The last mythal is a great series that really gets deep into the elves but is a wonderful read that teaches a ton about magic. And you don’t need to know a bunch of back story. Also war of the spider queen is a solid adventure great peak into drow life and culture.
I'm in the middle of Ring of Winter preparing for a ToA campaign. James Lowder has a fantastic grasp on the world and history and weaves it in quite well. If you want to get some background on the FR origin of Chult, the Ring of Winter, or Artus Cimber, I recommend it.
The Finder's Stone Trilogy is good. I've heard that The Cormyr Saga is good but I haven't reached it yet in my reading list.
Of course the R.A. Salvatore series has had an strong influence in the main areas and story lines of the Realms in the last decade, so while it's quite a long series, that will situate you quite well.
His Moonshae books are definitely an easy read - the characters, places, events, magic items etc are all on the cusp of being cliche, but I believe this is a purposeful decision, and his writing style tricks you into turning them pages....
The Maztica Trilogy, starting with Iron Hand is a re-telling of the Spanish Conquistadores - but with exotic magic and Drow! I'm not sure if Maztica is technically in the Forgotten Realms, but it would be ironic if it weren't! :D
As a faint secondary echo to Lexyk, if your purpose for reading the books is to 'revise' for running a FR campaign, then the source books are a much better idea. They have hard facts and shadowy rumours, perfect springboards for starting YOUR adventures, rather than retracing the footprints of yesterday's heroes. The novels are merely based in the FR, and could easily be set elsewhere. (I bet the Cadderly novels originally were.)
Are you looking for FR books to read for fun, or FR books to read to learn about the major events and history of the world? Those aren't necessarily the same. :)
Personally, I mostly read them for fun, and also read them ages ago, so my recommendations are biased that way. But as others have said, the Icewind Dale trilogy is great with some really fun characters. If you like Drizzt, then I highly recommend the Dark Elf trilogy. However, the books taking place after the Icewind Dale trilogy seemed to go on and on and on... I really enjoyed them for a while, but after a bit drifted away from them since they seemed much more ongoing and not as neatly wrapped up as the trilogies. Even now years later, I can tell you most of what happened in the Icewind Dale and Dark Elf trilogies, but after those I'm not even sure which Drizzt books I read and what happened in each. They just sort of blurred together for me. *shrug*
I also really enjoyed Azure Bonds. Exciting book with some interesting mysteries and unusual characters.
But these aren't real deep in exploring the lore of the FR, and instead just glimpses at some exciting adventures in small slices of the world. For a series that is neck deep in the shaping of the world, I recall the Avatar series (Shadowdale, Tantras, Waterdeep) was alright and covered the Time of Troubles (aka the conversion from 1e to 2e). It is still applicable in covering the origins of 2 or 3 of the current gods. But otherwise for world lore, the campaign setting books (especially the 3e one) are great sources of information and enjoyable reads on their own even if they aren't novels.
If you want easy access to general FR lore, I suggest spending time trawling the forgotten realms wiki. Or the Candlekeep Forums. There's a lot of lore there that's easy to reference, if less easy to digest than a source book.
well according to me, i'm reading the book named as the "Animal Horn" many early hornbooks were made by printing letters onto paper or vellum (animal skin) – both expensive materials at the time. To protect them, the letters were covered with a layer of animal horn like cow horns, sheep, goat etc so thin that it was see-through. This horn was fixed to a wooden or leather base, which was known as a hornbook. Sometimes the ‘books’ were made from metal, ivory, or bone like this one, but they still kept the same name. Some were even baked out of gingerbread to tempt children to ‘swallow what they read
I would suggest you to read about Japanese culture. I am currently reading about the Kabuki theatre and kabuki history in the Japanese mythology in which they use oni, noh, wooden and some other sorts of ancient mask . It is an ancient theatre in which the actors perform different plays wearing kabuki masks and samurai outfit. Do read about it and let me know.
i don't read much but yea i've been looking looking for some good suggestions like i used to read wimpy kid diary but then i got bored so i started reading blogs and recently i red a blog on truckoom, it was the part of plan but since i like to have general knowledge so i kept on reading and it was jus fine lmao :p
I heard about the Elminster stories, elfshadow and some of Salvatore's Drizzt books but I'm here to read some recommendations.
Which book would you recommend to someone relatively new to the forgotten realms lore and story? Something engaging and easy to read.
Thanks!
You can't go wrong with any of the Bob Salvatore Drizzt books - there are quiet a few of them though - I'd start with where it all began
The Crystal Shard
Streams of Silver
The Hafling's Gem
But if you want to read them in literary chronological order then reference this list
https://www.goodreads.com/series/49134-the-legend-of-drizzt
I'm also a fan of his The Cleric Quintet less books than all the Drizzt series and just as entertaining IMHO
Skameros - Bugbear Barbarian - Out of the Abyss - By Kerrec
Follow your Arrow where it Points - Tabaxi Monk - Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus (by Pokepaladdy)
Citron Pumpkinfoam - Fairy Monk - Project Point: Team Longsword
I'd also look at the Brimstone Angels series and The Sundering as they are set in the current times for the Forgotten Realms as it were.
