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There are plenty of fantastic authors out there, but for avid readers, there are hardly enough.
If you are someone like me who speeds through book after book, getting totally enraptured in epic storytelling, you want to find an author who has produced a great load of epic reads.
But, while there are many authors who have written plenty, not all may be to your state.
However, if you have found yourself totally captured in one of R.A Salvatore’s books, you are in for a treat, because this is an author who has plenty of good reads!
The writing to come out of this author is some truly epic fantasy (If you like Fantasy themed books, check out The Chronicles Of Narnia Books and how to read them) writing, but it can be super hard to tell people about this author if you truly love these stories because, with 40+ books, it can be hard to elaborate and to know where to start.
So, instead of frantically not knowing where you should begin, here you will find an epic list of all R.A. Salvatore’s greatest reads.
Fun Fact: The Legend of Drizzt by R.A Salvatore has made over 35 million book sales across the world.
Most of these books are pretty standard in the order in which you should read them.
However, should you do any research, you will note that the newest version of the books should be labeled as the ‘Legend of Drizzt’ Book 1, and so on. Up to 38.
This is notable with quite a few book series. The book will usually have its place in the series noted, often on the cover, or back, and if not it will usually be on the front few pages (sometimes the back).
However, some readers tend to prefer reading in the order of publication when it comes to books.
Consider Tolkien, some people will read (or watch) LOTR before the Hobbit in spite of how the alternative is the chronological order. The same goes for the Legend of Drizzt.
We have all 30+ Drizzt book titles at the end of this article if you are in a rush at the bookstore and need to find what you are looking for pronto.
The Legend of Drizzt books are a little unique in how they are formatted. There are plenty of books, but they are in sections, or series if you will.
The first thing you need to think about when you are considering discussing the Legend of Drizzt books is when you should be reading The Dark Elf trilogy.
Now, if you like to read in chronological order, you will want to be picking up The Dark Elf trilogy first, as chronologically these books come first. Start off with Homeland, then Exile, and finally Sojourn.
These three books tell the story of the protagonist Drizzt Do’Urgen’ and his upbringing.
It will start with our protagonist’s newborn years all the way until he becomes the sword-swinging legend that we are more familiar with in the rest of the books.
In some way these books set the scene, introduce us to our protagonist and make us fall in love with the story of Drizzt Do’Urden.
So, this is exactly why it makes sense for you to read these books first.
However, this is only if you prefer reading in chronological order.
Yet, if you want to read by publication, you need to be looking at The Crystal Shard’ – Book 4 in the series, as this was actually the first book that was written and published overall. Then after this comes Streams of Silver, followed by Halfling’s Gem.
All of these were written and published before the first book in the Legend of Drizzt- Homeland.
So, if you prefer to read by publication, you want to get started by reading ‘The Crystal Shard’, finish off this series and then return to The Dark Elf books before you continue to read the rest of the Legend of Drizzt series.
It may be quite quirky in the eyes of some that The Cleric Quintet was not actually included in the whole series of the Legend of Drizzt series order when the publisher (Penguin books now, we think…), re-covered the books and listed the series.
However, if we are totally honest with you, these books are not strictly part of the series, which is probably the best explanation as to why they were not included.
That being said, Cadderly does make a cameo in the Legend of Drizzt series so, technically speaking, we would consider them as being a critical part of the reading of the Drizzt series.
Should you be reading in the order of publication then this would dictate that you should look to read these books after you have finished The Dark Elf Trilogy and also the Icewind Dale books, however you need to read them before you start The Legacy which is book 7 in the series of The Legacy Of The Drow.
If you do this then you should better understand the character of Drizzt Do’Urden and the character of Cadderly before the characters actually crossover, which is highly beneficial if you want to get the most out of your reading of this series.
If you do not fancy doing this, however, you could hold it off until you get to Passage to Dawn, which is book 10, and when Cadderly makes his actual appearance into the story and timeline of Drizzt Do’Urden.
We would not suggest holding it off any later than book 17, you want to be reading this series before you get to The Thousand Orcs, and some of the background/ supporting characters in The Cleric series will make their appearance into Drizzt’s timeline.
You can choose wherever to fit it in, but we do highly recommend fitting it in before you get to book 10, but the best place is before book 7.
What do we suggest you do? Well, really you might want to read them in the order of publication.
While chronological order is typically the favorite way to read any series, if you read in order of publication, you will get everything when you need it.
Sure, you might end up straying away from the world of Drizzt Do’Urden for a little bit, but it is 100% worth it in the long run and you get the most out of the series as a whole doing it this way.
This is a series which has only recently been requested by fans to be considered as a part of the Legend of Drizzt storyline as a whole.
