Talk:R. A. Salvatore

Tolkien

What exactly does he copy from Tolkien?

Salvatore's Mithril Hall was copied from Moria. They were both extremely rich mountainous homes of dwarves who mined too deeply and unleashed an ancient evil that drove them all out and killed the anyone left behind, and they are both opened by a secret door. There're probably more instances, but that's the only one I can think of offhand. - Lifefeed 20:46, Dec 13, 2004 (UTC)

What exactly he copies?? Did you even read Tolkien? Mithril, for starters, is the exact same word Tolkien gave to the silver the dwarves dug for in Moria. Halflings? Didn't exist before T. Actually a reviewer from Amazon said it best:(mithril is a different subtance than silver)

"Guess the book: A dwarf, hafling, elf, and human seek to destroy an ancient, sentient evil artifact that enslaves its bearer and bends his will to its own. Along the way

- The human from the north becomes king(of the barbarian tribes)

- The "campanions" battle through an abandoned, underground dwarf city that was overrun by evil because the dwarves "dug to deep."(dwarves still inhabit the place) While there, one of the group is lost over a bridge covering a deep chasm battling this evil (this person eventually returns)(gandalf died bruenor didn't)

- The hafling loses a finger

- towers are called "tiriths"

- When the artifact is thwarted, the evil villain's tower crumbles to dust

- One of the heroes has a magic weapon that glows blue(all elvish weapons glow blue)

- The group encounters trees that walk and talk

- They encounter a reclusive hermit that seems to have incredible power, yet does not intervene to help the heroes directly."

And you ask what S. is copying from T.?? As of Tolkien stealing from Green Knight and Beowulf: That's like saying Herman Melville stole from Jonah and the Whale.. /F.

hmm true. But tolkien steals heavily from works like beowulf and green knight.. maybe we can say that rather than stealing ideas, they both draw from a cultural context.

Many of your typical "fantasy" concepts didn't appear before Middle-Earth and you can hardly accuse Tolkien of stealing them. Elves, for one, are traditionally likened to a weird but happy (and probably malicious) fairy-folk, rather than a people of floppy-eared, immortal supermodels. However, several fantasy authors, especially in the context of Forgotten Realms, have since made unshamingly direct use of Tolkien's elements and called it inspiration.

Of course, elves and dwarves make the Lord of the Rings just about as much as shiny metal things make Neuromancer, so one might say the general frame of the story is an old one. A mean person might then point out that most commodity fantasy actually has quite thin and worn-out frames to support the outlay of its fictional world.

-L

The article at this point seems a bit opinionated. Anyone agree? -Dalkaen

I agree, the "Critical" part is ridiculously biased -Tor

then find some negative critical reviews and add them. i will admit to being somewhat of a fan boy, but these words are not my own. they are the words of several critics. (hence the word "critical" tor) I worked on this as part of a larger paper, and spent about three days gathering information. I was unable to finad anything negative by any reputable source. have fun. stop complaining.

Extremely biased text

OK, this is too rich even for an avarage marketing text.

The legion of readers and critics who love Salvatore seem to praise his battle scenes most. His descriptions seem to transcend the page and paint a picture in your mind that can, at times, move with such speed and power that it leaves the reader in a cold sweat. When asked how he keeps his battle scenes so fresh and vivid, he said, “I really don’t know, except to say that I actually watch the action taking place in my head, in slow motion, while I’m writing the battle scenes.” Some critics say that this actually backfires on him due to some of his more graphic death scenes. Others say that the amount of time he spends on building his battles is detrimental to his character development.

The rest of the section needs work too, but the above is so obiviously against the neutral point of view guidelines that I almost removed it on sight. - User:jerk face 19:29, 10 July 2005 (UTC)

This was brought up earlier on this talk page, as you can see. One thing to consider is that the passage clearly states that those who love R. A. Salvatore say that. It doesn't state that it is true. Still, it should likely be written in more unbiased language, but I'm not sure myself how to phrase it. --Dalkaen 22:45, July 10, 2005 (UTC)

The passage does use some weaseling, but pretty much states as a fact that even his dectractors acknowledge his mastery "of battle scenes and action" (see the next passage I didn't quote). I'm sceptical about this, as I have personally seen comments claiming his battle scenes being dull, so at least this part of the article needs some sourcing. Futhermore, the sentence claiming "transcendence" is pure nonsence and the Slavatore quote doesn't really provide worthwile information. - The Merciful 11:48, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

