My list of most influential books pt. 1

The list of books that have most influenced me over the years, at least of the ones that come to mind, are as follows:

In Sylvan Shadows, by R. A. Salvatore

Here is the cover of the book from when I bought it, and then the newest cover:

Homeland, by R. A. Salvatore

 

Really, the whole Cleric Quintet influenced me, but overall my favorite authors in the Forgotten Realms were, first, R. A. Salvatore, and then also Ed Greenwood. Salvatore provided characters filled with conflict about being outsiders, misunderstood, and struggling in a world that didn't accept them. Drizzt Do'Urden's stories had an edge to them that many other fantasy novels lack. The stories are full of action, and the knowledge that he, as a drow, would never be accepted anywhere was heartbreaking. There would never be a happy ending for Drizzt, and so he took solace in surrounding himself with a close family of friends and making them his world. 

Cadderly, the main character of the Cleric Quintet, was my first fictional character crush. He was lovable, powerful, and searched for meaning in his world. His spirituality, and thus magic, were dependent on music, something I empathize with and which hearkens back to the Silmarillion of J. R. Tolkein. Cadderly's story is ultimately of becoming something far greater than what he started as, and struggling against sometimes overwhelming odds. Here we see Salvatore's more playful side. He is, perhaps, why I fell so deeply for Harry Dresden. There is an element of Dresden in Cadderly, perhaps his often clumsy way of dealing with the world, at least in the beginning. He, too, was abandoned and descended from darker parentage, as well as being destined for far greater things. Dresden is much darker, angrier, and in the end more tragic, but Cadderly shares similar roots. 

Greenwood's novels don't have quite the same depth of character as the inherently conflicted protagonists of Salvatore, but his writing is filled with an amusement and playfulness that bely the strong action and driving narrative. We could all aspire to his level of wit and the quality of his prose. AND, lest we forget, the entire Forgotten Realms RPG and fiction setting developed from him and his campaign in Shadowdale with the Knights of Myth Drannor.

In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez

This is just an incredible story I read for English in high school. As is:

An Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera