Right at the start of the novel we are given a vivid picture of this province. This makes you feel more at home with the plot as we now understand the land our adventurers must traverse. Salvatore manages to emphasise this description by using subtle techniques like personification in the word “unwelcoming” and alliteration in the words “barren broken…”
This all adds to the completeness or wholeness of the novel. By creating the perfect setting you then enhance the plot therefore making the characters more memorable.
This leads me to the next feature of the novel, the characters.
“Drizzit du-urden trotted along silently, his soft low cut boots barely stirring the dust. He kept the cowl of his brown cloak pulled low over the flowing waves of his dark white hair and moved with such effortless grace that an onlooker might have thought him to be no more than an optical trick of the tundra”
From the excerpt we can see how carefully Salvatore must have crafted his characters. This extract was actually the first time we meet “Drizzit” and we are immediately able to picture the scene. Salvatore introduces all his characters like this, with their own small separate quest. This allows the story to gradually build instead of forcing the reader to swallow a whole host of new characters at once (e.g. “Lord of the Rings”). “Drizzit” is portrayed as a loner or outsider with a direction in mind. We can gather this all from the first encounter (above). Salvatore again manages to do this with subtle writing techniques. He infuses his characters with human qualities (“effortless grace”) and uses colours to change the mood (“his dark white hair”) thus making them all the more credible.
Throughout the novel conflicts are born between the characters (Drizzit’s lone wolf personality versus love for his friends). Throughout the plot, the characters develop and change just like people, so it is much easier to continually relate to them and story.
The last feature I would like to discuss is the plot.
The plot plays a major part in all novels but this one in particular stands out.
The story is about three friends who travel across the cold barren tundra known as the land of Ice Wind-Dale to accomplish personal goals and to better the lives of others, an example being when the land is threatened by the hoards of barbarians and only three destined people can help. The three friends Drizzit du-urden, Breunor Thunderhammer and Wufgar Thousand Blades, travel together constantly conveying the themes of friendship honour and courage through various points in the story.
The plot is full of action and suspense (literally). There is not one part in the novel where there is not a person in the shadows, or an outright battle. The story is punctuated throughout by sarcasm rather than humour.
There is one part of the story that is extremely memorable.
“The men of the Ten-Towns, along with their barbarian allies stood unified at the gates of Shander. The humans and dwarves looked upon the mass of invaders with fiery eyes, watching as the battle was about was about to commence...”
I remember it being about four o’clock in the morning when I read that excerpt. I simply could not put it down. It filled me with such suspense that by putting the book down at that point would have felt sinful. I had to read on. It is points like that in this novel that makes it so incredibly complete and satisfying.
In conclusion R.A Salvatore created an extremely well crafted novel concentrating only on the features relevant to the story, these being the setting, characters and plot (unlike “Lord of the Rings” which is full of sub-plots and hidden themes). By focusing in on these features he makes the novel so satisfying that you are left sad to have finished it. “Ice Wind-Dale” is a work of art, in all one thousand and four pages of glory and I would recommend it to anyone.