Elminster the Mage’s origins—the first in a series of magical fantasy novels set in Dungeons & Dragons’ Forgotten Realms In ancient days, sorcerers sought to learn the One True Spell that would give them power over all the world and understanding of all magic. The One True Spell was a woman, and her name was Mystra—and her kisses were wonderful. It is the time before Myth Drannor, when the … before Myth Drannor, when the Heartlands are home to barbarians, and wicked dragons rule the skies. In these ancient days, Elminster is but a shepherd boy, dreaming of adventure and heroics. But when a dragon-riding magelord sweeps down upon him, the boy is thrust into a world of harsh realities, corrupt rulers, and evil sorcerers.
With patience and grit, Elminster sets about to change all that. The result of his labors is a world reborn—and a mage made.
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What can I say…. I like the whole Forgotten Realms setting
Loved this book. Elminster is a terrific character, complete with his vulnerabilities, courage, dedication to his mission. The plot had some interesting twists and turns as Elminster meets various magelord challenges. It was a joy to watch his focus and his relationships with other characters.
Fun book that establishes the origin of an iconic character in the Forgotten Realms universe. A fun read.
I confess I hesitated to read this book. Firstly, a friend had told me some of the plot (although I didn’t remember much by the time I got around to reading it). Secondly, it’s an Ed Greenwood, who’s known for being… verbose. Thirdly, I didn’t know what to expect from tales about mages, which is a justifiable objection if you consider that for decades the majority of protagonists in fantasy were swordsmen. I think it’s easier to connect to a fighter characters than to spellslingers. Nevertheless, it was ultimately having a book with a mage as main character what attracted me to the book. How ironic that Elminster starts the story as a brigand!
The plot isn’t a far cry from any other origin story: a humble boy has his family slaughtered by the tyrant usurper king, finds out he’s the last heir to the throne, allies himself with some rebels, renegades his origins, is convinced by a higher power that he’s not only from royal blood but also “the chosen one”, also rejects that destiny — until he sees people dying due to his inaction, then goes training, thinks he’s up to the challenge (he isn’t), gets his butt handed to him by the villain, goes back to training, loses something important to the villain, something that makes him go after the villain seeking revenge this time, finally beats the bad guy and finds out that revenge has a sweet-and-sour taste.
The best part of this book is that Greenwood tells this clichéd story quite well! His protagonist is believable and charming. He also creates several deep, complex and unpredictable secondary characters — in fact, I think that’s the strong side of the book. The author knows how to create and handle situations that jump out of the pages to create an aura of suspension of disbelief around the reader. Also, his scenes are vivid; we can see them clearly in our mind’s eye. I don’t think it’s easy to build dialogues that don’t sound constructed or forced, but Greenwood (at least in this book) managed it.
I need to warn you that the death scenes, especially when it’s a magician who dies, are pretty gory — things out from the movie «Final Destination». I’m not kidding!
All in all, «Elminster: The Making of a Mage» is an enjoyable read and a pleasant journey, if a little predictable (particularly if you play D&D and know the Forgotten Realms campaign setting), but that doesn’t make the book less interesting. Mr. Greenwood manages to create a narrative which proves that knowing the outcome doesn’t diminish the pleasure or the quality of the reading.
Its been a very long time since I read this book, but I do remember really liking it!