Hmm, some critics say his battle scenes are dull? Odd. I totally don't see that. Anyway, could you provide some links to some of those reviews? Positive and negative, and maybe we can write a more unbiased passage here. --Dalkaen 13:48, July 12, 2005 (UTC)

Biased? I'll say. During a teenage D&D phase I read a little of RA Salvatore, figuring that a guy whose work was so popular in the fantasy world couldn't help but be excellent. Lord was I wrong. The man writes boring, predictable crap, turning immersive, multi-layered fantasy environments into droll, predictable clones that are essentially C-grade Lord of the Rings fan fiction. He's nowhere near to as talented as, say, Paolini or Rowley.

good idea. ill add that to a works cited and consulted section and remove the nuetrality thing. most of what i said was paraphrased but not to the point of direct citation. i insteaded opted to add them to a consulted works list. ~biased guy mark

there now stop whining

i didnt feel like making it pretty...

It still isn't written from a neutral point of view, so stop being childish, fix it and "stop whining". Wikipedia is a collaporatory encyclopedia, not your personal playground. - The Merciful 07:57, 18 July 2005 (UTC)

i never said it was. dont be so foolish to confuse purple prose as biased text. what i would like YOU to do is find negative critism of salvatore and write a rebutle to my interpritation of his works. this is what i meant by "stop whining." i suggest you start your search with http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=ball_trial&srchtp=athr&ca=22&c=1&ste=6&tab=1&tbst=arp&ai=397487&n=10&docNum=H1000127189&ST=salvatore&bConts=2191

just because i wrote it in an interesting and dynamic way does not diminish my credibility.

now youve made your point. do something about it. SHOW me negative critisim. the burden doesnt lie on me as i dont have a problem with it... you do. however, i am willing to work with you and add to the negative critism if it will make you shut the hell up.

83.131.181.27 cleaned my language a little bit. see how he did so without ranting... hes a good guy

I made some changes mainly rephrasing the text for clarity.If you think I deleted anything important restore it through the history page

Name Change?

What was the reason for the name change from R. A. Salvatore to Robert Anthony Salvatore? Wikipedia:Naming conventions seems to support R. A. Salvatore over Robert, as that is what he is best known as to my knowledge. Grey Shadow 12:45, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

Answer this

What games are there based directly or indirectly to his books please answer my question becuase I've already read his books and yet am still clueless

His characters have featured in several games. I believe Drizzt is even playable in Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. I could be wrong, though. --Dalkaen^T/C 05:03, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

For Video Games there is Icewind Dale and Icewind Dale II from Black Isle Studios (both are PC games)

There is a Tabletop Role-Playing Game for Forgotten Realms (using the d20/Dungeons & Dragons system from Wizards of the Coast), there is also an RPG based on Salvatore's Demon Wars books

Name the Books in Order

I have been puzzled recently in reading this page I know the series goes Dark Elf Trilogy, Icewind Dale Trilogy, Legacy of the Drow, Paths of Darkness, and hunters Blade but where does the Cleric Quinteit and War of the Spider Queen fit in.?

Added the ficitonal dates --Fsdemir 21:24, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

Well the Cleric Quintet develops the character Cadderly so you can fully appreciate him when he makes scene in Servant of the Shard. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.82.187.25 (talk) 19:04, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

this article is terrible

this article is missing tons of information that *is* available and had a whole bunch of facts wrong. It seriously needs work and could someone find a picture to use?--66.203.178.71 20:45, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Trial by Fire and other graphic novels.

I removed Trial by fire from the novel listing as it is not a novel by RAS, but rather a graphic novel based on the Demon Wars series. If anything it should be placed under a graphic novels section. I rewrote the Trial by Fire wiki and added it back under the Graphic novels section for the time being, until all the other ones can be found and listed. J E Oliver 03:00, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Invalid Links

All the links under the subheading Legacy of the Drow redirect to the article Legacy of the Drow, which only mentions the plot for the first book in the series The Legacy (novel). -- TikiTDO ^Talk - 05:39, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

Bibliography

Why is the series "War of the Spider Queen" listed? What hand did he play in these novels?

