Homeland

Homeland came out in 1990 and was the first volume of the Dark Elf trilogy, which serves as a prequel to R. A. Salvatore's earlier Icewind Dale books and introduces the character he is best known for.

Its subject is Drizzt Do'Urden, and it starts with the circumstances of his birth. He is born into the tenth noble house of Menzoberranzan, the city of the dark elves, the son of the matron mother Malice and of Zaknafein, the house weapon master.

Drow custom would have had the third son sacrificed to the goddess Lolth, and Drizzt was spared only because an older brother died first, in the fighting that raised his house in the city's rankings. Growing up male in that matriarchal society, he takes a great deal of abuse, and the book follows him through a childhood in which he learns the skills his people value and the cruelty that comes with them, while trying to hold on to a set of principles his homeland has no place for.