Customer Reviews

Elminster: The Making of a Mage (Forgotten Realms)

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

While I was reading the reviews for this book. The few one-star reviewers made NO SENSE. Calling Elminster a wuss. Excuse me he is only a kid. Actually pretty strong kid after seeing his parents murdered right in front of his eyes. Then they say there is nudity. I have read about nudity in some of Lackey's books and this is G-rated. I love the progression of the book just like in a PC generated D&D game which divided up each part of the book While I read the book I saw no typos and Greenwood did a great story. The fact is that there was not enough history and not to much. But I look forward to the rest of the series with great excitement. The only critical thing I have to say about the series is the fact that the order of the books are kinda of confusing. I will list what I think is the correct order:
1. Elminster: The Making of the Mage.
2. Elminster in Myth Drannor
3. The Temptation of Elminster
4. Elminster in Hell
5. Upcoming Elminster's Daughter.

I hope everyone will enjoy this great series.

I have read hundreds of science fiction and fantasy books along with hundreds of non fiction books -- included were dozens of D&D titles -- prior to this one.

Given the one-star reviews, I only bought this one book in the Elminster series -- usually, I buy all the books in a series -- but, the one-star reviews made me cautious.

This was a good read -- basically I went straight through over two days.

I think the one-star reviewers had an axe-to-grind. For example, nudity was "mentioned" in the book, but it was very non-graphic, and in good taste -- it fit the story line -- no basis for complaint, in my opinion. For example, lovemaking was alluded to in the book, but it was completely non-explicit and non-"sexy" -- it also fit the story -- no basis for complaint in my opinion.

I agree that the other reviewers are entitled to a different opinion as to what constitutes an enjoyable read. But, having read the book, the comments seemed a bit much, considering the actual verbiage in the book. The negative comments misinformed me.

I was very satisfied with the book, and will buy more by the same author.

Ed Greenwood did a great job with Elminster: The Making of a Mage. If you've read other books with the masterful Elminster in it, you will be pleasantly surprised when reading how his stupendous mage powers came about. The book is full of magic and intrigue, so you're kept interested throughout the book and even wanting more. For those of you who haven't read any of the Forgotten Realms series, you will still find a great read from this book. Elminster is a commanding mage who is centuries old. He is well respected by all in the Realm, including those that oppose him. Finding out why and how he became the mage that he is now will leave you enlightened and full of awe at the wisdom and character of Elminster.

