My Top 10 Drow

I love drow. I love the Forgotten Realms world in general, but mostly, I love drow. The black-skinned, white-haired, spider-worshipping dark elves that live in caves untouched by the sun are pretty much the best sort of elf to ever exist in the pages of fantasy. There are a few spoilers in here, so if you haven't read The Legend of Drizzt or War of the Spider Queen books but plan on doing so, maybe skip the ones you aren't familiar with.


10. Vierna Do'Urden 
Vierna is a rare drow. As a priestess, she is expected to be horrible and evil; sometimes, however, a little bit of her calmer, nicer inner self shows through, and she's not such a bad person after all. Then she goes crazy and turns her brother into a drider, and you can forget about her being nice ever again.

9. Quenthel Baenre
A high priestess of the Spider Queen, Quenthel is very dedicated. She is completely dispassionate towards her fellow drow, and maintains her faith through very difficult trials. 

8. Lord Dyrr
Dyrr is a lich. He's amazingly powerful and wants even more power all the time. He doesn't care at all who gets in his way.

7. Halisstra Melarn 

Halisstra is a high priestess of the Spider Queen until she converts to a freer, more peaceful religion followed by a group of drow living on the surface. She changes her evil ways completely to live a life of dancing under the moon, and she even falls in love. I was legitimately very angry with her when she later abandons that life to go back to the Spider Queen. It ruined my life.

6. Zaknafein Do'Urden
I really liked Zaknafein's presence in the Legend of Drizzt series. He is a father figure, a master trainer, and a friend, yet the empathy he clearly possesses has been suppressed due to the violent and evil he lives in. He is a good-hearted character who lives a miserable existence to survive, and he does his best to make sure Drizzt doesn't succumb to the evil ways of the drow. Even when manipulated by powerful magic, he refuses to kill his son, and destroys himself instead.

5. Ryld Argith 
Ryld is a weapons master who isn't a particularly interesting character until he abandons his life in Menzoberranzan to settle down in peace and love on the surface. His empathy is unusual for a drow, and it is even more unusual that he acted upon those emotions and gave up his old lifestyle simply for love. Even when betrayed, he has no regrets. 

4. Jarlaxle 
The leader of a band of rogues, Jarlaxle is one of the most influential male drow in Menzoberranzan. His presence is tolerated and even approved by the Spider Queen herself. He has a wide array of magical items that give him a huge assortment of abilities. He never runs out of tricks, and often uses illusions to his advantage. He's eccentric, brilliant, and highly resourceful. 

3. Gromph Baenre
The archmage of the largest drow city, Menzoberranzan, is Gromph. He's got tons of power, tons of influence (especially for a male drow), and tons of crazy secrets. He fights Lord Dyrr at some point, and the battle is stretched over two books (probably about 8 chapters in total) just because they kept outdoing each other. Gromph has a typical lack of compassion and a total disregard for anyone who gets in his way. 

2. Drizzt Do'Urden

If you know drow, you likely know of Drizzt. The Legend of Drizzt series contains some of my favorite books to date. Drizzt breaks the stereotypical evil of his race and lives as a ranger on the surface, beneath the sun and with the dwarves and humans in the cold north. His constant struggles to escape his past and his unmatched swordsmanship skills make his adventures quite interesting and dynamic. He forms very strong bonds with his friends, and their safety is always his top priority. I love the mentality he maintains throughout the series, as he talks about the importance of sticking to your beliefs and such.

1. Pharaun Mizzrym

Pharaun is significantly awesome. He's a very skilled wizard who doesn't care a whole lot about the Spider Queen. He likes keeping his appearance tidy and neat, and he's often complaining about getting dirty. He's very drow-like in his egocentric mindset; he will eliminate whomever he has to in order to secure a better position for himself or keep himself alive longer. One of my favorite things about him as a character is his dialogue. He's always going on - in a very formal way - about the intricacies of everything, carefully examining every slight flavor in his wine and dwelling on the characteristics of everyone he meets. Pharaun is also good at talking himself out of bad situations (probably to avoid messing up his hair), and he'll try whenever he can. He once asked a very large demon, "Will you consent to parlay?"

 

I Read Death Note Out of Boredom

So there's an artist on DeviantART that likes drawing fan art. She's good, too, so it's nice to see lots of her work on the front page every day. She recently got obsessed with Death Note, so I was seeing lots of fun Light and L pictures constantly, and it sort of renewed my interest in the series.