The Stone of Tymora, is much like the Cleric series. You see, it is not technically a part of the Legend of Drizzt books. However, it does feature a cameo by Drizzt, or at least he does in the first book of this series.
We know that Drizzt has been involved in this, but to what the overall extent of his involvement is we cannot quite say (no spoilers here!)
However, what we can tell you is that The Stone of Tymora does feature the story of a deckhand who comes from the Sea Sprite, with the name Maimun. Maimun meets Drizzt in The Halfling’s Gem, in the proceedings of the companions chasing Artemis Entreri to try and free Regis.
The overall timeline of the series is a bit chaotic, and rather mixed up, however, the most of the events which we have touched on here do take place within this time frame.
Then there is The Sundering. Yet another complex addition to The Legend of Drizzt, and its extremely complicated timeline.
Well, The Companions is a series which takes place straight after The Last Threshold, so, we certainly know where it fits in terms of the series of events here.
However, you may also see that the order we will look at in our next section does only actually list one book in the series, The Sundering. The reason for this is that R.A Salvatore wrote only the first book in this series.
The other five books which are in this series were not written by R.A Salvatore, but instead by other authors who write the Forgotten Realms.
From what we know, it is technically not really necessary to read all 6 of the books, as each book will highlight the events that transpire in The Sundering from different characters’ points of view, so for us, we only really want the one book.
As that is all that is necessary for us.
Of course, if you are interested in the overall lore of this universe then you may want to read them all, and of course, feel free to do so.
However, if you are only interested in the Drizzt Do’Urden storyline then the only book in The Sundering series that you need to pick up will be The Companions.
So, what do we look at now? Well, if you have decided, from what we have looked at together so far, that you want to read Legend of Drizzt in chronological order, we will talk you through how to do this.
We have slid the cleric Quintet in here as part of the reading. It is in the position it most makes sense. However, the publisher does not view this as being required for reading as part of the storyline.
We leave it to you to decide if you want to interject this into your reading or not, it is really up to you if you want to include The Cleric series.
Note we have numbered the series names, these are the order in which you should pick up the series, but the books are individually numbered in the chronological order for reading.
1. Homeland.
2. Exile.
3. Sojourn.
4. The Crystal Shard.
5. Streams Of Silver.
6. The Halfling’s Gem.
7. The Stowaway.
8. The Shadowmask.
9. The Sentinels.
10. Canticle.
11. In Sylvan Shadows.
12. Night Masks.
13. The Fallen fortress.
14. The Chaos Curse.
15. The Legacy.
16. Starless Night.
17. Siege Of Darkness.
18. Passage to Dawn.
19. The Silent Blade.
20. The Spine Of The World.
21. Sea Of Swords.
22. The Servant Of The Shard.
23. Promise Of The Witch King.
24. Road Of The Patriarch.
25. The Thousand Orcs.
26. The Lone Drow.
27. The Two Swords.
28. The Orc King.
29. The Pirate King.
30. The Ghost King.
31. Gauntlgrym.
32. Neverwinter.
33. Charon’s Claw.
34. The Last Threshhold.
35. The Companions.
36. Night Of The Hunter.
37. Rise Of The King.
38. Vengeance Of The Iron Dwarf.
39. Archmage.
40. Maestro.
41. Hero.
42. Timeless.
43. Boundless.
44. Relentless.
45. Starlight Enclave.
46. Glaciers Edge.
So, what is the Dao of Drizzt? It has only recently come out, and it has Drizzt in the title, so we would assume that it is part of the series right?
Well, you know the italics segments you see in each book? We are all pretty accustomed to them right? These will be the thoughts of Drizzt, you will find them at the beginning of every section.
They are much like journal entries.
The Dao of Drizzt is a collection of all the entries, and it basically combines them into a solid volume for the first collective volume ever.
We have not got much else to say about them sadly as it is only a recent release, and everyone is still figuring out how they feel about it.
We cannot say it fits into any specific part of the series, it is more like additional content, or that is what we gauge the overall view is at the moment.
If you are a purist reader like some of us (guilty as charged), you might consider that the best way to read the Legend of Drizzt is to read them in the order of their publication date.
If you decide to do this, things may get a little more complicated. We are still including the Cleric series, as they make for very good reading.
Once you have read these books, all 46 in the order of publication as you can see here. You can then move onto the other books for some additional reading to keep you engulfed in the Legend Of Drizzt books.
If you want to read the Legends Of Drizzt, then you will need to decide how you are going to read it. Are you the kind of person who wants to read by chronological order, or is publishing order more your thing.
We can’t argue a case for which is better, it all depends on what you prefer. However, with so much content, the easier choice is by publication.
What do you think? Should you read it by publication date or in chronological order?
