The Crooked Bookies discussion

Homeland is De Laura's selection for May. Let's discuss it here.

By R.A. Salvatore?

Yes indeedy.

There's a graphic novel of this book. I know because I accidentally ordered it instead of the novel novel. I'm going to read both.

Good choice. I started reading this book last night and it's very interesting.

Finished the GN version and enjoyed it. I read a lot of DragonLance as a teenager and meant to read Forgotten Realms but didn't get around to it. I'm glad I had the opportunity here.

I like your comment, De Laura, about the semi-acknowledgment the drow seem to occasionally have of the vicious cycle they're in. That's portrayed in the GN too, mostly in the elves' facial expressions. The things they do are evil, but their faces betray conflicted feelings now and then. I read up on drow a long time ago, and as I recall they aren't naturally evil; they're just enslaved by the spider goddess that found them generations ago and are driven insane by the society she wills them to live in.

One thing I wish this book had done differently is its portrayal of women. We don't see very many stories about matriarchal societies. It would be nice to see one that isn't arguably a cautionary tale about women leaders creating torturous, awful societies in which men have zero say in anything.

"It's certainly bizarre and hopefully no one (that's a vain hope) takes it as an example as to how leadership would be."

That's the thing about books and movies: morals and values are directly processed of course, but plenty is indirectly, or subconsciously, processed as well. I don't think many people would walk away from a book like this, thinking, "Yep, that's what women would do if they were in charge!" People read this book and think, "Wow, that society is awful," and probably don't give it much more thought beyond that. But, this being the only example of a matriarchal society that I bet many readers of this series are exposed to, other than maybe the amazon women tribe myth (the one in which women capture and rape men for breeding purposes, then kill or abandon their unwanted male babies), is what lead to people subconsciously getting the idea that societies led by women are unnatural and doomed. (And, again, I haven't read the novel yet, only the graphic novel, so what I'm saying only applies to the GN, but the way the "women" and "men" are drawn in the book... yeah, they look pretty distinctly womanly and manly, in that way that fantasy characters are often distinctly womanly and manly, lol.) But when I hear people say, "I don't want to elect [woman candidate], but I can't really say why. I just don't trust her for some reason," I find myself wondering what role stories like the Amazon-woman-tribe myth and others----Homeland perhaps, perhaps not---play in that.

Everyone's comments have made me want to give this book another try sometime... but the first go around jus wasn't for me. The names and vocabulary were distracting is maybe the best word for it, it made it very hard for me to get into. I didn't like not really being introduced to the main character so late but I get the need to set up the story. The more time I give it to sink in tho it's definitely a good story and something different for me

Hello All,

Just finished reading this book and I must say it was a good read. Those poor males of drow are at the whips of the females lol. I can definitely see why someone would not enjoy this book. I was also having my doubts when i started reading the 1st couple chapters but i decided to keep going. Once Drizzt started coming into play is when it really got interesting.

I love how he did not just accept the world he lived in and wanted to be different. His rise to the top of the academy was no surprising considering he was trained by the best master of arms. The whole story developed rather quickly but it didn't feel rushed. A very smooth transition from beginning to end. I might pick up the next book of this series soon. Good pick for this month.

Sorry to say that I just couldn't get into this book. Part of the reason was that I had to download it through Hoopla and read on my phone. I hate that. It was just too....fantasy for me, I guess. Anyway, if I ever see it, I'll try the GN.