[[ This post contains Part 5 of my review/analysis of the Forgotten Realms/Drizzt novel, Boundless, by R. A. Salvatore. As such, the entirety of this post’s content is OOC. ]]

Genre: Fantasy

Series: Generations: Book 2 | Legend of Drizzt #35 (#32 if not counting The Sellswords)

Publisher: Harper Collins (September 10, 2019)

My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Additional Information: Artwork for the cover of Boundless and used above is originally done by Aleks Melnik. This post CONTAINS SPOILERS. Furthermore, this discussion concerns topics that I am very passionate about, and as such, at times I do use strong language. Read and expand the cut at your own discretion.

Contents:

Introduction

I. Positives  I.1 Pure Positives  I.2 Muddled Positives

II. Mediocre Writing Style  II.1 Bad Descriptions  II.2 Salvatorisms  II.3 Laborious “Action”

III. Poor Characterization  III.1 “Maestro”  III.2 Lieutenant  III.3 Barbarian  III.4 “Hero”  III.5 Mother

IV. World Breaks  IV.1 Blinders Against the Greater World  IV.2 Befuddlement of Earth and Toril  IV.3 Self-Inconsistency  IV.4 Dungeon Amateur  IV.5 Utter Nonsense

V. Ego Stroking  (you are here)  V.1 The Ineffable Companions of the Hall  V.2 Me, Myself, and I

VI. Problematic Themes  VI.1 No Homo  VI.2 Disrespect of Women  VI.3 Social-normalization  VI.4 Eugenics

VII. What’s Next  VII.1 Drizzt Ascends to Godhood  VII.2 Profane Redemption  VII.3 Passing the Torch  VII.4 Don’t Notice Me Senpai

Ego Stroking

Before Timeless, each new Drizzt novel release reached a new level of self-congratulation and selling out. After a one book break with Timeless, Boundless hops right back on the proverbial horse and charges to new distances. 

The Ineffable Companions of the Hall

As mentioned in the previous section, Drizzt's awesomeness has increased yet again. It isn't quite clear what specifically is going on with him and what specific abilities he's using from his new multi-classing, but one thing is evident: Drizzt is way more than what he should be. I suppose this follows tradition, but it's past the point of ridiculous. While something like Drizzt's monk training helping him run more efficiently is plausible even at level one as long as it also isn't making him run faster, which is an ability monks do not gain until level two, the feat that Drizzt performs at the end of the novel isn't even a monk ability, at least not in the current D&D edition. Drizzt eludes a creature that wouldn't stop chasing him so long as they both exist on the same plane, and having stripped himself down to his underclothes, Drizzt has only his own body with which to perform his feat. The feat he performs is more on the level of Grandmaster Kane, who transcended death long ago and doesn't seem to even need his corporeal form anymore. Drizzt literally vanishes into nothing, and the creature chasing him returns to its home plane after its supernatural senses verify that Drizzt indeed no longer existed on the Prime anymore. So, several possibilities exist here, lets examine a few. First, Drizzt's awesomeness somehow negated a fundamental aspect of a very powerful creature that he couldn't defeat in combat. Second, Drizzt performed the astral projection portion of the level eighteen monk ability Empty Body. Third, Drizzt performed the twentieth level ability Psionic Body of the imbalanced and not yet official Mystic class from Unearthed Arcana. Fourth, Drizzt's sheer amazingness allowed him to transcend the mortal world and spontaneously become a Jedi master. The first of these possibilities is the least trite, but is still inherently based on a cheap tactic. I am legitimately afraid of what Salvatore is going to tell us about what happened. The creature pursuing Drizzt is a Retriever, with a challenge rating of fourteen. Yet, in Boundless, they are presented to be much more than that, on par with the demon lords and feared by lesser demons. In D&D canon, even a normal marilith poses a greater danger than a Retriever, and Drizzt had managed to singlehandedly defeat the greatest of that class of demon, the Maritlith who gave its name to its type. A Retriever, in comparison, should be no problem at all for him, but Salvatore inflates the power level of an established creature in order to create drama and suspense rather than coming up with something more original, or doing more research and finding something of an appropriate power level to use. The second possibility shouldn't be viable at all, the only reason aside from making his character and hence himself awesome through it is a story arc for the characters to recover or recreate Drizzt body and relocating his soul to put back into it. The third possibility I named is just really nothing short of Salvatore signing his name in an ugly sharpie across the tapestry of the Realms. Even though Grandmaster Kane was his creation too, apparently, Drizzt has to be the best, even among his own. The fourth option? Well, that one seems like it might be the most likely after all. I mean Salvatore does have an in with the Star Wars community... and wouldn't we all want Drizzt to dual-wield light sabers? The self-congratulation doesn't stop with Drizzt. The Companions of the Hall, in addition to being great heroes, apparently also have to be extremely physically attractive. This has already been done to death with Drizzt and Catt-brie, and in Boundless we're reminded a number of times of how hot Wulfgar is, but absent of this treatment thus far is Regis and Bruenor. I think Salvatore realizes that perhaps even his most fervent fans might raise an eyebrow if he pimped out Bruenor, or perhaps he doesn't have the stomach to do so for a character who's basically a very muscular, short and hirsute man. That said, it's not like he hasn't tried, for Bruenor has two wives instead of one after all. In Boundless, the circle is complete with Regis, who previously was a chubby (and hence unattractive) halfling. Now, he is described as a "quite striking figure" and "quite the dashing figure", wearing fancy clothes and equipment whilst rakishly having his "vest undone just enough to hint at another weapon he carried beneath it". Regis is so arresting that the disciplined and task-focused Dahlia "fancied she might comb her hair in her reflection" in the shiny silver buckles of his boots. Regis might've been a plump and greedy glutton with a heart of gold in his previous life, but no more. Now, he fits in with and stands beside the rest of his group in equal beauty, because apparently, it isn't enough for heroes to heroically kick people when they are down. They have to be look good while doing so too, or at least, Salvatore's heroes need to be best in all aspects.