Keep a close eye... by *moni158 on deviantART 

I watched it a while back, and I generally enjoyed it. I enjoyed it a lot less once Near and Mellow were there (because I really hate Near and Mellow), and I think the last episode was pretty much the worst thing ever, but it was generally good. The first half was really good. I'm a Light fan, and L added some entertainment, and Misa is dumb.

I may have enjoyed the manga a little more in some aspects. The ending was better in some ways and worse in others, I think. It was easier for me to follow the side characters and such because I'm really awful with Japanese names, and seeing them rather than hearing them made it a lot easier for me to understand what the hell was going on and who Light wanted dead.

On the downside, the translation I read switched translators often, and sometimes there were drastic differences in names and such. One translation kept using question marks in place of commas, and it really threw me off. I also got a few interesting mistranslations, like L saying, "You can make love outside," when it was supposed to mean either "make out outside" or "make love out of this building." Either way, it was just sort of amusing. 

So I guess those are my thoughts, and totally spoiler free thoughts, too. Yay, me! 

How to Write a Book

As someone who's actually taken the time to finish a whole novel, I can say that there are quite a few things you have to take into account when you set up a story. When I wrote Among the People Lost, I tried my hardest to make my characters, setting, plot, and everything else very accurate and believable. I didn't do anything without having a reason (or reasons) for making things that way.

I'm reading a book right now that is the epitome of terrible writing, in my opinion. The lead character has no depth, the world seems conflicting and poorly designed, and the plot is, well, stupid. It makes me wonder how other people get so far as to finish a book without taking some really important things into consideration.

This is a list of important story elements. The top item is what I consider most important, working down to the least important. Note that all are of importance, and having great characters doesn't mean you should ruin your plot. The list will vary depending on who you ask, of course.

-Character development

-Main plot

-Feel of the setting (empty, bustling, scary, dangerous, etc)

-Physical setting (city appearance, buildings, locations)

-Time period

-World "rules" (how society perceives certain behaviors, laws, what is necessary for survival)

Character Development

While a lot of aspiring writers pursue courses for creative writing and journalism, I took an interest in psychology. My knowledge of mental disorders, social interactions, attraction, and general human behavior has played a big part in developing my characters to be very realistic. I don't like making characters who don't seem real, and it doesn't matter to me if their actions end up being a little predictable because of it. Realism is my priority. I even take great lengths to develop appearances and such, as explained in part 1 of my OCD series (Original Character Development), which shares its name with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder because I've joked in the past that you need the disorder to possibly put as much thought into characters as I do. 

OCD - Name and Appearance

Main Plot 

The main story you're working with needs to be interesting, plausible, and thought out. Admittedly, I wrote Among the People Lost with no idea where it was going. Lesson learned. It made it difficult to write at times, and when I looked back, I found a lot of places where not much was happening. There was also a character that I tried to kill off about a dozen times, but it always seemed really out of character, so I let her stay. She survives the book and the sequel.

Feel of the Setting

Among the People Lost is set in a sort of post apocalyptic world. I wanted to create a feeling that reflected the survival-of-the-fittest lifestyle the characters lived. Things are grungy, lots of buildings are abandoned, fresh food is a luxury, and everyone is always on guard. No one uses their real name for fear of being hunted by gangs, and they hunt the gangs themselves to keep others safe. It's this really brutal, dirty setting.

Physical Setting

I was working with a city I know, Scranton, PA. I know that there are a lot of brick buildings, and even though I used almost no real buildings as references, it still feels like you're reading about Scranton. I feel research is important if you're using a setting you don't know in real life, and if it's a fictional city, I think it's important to decide how the occupants live.

Time Period

Time periods will affect your world's technology, the common mindsets, and even popular names. It affects everything in ways, so it's important. With my book, set in 2026, I had quite a bit of leeway to work with. It all depends.

World Rules

If magic exists, it's important to know its limitations, costs, and management. Does it work by praying to the world's gods, or by manipulating nature? Does it make the caster exhausted? Are there laws against excessive magic use? There's certainly no magic in my book, but different rules apply than they do in real life. Killing is necessary to survive, and no government exists to regulate the violence and drug trade that has no become a way of life. The world is essentially in anarchy. Morals have shifted from "defense of yourself" to "defense of all innocent people," and hunting down the gangs is the right thing to do. Every setting is unique, and it's up to the writer to set rules that work for each world. Having things that contradict those rules, such as an airplane in a sword-and-spell fantasy, make it hard for the reader to suspend disbelief. The book I'm reading now has werewolves with air ships. There's no evidence that the werewolves have powerful magic (or any magic at all), and technology in the world is far from producing air ships. It just seems really dumb and out of place.