--24.166.172.214 (talk) 00:41, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

According to the WotSQ page, he 'oversaw' the other writers as a veteran. I guess that means he sort of collaberated with them, and maybe fed them ideas to work into the books? Like, maybe an overall storyline to sort of work with? I dunno, I've not read more about them, but that's what I guess he done. -- Scar † Contributions † 00:08, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

...Upon actually READING some of the article *Le gasp!*, I think he was overseeing them as a famous name, so they could get 'much needed exposure'. Hm, sounds like a pretty nice guy. *Smiles widely* -- Scar † Contributions † 00:12, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps the bibliography should be cleaned up a bit. I don't believe that using section headers to split up the trilogies is the best way to do it - It needlessly bloats the table of contents and stretches the page vertically leaving way too much whitespace along the right side of the page. If this was truly a bibliography, it should look more like you might see on an actor's article page. Something like can be seen here with a table with headers like Year, Title, Trilogy/Series, Notes. If something important needs to be mentioned concerning a specific series, it should perhaps be split off into it's own article page considering this article should be more about the person than the books themselves. This is partially in response to a revert of my edit where they called this article a 'list article' - which it is not, it is a biography first and foremost. If they were referring to it as a 'list section' then the section should be converted into a list. (That said, the revert was not unnecessary, as the information I added was already there if in another format of Dale-Reckoning) If no dialog on this issue crops up and nobody beats me to the punch within a couple days, I will go ahead and make these changes Forgotten Lords (talk) 16:14, 22 May 2009 (UTC)

R A Salvatore template

I didn't make any move as yet, but shouldn't this template be on his page? As it is a useful source for other pages related to him.

Done. -Drilnoth (talk) 01:51, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Last name

I'm sure someone, somewhere has heard the author speak his own last name... can someone put the proper pronunciation into the article? In listening to the audiobooks of his novels, I've heard the narrators pronounce it with both the last "e" voiced and with a silent "e" as well. This is probably just a regional thing, since the name is Italian, but maybe it would be interesting to know how Mr. Salvatore says it himself. *Vendetta* _{(whois talk edits)} 19:45, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

Assessment comment

This article lacks in structure: all the information that is not bibliography is put in one section that includes choppy paragraphs (and should be expanded with structure) while the lead does not give a concise overview of the article but only mentions his profession and sales. Hekerui (talk) 19:23, 13 August 2011 (UTC)

So which is it?

--Salvatore was ordered by Lucasfilm Ltd. to kill off the character. Many fans thought that Salvatore himself had made this decision, but it was actually Randy Stradley, the then-editor at Dark Horse Comics.

So was it Lucasfilm or some editor at comic book company?

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"RA Salvatore Library"

The claim that an "R.A. Salvatore Library" exists at Fitchburg State University is sourced to the Wizards of the Coast (his publisher's) website, which is not WP:INDEPENDENT.

In the fall of 1997, his letters, manuscripts, and other professional papers were donated to the R.A. Salvatore Library at his alma mater, Fitchburg State University in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.

[1]

A quick Google search finds this claim repeated on WP mirror sites and non-RS, plus repeated in the bio page of most of his books. A search of Fitchburg State University's website fails to find any evidence that an "R.A. Salvatore Library" even exists. Specifically, there is no mention of the phrase "Salvatore Library" at the domain fitchburgstate.edu, which seems highly unusual for a university not to mention a library it supposedly houses. Further, a search of Google News for the phrase "Salvatore Library" also finds nothing. Should this claim be removed? Chetsford (talk) 03:50, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

• Remove I'm sure what's really going on is that there is an R.A. Salvatore collection (in other words, a shelf of file boxes in the university's special collections division) which is fairly normal for an alumnus of any notability to have. This claim seems to have been hyper-inflated by his publisher to the rather incredible idea that there is an entire library named after R.A. Salvatore! Chetsford (talk) 03:50, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

I agree with Chetsford above. The university should be able to tell you if they have such a named library, should be easy to source, but since we can't source it it seems that Chetsford's theory above is quite sound. It should go. Canterbury Tail talk 11:50, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

It's a collection, not a library, and it's on the university website. [2] Simonm223 (talk) 13:42, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

Yup. Definitely not a library. Canterbury Tail talk 13:46, 22 August 2018 (UTC)