The main heroes are an elf (albeit a sub-race that was never cast as heroic before this), a dwarf (of the most stereotypical variety), and a human male (though his origin as a barbarian provides an interesting arc for him). Setting the norms by which the Forgotten Realms label would be judged, in other words, the standards of its brand of fantasy adventure, and a foundation on which future works could do more unorthodox thingsĪs such, The Crystal Shard is characterized by its adherence to the basics in many areas.Establishing the region of the Forgotten Realms in which the story takes place, to give both readers and D&D players a feel for the universe this and other stories would take place in.An endearing and eccentric cast of heroes to familiarize the reader with the archetypal Dungeons & Dragons adventurer’s ensemble and routine.Together with the following two works in the trilogy, Streams of Silver and The Halfling’s Gem, this book thus focuses on three elements: As Darkwalker on Moonshae by Douglas Niles was the only book in the setting to exist prior to this one, Salvatore’s debut work is the purest example of an entry point. Before picking this one up, it’s worth knowing that at the time of its publication, the Forgotten Realms setting itself was very new as a D&D product line, the first game products having been released in ’87, the year before. The Crystal Shard - set against the many Forgotten Realms novels, video games, and other related products that exist nowadays - is easy to think of as inferior to many of its brother and sister works.

It’s worth noting that while this book provides a lot of world-building for that part of the Forgotten Realms, there’s also no direct story connection between the Icewind Dale Trilogy and the two PC roleplaying games released under the title of Icewind Dale - they simply take place in the same geographical part of the campaign setting. It was also the first volume in the Icewind Dale Trilogy, a slightly misleading name for the series since this is the only book of the three to actually take place in the geographical region called Icewind Dale. While nowadays labeled as Book 4 in the Legend of Drizzt series within the many-authored shared universe of the Forgotten Realms (itself one of a number of campaign settings for the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop roleplaying game), this particular entry, The Crystal Shard, was originally released in 1988 as R. Salvatore (1988)ĭungeons & Dragons: Forgotten Realms (Shared Universe) BY: LEWIS MEDEIROS Originally posted to a separate blog on January 12, 2016

The crystal shard book