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The Annotated Elminster ~Ed Greenwood
Topic Started: August 20, 2011, 8:43 am (211 Views)
Blue Phoenix
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Right now I'm reading The Annotated Elminster, a D&D hardcover of Ed Greenwood's first three Elminster books (master mage, world/other-dimension traveler, about a thousand years old, Chosen of Mystra) and i'm enjoying it immensely. Unlike the couple of later books (which i happened to read first) depicting him later in life, this is how El got his start; losing his family and entire village, surviving on his own, meeting the goddess of magic, studying magic and helping to create the Mythal that surrounded the lost city of Myth Drannor (formerly Cormanthor).

I'm confused... the later books that I read are not really well written, and include salacious acts of nudity, sex and sexual torture. (The same was true of The Seven Sisters book.) I had gotten the strong impression that this guy rambled, his stories were too loose (bouncing all over the place with different, unconnected, characters), and he was really just a middle-aged horny teen with a LOT of fantasies to expose.

However, this first set of books set in Annotated are well written, interesting, creative, and even the (few) sex/nude scenes are well-told and untittilating. Given the strong difference between the earlier books and the later ones (I haven't read them all yet, but I will) AND Greenwood's notations in Annotated to readers about how few weeks he had to write and edit and finalize the first book or two, i'm convinced he had a ghost writer, a really good one. I am very much enjoying these. I can't wait to see the latest books; I have several more to read!

Reading the Elminster series is a 'must' when you're trying to discover the rich tapestry of 30-plus years of Dungeons & Dragons history in a quick catch-up. Annotated gives you insight of how all this got started and how the originator of the world thinks, as if you're having a chat with the man. I'm sorry I wasn't in Faerun right from the beginning... but my first exposure of D&D nerdy gamers sitting around weaving stories in their heads while going SO SLOW in front of me, me not having any of the source materials to read through in order to understand the world or game, and their munching on pot-laced fudge really turned me off when I was in my twenties. I really missed out on a great world! But I'm catching up now. :)


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