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A review by immabehazzie
Homeland by R.A. Salvatore
3.0
Mary Sue born and raised in an evil society turns into the surprised Pikachu meme when that society is evil.
Despite the title of my review, this book scratched a deep part of my brain that loves high fantasy. The best part of this book was the world-building and fantastical elements. When I had originally heard that it was based on a character from Dungeons and Dragons I was hesitant to read it because I don’t know much about the game or world, but it turns out that you don’t actually need to know any of that.
From the underground world in which the main character comes from to the religion his people worship and their goddess as well as their practices as a society it’s a completely fleshed-out fantastical world. It also hints at other creatures and societies outside of the focal one in this novel. At times it did feel like the story itself and the characters suffered for the sake of the world-building.
My main problem with this novel is the main character and the characters that seem like they’ll serve a purpose but then never appear again. Drizzt, or as I think of him: is an elven Mary Sue who never learns his lesson. He’s strong and seems to be capable of everything and after a while, it got tiring not seeing him face true adversity or any real obstacles. I understand that the author wanted to establish Drizzt’s morality amongst his amoral companions but there are other ways to do that while developing his character in a realistic way.
The pacing was also a part that I found confusing because while it feels like it moves forward at a good speed, it doesn’t actually. It tricks you into thinking that through training and fighting montages. The time the main character spends at the academy learning to fight is fun but shallow.
Homeland was fun and a good introduction to a fantasy world however, it was shallow and did its characters a disservice. It was good enough for me to decide to read the second book in this trilogy, though, so I hope that with the world established it will dive deeper into everything else.
Despite the title of my review, this book scratched a deep part of my brain that loves high fantasy. The best part of this book was the world-building and fantastical elements. When I had originally heard that it was based on a character from Dungeons and Dragons I was hesitant to read it because I don’t know much about the game or world, but it turns out that you don’t actually need to know any of that.
From the underground world in which the main character comes from to the religion his people worship and their goddess as well as their practices as a society it’s a completely fleshed-out fantastical world. It also hints at other creatures and societies outside of the focal one in this novel. At times it did feel like the story itself and the characters suffered for the sake of the world-building.
My main problem with this novel is the main character and the characters that seem like they’ll serve a purpose but then never appear again. Drizzt, or as I think of him: is an elven Mary Sue who never learns his lesson. He’s strong and seems to be capable of everything and after a while, it got tiring not seeing him face true adversity or any real obstacles. I understand that the author wanted to establish Drizzt’s morality amongst his amoral companions but there are other ways to do that while developing his character in a realistic way.
The pacing was also a part that I found confusing because while it feels like it moves forward at a good speed, it doesn’t actually. It tricks you into thinking that through training and fighting montages. The time the main character spends at the academy learning to fight is fun but shallow.
Homeland was fun and a good introduction to a fantasy world however, it was shallow and did its characters a disservice. It was good enough for me to decide to read the second book in this trilogy, though, so I hope that with the world established it will dive deeper into everything else.