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Forgotten Realms: Elminster #4
Elminster in Hell
Taken prisoner by a powerful demon, Elminster, the legendary wizard, finds himself imprisoned in hell, where he is tortured for his powerful mind and confronts the awful choice between death or madness. Reprint.
407 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 1, 2001
About the author
Ed Greenwood
369 books900 followersEd Greenwood is the creator of the Forgotten Realms fantasy world, which became the setting for his home D&D game in 1975. Play still continues in this long-running campaign, and Ed also keeps busy producing Realmslore for various TSR publications.
Ed has published over two hundred articles in Dragon magazine and Polyhedron newszine, is a lifetime charter member of the Role Playing Game Associaton (RPGA) network, has written over thirty books and modules for TSR, and been Gen Con Game Fair guest of honor several times.
In addition to all these activities, Ed works as a library clerk and has edited over a dozen small press magazines.
Invented the character Elminster from the popular Forgotten Realms RPG series. Currently resides in an old farmhouse in the countryside of Ontario, Canada.
Ed has published over two hundred articles in Dragon magazine and Polyhedron newszine, is a lifetime charter member of the Role Playing Game Associaton (RPGA) network, has written over thirty books and modules for TSR, and been Gen Con Game Fair guest of honor several times.
In addition to all these activities, Ed works as a library clerk and has edited over a dozen small press magazines.
Invented the character Elminster from the popular Forgotten Realms RPG series. Currently resides in an old farmhouse in the countryside of Ontario, Canada.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
May 14, 2012
The cover lied to me. I was promised dragon punching and instead there was graphic torture, infuriatingly flaccid threats, overuse of the word 'diabolical' and whole sections where the author gave up on complete sentences.
I am so disappointed. the cover promised such great things.... if I could give this 0 stars I would
I am so disappointed. the cover promised such great things.... if I could give this 0 stars I would
August 20, 2012
This is easily the worst of the Elminster books.
In general, Greenwood's (never more than adequate) writing has been deteriorating in his last few books. The story jumps around, the plot is difficult to follow and the characters are more and more caricatures. This is even worse in this book. The interaction between demon and Elminster switches between boring, unbelievable and disgusting (awful torture scenes that do little to impair Elminster). The resolution is a complete, unexpected and unbelievably cheap Deus-ex-Machina. And in the end, basically nothing has happened that has long term bearing on the world or the characters.
Elminster is a great idea of a character, the problem is that he is effectively the alter-ego of Greenwood (who in fact claims he is not, and that Mirt is his alter-ego). This means that he is invincible, infallible and irresistible (especially to the ladies) and lacks completely in character development. This last fact is kind of sad, since the whole series is supposed to expose this key character's centuries of back story.
In general, Greenwood's (never more than adequate) writing has been deteriorating in his last few books. The story jumps around, the plot is difficult to follow and the characters are more and more caricatures. This is even worse in this book. The interaction between demon and Elminster switches between boring, unbelievable and disgusting (awful torture scenes that do little to impair Elminster). The resolution is a complete, unexpected and unbelievably cheap Deus-ex-Machina. And in the end, basically nothing has happened that has long term bearing on the world or the characters.
Elminster is a great idea of a character, the problem is that he is effectively the alter-ego of Greenwood (who in fact claims he is not, and that Mirt is his alter-ego). This means that he is invincible, infallible and irresistible (especially to the ladies) and lacks completely in character development. This last fact is kind of sad, since the whole series is supposed to expose this key character's centuries of back story.
May 12, 2021
As I read the reviews for this book, I thought to myself that it couldnt possibly be as bad as people thought. In fact, I quite enjoyed the confusing mass that was the first couple chapters. However, upon reaching the 5th chapter and the 106th use of the word diabolical, I realized they were not incorrect.
This was such an atrocious conglomerate of discombobulated and terribly written chaos.
If you can avoid this book, do so. It made absolutely no sense.
May Mystra grant sense to this balderdash in the coming novels.
This was such an atrocious conglomerate of discombobulated and terribly written chaos.
If you can avoid this book, do so. It made absolutely no sense.
May Mystra grant sense to this balderdash in the coming novels.
February 18, 2013
Below meh.
July 13, 2023
Not what I was expecting, given the usual nature of Elminster’s adventures. The main plot could have been greatly condensed given that much of the titular character’s nature explored here was explored in other books. It was good when it was, not particularly staying when it lulled. This one can probably be skipped.
