Homeland by R. A. Salvatore

I just finished listening to Homeland by R. A Salvatore. A first book in a series of three about the dark elf Drizzt Do'Urden. Drizzt is one of the most famous characters in the Forgotten Realms of the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons.

The Forgotten Realms is home to famous places like Neverwinter and Baldurs Gate on the Sword Coast, perhaps you have heard of them before.


The story is centered around the third son Drizzt of the house of Do'Urden in the underground city of Menzoberranzan. The city is located about two miles under the surface of the world and situated in the upper parts of the dark world Underdark, a vile place where few earth-dwellers dare go. The city is a hard and evil environment where most things revolve around the family houses of the dark elves trying to get the upper hand on each other.


Right from the start it is clear that there is something different about Drizzt, having purple eyes for one and not shying away from the light held in front of him as a day old baby. This becomes more and more clear as he grows up in the sinister surroundings of his Do'Urden family and he finds himself not quite at home with the worshipping of the Spider Queen Loth for one and all the killing for another.

It is a quite dark story with a good character buildup which left me wanting more as I listened.
It took me a little while to get used to the different environment as opposed to other fantasy novels, but it grew on me more and more. In the end I cherished the story and didn't want it to end.

This is the first book in the three book series The Dark Elf Trilogy.
After that there are numerous books following Drizzt Do'Urden to dive into.

My main takeaway from the book is the character of Drizzt, I can understand why so many have come to like him over the years. I will no doubt keep listening to sequel books in this series.