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26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book is awesome, but be prepared, August 9, 2001
Let me start by saying that this is an amazing book, easily the best Elminster book yet. However you will want to prepare yourself before you read this book, this book is not a first-read book. This book has quite a few prerequisites, including the previous 3 El books, the Avatar trilogy, and the shadows of the avatar trilogy (and the two books that follow those), and MOST definately Silverfall. I should point out that this book takes place in the current date of the Realms timeline, and occurs just after the events in The Summoning, and a reader may also consider reading that book before hand to see what caused El to go to hell (and also consider the three Netheril books as a prerequisite to The Summoning) Now that the prerequisites are out of the way, we can reveal some content. The book is about our beloved Elminster trapped in the first layer of hell by a powerful devil who will not rest until he has raped El's mind of all his precious memories. The first few pages of the book explain this, and also give the realms dates for those memories. This book is one of the very best Forgotten Realms books I have ever read (numbering over 70, and growing), and would place this book in the top five, along with Servant of the Shard (another amazing Realms book). This book is very enjoyable if you take the time to prepare yourself by reading Silverfall, and the other books mentioned above.
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best of Faerunian Tales: Starring Elminster Aumar, October 18, 2001
Before I begin to praise this unique novel, I'd like to start off by saying that I strongly recommend reading the previous three Elminster novels by Ed Greenwood before embarking on this outstanding book. After doing so, I decided to pick up Elminster in Hell despite the fact that I heard chronologically it takes place most recently in the Forgotten Realms' extensive timeline. Nevertheless, upon reading about twenty pages into the book you realize that you're in for an immensely interesting and informative read. Elminster of Shadowdale; one of the most recognized, respected and powerful beings in the land of Faerun is attempting to destroy a rift between the Nine Hells and Toril, when he is captured by an arch-devil named Nergal in Avernus. Nergal plans on appropriating valuable memories dealing with the magical technique Silver Fire in Elminster's mind for his own diabolical usage. Elminster displays bravery and sly cleverness despite his predicament, but inevitably is forced to release his memories one by one. Here in lies the greatness of the book. Ed Greenwood takes over twenty(!) of his signature characters and has them each playing roles in the various recollections that Elminster is providing to Nergal. It was truly satisfying to read page after page, seeing different characters that I have read about in Forgotten Realms source books finally in action all in one book. Without giving away any truly satisfying surprises there are cameos and fairly dominant roles by The Simbul, Storm Silverhand, Sylune, Alustriel, Laeral Silverhand, Mirt, Durnan, Piergeiron, Vangerdahast,and my favorite Khelben Blackstaff Arunsun. Divulging any details about the events that occur in both El's memories and the present day involving Elminster's friends would be spoilinig the overall experience, so I won't reveal any of that info. Elminster in Hell is truly an engaging, informative novel by the creator of Forgotten Realms himself. There are many moments where you'll laugh out loud at Elminster's sly and witty remarks, Khelben Blackstaff's rhetoric, or the clever plan carried out by the main protagonist at the end of the tale. Lastly, be on the lookout for a truly redeeming quest of a formally evil and aimless villain(and I'm not referring to any of the aforementioned characters.) At the end of this novel, I couldn't help but feel satisfied and impressed by the sheer ingenuity and spellbinding quality of this book(IMHO,the best of the four books in the Elminster series). I'd qualify this book as being worthy enough to be classified in the same league as Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman's DragonLance epics and R.A. Salvatore's equally epic Drizzt saga. In conclusion, I highly recommend Elminster in Hell to any fan of the Forgotten Realms, any readers of other D&D book worlds and to anyone who enjoys fantasy fiction at its finest.
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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Horrible, February 13, 2006
This review is from: Elminster in Hell (Forgotten Realms: The Elminster Series, Book 4) (Mass Market Paperback)
*SPOILER WARNING
I have read every Elminster novel in this series and I thought they were ALL horrible beyond belief. Why did I read this then?
I thought there might be a chance that Greenwood got better as a writer(I thought that same thing with every new Greenwood novel) and the premise of the story sounded really good: An adventure in hell! yesssss.
While the story DOES take place in hell (more specifically: Avernus which is the 1st level of the 9 hells), its certainly not an adventure.
First off. Elminster is all of a sudden shot to hell in the first page. As I read this, I asked myself "how?" and "why?". These two questions weren't answered until much later in the book! I know that any other author would have started the book differently. Maybe from the villans point of view? you know..a little plotting and planning in the beginning so we can know why and how Elminster goes to hell? It just seemed too all of a sudden.
So. As soon as our hero gets to hell. He is captured by an Archdevil by the name of Nergal. Nergal wants Elminsters memories of working magic, so he in turn can learn how to use it to rule all of Toril.
The memories that we read about are all dull and feel like they don't advance the plot. Mirt the Moneylenders night with a "pleasure-lass" who has 2 kids. Vanderhagast's (sp?) missing War Wizard. BLAH!
I understand that Elminster chose boring memories to goad Nergal, but did Greenwood think that the readers might find them boring as well? Does Greenwood even have an editor by the way?
Another thing we come to understand way later in the book, is that Elminster is choosing certain memories to contact his friends indirectly to come and save him (typical Elminster style of course). First there is Vanderhagast(sp?) who cant do anything to help, then there is Mirt, who cant do anything to help, then MYSTRA herself! She gets there and cant do much. THE GODDESS OF MAGIC...couldn't rescue him? Psshhh. Mystra then sends Halaster Blackcloak. He gets there and cant save our hero. So finally. The Simbul herself flies down to rescue of beloved hero and wisks him out of there. So the Simbul (who's pretty powerful) can rescue Elminster from Hell, and MYSTRA (Who gave the Simbul her magic)CANT? That just seemed way too unbelievable to me.
Nergal is an extremely annoying villan. He constantly repeats himself when Elminster's memories have ended. "Don't toy with me human" and others like it, are prevailant. He just seems too much like a cookie cutter villan for my taste.
Elminster himself is tortured so badly throughout the book (getting his arms ripped off, etc...) and still manages to make wise cracks at his devil captor. If I had my eyeball poked out, like Elminster did, I wouldn't be able to even think words in my head. Then again. This is Elminster and he is invincible and unbeatable...please.
All in all, this was REALLY bad. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. If you are like me and are addicted to the realms, then you could try to sit through this, apparently some people have and some actually enjoyed it!
I was interested to learn more about Elminster because I've heard his name mentioned many many times throughout other realms novels as the Realms greatest hero and wanted to learn more.
When I started reading the Elminster novels I was expecting great character development. After all Elminster is the greatest realms hero, so you would think he would have an interesting story right? Boy was I wrong. I think its very sad that a potentially great character was ruined by a bad writer. If any other realms author wrote the Elminster novels, you might have seen Elminster as the Mage-equivalent of Drizzt!
Instead we are left with this horny old mage, who talks like a dwarf trying to speak old english ("aye" "ye" "thee" "thou" etc...), who begs his goddess to help him whenever he gets into trouble (she helps him 99% of the time by the way), who seems to botch things rather then help, who is invincible, who is immortal, who knows every spell, etc etc I could go on for days. I like imperfect heroes, dont get me wrong, but Elminster is too IMperfect and too perfect for me. Also, when has a horny old man ever been a like-able character?
If you are thinking of getting into the realms, I would recommend (like MANY others) starting with RA Savlatore. His books have deep characters that you can relate to and understand, LOTS of action, and great fast paced plots. Unlike this.
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