As is routine with Drizzt's journal entries, there is much sanctimonious preaching. In Boundless, Drizzt lectures about tradition and the perils of following problematic traditions. Yet, Drizzt doesn't break from tradition himself, as though he, through being who he is, is absent from even that which he himself cautions about. In the opening to part three, Drizzt extols the dwarves for constantly searching for new tunnels to mine, Wulfgar for overcoming the sexist conditioning of his tribe, and the halflings of Bleeding Vines for the malleability of their society. Yet, he continues to hold fast to his intolerance of Zaknafein and his conviction of there being only one right path, namely, the one tread by him. This really makes him more akin to the unchanging Lolthite society of Menzoberranzan, the atrocious practices of the Prisoner's Carnival, and the insular elves who turn away refugees from their shelter, all things which he condemns. Drizzt, of course, is a fictional character, and these entries are Salvatore's words. The thing that is nearly unique about Drizzt in these novels is that he tends to present a more or less consistent stance and voice and this is still the case. Other characters are markedly less consistent, and I suspect this is driven by the fact that they are more purely whole cloth creations of Salvatores. This leads me to believe that Drizzt acts as Salvatore's perhaps unconscious spokesman, and that these ideas spouted by Drizzt are Salvatore's own ideas. If so, he is attempting to give them more validity by having them spouted by a "hero", and specifically one that he continues to build up to ridiculous levels.