In crafting the tale of the early years of Elminster, a powerful mage, Ed Greenwood has not consistently matched his protagonist's abilities with his circumstances. While Elminster is thrust into many situations of hardship and danger, he consistently utilizes a combination of luck, inherent power, and reliance on others to proceed through the story, avoiding the need to enrich the character development of this overly-fortunate mage. Greenwood's world-building skills are superb, as could be expected of the creator of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. The various locations Elminster explores each have their own distinct feel to them, embodying not only their physical presences, but the lives and feelings of their inhabitants. From the secluded elven forests to the oppressed town of Hastarl, you never lose the important connection with Elminster's location that sets the mood in each section of the story. Unfortunately, a number of factors cause character development to suffer, in relation to the potential for interesting and diverse interactions. The primary flaw in this area is generated by Elminster's constant wanderings, continually severing the connections with the supporting characters the reader is just beginning to come to know. While locales are described so potently that even a brief visit is a boldly shocking chance of pace, characters need time to change, to grow, and to learn throughout the course of the story. By periodically abandoning each set of characters, as if they were an unchanging part of the scenery in a particular part of the realm, Greenwood flattens them into unchanging figures, each with only a few patterns of interaction evident in the novel. This abandonment may be most harsh when Elminster leaves the town of Hastarl, where the most diverse and interesting cast of characters, with so much potential for varied conflicts and dreams, has been introduced and true character development has just begun. Elminster himself is the one character who is never abandoned, and who had the most options available to him for fascinating growth along with slowly increased power. While the development of a powerful mage would seem to be an exciting and wonderful task, it seems that it is this very power that sabotaged the creation of Elminster. Elminster appears to be most human, in his truest and most understandable form, before he acquires any magic. His motivations are clear and, more than that, they are elegantly portrayed, enticing the reader to empathize with this driven man. Elminster's acceptance of magic, in the face of his past, comes too quickly and completely for belief, and worse still, he never once questions the power he has been given after the process is long over. The further Elminster delves into his magic and his quest, the further he is distorted in the reader's mind, until discerning his thoughts and feelings becomes an increasingly frustrating chore. A further, striking element is Greenwood's attempts to balance the story and the powerful protagonist. As Elminster's magic grows, he becomes capable of incredible feats that would make the trials he goes through seem slight indeed. Perhaps to compensate for these disturbing tendencies, Greenwood makes sure that Elminster encounters a variety of problems too difficult for him to handle (even if, logically, he should be able to master these tasks without a terrible degree of difficulty). However, because Elminster is alone, and must survive and conquer, he must call upon help to get him through the problems he can not solve. While this mix of self-reliance and dependence on others would seem to provide balance to the story, like a chaotic pendulum, it does just the opposite. In one scene Elminster will call upon miraculous powers to obliterate foes far stronger than he, then in the next scene he will be helpless and require aid to overcome even the slightest difficulty. Although this odd combination is arguably better, though less logical, than consistently keeping Elminster a powerful figure, a much more gradual increase in magical power, coupled with ways of getting out of difficult situations other than calling for help, would have served this story well. Creating a prequel is a difficult task, and Greenwood deserves credit for creating an adventure-biography both engrossing and dynamic. However, as was illustrated by R.A. Salvatore in his excellent prequel Homeland, a character destined to be powerful and pivotal in later tales need not already be the imposing figure he will one day become. To show a gradual development, building to the greater stage in small increments, without disturbing the story's logic or balance in the process, is a greater achievement by far.

This book was a great story about a small boy growing to be one of the most formidable mages in the realm of Faerun. You get to see how he goes from one stage of his life to the next, trying to find his way, all the while having an overriding goal driving him.

You are given very good insight into the devlopment of Elminster and where he comes from. The story begins when he is a young lad. His world is shattered and he is thrust into the world with very little knowledge of who he is and his potential. His journey takes him in various directions, not always towards the way of magic, which you know is where he eventually winds up, but every step of the way has a purpose and meaning to him. Elminster learns what he is, and more importantly, what he is not.

The one drawback to the book is the lack of development of all the other characters in the book. This happens mainly because there are so many of them. Unsually in Forgotten Realm novels, there is a great deal of develpment of all the main characters, good and evil. In this book, Elminster's travels introduce him to all sorts of peoples and unless the author wanted the book to be roughly 1,000 pages long (or an entire trilogy), there just wasn't enough space to delve into all the players. This is somewhat discouraging because the foes of this book had huge potential. They could very easily have ranked up there with Matron Malice (from Drizzt's 2nd trilogy) if they had been explored to some extent.

Besides allowing a full exploration of the main character, the lack of development of other characters allowed the book to be very fast paced. Very few times did the book get bogged down in mundane details. At one point in the book Elminster is given the task of finding an ancient artifact. This journey in and of itself could have been a novel, however here you turn the page and Elminster has already gotten a band of adventurers, raided with them, and is on his way to his goal. All in about 40 pages.

I would definetly add this book to your reading list if you are at all interested in the main characters that make up the Faerun realm.

As a fan of the Dragonlance realm, I was hesitant about starting a new "world". However I was recommended books by R.A.Salvatore, and my interest in the Realms was piqued. I figured I had better start with this novel to get really familiar with the Realms and Elminster, and I was surprised at the page turning ability this novel created.

From his start as a prince, to a thief, to a woman priestess, to a man again and an apprentice, this novel had it all.
All I will say is enjoy!

I picked up this book after being introduced to the Forgotten Realms setting by a friend who got me hooked on Baldur's Gate. I was curious about the strange old man in the hat who went by the name of Elminster and seemed to pop up at unexpected moments. I can't say this book entirely satiated my curiousity--but then, that's not the point.

