Elminster in Hell: The Elminster Series

The last written book in the Elminster series turned out to be the least confusing book for me. His battles where still very confusing but the storyline was actually pretty good especially at the end. Stuck in Hell to save his friends Elminster is tortured and maimed by an Arch devil and his only way of being saved is to recall memories in which he sends out messages for help. A decent book.

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.

Yet another Elminster book by the famed Ed Greenwood, who created the Forgotten Realms a long, long time ago. Having only read a few of his previous books, I find that this one is very different from many of the other FR author's, both in style and in structure. The book is very easy to understand, once the reader has gotten about 20 pages into it, and althought sometimes it's very confusing to distinguish between the memories of Elminster, the current situation in Hell, and the situation in Faerun, they eventually sort themselves out.Greenwood's writing technique does not concentrate on the main character very often, but I find that this new stlye of writing is nonetheless ingenious. Unlike Salvatore's books, or even Cunningham's, which either concentrates on the main character throughout the book, or switches between out "heroes" and the "villains", Greenwood has demonstrated that he can tell the story of a thousand characters, each in intricate detail, and somehow wind them together, and by looking into Elminster's "Memories" (althought most of them somehow don't relate to Elminster whatsoever, I will explain it if you e-mail me.) Greenwood has perhaps achieved a new depth into his prized character and allowed the readers to share this with him.Although few may see this differently (see Subject: EWWW's comments on this book), I suppose that the book can be viewed from a number of angles. I think that perhaps action is not the base of this book (indeed, most of the book is a reaming of memories, and most readers are perhaps disappointed by this), but understanding. As said before, Greenwood's manipulation and control of the characters in this book is almost uncanny, as if several short novels have been combined into one.This is a definite read for all you Elminster fans out there. [....]

Weakened and trapped in hell after using his not inconsiderable power to repair a rift between the dark domain and his homeland of Toril, Elminster is captured by a powerful devil. Tortured in unimaginable ways, the demon seeks to break Elminster and thus obtain his unique knowledge both of magic and of the Goddess of Magic, Mystra.The story reads in many places like a group of mostly unrelated short stories, in the guise of Elminster's memories being viewed by the demon like some Saturday afternoon matinee. Often, though, we return to the mental battle being waged between El and the devil. It is overwhelmingly lopsided in the Hell-spawn's favor. We also flash to scenes in Toril, where El is desperately trying to contact powerful friends, in the hope they may aid him.This novel is another in the chronicle of the life of Elminster, having now moved from the distant past to more contemporary times in the current scheme of the Forgotten Realms. Frequently do we see the mighty Elminster reduced to ignominious defeat, as would be nearly all of the well-known Realms heroes were they in a similar predicament. We are given a relatively good versing in the politics of Hell, through the conversations between El and the Demon. We also deal repeatedly with a demon that is apparently too foolish to realize what El is doing the whole time. Also the demon constantly announces that he has had enough of El's distractions, only to allow himself to be distracted yet again. This is probably the weakest point of the book, but it must be considered acceptable in light of the vast brilliance and wisdom of Elminster; being able to constantly deflect the devil could certainly be no easy feat.I think that overall this is a good book, but that it is not as good as some of the earlier books in the series, where we were privy to the early years of the Realms' most reknowned wizard.

Let me start by saying that this is an amazing book, easily thebest Elminster book yet. However you will want to prepare yourselfbefore you read this book, this book is not a first-read book. Thisbook has quite a few prerequisites, including the previous 3 El books,the Avatar trilogy, and the shadows of the avatar trilogy (and the twobooks that follow those), and MOST definately Silverfall. I shouldpoint out that this book takes place in the current date of the Realmstimeline, and occurs just after the events in The Summoning, and areader may also consider reading that book before hand to see whatcaused El to go to hell (and also consider the three Netheril books asa prerequisite to The Summoning) Now that the prerequisites are out ofthe way, we can reveal some content. The book is about our belovedElminster trapped in the first layer of hell by a powerful devil whowill not rest until he has raped El's mind of all his preciousmemories. The first few pages of the book explain this, and also givethe realms dates for those memories. This book is one of the verybest Forgotten Realms books I have ever read (numbering over 70, andgrowing), and would place this book in the top five, along withServant of the Shard (another amazing Realms book). This book is veryenjoyable if you take the time to prepare yourself by readingSilverfall, and the other books mentioned above.