Me, Myself, and I

Zaknafein, whom we're told on numerous occasions is so expert that he is pure grace with no wasted moves, is remarkably showy. During the recreational cavern-jumping sequence of the past timeline as well as the fleeing of the demons of the present timeline, Zaknafein's free-running style is more typical of a YouTube parkour performer. There are a lot of unnecessary flips, as though Salvatore in fact used a YouTube video for his writing guideline. Traceurs perform all the acrobatic feats that they do in their videos because it's more entertaining than if they simply followed the most efficient strategies for navigating a route. There's much of pointless flipping in those videos, such as running up a wall and back-flipping off of it only to climb that same wall again. Salvatore's describes Zaknafein doing a lot of similar things, with back-flipping off of stalagmites when he could just jump across, or running up surfaces that he doesn't need to run up in the first place to perform the subsequent moves. The specifics of Zaknafein's blade work is harder to comment on, as it's weighed down by Salvatore's tedious need to walk through the moves as though he were making a grocery list, but the amount of leaping and turning serving nothing but to offer his opponents openings makes the fight scenes reminiscent of old Chinese martial arts movies, where the combatants spent most of their time somersaulting at each other than exchanging blows. I believe Salvatore fancies himself a master of writing combat, for much of Boundless showcases his combat and action scenes, this is an inconvenient truth for those that would like to agree with Mr. Salvatore about his mastery. R. A. Salvatore might not be able to remember details of the greater world nor bother to spend the time to look them up, but he certainly will toot his own horn and reference his own work as though it's the only thing written in the Realms. The Stone of Tymora trilogy, penned by him and his son, Geno Salvatore, is a loose spin-off from the Drizzt series, featuring protagonists with less relation to the dark elf books than the cast of The Cleric Quintet. Yet, we're to believe that the, objectively speaking in the greater scope of the shared world, insignificant events have sent ripples that are still felt a hundred years later. The not-so-inconspicuously named ship, Joen's Heirloom, just so happens to be the trusty vessel boarded by one of the exalted heroes of the Companions of the Hall as well as the co-leader of Bregan D'aerthe. Joen is the co-star of that trilogy and eventually rises to become a minor pirate queen. Maimun, the main protagonist, and Joen were last seen during the Transitions trilogy, mourning the passing of Deudermont. The demon controlling Brevindon Margaster, a key figure in the noble Waterdhavian house that is consorting with demons, is a cambion named Asbeel. Asbeel is the name of yet another character from the Stone of Tymora trilogy, specifically, the main antagonist of the series. The last we saw of that Asbeel was being stabbed through the heart after the magic that was keeping him immortal was broken. In addition, that Asbeel, although cursed to appear with the visage of a demon whenever he wasn't in a shrine of Beshaba or Tymora, was fundamentally a moon elf. The Asbeel in Boundless is described as a cambion. Yet, this  cambion possesses a "melodic and high-pitched" voice, specifically, "the voice of an elf, but twisted and grating". It seems to be no coincidence, especially considering that the description of Asbeel's sword in Stowaway, the first book of the Stone of Tymora series, is as follows: "Black iron, the blade was longer than Perrault was tall, and the whole length of it curved. The convex edge, the sharp side, was wickedly serrated, with bright red barbs lining its length. Even the hilt looked capable of killing. Its crosspiece of twisted metal spikes, a dozen perhaps, jutted at odd angles, and several more spikes stuck out beneath the demon's red hand where a pommel should have been. More frightening still, the length of the blade blazed with red flame." Meanwhile, the blade wielded by Brevindon Margaster, specifically stated by the text to be "Asbeel's sword", is described as, "a black blade" as well as, "a curving, viciously serrated bastard sword with a handle of jagged spikes that cut into his hands when he wielded it". It seems pretty clear that these two weapons are the same, even if the one that appears in Boundless is "completed in the town of Port Llast after the sacking" that had occurred earlier in the novel. Perhaps Asbeel was "reforged" in some way too for the purpose of this Generations trilogy, but another thing becomes, I believe, very clear: that Salvatore took time to reference other material, which is something he most certainly hasn't done recently to the works of others, and oftentimes not even to his own earlier books. Yet, what makes the Stone of Tymora series an exception? I suspect that his special treatment of it, as well as the name of the current trilogy, hints at the reason, which I'll go into further in the speculations section. Either way, it's yet another example of Salvatore exalting, or, at the very least, recognizing himself.

