The Crystal Shard

I was reading a back issue of X-Men comic books the other day, and came across this ad, which brought a huge smile to my face. R.A. Salvatore's The Crystal Shard was released in 1988 and may be my favourite fantasy novel of all time. The Crystal Shard was one of my first introductions to The Forgotten Realms Campaign setting and 2nd edition AD&D. Technically I know that Darkwalker on Moonshae was the 1st Realms novel published, and I actually read Ed Greenwood's Spellfire first so it will always have a special place in my heart, but in my mind The Crystal Shard was the novel that actually captured my imagination. The original tale of Drizzt Do'Urden and the Companions of The Hall. 25 years later Salvatore is still writing Drizzt tales, without going to my bookshelf to count, I believe that there are now 21 novels that feature Drizzt (okay, it was killing me, I had to go check, there are actually 23, 27 if you count the Artemis/Wulfgar Novels) as the primary character. It is funny to me that reading this original ad, Drizzt isn't even mentioned. He was always intended to be a side kick to Wulfgar. I bet Bob Salvatore is laughing all the way to the bank about that decision. I actually just finished reading the latest installment, "The Last Threshold" and the characters are still fantastic and nobody writes fantasy combat like Salvatore. The Crystal Shard was the book that got me hooked on The Forgotten Realms, and is therefore responsible for my collection, which includes every FR novel ever published - this now invoices the digital only ebooks, which drive me a little crazy. I haven't done a count lately, but I would guess there are well over 200 FR novels in my library right now...most of which have been read at least twice. This particular novel however, I bet I have read at least 8 times. And I still love to cheer for the good guys!