Ed Greenwood

Before I begin this review, I'd like to state that I have had a very hit or miss pattern with Forgotten Realms. I've read a couple of [a:Ed Greenwood|20513|Ed Greenwood|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1248120586p2/20513.jpg]'s Elminster books and found them extremely boring. Then I read the War of the Spider Queen series and absolutely loved it. Then, on recommendation from my brother, I started the Drizz't series. That was just awful! Then I found the sequel to the War of the show more Spider Queen, The Lady Penitent trilogy and once again, loved it! Then I tried the Abolethic Sovereignty trilogy and couldn't finish it.

So I'm always leery when trying a Forgotten Realms book/series, as I just don't know what I'll end up with.

I'd heard of Erevis Cale somewhere or other and wanted to see if he was an interesting character, so I dug around and found this to be the first book with him in it. And then I found it was a bunch of short stories centering around the Uskevren family, of whom Erevis was the butler.

I enjoyed the stories, as they introduced me to the city Selgaunt and the area of Sembia [do you know how long it took me to figure out that Selgaunt and Sembia were actually two different places and not just different names for the same place?!?]. I also found that the short story format worked well with each character, as we get a snaphsot of them without the author of said short story showing all their weaknesses by trying to write a full blown novel about that character.

So I just sped through this book, loving it and looking forward to the next. Which I've finished and will be reviewing tomorrow. Man, when Forgotten Realms is good, it is GOOD! show less

I really enjoyed this book. I've read it several times I liked it so much. This novel is set in the Forgotten Realms, a game world for the Dungeons and Dragons game. The setting was invented by the author, Ed Greenwood, and it really shows in his writing, as his creation of the world down to the smallest details is complete and complex.
A young girl discovers she has a very unique power. She can hurl magical power without casting spells, something normally impossible in the Forgotten Realms. show more This power immediately makes her a target for a number of factions wanting this power, and leads her and some powerful new friends on a very improbable adventure. If you enjoy fantasy fiction, especially Dungeons and Dragons based fantasy, you should enjoy this book. If you are a rules purist, just ignore the Dungeons and Dragons background and enjoy the story. show less

[Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]

I've enjoyed what I've read by Ed Greenwood in the past, and I do love the Forgotten Realms universe, so I was expecting to really enjoy this one too. Unfortunately that turned out to not be the case. Unlike the epic Forgotten Realms stories I'm used to, this read much more like a confusing murder mystery that lacks a clear purpose. The pacing on this is quite slow and the lack of show more an engaging story made it difficult for me to push through.

I'm willing to chalk this up to a story that just didn't work for me, in hopes that the next title will be more interesting, engaging, and clear. show less

This collection of the first 3 Elminster novels felt like taking a step back in time. I first got into reading fantasy through Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms novels back in the '90s. But upon reading this I realized that they are not mature novels, but rather simple adventure stories with little time for character growth or depth, which are important for making the reader sympathize with the characters. These novels tell much of the lore or origin stories that made Elminster into the show more character he is (or was, I don't know if he's still around). I am not knowledgeable enough in the lore of the Forgotten Realms but that didn't stop me from enjoying the stories when I was younger, but I feel like these relied a lot on the reader recognizing the famous places, people, and battles that were discussed in the modern timeline. These novels are basically adventure stories, almost like shonen manga, where the character would move from one battle to the next, so it became a bit of a slog to get through, but it was kind of nice to have a bit of "lighter" reading, but I would not re-read this tome. show less