Weird Things You Probably Don't Know About Me

I assume my boyfriend knows all of this stuff (since he lives with me), and I imagine a lot of it has come up around our closest friends as well. For the rest of you, I make no sense. These are in no particular order (sorry), and some are much more serious than others.

I eat my oatmeal dry.

It's gross when it's warm and mushy. D: I use a spoon and eat it right out of the packet.

I went to court for truancy.

In 4th grade, I had a lot of really bad friend issues. The girl I thought was my best friend was sort of terrible, and then she was worse when I decided I'd had enough of her. On top of it, there was this other girl that wasn't mature enough to handle any of the stuff we were going through. They were pretty much the only friends I had, and I missed a lot of school. In 5th grade, it was a new school building with the older grades, and the four elementary schools are all put together and shuffled around. The grade is split up into two "teams" where each team has like, 5 teachers. You might move around in your own team, but you would never do anything with the other team. That means I have like, no friends in my classes (in fact, there was only one person in my class that went to the same elementary school as I did), no one to talk to at lunch, and an unfamiliar environment. Instead of giving me help or trying to set it up so I could work from home because I clearly had severe issues, there was a time when I was carried by the principal to his office, forced onto a school bus, and generally humiliated on a regular basis by my teachers. I missed enough school that I had to go to the magistrate and risk going into foster care, which probably would have led to me running away or committing suicide, to be totally honest. My own family has trouble dealing with my food habits and personal endeavors; a new family would have no chance. Anyway, it all worked out and the one girl I knew sort of adopted me, and even though she lives across the country now, we're still great friends. I obviously stayed with my own family and continued on in school, only to later drop out against my will (though I should have done it anyway). Still, the whole experience was a big pile of trauma that I really didn't need.

I taught myself how to read.

I used to make my family read me stories constantly. I would follow along with the words, and before I knew it, I recognized tons of words. I was able to read books by myself without any of them lifting a finger to teach me anything. As I moved into more advanced books, I picked up grammar and punctuation like it was nothing. English classes refined what I already knew. I knew college-level grammar rules by middle school. Latin really helped pull it all together. After all, we had to understand our own grammar before we could put it in Latin.

I play trumpet really damn well.

I picked up the trumpet for band in 5th grade. Needless to say, my frequent absences made me one of the worst. I stayed after school with our horrible teacher, and she told me to quit and pick up a different instrument because I had an overbite. My dentist, by the way, says I do not. Anyway, I somehow learned it all really fast, because by freshman year of high school, I was the best of my grade's trumpets. All that with minimal at-home practicing (and none after like, 7th grade).

Dogs kind of scare me.

I've been around cats my whole life. When I was little, we had a dog, but we kept her outside, so I never interacted with her at all. When I went to friends' houses, sometimes they had dogs that would bark at me and jump on me and lick me. It was the scariest thing ever. I've pretty much gotten over it now, but I still don't like jumpy dogs. I'm usually just worried they'll knock me over and drool on me. I also don't want to get scratched by them, even though I know in most cases the dogs mean no harm.

I've never done laundry in my life.

I've helped at the laundromat before we had our own stuff, but that was when I was like, 10 and younger. Don't make me do laundry. It probably won't end well.

I taught myself how to cook.

I never cooked anything other than the occasional baked goods before I was 17 or so. When I started having health problems, my sleep schedule got all screwy, and I was often up at night with only my boyfriend. I learned how to make tons of baked goods, and from there, I taught myself how to do meats and stuff. Now I'm totally self-sufficient and make better meals than the rest of my family. I even have my own way of making rice, which I had never even eaten until a few months ago.

October is my favorite month. 

Fall is my favorite season. I love the temperature - perfect for a light jacket - and the smell of leaves. October is pretty great. I love Halloween, my birthday comes on the 23rd, and it's a whole month dedicated to pumpkin bread, hayrides, corn mazes, and pretty leaves.

A good example of Octoberness.

I'm terrified of soccer.

