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Shandril's Saga #3
Hand of Fire
The third book in Ed Greenwood’s first Forgotten Realms trilogy.
Author Ed Greenwood concludes the story of Shandril of Highmoon in this third volume of the Shandril’s Saga trilogy. This mass market edition of the trade paperback features new cover art by Jon Sullivan.
AUTHOR A resident of Ontario, Ed Greenwood created the Forgotten Realms setting nearly 30 years ago and has written hundreds of novels, articles, and game products in the setting. His most recent novel is Elminster’s Daughter.
Author Ed Greenwood concludes the story of Shandril of Highmoon in this third volume of the Shandril’s Saga trilogy. This mass market edition of the trade paperback features new cover art by Jon Sullivan.
AUTHOR A resident of Ontario, Ed Greenwood created the Forgotten Realms setting nearly 30 years ago and has written hundreds of novels, articles, and game products in the setting. His most recent novel is Elminster’s Daughter.
384 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
32 people are currently reading
842 people want to read
About the author
Ed Greenwood
364 books883 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 - 27 of 27 reviews
March 10, 2009
I think I only gave this book 2 stars cause I actually read the whole thing and that would be sad if I finished a 1 star book...
This book definitley digressed back into greenwood's old style. What i didn't like is that in the first book, which gave me new hope for this author, the main charcaters were fighting really powerful enemies and doing cool things in cool places. By the time they get to this book, they are fighting bandits and spys from every faction they have been fighting since the begining (so there are no new suprises, just old fight scenes repeated with the same old outcomes...it becomes mindnumbingly repetitive) in a wagon train on a road.....I'm serious. That is the whole f*****ing book! There is 300 pages of wagon train. I was really disappointed.
I swear to god, every review I write is scathing. Why do I even read these books. I feel like such a jerk.
This book definitley digressed back into greenwood's old style. What i didn't like is that in the first book, which gave me new hope for this author, the main charcaters were fighting really powerful enemies and doing cool things in cool places. By the time they get to this book, they are fighting bandits and spys from every faction they have been fighting since the begining (so there are no new suprises, just old fight scenes repeated with the same old outcomes...it becomes mindnumbingly repetitive) in a wagon train on a road.....I'm serious. That is the whole f*****ing book! There is 300 pages of wagon train. I was really disappointed.
I swear to god, every review I write is scathing. Why do I even read these books. I feel like such a jerk.
May 30, 2023
Shandril and Narm make a run to get to Silverymoon, trying to stay one step ahead of their growing list of enemies.
I disliked this book so much that it made me mad. Shandril is such a cool character, and here she does nothing but moan and feel bad for herself. There is very little linear plot, no character development, and no unique set pieces. Just fight, sleep, repeat. Every battle feels the same, and the conclusion brought no redemption. I've really liked a lot of Greenwood novels, but I feel like he just wasn't sure what to do here.
I disliked this book so much that it made me mad. Shandril is such a cool character, and here she does nothing but moan and feel bad for herself. There is very little linear plot, no character development, and no unique set pieces. Just fight, sleep, repeat. Every battle feels the same, and the conclusion brought no redemption. I've really liked a lot of Greenwood novels, but I feel like he just wasn't sure what to do here.
June 18, 2013
wow her husband is a total waste of ink written on a page..this book was better than the first two of the series because this was the last one..
March 1, 2025
Oh my, I don't think that one star is sufficient to express how bad this book is. There are spoilers below, but I wouldn't worry too much. I would just avoid this horrible book.
The story is essentially a 300-page wagon train running along the Trade Way, with wave after wave of enemies throwing themselves at Shandril, just to be spellfire'd by them. Rinse and repeat. No point to it.
The worst is, they seem to be completely incapable. Powerful wizards with no contingencies, walking in on Shandril without even an invisibility spell, just relying on some very basic plan to grab spellfire and counting on it to succeed, without any backup plan apart from the occasional wand here and there.
Narm is a totally useless character. He doesn't do anything useful apart from whining now and then, and he's completely flat. Not that the other characters have any substance, either.
The tone is also completely wrong. At times, Shandril and Narm are desperate. Other times, they are just having fun while everybody on the wagon train is either killing, dying, or burning stuff.
Then there is the elephant in the room, going all over the whole trilogy: the Malaugrym. They really have no point in the whole story, they seem to have been put there just for show. In this last book, they only appear twice, one at the very beginning, walking in blindly on Shandril and friends to be immediately incinerated by spellfire, and the other just to allow Elminster show off and boss others around.
There's a huge amount of useless mages and priests from various factions, but since they just throw themselves at Shandril inviting her to burn them with spellfire, they are completely irrelevant, when they come up the reader can't remember what faction they were from, and overall it looks just like the old video game Lemmings!, because they go blindly to their deaths.
The only sensible part is when Shandril herself is destroyed by spellfire. The whole book appears to be a very badly-written crescendo leading up to that very point. But then, her reappearance as a ghost, telling Narm to find himself another girl, is the rightly pathetic ending to the saga.
To do justice to the Forgotten Realms and to the author's amazing skill at creating this wonderful world, all copies of the books of this trilogy should be burned, and digital versions permanently deleted.