The last mythal is a great series that really gets deep into the elves but is a wonderful read that teaches a ton about magic. And you don’t need to know a bunch of back story. Also war of the spider queen is a solid adventure great peak into drow life and culture.
I'm in the middle of Ring of Winter preparing for a ToA campaign. James Lowder has a fantastic grasp on the world and history and weaves it in quite well. If you want to get some background on the FR origin of Chult, the Ring of Winter, or Artus Cimber, I recommend it.
The Finder's Stone Trilogy is good. I've heard that The Cormyr Saga is good but I haven't reached it yet in my reading list.
Of course the R.A. Salvatore series has had an strong influence in the main areas and story lines of the Realms in the last decade, so while it's quite a long series, that will situate you quite well.
There are a lot of books published for older editions that provide great lore, such as:
And the Forgotten Realms campaign setting books for each edition. The one for 5e is the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide
I think Douglas Niles deserves a shout-out here.
His Moonshae books are definitely an easy read - the characters, places, events, magic items etc are all on the cusp of being cliche, but I believe this is a purposeful decision, and his writing style tricks you into turning them pages....
The Maztica Trilogy, starting with Iron Hand is a re-telling of the Spanish Conquistadores - but with exotic magic and Drow! I'm not sure if Maztica is technically in the Forgotten Realms, but it would be ironic if it weren't! :D
As a faint secondary echo to Lexyk, if your purpose for reading the books is to 'revise' for running a FR campaign, then the source books are a much better idea. They have hard facts and shadowy rumours, perfect springboards for starting YOUR adventures, rather than retracing the footprints of yesterday's heroes. The novels are merely based in the FR, and could easily be set elsewhere. (I bet the Cadderly novels originally were.)
Roleplaying since Runequest.
Are you looking for FR books to read for fun, or FR books to read to learn about the major events and history of the world? Those aren't necessarily the same. :)
Personally, I mostly read them for fun, and also read them ages ago, so my recommendations are biased that way. But as others have said, the Icewind Dale trilogy is great with some really fun characters. If you like Drizzt, then I highly recommend the Dark Elf trilogy. However, the books taking place after the Icewind Dale trilogy seemed to go on and on and on... I really enjoyed them for a while, but after a bit drifted away from them since they seemed much more ongoing and not as neatly wrapped up as the trilogies. Even now years later, I can tell you most of what happened in the Icewind Dale and Dark Elf trilogies, but after those I'm not even sure which Drizzt books I read and what happened in each. They just sort of blurred together for me. *shrug*
I also really enjoyed Azure Bonds. Exciting book with some interesting mysteries and unusual characters.
But these aren't real deep in exploring the lore of the FR, and instead just glimpses at some exciting adventures in small slices of the world. For a series that is neck deep in the shaping of the world, I recall the Avatar series (Shadowdale, Tantras, Waterdeep) was alright and covered the Time of Troubles (aka the conversion from 1e to 2e). It is still applicable in covering the origins of 2 or 3 of the current gods. But otherwise for world lore, the campaign setting books (especially the 3e one) are great sources of information and enjoyable reads on their own even if they aren't novels.
If you want easy access to general FR lore, I suggest spending time trawling the forgotten realms wiki. Or the Candlekeep Forums. There's a lot of lore there that's easy to reference, if less easy to digest than a source book.
well according to me, i'm reading the book named as the "Animal Horn" many early hornbooks were made by printing letters onto paper or vellum (animal skin) – both expensive materials at the time. To protect them, the letters were covered with a layer of animal horn like cow horns, sheep, goat etc so thin that it was see-through. This horn was fixed to a wooden or leather base, which was known as a hornbook. Sometimes the ‘books’ were made from metal, ivory, or bone like this one, but they still kept the same name. Some were even baked out of gingerbread to tempt children to ‘swallow what they read
'
I would suggest you to read about Japanese culture. I am currently reading about the Kabuki theatre and kabuki history in the Japanese mythology in which they use oni, noh, wooden and some other sorts of ancient mask . It is an ancient theatre in which the actors perform different plays wearing kabuki masks and samurai outfit. Do read about it and let me know.
i don't read much but yea i've been looking looking for some good suggestions like i used to read wimpy kid diary but then i got bored so i started reading blogs and recently i red a blog on truckoom, it was the part of plan but since i like to have general knowledge so i kept on reading and it was jus fine lmao :p
I really enjoyed "The Cloakmaster Cycle". The author had a really entertaining concept of Spelljammer. Well worth the read!!
I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!