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[zombiemutts]

I am sure it happens. RA has a nasty habit of killing off a character and then pulling a “fooled you!” the next book. Didn’t he even do that with Chewbacca in a Star Wars book?  Vector Prime I think.

No, Chewbacca actually died and he got death threats over it. It was the only Star Wars book he ever wrote, sadly.

"However it was George Lucas who told R.A Salvatore to kill Chewbacca, not R.A. Salvatore himself."

Well damn....I always thought it was another fake death.

[Charles Phipps]

Thanks to Terry Goodkind I am pretty burned out on fantasy but maybe I should give these a shot.

The Sword of Truth later became a lengthy Objectivist tract.

Richard Rahl vs. FANTASY COMMUNISTS!

The RA Salvatore novels are pretty much the McDonalds of fantasy. They're definitely the high end of Dungeons and Dragons tie-in fiction but that's somewhat backhanded praise. Still, the characters are well-realized and some of them are really entertaining (Artemis Entreri starts as a villain of the series but eventually gets his own books).

One annoying thing he does, however, is reference his other books without warning. When I was first reading the series, Salvatore just threw in the cast from his 5 book "Cleric" series and acted as if we should all know him.

[zombiemutts]

One annoying thing he does, however, is reference his other books without warning. When I was first reading the series, Salvatore just threw in the cast from his 5 book "Cleric" series and acted as if we should all know him.

I'm trying to remember that. The Cleric Quintet series.....loved those books!

If I recall...Cadderly started to get real old to the point of deaths door then something happened to where he turned young again. Utterly ridiculous of Salvatore but I swear if there was a book 6 I would buy it immediately. 

[JW Schnarr]

I'm curious how his writing can be interfered with when they're contracted novels in a shared world, and if all the characters belong to the company (I'm assuming they do, I don't know for sure)? If I paid someone to write a book based on my universe I'd be all over that.

[Charles Phipps]

I'm curious how his writing can be interfered with when they're contracted novels in a shared world, and if all the characters belong to the company (I'm assuming they do, I don't know for sure)? If I paid someone to write a book based on my universe I'd be all over that.

Basically, RA Salvatore doesn't own the characters and has to comply with editorial. This results in plenty of "comic book publishing"-esque stories like the fact they ordered him to resurrect Wulfgar, he had to change the entirety of the Realms and do a 100 year time skip due to 4E Forgotten Realms, and so on.

Overall, Bob Salvatore has been treated fairly well by his contract as he's gotten to write a bunch of successful novels.

It's far better treatment than William King got from the Warhammer people who fired him when he wanted to kill one of his main characters.

[zombiemutts]

I'm curious how his writing can be interfered with when they're contracted novels in a shared world, and if all the characters belong to the company (I'm assuming they do, I don't know for sure)? If I paid someone to write a book based on my universe I'd be all over that.

Basically, RA Salvatore doesn't own the characters and has to comply with editorial. This results in plenty of "comic book publishing"-esque stories like the fact they ordered him to resurrect Wulfgar, he had to change the entirety of the Realms and do a 100 year time skip due to 4E Forgotten Realms, and so on.

Overall, Bob Salvatore has been treated fairly well by his contract as he's gotten to write a bunch of successful novels.

It's far better treatment than William King got from the Warhammer people who fired him when he wanted to kill one of his main characters.

And I could be wrong but didn't Ed Greenwood create the concept for the Drow?

[Charles Phipps]

Gary Gygax made them for the Dungeons and Dragons line.

Ed Greenwood wrote huge amounts for the realms about EVERYTHING.

Bob ran with their concepts.

[zombiemutts]

Gary Gygax made them for the Dungeons and Dragons line.

Ed Greenwood wrote huge amounts for the realms about EVERYTHING.

Bob ran with their concepts.

Wow....man....I have always wondered about that. When I was in junior high I remember going through a bunch of books at a bookstore trying to figure out the dates and who created what in the worlds. I was going through my white 3 ring Monsters Compendium, Drow Handbook and covers on the shelf. 

And I haven't gotten any cooler since then. 

[Charles Phipps]

It leads to some humorous bits of subtext.

The original Gygaxian Drow had some unfortunate implications being a race of light skinned elves who were cast underground along with their Demon Queen mother and had their skin cursed to be black (though that may have not been Gygax since D&D had literally hundreds of writers at various points).



Someone, apparently, noticed this discrepancy and remade the Drow to have Purple skin.



I think they've since stated that it was solely due to black skin being harder to do on official art.

However, I've always wondered about that.