The story is essentially a 300-page wagon train running along the Trade Way, with wave after wave of enemies throwing themselves at Shandril, just to be spellfire'd by them. Rinse and repeat. No point to it.
The worst is, they seem to be completely incapable. Powerful wizards with no contingencies, walking in on Shandril without even an invisibility spell, just relying on some very basic plan to grab spellfire and counting on it to succeed, without any backup plan apart from the occasional wand here and there.
Narm is a totally useless character. He doesn't do anything useful apart from whining now and then, and he's completely flat. Not that the other characters have any substance, either.
The tone is also completely wrong. At times, Shandril and Narm are desperate. Other times, they are just having fun while everybody on the wagon train is either killing, dying, or burning stuff.
Then there is the elephant in the room, going all over the whole trilogy: the Malaugrym. They really have no point in the whole story, they seem to have been put there just for show. In this last book, they only appear twice, one at the very beginning, walking in blindly on Shandril and friends to be immediately incinerated by spellfire, and the other just to allow Elminster show off and boss others around.
There's a huge amount of useless mages and priests from various factions, but since they just throw themselves at Shandril inviting her to burn them with spellfire, they are completely irrelevant, when they come up the reader can't remember what faction they were from, and overall it looks just like the old video game Lemmings!, because they go blindly to their deaths.
The only sensible part is when Shandril herself is destroyed by spellfire. The whole book appears to be a very badly-written crescendo leading up to that very point. But then, her reappearance as a ghost, telling Narm to find himself another girl, is the rightly pathetic ending to the saga.
To do justice to the Forgotten Realms and to the author's amazing skill at creating this wonderful world, all copies of the books of this trilogy should be burned, and digital versions permanently deleted.
January 7, 2026
Hand of Fire picks up right from the end of Crown of Fire. When I say that, I mean this book is more of the same for the trilogy, and unfortunately that is not a compliment. The chase continues as the bad guys, and there are so many more bad guys, look to steal Spellfire from Shan.
We find the group in the final leg on their journey to Silverymoon. In attempt to gain safe passage, Shan and Narm get a spell to hide their true identities, which is quickly lost because Shan cannot keep her composure, which just fits her character so well as this point. Once the Shan makes it to the caravan leader, the team is off. Throughout the journey, other players in the caravan are discovered to be Zhents, Red Wizards and the like.
In the end Shan realizes that she can't control this power and she is under the assumption that she got Narm killed. In response, self immolation. For three books, we got an over powered wizard who was dropping dragons, beholders and the like with a blink of the eyes and in the end it was all for naught.
Like the first two books, this convoluted and busy. Far too many characters, especially villains. The character development remains lackluster.
Overall, this book is a 1.2 at the best and lacks on reasonable conclusion to characters in this trilogy. I cannot recommend Shandril Saga to anymore outside of a completionist looking to read all the Forgotten Realms novels.
Crown of Fire is the best of the
We find the group in the final leg on their journey to Silverymoon. In attempt to gain safe passage, Shan and Narm get a spell to hide their true identities, which is quickly lost because Shan cannot keep her composure, which just fits her character so well as this point. Once the Shan makes it to the caravan leader, the team is off. Throughout the journey, other players in the caravan are discovered to be Zhents, Red Wizards and the like.
In the end Shan realizes that she can't control this power and she is under the assumption that she got Narm killed. In response, self immolation. For three books, we got an over powered wizard who was dropping dragons, beholders and the like with a blink of the eyes and in the end it was all for naught.
Like the first two books, this convoluted and busy. Far too many characters, especially villains. The character development remains lackluster.
Overall, this book is a 1.2 at the best and lacks on reasonable conclusion to characters in this trilogy. I cannot recommend Shandril Saga to anymore outside of a completionist looking to read all the Forgotten Realms novels.
Crown of Fire is the best of the
January 31, 2021
This is the end of the trilogy of Spellfire. I have very mixed feelings about this book.
In the end, it had been able to rise some emotions. However the story is hard to read and to follow: too many characters, and many events which are very similar to one another.
So, just three stars. Maybe when I will re-read with paper and pencil to note all the characters, I will revise it.
PS: if you plan to run Hoard of the Dragon Queen, this book, with the two others, is very recomended.
In the end, it had been able to rise some emotions. However the story is hard to read and to follow: too many characters, and many events which are very similar to one another.
So, just three stars. Maybe when I will re-read with paper and pencil to note all the characters, I will revise it.
PS: if you plan to run Hoard of the Dragon Queen, this book, with the two others, is very recomended.
June 18, 2024
Overall, it's a good story as a whole trilogy.
I didn't care for all the fights going on between all the bad guys with eachother, just wanted Shan and Narm to make it to Silverymoon. Didn't expect that they never would or that Shan would actually die. I enjoyed learning more about the good guys (Tessaril Winter and Sharantyr in particular), and I thought the last 100 pages were the best in the story and did a good job of ending the trilogy.
