The Crystal Shard

Legend of Drizzt: Icewind Dale Trilogy, Book 1

By: R. A. Salvatore

Narrated by: Victor Bevine

Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Drizzt Do'Urden has settled in the windswept towns of Icewind Dale. There, he encounters a young barbarian named Wulfgar, captured in a raid and made the ward of a grizzled dwarf name Bruenor. With Drizzt's help, Wulfgar will grow from a feral child to a man with the heart of a dwarf, the instincts of a savage, and the soul of a hero. But it will take even more than that to defeat the demonic power of Crenshininbon, the fabled Crystal Shard.

©2023 Wizards of the Coast LLC, TM 2023 (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

great all around

R.A. is a near god like to me at this point. always wanting to know more. and the voice actor they have does a great job at telling the stories. I also might be addicted at this point xP.

Pure action, little plot

Victor Bevine does a great job narrating these books. That being said, the quality of the recording of this one is pretty bad. There are a lot of skips, and sentences cut short to silence as if they were stopped too early when switching discs or something.

As for the story; I wasn't super impressed. There wasn't as much depth as the Homeland trilogy, there were a lot of random characters they expected you to know that you had no idea who they were. Same with the town names in tentowns. There were some things that didn't make sense, such as the super demon Errtu bending his will to Kessel, literally just because he felt he could wait it out? If he's as powerful as they claim him to be he'd crush Kessel, even with the power. Also, pretty much the whole book is action. I like the action, because Salvatore goes into great detail in the battlefield, but I want a decent plot too. It all kind of just happened, then there were several battles and of course an all out war. There just wasnt enough build up with backstory or anything. Seemed like the 1st half of the book should have been expanded to make book 1, then take the 2nd half and make expand it to make book 2

I didn't hate it, but after enjoying the first trilogy so much, I was disappointed in this one. Here's to hoping the 2nd of this series is better!

MORE! MORE! MORE!

Would you listen to The Crystal Shard again? Why?

Yes, an i did. Loved it each time.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked all of it. the further along the story goes an more I get to know Drizzt. I get pulled in deeper. Can't wait to start the next book

Have you listened to any of Victor Bevine’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

V.B. always does a great job. he's really brought these stories to life.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Story was good all the way threw.

Any additional comments?

Check this out. you won't be dissapointed.

Salvatore continues to impress

One thing I've loved about Salvatore's writing style is he seems to thrive when he wants to be abrupt, and this story has really shown this. There were a few major moments where I had to rewind just to confirm that Salvatore had really done what I thought I heard, and I'm constantly impressed.

Drizzt

this book I where it all really begins. I have read the first 12 in the series it's actually a quite different experience listening to books.

An epic war story of Icewind Dale

The story is a compelling narrative around a conflict between barbarians, cities, and hordes of monsters in a frozen wasteland.

The narrative is well paced; slow and creeping descriptions when subtely is afoot, and racing descriptions of violence in the scenes of combat. It is a testament to Victor's understanding of situations in the book and takes a lot of skills to read, voice, and comprehend what lies beyond the text of the pages.

There are some descrepencies in the editing that seem to abruptly end the narrative or hang for such a period of time that I check my phone to see if it's still playing, though these are rare and stop after chapter 25. There was even a sentence completely cut off once... It was during a description of a scene, however, so not any loss in the story arc.

These were minor bumps on the road and should not deter anyone interested in the best trilogy following the legendary drow Drizzt Do'Urden.

Awesome 😆

AWESOME ON THE EDGE OF MY SEAT THE WHOLE TIME
Can't wait until the next book

Exceptional Performance, Good Story

The narrator of the book is really great. Voicing is very consistent and gives life to characters. Enjoyable enough to overlook some very large holes.

First Book I Ever Read!

This is the first book I ever read and to this day I still enjoy rereading it. The Audible app allows me to work and listen to my favorite books. The voices are done well and even with works noisy background my phone easily is loud enough for me to hear the tales.

slow start, amazing finish!

this book starts off slow but when it picks up it's amazing. The author paints a vivid picture of the battles and does and excellent job voicing the characters bringing them to life.