Elminster Must Die

Ugh.As a Realms completionist, this is just one of those books that you have to struggle to get through. This one probably wouldn't have been too bad if Greenwood omitted all of the scenes/dialogue where the villains were busy laying out their plans like a diabolical bad-guy from an episode of Scooby Doo.Thank Ao for skim-reading.

Ed Greenwood created the Forgotten Realms setting in the early days of D&D. Many of his characters were created all those aeons ago in the far flung 20th century. OK, so it's not all that far off, but this is his world and these are his characters. Elminster Aumar being one of the most memorable of them all. Elminster, a grey old Gandalf character, was the chosen of Mystra the goddess of magic. With the advent of the Spellplague, for those of us in the real world, more or less, that would be [...]

Elminster didn't fare very well in the shift from D&D 3.5 to D&D 4.0. His patron goddess died, he lost most of his powers, and his main girlfriend went insane. He and his cohorts still have spellfire though, so he periodically sneaks into the royal palace of Cormyr, of all places, to steal magic items for his girlfriend to drain of their enchantments, so that she can have a few hours of sanity and they can bone. This book was terribly boring, and I'm afraid I don't buy that Elminster has [...]

Bit of short and sweet one this review. this is fantasy at its some of its most self indulgent. the character development jumps, the prose literally tells you what you are supposed to think the characters are thinking or feeling and the story is quite frankly inane. that said, its a bit of a escapism, its fun if you have come from the gaming exposure of things like Baldurs Gate or Icewind Dale to then find out more about the Forgotten Realms and all in all its a quick and easy read. However, go [...]

It’s been a while since I’ve read a Forgotten Realms book, but the world comes rushing back like an old friend when you start reading. In this story, Elminster is long past his prime, a mere shadow of his former self, still fighting for the future of the world. But he has a difficult choice: save the world, or save the woman he loves? It’s a rollicking adventure, though I must admit that I got a bit lost by not knowing all the background—remember I said that I hadn’t read a Forgotten R [...]

Following up George R R Martins Dance with dragons with this was probably the one of the worst literary mistakes I´ve made in a long time. Greenwoods previous books have been a welcome escape from reality and an enjoyable waste of time but here he absolutely loses it in my opinion. Much of this feels like bad soap opera with predictable characters and ridiculous plot holes. One thing that felt particularly bad to me is an especially stupid reliance on switching out swear words for nonsensical g [...]

I am doubting between 2 or 3 stars. I like the story, but Ed has a tendency here to overuse certain style elements, and particularly certain type of characters. The repetition of using loud-mouthed idiots for basically every war wizard that opposes Elminster (generally for good reasons) gets old quick. It makes you wonder how Cormyr has survived this far. The paranoia that Elminster showcases in this book is also out of the blue and unfunded - since it is obvious that there are people who suppor [...]

Ed Greenwood is a master storyteller, creator of one of the most detailed and entertaining worlds (the Forgotten Realms), shared among many authors. His characters are funny and engaging, his plots are complex and interesting and the setting well the setting has produced more novels than any single setting that I am aware of in the history of Fantasy or SF. For a listing of just novels and anthologies (not gaming supplements) check out the wiki here enpedia/wiki/List_of_ I only made one mistake [...]

This was a change of pace for Elminster. In previous books, he has been a very powerful wizard who nonetheless used magic sparingly. He is still that here, but for a different reason that being that he goes crazy if he uses magic without draining the energy from a magic item to do so. He can be made sane again by Storm Silverhand, who was made young again by, I presume, the Spellplague. The difference is that Elminster in previous books has been rather jovial and hopeful. Here, he is in a rather [...]

Here we see Elminster after the Spellplague. It was sad to see what the Spellplague did to my favorite archmage, but it gives us an idea of what a world changing event it was. As usual there is a lot of action and spell battles, which I enjoyed. Ed Greenwood is a great world builder, and I enjoy his writing, but sometimes it seems like he presents events and characters in a disjointed manner which can be a bit confusing if you're not paying attention.

This is a fantastic, fun read. I had just come off of a lot of Dark Sun material, and it was awesome to be immersed in a land of high fantasy again.I found the much criticized court intrigue stuff fun, I loved the villains all the way around.Our cast of heroes is having what in football might be called a growth season--not a lot of strength, but a lot of personality.Greenwood has moved his main protagonist into the world of 4E with cleverness and grace.

It's always good to have no idea what is going on in a book 300 pages in. I really don't get the purpose. It has some reasonable parts. I don't get why the bad guy was someone I've never heard of if I have supposedly read all there is to know about Elminister but hey whatever. I was looking forward to finding out more about the spellplauge and this book did not deliver

Not as good as others in the series. A lot of "villain cackling in the background" kind of cliches. It does introduce a couple new characters that might be good in the next book, but this one felt like filler and was very abrupt.

I love Ed Greenwood and have read all of his work but sadly this book was a disappointmentto me. I felt like I could have read the first 2 chapters and the last 2 chapters and I still would have know the story. Maybe after a re-read I will feel differently.

Awesome new beginningI love the new team and story building around them. El is one of my favorite characters in the forgotten realms and Ed my favorite authors

Good start to the trilogy (continuation of the Elminster novels), a little hard going, but the story and characters are excellent

not a bad read, classic ed greenwood style, nice reveal at the end again classic ed greenwood style.

Too much setup, not enough action. It still gets three stars only because what has been set up sounds like a lot of fun, hopefully the second book doesn't disappoint as much as the first.

fantasybookcritic