Rating: 
Summary: I cannot justify the money I spent.
Review: I'm willing to give most any book a chance by finishing it. I put this book down halfway through. Truth be told, this is, quite possibly, the worst book I've read in a long time. I began reading through the Forgotten Realms world with Salvatore's book, "The Legacy". Truth be told, that was one of the best books I have ever read. I knew little of Drizzt or his cadre before reading it, but the character development, battle choreography, and dialogue were top notch, IMO; thus making me enchanged with the characters and what would happen. I've read others since and have been similarly impressed as well by Elaine Cunningham. Then this tragedy, for lack of a better term, came across. In a book, I tend to want something to keep me interested, entertained, and something I can either believe in. The dialogue, I found, was good up until the point where El meets Mystra, then the whole of the thing just falls apart. The character development was fairly well done, especially for Farl. However, how am I supposed to believe that Elminster is on a god-granted crusade to smite those who killed his parents, then he turns around to smite those who killed his parents in the name of the people? How can he love his father when there's no direct interaction between them? The most troubling thing is the sudden jump in character from one who despises magic to one who loves it in a 3 page forced explanation, if you can call it that. That sort of blew the preception right out of the water for me. El's an old and powerful mage, that's granted. But he's portrayed here as both a wuss and someone with no real understanding, despite being a "Chosen of Mystra". I can't recommend this book to anyone in anyway. I'm actually surprised it made it to print due to more then a few typos apparent within the pages....
Rating: 
Summary: An Action-Filled, but Slightly Unbalanced Tale
Review: In crafting the tale of the early years of Elminster, a powerful mage, Ed Greenwood has not consistently matched his protagonist's abilities with his circumstances. While Elminster is thrust into many situations of hardship and danger, he consistently utilizes a combination of luck, inherent power, and reliance on others to proceed through the story, avoiding the need to enrich the character development of this overly-fortunate mage. Greenwood's world-building skills are superb, as could be expected of the creator of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. The various locations Elminster explores each have their own distinct feel to them, embodying not only their physical presences, but the lives and feelings of their inhabitants. From the secluded elven forests to the oppressed town of Hastarl, you never lose the important connection with Elminster's location that sets the mood in each section of the story. Unfortunately, a number of factors cause character development to suffer, in relation to the potential for interesting and diverse interactions. The primary flaw in this area is generated by Elminster's constant wanderings, continually severing the connections with the supporting characters the reader is just beginning to come to know. While locales are described so potently that even a brief visit is a boldly shocking chance of pace, characters need time to change, to grow, and to learn throughout the course of the story. By periodically abandoning each set of characters, as if they were an unchanging part of the scenery in a particular part of the realm, Greenwood flattens them into unchanging figures, each with only a few patterns of interaction evident in the novel. This abandonment may be most harsh when Elminster leaves the town of Hastarl, where the most diverse and interesting cast of characters, with so much potential for varied conflicts and dreams, has been introduced and true character development has just begun. Elminster himself is the one character who is never abandoned, and who had the most options available to him for fascinating growth along with slowly increased power. While the development of a powerful mage would seem to be an exciting and wonderful task, it seems that it is this very power that sabotaged the creation of Elminster. Elminster appears to be most human, in his truest and most understandable form, before he acquires any magic. His motivations are clear and, more than that, they are elegantly portrayed, enticing the reader to empathize with this driven man. Elminster's acceptance of magic, in the face of his past, comes too quickly and completely for belief, and worse still, he never once questions the power he has been given after the process is long over. The further Elminster delves into his magic and his quest, the further he is distorted in the reader's mind, until discerning his thoughts and feelings becomes an increasingly frustrating chore. A further, striking element is Greenwood's attempts to balance the story and the powerful protagonist. As Elminster's magic grows, he becomes capable of incredible feats that would make the trials he goes through seem slight indeed. Perhaps to compensate for these disturbing tendencies, Greenwood makes sure that Elminster encounters a variety of problems too difficult for him to handle (even if, logically, he should be able to master these tasks without a terrible degree of difficulty). However, because Elminster is alone, and must survive and conquer, he must call upon help to get him through the problems he can not solve. While this mix of self-reliance and dependence on others would seem to provide balance to the story, like a chaotic pendulum, it does just the opposite. In one scene Elminster will call upon miraculous powers to obliterate foes far stronger than he, then in the next scene he will be helpless and require aid to overcome even the slightest difficulty. Although this odd combination is arguably better, though less logical, than consistently keeping Elminster a powerful figure, a much more gradual increase in magical power, coupled with ways of getting out of difficult situations other than calling for help, would have served this story well. Creating a prequel is a difficult task, and Greenwood deserves credit for creating an adventure-biography both engrossing and dynamic. However, as was illustrated by R.A. Salvatore in his excellent prequel Homeland, a character destined to be powerful and pivotal in later tales need not already be the imposing figure he will one day become. To show a gradual development, building to the greater stage in small increments, without disturbing the story's logic or balance in the process, is a greater achievement by far.