Have no doubts, the story has flaws: its main characters are, as has been said, distressingly powerful; it seems to be 75% fighting action to 25% plot; the supporting characters appear and disappear so quickly that we have no time to get a good feel for them. Elminster himself seems rather unreal. There were several opportunities for plot twists that weren't taken, which I thought was a shame.

However, it does well to keep in mind that this *isn't* a fantasy epic as such, and to expect any book based on an RPG to be as good as early Wheel of Time books or even the earlier works of Mercedes Lackey seems a way to doom yourself to disappointment. Very few of them are deep and thought-provoking literature. Instead, most--with this being no exception--would appear to be quick, fun romps through worlds of swords and sorcery, full of action and power, action and gods, history and action, action and more action... and what's so bad about that? (Okay, so maybe a *little* less action might be nice. Just a tad.)

_Elminster: the Making of a Mage_ is a fine example of an RPG-based novel. I was left wanting to read more about the Forgotten Realms and Elminster himself, which is probably part of the idea; I found it difficult to put down, and nothing that keeps me that interested can be all bad! It's a decent book to start the series with, although readers unused to the style of RPG books (or who prefer their protagonists to be more on the puny side) might do better to begin with something else.

This is the start of Elminster, the greatest and oldest Mage alive in the Forgotten Realms universe. Interestingly this book was much better than others I have read by Ed Greenwood, and was not quite expecting to be able to enjoy this much.

I found that the way Greenwood decided Elminster would learn to be a mage is very different from the way I have seen it done many times over and I truly enjoyed `growing' with him. Through the different phases of his life until he decided to finally accept magic and worship Mystra ( The Goddess of Magic).

Elminster's parents have been destroyed by one of the MageLord's of the realm and Elminster swears death to all Magelords, and truly seeks this through the book, and truly waits patiently for the right time to take his vengence.

One thing about Ed Greenwood is that if your reading his books you can't have any distractions. If you do you will get lost very very quick. I did have to back up a few times to understand what was going on. I was confused many other times as new characters seems to be introduced for the first time in the last thirty pages of the book, but all in all it comes together and the story survives the confusion.

So if your curious about Elminster's background, this is the best place to find it ( as well as where to start ). Someone not too well read in the Forgotten Realms might get a little lost in it all ( since Greenwood created the Realms he is very detailed ), but much of that can be looked over to find the real story, which is very good.

This review will contain a minor spoiler. I say minor because the spoiler is part of the flavor text on the back of the book and one of the main illustrations. Ed Greenwood is certainly on par with the great Salvatore, in that bost of their best characters are original, inventive, unique, and while some components of the characters feel a little cookie-cutter, the authors manage to potray or twist those particular values so that they are not readily apparent or the character works a new and inventive way around them. But Greenwoods kick-off book really gave me a shiver with some of the more.... disturbing aspects of the character Elminster.

Part way through the book, Elminster is turned into a woman, and renamed Elmara. This is done primarily to protect him/her from his/her pursuers, who obviously wish him/her dead. The somewhat sad and eerily disturbing point of Greenwoods first book is that not only does the character take the change without breaking stride, brushing it over nearly completely and giving it a somewhat rushed feel, he alludes to making a portion of the book into a near-imitation Harlequin novel, which nearly made me stop reading. Thankfully, blessedly, no such... interaction occurs. But it sort of tarnishes the tone of the middle portion of the book for most readers. Greenwood really dropped the ball on that one major ascept of Elminster, but thankfully, was able to catch it again.

In the first of the Elminster series, Ed Greenwood has done a great job with "The Making of a Mage". I found myself captivated and finished the book quickly. I am a first-time reader of Forgotten Realms. In picking out this book, I was afraid that I would be lost in the setting because I didn't know much about it, but that was not the case. I didn't feel the need for more background, so I believe the book can stand alone. If you're looking for a good start into the Forgotten Realms novels, I would definitely recommend starting here. I really enjoyed it, and will buy the next in the series.