Elminster Must Die!: The Sage of Shadowdale by Ed Greenwood – Review

Elminster Must Die! is the debut 4th edition appearance of one of the Forgotten Realms® world’s most iconic characters, written by the creator of the original Forgotten Realms campaign setting. An instant classic, and a must-read for every Realms fan.
 
When the goddess of magic was murdered, Elminster’s world shattered. Once the most powerful wizard in the world, immortal, beloved of the goddess of magic, and the bane of villainy, he is now a tired old man. He is powerful but mortal, and with all the enemies a man who makes a habit of saving the world tends to accumulate. To make matters worse, Elminster has needs—feeding powerful magic items to the Simbul, his lover, is the only thing that keeps her sane—but their increasingly risky collection leads his enemies right to him.

Ed Greenwood brings his iconic character Elminster through the Spellplague. Like most readers of the Forgotten Realms, I am used to seeing Elminster as the “impossible to kill” character. Yet now his protector Mystra is dead, and magic and Elminster are no longer safe. Greenwood’s work is fun and exciting, and this new chapter is no different. Elminster cannot use magic without further harming himself. This makes the all-powerful mage quite human, as he must use his wits to solve his problems. My only complaint about this storyline is that most of Elminster’s appearances in the first part of the book find him running about complaining that he cannot use magic. I get the fact that Elminster cannot use spells and find it tedious that Greenwood keeps reminding me.

The element that bothered me the most about Elminster and this book is that the title character falls under the long shadow of Gandalf. Elminster has always seemed like a generic version of a great character to me, and his sparing use of magic and more of his wit only solidifies, for me, that he is a knock off. There is nothing wrong with that; imitation is the best from of flattery in my opinion. I have been reading Forgotten Realms books for years, and Elminster is enjoyable, even while he still rings Gandalf for me.

Greenwood does a great job with dialogue, action, and making the cast of characters seem like old friends the reader has not seen in a while. This book suffers only from its ties to a game word and the need to keep it current and in line with gaming products. There are also the expected bundles of plot twists, used over and over again in fantasy novels, and the appearance of an annoying adversary who reminded me of a dastardly villain who has tied a maiden to the railroad tracks. Who then rambles about how he will kill Elminster and proceeds to stroke his long mustache.

Despite the failings I found, this is still a great book. Ed Greenwood is master of the Realms, and this is his Wizard’s Tale. I have read all the Elminster books thus far and honestly enjoyed them very much, as long as I pushed all thoughts of Gandalf out of my head. I think the Spellplague is great idea and makes for great storytelling and reshaping the Realms, which has become tired as of late. However, this is not a new thing for Greenwood or the Realms. I remember the “Time of Troubles” which also had Mystra die and magic suffer; this was covered by the 1989 Avatar Trilogy, produced then by TSR. So I felt like old ground was being treaded again, this time by different characters.  

There is no doubt in my mind that Greenwood has created a Realm like no other, or that he has provided me and many other readers many hours of adventure. Change is good, and if anything Greenwood has shown that history can repeat itself even in a fantasy setting. If you are an Elminster or Forgotten Realms fan, this book is a must read for the sheer fun of it. Game world novels often suffer from the source of their creation, the “game.” I have never been a fan of the game world, but I certainly do love the setting. How could any fantasy fan ignore all the creative power that has made this setting what it is over a twenty year period. Elminster Must Die!…well, the next book is called Bury Elminster Deep!  Guess this story is not done yet!