February 18, 2021
an utterly baffling failure of a novel. full of odd artistic choices that render the thing close to a train wreck; its hard at times to distinguish between the "memories"/short stories, and the "current day"/related to main plot, despite the use of bold font to try to let the reader know. an ineffective & confusing choice of distinction - should have used italics (which is what el's internal dialogue w nergal uses). intercut are hilariously gruesome scenes of our hero elminster being tortured that half the time more closely resemble stage directions than a novel. but essentially, nothing much of note happens for 400 pages. worst of all, the promised fight on the amazingly cool cover happens within the first, like, 20 pages. this is then followed by 380 more of an elderly man being tortured in incomplete sentences. cant believe they let it come out like this, but greenwood diiiiiiiiiid invent the whole forgotten realms setting, so maybe they cut him some slack. sucks!
January 23, 2012
Ed Greenwood, perpetrator of the biggest Mary Sue saga outside of the Anita Blake series, hits new levels of awful in this one. Oh. Wait. I am mistaken. There’s going to be a sequel, so new levels or depths will have a chance. I'm fine with Elminister being a hairy, sexy beast that only the hottest of scantily clad avatars of magical power can't help falling in love with. But at least keep track of your plot, Greenwood. And make it fun, not a bore.
February 18, 2014
I'll write more later but let is suffice for now to say this is awful. Nothing but story fragments strung together by a tedious and annoying frame. The scene at the end reminded of something a 4 year old would tell. This series started out with a great book, continued with a good book that was followed by a mediocre book. Now with book four we have come to awful. I am afraid of what the next book might bring. Things do not bode well.
May 13, 2020
I imagine the reader would be best served with more background knowledge of Elminster, the Sage of Shadowdale, and of the lore/history of Faerun before delving into this book. As my experience with these topics was rather limited, I spent the first 100 pages or so thoroughly confused. Eventually I got over that and just rolled with the storyline. Decent read and, as with all Wizards of the Coast material, good inspiration for crafting adventures of one's own design.
March 27, 2019
This was one of my least favourite AD&D and Forgotten Realms novels ever. The memory scenes were often well written and the only thing that kept me reading, in fat some of them could have been fleshed out to really good novels. The scenes with Elminster and the devil lord were simply boring and pointless.
April 13, 2018
Not as good as I thought it would be. The writing was good but the story wasn’t. I expected something different so that might be the issue. Ed is a good storyteller for sure, this one just wasn’t his best work.
December 21, 2007
My favorite in the elminster series.
September 25, 2018
Horrible.
April 27, 2026
Listen, I will fully admit that, thus far, I have failed to become an Ed Greenwood or an Elminster fan. However, I am a fan of the Forgotten Realms and for that, I am determined to slog through this series for the sake of completionism.
I know it is in Ed Greenwood's power to write something decent. Weirdly enough, Elminster: Making of a Mage, though far from being my favourite FR novel, is a well-paced, enjoyable story with enjoyable characters. However, the books in this series are becoming progressively worse, and now that I have freshly finished this hot steaming pile of rubbish, I feel as though I was the one in the Hells rather than Elminster.
I have a lot of beef with Ed Greenwood's writing style for its tendency to include TONS of characters and storylines that add nothing to the storyline, for failing to explain major events or timelines of such events within the story or the greater lore, and for pulling conclusions out of his arse that have so little to do with the entire novel's experience that it could be about a whole different book, and Greenwood's self-insertion as Elminster is eyerolling at best and repulsive at worse.
But most egregiously? Elminster can only be described as the greatest Baby Boomer fantasy and fetish: all he is does is waltz around the world with the blessing of a powerful goddess, whom he OBVIOUSLY seduced and bedded because of how incredible he is. He is all powerful and money is of no consequence. Therefore, mortal women don't stand a chance, thus every single attractive woman that crosses his path ends up throwing themselves at him. Of course, Mystra, his lover and goddess, doesn't oppose sharing her lover because she's beyond such a mortal thing as jealousy. However, I am not sure how that applies to all his mortal lovers...
But what I am baffled and disgusted at isn't the weird polyamorous, constantly changing, ill-defined open relationships with consenting adults- I'm not a prude, I don't take offense to sex in books (it's a part of life!) but it's the strangely pedophilic allusions that freak me the fuck out. Just to name a few examples- the last book ends with Elminster being tasked in raising 3 of the 7 silver sisters, which includes Storm Silverhand. In Hell, you experience a flashback in which an adult Storm is in bed with Elminster and kisses him passionately. Is no one else repulsed that it is implied that he bedded his adopted daughter? There is also the short story of Mirt the Moneylender and his adopted daughter Asper (now an adult)- she states clearly that she wishes to take him to husband, and he introduces her as his lady, creating another problematic grooming scenario. Last but not least, Elminster had a relationship with his teacher, the Srinshee, which is described as ancient, to be sure. However, her body was renewed in Elminster in Myth Drannor and only In Hell is she described as having the body of a nine year old elf child. Not to mention the numerous accounts of Mystra as El's lover as well as mother and goddess. I can already hear the arguments; they aren't blood related! They are all adults (at least in spirit..), she's a goddess... man, I don't care. I don't think a story ever needs to approach pedophilia or grooming or incest to be complete, and it sure as hell doesn't make it enjoyable.
As for the story itself? Same old Elminster garbage. 90% is bizarrely repetitive torture sequences, along with disjointed, incomplete flashbacks and a shitty devil saying he is running out of patience while simultaneously dragging out the longest interrogation ever, where nothing actually happens and nothing is told. Elminster suffers, Mystra steps in, his girlfriend gets buffed and kills half the population of Hell with some insane guy that serves almost no purpose, and the ending is some attempt at being George RR Martin writing a song of ice and fire by writing a full-character roster blowout that ends up feeling so irrelevant to the story that it is comical.
Elminster is resurrected by smashing his face on a silver platter that a maid-cosplaying Mystra dropped.
The End.
Don't read this.
I know it is in Ed Greenwood's power to write something decent. Weirdly enough, Elminster: Making of a Mage, though far from being my favourite FR novel, is a well-paced, enjoyable story with enjoyable characters. However, the books in this series are becoming progressively worse, and now that I have freshly finished this hot steaming pile of rubbish, I feel as though I was the one in the Hells rather than Elminster.
I have a lot of beef with Ed Greenwood's writing style for its tendency to include TONS of characters and storylines that add nothing to the storyline, for failing to explain major events or timelines of such events within the story or the greater lore, and for pulling conclusions out of his arse that have so little to do with the entire novel's experience that it could be about a whole different book, and Greenwood's self-insertion as Elminster is eyerolling at best and repulsive at worse.
But most egregiously? Elminster can only be described as the greatest Baby Boomer fantasy and fetish: all he is does is waltz around the world with the blessing of a powerful goddess, whom he OBVIOUSLY seduced and bedded because of how incredible he is. He is all powerful and money is of no consequence. Therefore, mortal women don't stand a chance, thus every single attractive woman that crosses his path ends up throwing themselves at him. Of course, Mystra, his lover and goddess, doesn't oppose sharing her lover because she's beyond such a mortal thing as jealousy. However, I am not sure how that applies to all his mortal lovers...
But what I am baffled and disgusted at isn't the weird polyamorous, constantly changing, ill-defined open relationships with consenting adults- I'm not a prude, I don't take offense to sex in books (it's a part of life!) but it's the strangely pedophilic allusions that freak me the fuck out. Just to name a few examples- the last book ends with Elminster being tasked in raising 3 of the 7 silver sisters, which includes Storm Silverhand. In Hell, you experience a flashback in which an adult Storm is in bed with Elminster and kisses him passionately. Is no one else repulsed that it is implied that he bedded his adopted daughter? There is also the short story of Mirt the Moneylender and his adopted daughter Asper (now an adult)- she states clearly that she wishes to take him to husband, and he introduces her as his lady, creating another problematic grooming scenario. Last but not least, Elminster had a relationship with his teacher, the Srinshee, which is described as ancient, to be sure. However, her body was renewed in Elminster in Myth Drannor and only In Hell is she described as having the body of a nine year old elf child. Not to mention the numerous accounts of Mystra as El's lover as well as mother and goddess. I can already hear the arguments; they aren't blood related! They are all adults (at least in spirit..), she's a goddess... man, I don't care. I don't think a story ever needs to approach pedophilia or grooming or incest to be complete, and it sure as hell doesn't make it enjoyable.
As for the story itself? Same old Elminster garbage. 90% is bizarrely repetitive torture sequences, along with disjointed, incomplete flashbacks and a shitty devil saying he is running out of patience while simultaneously dragging out the longest interrogation ever, where nothing actually happens and nothing is told. Elminster suffers, Mystra steps in, his girlfriend gets buffed and kills half the population of Hell with some insane guy that serves almost no purpose, and the ending is some attempt at being George RR Martin writing a song of ice and fire by writing a full-character roster blowout that ends up feeling so irrelevant to the story that it is comical.
Elminster is resurrected by smashing his face on a silver platter that a maid-cosplaying Mystra dropped.
The End.
Don't read this.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 23, 2025
If you're expecting the book in the series after The Temptation of Elminster to pick up anytime soon after the closing events of that novel, prepare to be thrown for a swerve, as this one opens centuries after the events of Temptation. Still, as the book is told through a series of flashback events, vignette-style, some catching up is slowly doled out to the reader.
With that said, this book is pretty thrilling, and it had me hungry to keep reading it to see what happens. The devil Nergal, who Elminster encounters in this novel, is a frightening and unsettling villain, and a great foil for our Chosen of Mystra.
The book has action, humor, romance, and of course, juicy Forgotten Realms lore.
With that said, this book is pretty thrilling, and it had me hungry to keep reading it to see what happens. The devil Nergal, who Elminster encounters in this novel, is a frightening and unsettling villain, and a great foil for our Chosen of Mystra.
The book has action, humor, romance, and of course, juicy Forgotten Realms lore.
May 24, 2024
Might be the best of the books at this point of the series
Mr. Greenwood really introduces us to a myriad of character, situations, wonderful moments (as always), but in a very unique way (no spoilers). The concept of Elminster finding himself in the first of the 9 hells is an interesting proposition in itself, much less who else “comes to the party”.
For all you Mystra loving Chosen Fans - this one is one of the best - stop reading my review, and go get LOST IN HELL with Elminster!!
Mr. Greenwood really introduces us to a myriad of character, situations, wonderful moments (as always), but in a very unique way (no spoilers). The concept of Elminster finding himself in the first of the 9 hells is an interesting proposition in itself, much less who else “comes to the party”.
For all you Mystra loving Chosen Fans - this one is one of the best - stop reading my review, and go get LOST IN HELL with Elminster!!
November 12, 2023
Terrible. I read this decades ago, and I remember being so annoyed I actually threw it in the middle of the street. Don't waste your time on this trash. It's Ed Greenwood essentially saying "Elminster is the best! And, oh and he sleeps with this sorceress and slays this demon prince. Now, back to seducing this beautiful elven maid." No struggle or character growth. If that's what you want to read, well, enjoy.
December 19, 2024
I am absolutely loving following El through all of his crazy ass journeys. This book continues with the fantastic imagery and badassery, but it throws in a lot more humor. Leave it to El to distract and irritate a devil with adventurous memories of being a slut for love and battles. A frustrated devil asking El, just who haven't you banged?
September 16, 2018
"No friend is worth dying for - when your detah isn't going to help him."
"Time not spent is not saved."
"Only fools know all the answers."
"Rumor...runs like a yapping dog; the truth creeps like a silent snail in its wake."
"Time not spent is not saved."
"Only fools know all the answers."
"Rumor...runs like a yapping dog; the truth creeps like a silent snail in its wake."
February 2, 2021
This is unquestionably the best book I have ever read. The torture scenes really stood out to me- they were outstanding, particularly how El got completely destroyed! I only wish they were longer! My favourite part was when he got his tongue ripped out.
April 16, 2023
While I think the idea of a collection of short stories bound by the "in hell" bit is good, the disjointedness and missing bits make it for a really irritating read. I would wish the writer had fleshed out some a bit more and also smoothened the in-hell bit a bit more.
November 26, 2024
Too many of the scenes revolve around the demon lord Nergal demanding that Elminster show him his memories of magic in use and then a random scene.
With how slow the plot moved, I feel that 2/3 of this book could have been cut out to pick up the pacing.
With how slow the plot moved, I feel that 2/3 of this book could have been cut out to pick up the pacing.
February 5, 2017
Love it
I have read this book several times now and I laugh and cry every single time I have read it
I have read this book several times now and I laugh and cry every single time I have read it
December 29, 2022
Confusing style. Okay once I got the hang of it. More like a collection of very short stories.
March 3, 2023
Elminster goes to hell and are tortured. Alot of memories that jumps all over the place and are hard to follow. The worst i have read so far.
March 15, 2024
While not bad this is the worst than the first three. The plot is simple, Elminster is stuck in the Hells and needs help. The big one turns out to be the Simbul.
April 27, 2024
A good fantasy novel to read.
April 11, 2025
It's really just a guy in hell. There's no real story or character development. Cool snippets of potential plot to feed other stories, but not much here.
November 20, 2025
Not his best book. Very disjointed
May 23, 2026
Personally, I did not care for the constant views into Elminster's memories, nor the constant debates between him and the archdevil riding his memories.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews