Elminster in Hell: Forgotten Realms: Elminster, Book 4

I have seen television shows, heard of books and movies. I must say I love Nergal's character for he (and all other demons in this book) embody the sense of old world poetry and distorted virtues that captures everything that is wrong with the fallen nature of man perfectly. The scenes of torture and Nergal's quotes are spot on. The chapters do shift from scene to scene often but anyone who has been scarred, subject to physical and mental cruelty, lost all hope in life can relate to the graphic content very well. I strongly recommend this novel to anyone (goth's especially) provided they keep an open mind because the ride is worth it.

great series to read

GREAT

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.

The story was good, but following the conversation El and demon got to be a pain.

Best book in the Elminster series. There are A LOT of negative reviews but they mostly appear written by random normies that gave the book a try rather than actual fans of this kind of work. One of my favorite FR books and definitely the best of Elminster's tales.

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.

I am a die hard R. A. Salvatore Reader. Compared to his latest books I am missing something while reading Ed Greenwood. I read all 4 of his Elminster books and wasn't drawn as I was with the Salvatore books.

Great book

Well, I finally got to that point in this series, the point where I just struggle to read something so I can skip to the next book.Obviously it's an important part of the whole series itself, but oh lord how it's hard to get through. The whole book itself is a collection of torturing and flashbacks of other characters I really have no clue to as to whoever they are, so maybe this one isn't really made for a person barely knowledgeable of the Forgotten Realms world.