Salvatore sucks

Salvatore's had an interesting run. His Icewind Dale trilogy really evokes the vibe of D&D like few books have. You could tell that he was a young writer who didn't have the best chops, but his enthusiasm was evident and made the books a fun read.

Then came the Dark Elf trilogy, which piled layers and layers of angst on whenever possible. However, it introduced a few cool characters and was overall okay. Each subsequent cycle of books just gets worse and worse, piling on comical levels of angst, turning everyone into giant mary sues, and just overall becoming garbage. The young, enthusiastic writer was gone, and in his place was a writer whose prose was perhaps a bit better but clearly no longer cared. He was sticking to a formula which he knew would make him money, but even the most die hard fans started to get burned out.

Then came the 4th Edition rule set, which D&D authors needed to follow. It became a logistical nightmare and he had to kill all of his non-elf characters in one bloated, terrible book. His work in Kingdoms of Amalur reeks of late-era Salvatore; utterly soulless.

All in all, he had a promising start, but should have broken free from the series that gave him that start. It you don't flex your creative muscles they atrophy. Modern Salvatore is undoubtedly a terrible writer.