Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating book.
Review: "Evermeet" is a fascinating mixture of history that seems to have been written by an elven historian and single stories told through the eyes of individual elves. The stories always have some bearing on the history, but the personal aspect makes it easier to understand, and more interesting. The book begins with an account of treachery and war between the elven gods, and continues with a steadily advancing timeline focused more on the Realms. Woven in with this is a present-time story of Evermeet in crisis. Elaine Cunningham keeps them all seperate and writes with the beauty that marks her other books. Only reason I didn't give this book a 10: There are annoying time gaps. The book is given to leaping ten, twenty, or hundreds of years without warning. But other than that, it's great.
Rating: 
Summary: An exciting history of the People
Review: "Evermeet: Island of Elves" was an excellent read and hard to put down, but I am biased because I am a big fan of elven lore in the Forgotten Relams. The book filled many holes in elven history that I could not find elsewhere or where my own creativity fell short while role-playing. The ending of the book was a bit abrupt and the way the story jumps around in time took some effort to follow. Many people will be turned off by this. On the other hand, jumping around kept the overall suspense going and is a key reason I couldn't put the book down. Most of the book is like a series of great short stories interconnected by family lines throughout elven history, culminating in a characterization of the entire elven race. Don't expect a lot of individual character development in this book. There just isn't enough time in a short story to really develop a character. Instead, look forward to the portrayal and evolution of elven character as a whole. Also, some of the jumping around may be confusing if you have not at least touched on some of the elven history of the Forgotten Realms in other books and AD&D modules. Cunningham dives deep into some concepts such as the elven moonblades (a very compelling aspect of this book) while leaving some other well known events (the fall of Myth Drannor) to be explained in other Forgotten Realms books. This may be frustrating to someone that knows nothing about these events, but very appropriate as I'm sure Cunningham was trying to avoid re-writing stories from other books. "Evermeet..." is a love story, a story about finding a homeland and keeping it, a story about petty politics of both the gods and the elves and a story of honor, bravery and sacrifice. Cunningham seems to have an amazing grasp of events in the Forgotten Realms, understanding the "big picture" of this world of imagination. I enjoyed the book simply because it covered so much time (tens of thousands of years) while keeping it all connected throughout.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating book.
Review: "Evermeet" is a fascinating mixture of history that seems to have been written by an elven historian and single stories told through the eyes of individual elves. The stories always have some bearing on the history, but the personal aspect makes it easier to understand, and more interesting. The book begins with an account of treachery and war between the elven gods, and continues with a steadily advancing timeline focused more on the Realms. Woven in with this is a present-time story of Evermeet in crisis. Elaine Cunningham keeps them all seperate and writes with the beauty that marks her other books. Only reason I didn't give this book a 10: There are annoying time gaps. The book is given to leaping ten, twenty, or hundreds of years without warning. But other than that, it's great.
Rating:
Summary: An exciting history of the People
Review: "Evermeet: Island of Elves" was an excellent read and hard to put down, but I am biased because I am a big fan of elven lore in the Forgotten Relams. The book filled many holes in elven history that I could not find elsewhere or where my own creativity fell short while role-playing. The ending of the book was a bit abrupt and the way the story jumps around in time took some effort to follow. Many people will be turned off by this. On the other hand, jumping around kept the overall suspense going and is a key reason I couldn't put the book down. Most of the book is like a series of great short stories interconnected by family lines throughout elven history, culminating in a characterization of the entire elven race. Don't expect a lot of individual character development in this book. There just isn't enough time in a short story to really develop a character. Instead, look forward to the portrayal and evolution of elven character as a whole. Also, some of the jumping around may be confusing if you have not at least touched on some of the elven history of the Forgotten Realms in other books and AD&D modules. Cunningham dives deep into some concepts such as the elven moonblades (a very compelling aspect of this book) while leaving some other well known events (the fall of Myth Drannor) to be explained in other Forgotten Realms books. This may be frustrating to someone that knows nothing about these events, but very appropriate as I'm sure Cunningham was trying to avoid re-writing stories from other books. "Evermeet..." is a love story, a story about finding a homeland and keeping it, a story about petty politics of both the gods and the elves and a story of honor, bravery and sacrifice. Cunningham seems to have an amazing grasp of events in the Forgotten Realms, understanding the "big picture" of this world of imagination. I enjoyed the book simply because it covered so much time (tens of thousands of years) while keeping it all connected throughout.
Rating:
Summary: a fast paced and wonderful read
Review: After Reading through Daughter of the Drow I dove head first into this book to find out more to boost my knowledge of the Realms Elves and their deep history.
I must admit there where times when the story jumped and I found myself flitting back through pages to work out what was happening (though I am pretty new to the Realms books so maybe that's just me)
But just like Elaine's other book I mentioned I found myself thrown into the story and after a short while found myself enjoying the who's related to whom and how side of the book.
The story itself is wonderful if you can keep up with its speed. The characters are a bit of a mixed bag but most are well very written and wish there was more story written of them.
If you were interested in looking into the history of the elves of the Forgotten Realms, I'd say you need not look anywhere else.
Rating:
Summary: Evermeet is the modern version of the Silmarillion.
Review: Along the lines of JRR Tolkien's classic, the Silmarillion, and with a slight touch of Spelljammer and Planescape, comes Elaine Cunningham's Forgotten Realms novel, Evermeet: Island of Elves.
It deals with the Elves and their long journey through the eons up until the present (as far as the Forgotten Realms world is concerned).
It does bring to mind Ed Greenwood's and Jeff Grubb's Cormyr, and one could easily claim that Evermeet deals with the Elves in a similar way that Cormyr presents the history of the Cormyreans, or Cormytes as is more common within the Kingdom.
The book is so incredibly well written that the reader feels that they have been transported to another universe and are actually present among the characters, seeing what they see, feeling what they feel, sensing what they sense. Elaine Cunnigham has truly outdone herself once again and has presented us with a masterpiece of literature the likes of which we have seen only in JRR Tolkien's work, RA Salvatore's The Dark Elf and Icewind Dale trilogies and in authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance Chronicles and Legends trilogies.
She has done a FANTASTIC job of both acquiring vast knowledge relevant to the People as well as presenting this material relating to the customs, the religion and the history of the Elves, efficiently and successfully! Her solid grasp of factual detail makes her very capable of providing the necessary background needed to carry out the difficult task of writing Forgotten Realms novels, especially one as complex as this, which is something often missing from the work of many Fantasy authors. Do keep in mind though, that Evermeet is not a book for the light-hearted, instead it is more tuned to the needs/taste of the Forgotten Realms die-hards (like myself...)
Gods, Elves, Dragons, Magic, Honor, Love and swordfights are all about. Elaine Cunningham's Elfshadow, Elfsong, and Silver Shadows make up for a great trilogy and are a "must read" together with Evermeet, especially for all those who have a soft spot for everything Elven!
Rating:
Summary: A very impressive novel
Review: As a general rule, I've truly enjoyed everything that Elaine Cunningham has written in the Forgotten Realms setting, and this novel is no exception. This book is actually more impressive than the others, simply because it's obvious how much time and effort went in to getting all the details on elven history right--not to mention somehow managing to make it all so interesting. The best part of the book is learning about the elven gods--a subject largely neglected in other novels. I especially liked the tales describing the separation of the dark elf gods from the surface elves.' The only reason this book didn't receive a perfect score is because it isn't quite as much fun to read as the series involving Arilyn/Danilo or Liriel Baenre. This is a book I would suggest for people who have already read her other novels, not for first-time readers. Still, an extremely enlightening and impressive novel.
Rating:
Summary: Yes, yes, YES!
Review: BY FAR the best Forgotten Realms book out there, source book or novel. EC takes her previous characters (you may want to read those first) and weaves them lightly through the myths, legends, and truths of the Elven peoples. The novel begins with the story of the Seldarine and Araushnee's trechery. This sets the tone for the wars to come among the elves of Faerun. The novel brings elves of Faerie to the northern edges of the Sword Coast back in the Time of Dragons, describes the mentality of certain Southern Dark elves in power, and leads through the Crown Wars, the creation and claiming of the Moonblades, and the founding, life, and near-destruction of Evermeet in compelling prose. Because of SO much lore packed into one book, if may be confusing to people new to Faerun's elven lore. (...) One odd note... I didn't get a copy of this until after September 11. The description of the two towers of the Sun and Moon being shattered touched me in a way that EC never could have predicted.
Rating:
Summary: Finally a good book by Cunningham
Review: Cunningham has shown a remarkable talent for building worlds, setting up a premise, and them ruining it all with laughable dialogue and poor character development. In this book, which is basically a history of Elves in the Forgotten Realms, she shows all of her many strengths, and doesn't stick with any of the characters long enough to ruin them. I know that sounds like a backhanded compliment, but it does apply. If you play D&D in the Forgotten Realms, you owe it to yourself to read this book. If you are looking for a great fantasy novel, it might not fit the bill because it really doesn't have a lot of character development; more like racial development. Well written, and entertaining, it is easily the author's best work.
Rating:
Summary: Tremendously enthralling......with a terrible ending.
Review: Elaine Cunningham has a remarkable gift for portraying the Elven People with a certain vibrance that other TSR books lack. She shares with us the history of the Elven People without simply rattling off names and dates. She allows one to get a feel for the Elven people more so than any other TSR writer. I was impressed by her ability to make her characters both larger than life (historical figures) and deep at the same time. My only criticism of the book is a rather harsh one, though. Simply put, the ending was tremendously dissapointing. This was not so much a result of what occurred, although that aspect could have used some more work as well, but rather because of the writing. It seemed that Elaine Cunningham simply ran out of energy as the ending was shaped. Throughout the book there are multiple time sequences and and plot points that all converge to form a single dramatic moment. This culmination is marked by tremendous energy, momentum, suspence, drama and intrigue. The building-up to this point was a phenominal accomplishment. However, once the pinacle moment was reached, the climaxed is rushed along at break-neck speed and the book abruptly ends. Although most of the major questions are answered and most of the short term situations are resolved, the sudden urgency with which it all occurs greatly detracts from the overall effect. Overall, the book was truly entrancing and I vehemently reccomend it to anyone who shares my fondness for the Elven People.
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