I have next to no coordination with my feet. I was lucky I survived marching band. Add to that an incident where I got hit in the face with a soccer ball and got really swollen, and you'll find that it's one of the worst things you can ever make me do. I'm just not aggressive enough to like sports, and in soccer, it's aggressive or get yelled at my the teacher.

I hate guys who give me special treatment because I'm female.

I've always had friends who were male. In elementary school, most of my friends were boys. In high school, the main group I hung out with (and still often see) was a bunch of big guys who played video games and looked really damn intimidating. Despite the fact that I was like, a third of their size and hardly played games, we got along great. I've had lots of my guy friends tell me they think of me as just "one of the guys," and that means a lot to me. To contrast, I've worked with people on projects who think they need to be careful not to offend the girl of the group. They're nice to me so they don't hurt my feelings. They don't joke with me about the same things, or tell me which porn stars they think are really hot. It's frustrating. In ways, I think on a more masculine level anyway; I don't care about the petty drama that a lot of girls do, and I don't feel the need to flirt with every male in the vicinity to get get what I want. The guys I'm used to don't care about any of that crap either. Also, despite the fact that some of them look like they could and would break someone in half, they're there to listen if I want to open up about a relationship I'm in or something. That's what I'm used to. I don't want the mindset that you shouldn't hit girls, that girls are easily upset, that girls get offended if you talk about your man parts, and etcetera. If you're a guy that really wants my friendship, than don't treat me any differently than the other guys you hang around. Give me the same hand-reddening high fives and complain about your girlfriend.

My religious views are confusing.

I'm not a Christian, but I believe God exists. I refuse to serve a being who supposedly created life with a free will and expects that life to obey his every command. That being said, I think most of the Bible is a load of crap. I believe most deities exist, and I do not believe any one of them is omnipotent, or even close to that. I think they are simply immortal beings on another plane of existence who offer protection to their followers. I believe there is a measure of truth in all religions, but I don't believe any of them entirely. Pagan beliefs are the closest to my own, so I suppose if I had to label myself, I'd say I was a pagan. I believe in an afterlife, and also in a form of reincarnation. I don't believe in an eternal punishment for your actions in your tiny amount of years on this Earth. I believe sin is dictated by the people of the world, not by a deity. I believe that we are here to learn about ourselves and our spirit's past forms on our way to bettering ourselves, much like the concept of Nirvana. I will not dedicate myself to a being. I have respect for the laws of society and the people I interact with, and I am doing what I can to improve the world of the living. I will not offer praise to a being on another plane of existence. I believe in fate, but not in karma. I believe our origins are mostly evolutionist. I think everything happens for a reason, and that if we spend a lifetime working towards one goal, that is how we were meant to spend that lifetime. Perhaps we'll never see it come to fruition, but a century later, the work will be recognized; maybe it was all useless, but it will prevent others from following the same path. Either way, I believe everything coincides with other events, and everything is connected.

I am allergic to two specific laundry detergents.

Gain and Dynamo both have a chemical that makes me really, really itchy. I don't know what chemical it is, so I don't know what others have it, but those two do for sure. I think it's the only specific allergy I have, other than nickel, which almost everyone has.

I would rather be in a snake pit than have one spider on me.

I like snakes. I think they're really cool, and I also know how to not agitate them. Spiders want me dead. Every time I see a spider, I ask someone to kill it. If they don't, it ends up crawling up my leg sometime later on. Never fails. It's like they see me as this all-you-can-eat buffet.

I can't wear thongs.

I disagree 100% with anyone who says they're comfortable.

I've never watched porn.

Seems awkward. XP

I'm slightly lactose intolerant.

I can eat milk in my cereal, but I prefer 2%. Whole milk makes me a little nauseous. A lot of 2% will, too, but it's usually okay to have a bowl or two of cereal. 1% and skim are just yucky.

I have really, really dry skin.

If I dry off too much with a towel, I might just disintegrate. 

I like guys with either blonde or black hair.

Even though they're opposites, those two colors are the best. Style depends drastically on the person, though I made this thing on DeviantART and noticed that I'll probably really like you if your face is obscured by your hair. (Mechazawa is a joke. Pay no attention to that. XD)

Also, I apparently like guys who are sadistic and/or mass murderers.

I can't stand whistling.

It gives me a very, very bad headache. I don't know why. If it's low, it's tolerable, but I still hate it.

I love really soft fabrics.

This is probably because of my dry skin, really. I'm way more likely to buy a shirt because of how soft it is over how nice it looks. Luckily, there's Deb, and most of the shirts they sell are both. I recently bought a nice blanket at Borders that's pretty much the softest thing I can use to make myself into a burrito. Best $16 I ever spent.

I flip between being dominating and submissive.

There are situations where I'm totally fine with taking orders, mostly when I don't want responsibility or want to trust someone's judgement. Other times, I want control over every minute detail. Let's not even go near the sexual implications of this.

I have weird elbows.

When I extend my arm, the joint can go past 180 degrees. I can actually touch the insides of my elbows together. My friends say they look broken. It's pretty funny. I'm also able to lick my elbow. 

I don't like chocolate things.

Specifically, chocolate cake, frosting, and ice cream. I love marble cake, though. It's my favorite. I can eat chocolate cake and icing, but they're usually just too sweet for me. I only ever do so when PMS drives me into a chocolate-craving frenzy. I always regret it afterwards.

I hate feminism.

Dear women of the world: without men, you wouldn't exist. My mother is one of those women who jumps at any opportunity to say things like "that's a guy for you" or "men are worthless." It gets irritating really fast. It's a good part of why I generally like guys more. Sure, you have the occasional remark about how women make no God damn sense, but there's never this idea that the world would be better without them. Feminist women seem to think we'll be able to reproduce asexually one day and that the male gender will become obsolete (my mother believes this, by the way), and I'm sorry (I'm not), but that's just ridiculous. Plus, I love men. They can fit any need, from cuddly and adorable to sex god. That's more than you can say about most women, who range from petty ditz to sort-of-compassionate ditz.

Look how cute it is. Don't you want one?

I'm pretty good at real-time strategy games.

Age of Mythology is a fantastic game, and I'm pretty decent at it. My able-to-do-500-things-at-once mind is very well suited to the multitasking you need for RTS games.

I'm a democrat.

Plain and simple. My views are pretty moderate, but definitely lean more left. 

So I guess that's about it for now. There's tons of other stuff I could add, but for now, I guess you know a little more about me that you probably didn't know already.

How Book Reviews Ruin Books

I just want to start off by saying that I usually buy a book based on the back, rather than reading a review of the thing. I usually check out the reviews after I've read it to see what other people have to say about it. The book I'm currently reading is so awful that I had to check out reviews to see if it gets better, and I decided to compile this nice little list of where reviews totally lose me.

1. Compare the book to Tolkien
I freaking hate Tolkien. Sure, his books made some great movies, but they're awful to read. I would rather translate the Aneid from Latin than read a chapter of one of his books. His writing style is overly verbose, dull, and unnecessarily roundabout. If I read a review that says it's as good as Tolkien's books, then I'm likely going to hate it.

2. Compare the book to Stephen King
Again, a super famous writer that I don't particularly like. I've read only one of his books, which was Eyes of the Dragon. I read recently that a lot of people consider it one of his best; I found it sort of dull, and wouldn't rate it above fair. It certainly wasn't enough to make me go buy more of his books.

3. Have grammatical errors in the review
If the review has errors, that person clearly has no care about grammer, something I care about a lot. The same goes for the back of the book, really. I'm reading this book right now that has an error in the first sentence of the description on the back. The book text isn't any better; ten pages in, there are already at least five basic grammar errors. "If his sisters were there, she would know." Seriously?

4. Compare the books to others by the same author
"It's the best in the series!" "WAY better than the first two!" The Crystal Shard is probably the worst Drizzt book - and I still think it's a great book. The best Artemis Fowl book is leaps and bounds above the worst, but they're still all really good. If the whole series is terrible, being the best of the series just makes a story a little less terrible than the rest.

Thoughts on Borders Closing

I like reading. It's something I would do more if I had more time, and I have piles of books lying around my room that haven't been opened yet, but there's still something really nice about walking into a book store and looking at all the potential stories I could wander into. I think it's really sad that Borders, the only book store remotely close to my house, isn't going to be there anymore to provide me with those stories.

There was a local book store called Tutor Books that was really close to my house. It closed a few years ago. They were expensive, and they didn't have a great selection, but it was still sort of sad to see them go out. Our mall was occupied by Walden Books probably ten years ago, but it did really poorly. Borders is really the only book store that did well in our area. I've grown sort of attached to it.

