt in it are a minority. Bruenor, Wulfgar, Guenhywar, Catti-brie, Innovindil, Jarlaxle, Artermis, Pwent, Zhengyi, and even Regis are all featured in one way or another.

Being an anthology that explores back story and to provide insights is bound to contain spoilers even if you haven't read the appropriate trilogy, so be forewarned. I haven't read the Neverwinter trilogy, but went ahead and finished their related stories anyway, despite a warning from the author. Didn't really want to leave some stories off until later.

It was an ok listen. I've never been that interested in the D&D books before and this didn't change that. I've heard of the Drizzt books but never read one before. There's something about the universe they're set in that isn't that appealing to me and these stories didn't change that. (I've never played D&D either.) Also, some of the stories got a bit heavy handed with the moral lectures.

The narrators were mostly very good with the only exception being Ice-T – he kept very heavily pronouncing the “w” in sword, which was a bit like nails on the chalkboard for me, and his story had that word in a lot. Otherwise, his reading was well done.