Elminster in Hell

Forgotten Realms: Elminster, Book 4

By: Ed Greenwood

Narrated by: John Pruden

Hell hath such fury...

On the world of his birth he's all but a god, but when an ancient evil banishes him to the depths of the Nine Hells, he's just another lost soul. Elminster, Sage of Shadowdale, Chosen of Mystra, faces his most desperate struggle - to survive, to escape, to cling to his very sanity - and all the forces of the inferno are rallied against him.

©2002 Wizards of the Coast LLC (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Amazing

Such a great story, though it wad hard to get through at times because you feel as helpless as Elminster while he suffers at the mercies of an archdevil.

Sooooo kludgy...

This book was so jarring to listen to with the story transitioning back and forth. If I'd hadn't heard any of his other novels, I'd have given up somewhere around the half way mark.

Terrific Book

Listened to the other 3 books. This book by far is the best so far. It is very deep and has lots of action. Some of the most powerful beings in the forgotten Realms battle it out in this book wow! If you are a D&D nerd like me. You will love this book! They have all been great so far. But this is the 1st book in the series. that I felt compelled to write a review for so far. It was so good!

Lose your mind as Elminster loses his

This is by far the weakest of the 4 Elminster books I have read so far in the series. The author attempts what I hope is a one time narrative experiment, using the device of Elminster held prisoner in Hell and having his memories extracted by a devil, to treat the reader to a torrent of FR short stories, each one a memory being extracted from Elminster. It doesn't work - the short stories are jumbled fragments of bigger events with characters we don't really know (unless you've read perhaps every FR novel and gaming supplement); it is possible to follow with great determination and there are some highlights but it is not enjoyable on the whole. As others have stated, the true torture is the devil saying after each memory is shown "Stop wasting my time and show me the good stuff". After the 10th time, you wish he'd kill Elminster and maybe you as well to end this torment.

Books 1 and 2 were excellent; Book 3 is solid but starts with a big time gap which breaks continuity with the prior 2 books and introduces early signs of the narrative gaps that are rampant in Book 4. The audio performance across the books is good. I am wary of reading another in this series especially with the reviews on Book 5, and moved on to a different series to cleanse my palate for a bit. The greatest mage in the Realms deserves better!

Good Content, Hard to follow flow and narration

Interesting, but hard to follow. The narrator does not distinguish dialogue and narration well. The story jumps around a lot, and seems to have missed portions that should have been exposited, but are instead later just explained away. The meandering style proves how interesting each pericope is, to be able to hold your attention and keep you listening, but makes it hard to follow the progression and properly understand/be affected by the literary devices used. It seems almost that Greenwood was enjoying writing so much, that he hit the 400 page mark and thought, "Oops, time to draw this to a conclusion." One character seemed to be developed well over the pages, but it never fully came to fruition. Again, narration is hard to follow. You have to deliberately pay attention to avoid being lost and having to backtrack minutes.