It's not like I didn't see it coming, though. As soon as e-readers and tablets and smart phones became easily accessible, I figured it was only a matter of time before books started becoming obsolete. I think the closing of Borders really hammered it in, though. Without one nearby, I either have to pay extra to buy books online or get them on my phone's Kindle app. I love having books sitting neatly on a shelf, so I guess that's more money I have to pay.

On the other hand, the digital book movement has made a lot of things easier. It's certainly more convenient. It also opens up avenues for new and first time authors to really get noticed. Even I took advantage of the super easy publishing on Kindle.

Easier isn't always better, and I'll certainly miss Borders. Will I eventually move to digital reading? Most likely. Either way, I'm taking advantage of the wonderful sales and stocking up on reading material while I can.

Code Geass - The Nightmare of Nunnally

I just spent the past few days reading all of the Code Geass manga. I don't know why. I just felt like doing it. Today I finished The Nightmare of Nunnally, which is among the most confusing things I've ever read. I'm not entirely sure what just happened. Lots of little details didn't fit, either. Apparently Lelouch can sprout wings? When did that happen? I don't know...not a fan so much. It was sort of messy and extremely difficult to follow.

What is this? I don't know.

The Twilight Issue

Twilight haters are everywhere. They're as obnoxious (if not more so) than the avid fans. Right here, in one post, I'd like to show each side the flaws in their arguments, because I really hate seeing stupid, incorrect, and poorly thought through attacks that the fans and haters have launched at each other.

I'd like to start off by saying that I honestly enjoyed the books. I've heard Stephanie Meyer's writing style criticized as being simplistic, but the story is told by a teenage girl, not a bard or a scholar. Simplistic fits. Also, the book was not written for the same audience as Lord of the Rings; it was written for teenagers. I think the writing style arguement should be scrapped.

I've also heard the argument that the characters are stupid, the plot is stupid, and so on. I think the characters behaved as most teenagers would in their situations. I think the plot was unique and not all that bad.

Then there's the vampire issue. Vampires do not exist in real life. They are fantasy. Most people think of vampires as pale, but the first vampire myths portrayed them as bloated and purple from drinking blood. Authors changed how we saw vampires over time. The Twilight vampires are definitely not what we usually see, but that doesn't make them bad. Should we be comparing World of Warcraft elves to Lord of the Rings elves? No. Enough said.

I was throughly disappointed with the movies. Robert Pattinson does not look or sound as Edward should. He slurs his words together and doesn't have the formal way of speaking that Edward has in the story. Kristen Stewart just kind of sucks at acting. Actors aside, I think the movies left out way too much of the emotion. in the books, you really see the love between Bella and Edward. You see Edward's humor, charm, and compassion, none of which comes through in the movie. The movie really makes it seem like they fell in love overnight for no real reason.

I've seen a lot of really dumb arguments against Twilight pop up recently, too. I found a group of people who called Twilight a rip-off of Death Note. Do you know what the basis of the argument was? The apple on the cover. Some people actually believe that Stephanie Meyer was watching her anime one day and saw Ryuk eat an apple, then thought, "I'm going to write a story about vampires!" Twilight and Death Note have absolutely nothing in common, and the apple isn't even the main focus of each story. How, then, can Twilight be a rip-off of Death Note? It's not like Bella found a death note, or the gods of death are trying to kill her, or anyone in the story is trying to play God.

Those are my thoughts. I just wish people would stop being so obnoxious without knowing what the hell they're talking about.

The Silent Blade

I am a huge fan of The Legend of Drizzt series by R. A. Salvatore. I've read Homeland through Passage to Dawn and loved every page of every book. The Silent Blade didn't disappont, of course.

My first taste of the Forgotten Realms world was the series War of the Spider Queen, in which a group of drow elves traverse their underground cities, the surface, and ultimately the Abyss to find their godess Lolth, the spider queen, who has become silent. It was tough to get into because each book is by a different author, but it really picked up and I loved it in the end.

I wasn't sure what to expect from my first Drizzt book, Homeland. It was really easy to fall into. The detail of battle scenes and the depths of emotions were incredible. Segments written from Drizzt's point of view that separated the book into three or four parts were so insightful and thought out, it was hard to believe that I was reading fiction and not listening to a dark elf standing next to me.

I'll keep reading about Drizzt Do'Urden and his companions as long as books are written. If you haven't read them, they're a must for any fantasy fan, and great for their philosophical and psychological intrigue if you're not.