Celestial Witch Part 7

The next day, the party that came from Silk were depresed. Dahlia hit really hard their pride. The princes felt defeted, but Marywhite was the most affected. -I can't believe in Dahli'as words. I have to ask father about it!- She ran through all the place trying to look for for her father, until she found the redhead woman, who kindly and calm voice took Marywhite to her old master. The ex minester was sleeping calmy in a room that had a look like an infermery to the ill or the injured ones. But his calm time come to a end when Marywhite came and irrupted on the room. -Father,father! You're alive! Oh, father! - Marywhite fell on the edge her knees wheeping on the edge of the bed.  Alec gently put his hand on the back of her daughter, but that scene was cut with the suddenly arrived from  Marywhite's companions. The boys irrupteped in the room running and with anxiety on their  eyes. James was the most curious one and he wanted to ask to his uncle about the "sins" which Dahlia mentioned before.  He walk fast to the bed where his uncles was. -Uncle, I apologize for being rude beforehand, but what did you do to make Dahlia got angry?- The lack of patience could be seen through James' eyes. His uncle was cornered, but Marywhite wasn't happy. -James, How could you ask my father something like that?!- She directed a defiant gaze to her cousin, but her father stoped her in the act. -Marywhite, it's alright, sooner or later I have to face  James and you about it, but I never thought that their highness will be here to heard it too.- Alec turned his fqace a little and directed a gaze to princes. The knight, Justin adn the mage, Rin were confused, but since they were in that mess, there wasn't really other option to heard the story from the ex prime minester. -Please all of you take a seat and listen. Princes, I hope that the opinion you have about your father won't change after hear this.- All of them took a place to get seat and looked Alec with attention. -A long time ago, before the father of the princes took the crown. A war in Silk took place. Some people want that Ceasar took the position as king because he was the one who  inheritanced the throne, but also there were powerful nobles who wanted to Benedict as king. Benedict wanted to start a war with the other eight empires and be name as emperor, in exchange, Benedict would have helped the nobles to have slave market as opendly they wanted,  but the gods didn't let him, because they send a celestial knight to help Ceasar to fight against Benedict. That celestial knight had a special characteristic; she was an arcana witch...- Alec was about to continue but he was interrupted by Duncan. -An arcana witch? What the hell is that?! - Duncas asked was legit, since his grades in the academy were near Dahlia's score, immediately Rin answered with annoyed face, since it wasn't the first time he had to hear the no sense from Duncan. -An arcana witch is a ancien legend .They were beautiful as the nature and wise as the time, and even the elders say that they were powerful as the gods. The legend says that they posses powers as great as the same nature. They lived peacefuly in their own village only habitated by women. Men were banned, and the only way to continue their linage was leaving the village at the age of 16 or 18, find an ideal partner which had to react with their witch mark on the back of their neck, copulate and leave with their daughter in the third anniversarie from birth. But that had to change. One day when one of the arcana witches found herself a job meanwhile she was about to get married with man which a countness was particularly fond, the countness full of jelousy killed  her with bare hands, and found out that woman was an arcana witch and her blood made her look younger. The word spread and that hunt of witches has been begun. All the witches ran away from the towns. The village was about to get attacked but the elders make a spell that made their village disappear. The remain witches were captured, sold and killed. Their blood was used as the philosopher's stone, with the time the arcana witches became a legend and forgoten -Duncas was perplexed with the story about the arcanas and wanted to know more which Alec was about to do. -That's right, Rin. I couldn't expect less from the genious mage from the cademy, but there's somehing you missed- Rin felt attacked, how an olda man like the one who was about to die and couldn't protect the king would know more than him. -The story miss about something very important, when the witches ran away, the elders witches  throw a curse to their own kind which said that every witched in this land dare to stay, they´ll perish at a young age. Some of them were captured and die while they were kidnaped, some others where killed while their kidnapers took their blood and some others disguise themselves and lived until their time comes, most of them lived until their 20's at most. - The princes were confused and look to each other. Julius asked from a bed next to Alec's bed. -How this old legend has to do with our misfortune?- Asked Julius with  bemused eyes. -Because his highness, that arcana was Dahlia´s mother and my wife, Viola. - Alec answered sharply and dry, most of them got what Alec tried to say. Dahlia was an arcana witch. - Sir Alec, but how is that possible?! If all the arcanas disappear from the world and you told us the others died?!-  Rin was freeze with the declaration Alec made and abruptly throw the question half mad. -Sir Rin, let me finish the story and you can ask at the end. And to reply your question, the only way to long your life spam is driking aracana's blood or be a celestial knight - Alec answered back to Rin really upset for his way to speak to his elders, he might not be a noble anymore, but he still had his pride. - So, when the gods sent us Viola, at that time the crown prince Caesar, fell in love with her at first sight as well, Viola. They spend time together, most of us think they were good friends, but we were wrong, because even Caesar asked her to marry him. Finally, when the small war ended and Benedict was throw away from the empire. The crown princes had to marry, and for political reasons he had to do it with the princes' mother, Eco. Viola was disillusioned,   because she wanted to have a daughter and be free from her resposabilities as a celestial and the only way was to marry with a noble, but Viola didn't knew she was in love with a cunning man. Eco's family wouldn't have allowed to Caesar to take Viola as a concubine, but he couldn't afford to lose Viola as an arcana, because she will be of used. So he made her to marry with someone from Silk and with the promise he would visit her with frecuence.  But before that, he could research how to have 2 arcana wiches instead of one. The chosen men that the arcanas picked had the particularity of being the progeny from magical creatures, that way the mark on their neck would react, so Caesar took to every noble from Silk to gather in the palace and stood up in front of Viola. None of them had magical blood. Until he ha made me do it.  At that time I was engaged with Marywhite's mother and I wasn't chose by Caesar to be part of the selection, but lose Viola wasn't an option. I stood up in front of her and the mark on the back of her neck illuminated. I had to broke my engaged with the woman I love and marry Viola. She lost all the benefits of being a celestial, but her arcana blood was intacted. However, Caesar never visited her and not even sent her a letter. She was deppresed and stoped eating at the seven month  of her pregnasy. The help did what they could to fed her until she had to give birth to Dahlia. Viola died on the delivery. I was afraid of my own daughter, I saw Viola's power with my own eyes and immediately when she was borned, I sent her to the state on the border, nevertheless, Caesar made the engaged with prince Julius since Dahlia's birth, even if he knew about how much I was afraid of her. I don't know how she become like that, I was too afraid- Alec ended his stoy, but only made them more bitter about their own situation and made the room be quiet for a few minutes. At some point, the princes crussed gazes and thought the same, the only way to go back to Silk and how was through Dahlia.