Rating:
Summary: OK, but needed a little help
Review: It was certainly interesting to see how Elminster began. His adventures up until the point when he becomes a chosen are pretty well thought out and have a decent plot. Unfortunately, Greenwood begins Elminster's habit of crying out to Mystra every time he is in need of help, no matter how slight. The ending where Elminster and Mystra become lovers I found to be ridiculous. Magic is all screwed up in terms of D&D, but it isn't too internally inconsistent. The inconsistencies there raise some questions, like "If Elminster can cast this one spell that he cast before, why doesn't he use it here? He's supposed to be brilliant. Hmm." At least the elves in this book are decently, if shallowly, done. Don't read the next book, Elminster in Myth Drannor, if you are interested in finding out what elves are like. If you can gloss over the inconsistencies and ignore the whining helpless Elminster at the end of the book, it makes a decent source of history of Elminster's beginnings if you want history for a Forgotten Realms campaign world.
Rating: 
Summary: Liquidnitro2'a Review: Elminster: The Making of a Mage
Review: Follow Elminster, the most powerful mage in all of Faerun. See how he began as a simple farmboy, and then turned into a legend. This is a truly exciting and fun book to read and I would recommend this to anyone. Filled with battle, Gods, and Magic, this book will quickly become a favorite for anyone who reads it!
Rating: 
Summary: very entertaining book
Review: I must say this book is a bestseller for a good reason,it is very entertaining and you go thru it pretty fast and dinamically,the story is fun and has a lot of good supporting characters. what I didn't like about this book whas mainly that elminster goes from thief to magician to woman to man and so on,throughout the book,too many intricasies for one single character make it lack certain realism. the story itself is very dinamic so you'll surely enjoy it,it involves big situations eventhough it is not very epic it has a story with very high points as you follow the tale of a young boy who's familly dies at the hands of an evil wizard who serves a society of others devoted to dominating the weak by abusing power and magic,this boy grows and bows to avenge his fathers death and as he travels meeting a lot of characters he learns about magic and so on...but I think you should read it yourself to know. do I recommend this one? well I think its a quicl read and its quite fun so you should give it a try,you'll surelly like it.
Rating:
Summary: Ed, stick to game supplements
Review: once again, Ed Greenwood whips up a tale that spins furiously out of control into a titanic clash of over the top spells and magic. What became of characters finding that they are sometimes actually overmatched and have to survive on their wits? Elminster becomes so powerful so fast that it is impossible to enjoy his growth and relish in his increasing power. To see a carefully crafted magic user see the struggles of Raistlin. Ed Greenwood may be good at creating game supplements but he should leave storytelling To Margaret Weis, tracy Hickman, R.A. Salvatore, Elaine Cunningham, James Lowder et al.
Rating:
Summary: The night ended before the book did....
Review: This is probably what I would call the BEST AD&D world based novel I have read so far. It delves so deep into the personality and background of what many would call THE main character of the Forgotten Realms background. When I first started it I was a little sceptical. After all how many pages can you write about someone who appears in all Forgotten Realms written works ? But once again I experienced the true wonder of Ed Greenwoods writing, and as the subject says : the night ended before the book did.. This book definately has a space on my fantasy shelves.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: This was simply the best book ive read in a long while. While he suffers bad losses none were bad enough to make me angry at the book as it has in others (dark elf trilogy flashback, god some things made me really mad! It was like when ya hadda kill Fenix in Brood War!), and i like that alot. I couldent help but laugh at the intended comedy in the book and everything seemed to be in its right place. Even the ending was very satisfying and i found the book very hard to put down, and now its got me hooked on everything forgotten realms. It was my start in this whole big thing....I better get out while i hate the chance.
Rating:
Summary: Elminster a go-go
Review: See Elminster, see Elminster run, see Elminster run all throughout Faerun. See him live scorn hope mope fight steal cast pray die and rise. All an all a nice book. At times I was waiting for something more to happen but plot development is also very important to me. If you havent read this book in more than a year or so, pick it up again. it can be more and more entertaining the second time you've read it but is just as good the first time. Ed does surprises fairly well although his books lack twist. and that, is all I have to say about that.
Rating: 
Summary: Finally!
Review: A book that exceeds the horrors of Spellfire and Crown of Fire by the same author! Almost a good book! Full of nude scenes! Filled with impossible magic! Behold, Elminster defeats some twenty soldiers after going, "Give me a little cider before I deal with them, thank you." EEEeeeeek!
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