I didn't care for all the fights going on between all the bad guys with eachother, just wanted Shan and Narm to make it to Silverymoon. Didn't expect that they never would or that Shan would actually die. I enjoyed learning more about the good guys (Tessaril Winter and Sharantyr in particular), and I thought the last 100 pages were the best in the story and did a good job of ending the trilogy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 23, 2018
great trilogy
Wonderful story I do enjoy reading them. The other two books were just as satisfying to read I hope you enjoy them as much.
Wonderful story I do enjoy reading them. The other two books were just as satisfying to read I hope you enjoy them as much.
December 12, 2018
[Spoilers] A caravan to destruction where everyone dies. Boring. Drawn out.
December 24, 2018
Fight, sleep repeat
Fight, sleep repeat the whole book. But worth at least 1 reading through. Gotta keep saying something because this review requires at least 20 words.
Fight, sleep repeat the whole book. But worth at least 1 reading through. Gotta keep saying something because this review requires at least 20 words.
May 8, 2019
Not the ending I was expecting, but really the only way to end it.
June 10, 2021
Very good series
Very good series. A bit much power for one young girl. Well told story. In the Forgotten Realms bad guys are a dime a dozen.
Very good series. A bit much power for one young girl. Well told story. In the Forgotten Realms bad guys are a dime a dozen.
October 20, 2022
I like how we get a conclusion to the saga, but this one felt monotonous. That being said, Greenwood is really good at evoking emotion out of me, and I almost cried at one point.
June 14, 2023
This is another book I read in one sitting. It was a really intense adventure.
April 5, 2025
All credit to Ed Greenwood for creating the Forgotten Realms but this a plodding tale, with a dark conclusion and a sort of teen boy sensibility where people keep losing their clothes.
May 7, 2023
Another good example of how Ed Greenwood can create a magical world and juggle different fractions from across a continent, write a part of intriguing history... but absolutely not stories, especially no novels. Characters are as flat as ever, they talk and act in the way epic tales are narrated but not in a way that would lead the reader to any sort of familiarity or suspension of disbelief that this could actually be a place with living people.
Read if you're interested in the clash of the Zhentarim and the Cult and Red Wizards and Harpers and a few new players, not if you think you are getting the last part of Shandril's story because that one does not progress, it just ends.
P.S. I still don't understand why they could not simply be teleported to Silverymoon.
Read if you're interested in the clash of the Zhentarim and the Cult and Red Wizards and Harpers and a few new players, not if you think you are getting the last part of Shandril's story because that one does not progress, it just ends.
P.S. I still don't understand why they could not simply be teleported to Silverymoon.
July 20, 2021
Wow...I struggled to finish this. It's just that bad. Which is a shame as you don't want your Forgotten Realms books to be bad - you want them to kick ass (even if it's all popcorn). But when the milieu's creator writes an execrably bad book, then what can you say?
Basically the protagonist and her whiny husband nuke, obliterate, annihilate, incinerate, deep fry, fricassee, broil, roast, scorch, blast and excoriate every one of the legion of over-confident bad guys that contend with her. Just endless waves of them. It's like the literary version of Serious Sam 3.
That's it. That's what happens in this concluding tome. There's zero character development at all, no suspense, and the marvellous world the author created barely gets a mention. Every dangerous encounter is swept aside by Shandril's super-powers or the timely arrival of her equally faceless Harper allies.
Oh, Shandril dies at the end but she'll come back as a ghost to keep a watch on Narm, who gets sent off to find himself another wife. Narm...urgh, through the course of these three poorly written adventures, he's the common denominator that weighs them down. What a nobody! His single purpose is to provide a pillow and a shoulder for Shandril to cry on after she's finished vaporising the opposition for the day. He's an ineffectual and annoying cipher.
Summary: a godawful book. On to fresh woods and pastures, etc.
Basically the protagonist and her whiny husband nuke, obliterate, annihilate, incinerate, deep fry, fricassee, broil, roast, scorch, blast and excoriate every one of the legion of over-confident bad guys that contend with her. Just endless waves of them. It's like the literary version of Serious Sam 3.
That's it. That's what happens in this concluding tome. There's zero character development at all, no suspense, and the marvellous world the author created barely gets a mention. Every dangerous encounter is swept aside by Shandril's super-powers or the timely arrival of her equally faceless Harper allies.
Oh, Shandril dies at the end but she'll come back as a ghost to keep a watch on Narm, who gets sent off to find himself another wife. Narm...urgh, through the course of these three poorly written adventures, he's the common denominator that weighs them down. What a nobody! His single purpose is to provide a pillow and a shoulder for Shandril to cry on after she's finished vaporising the opposition for the day. He's an ineffectual and annoying cipher.
Summary: a godawful book. On to fresh woods and pastures, etc.
April 18, 2019
This was good mental exercise trying to remember all the villains and heroes. Reminds me of an experience in my own Dungeons and Dragons campaign where I had 18 named characters, 30 mercenaries and a steady stream of enemies with their own backstory to keep track of. It was enjoyable. I would comment more but I'm not a Zhentarim or a Bane worshipper so I won't give you spoilers and laugh from my tower of refuge in a far off land while you get slightly irritated by such silliness. Maybe one of the Beholders will do that for you if that's what you want!
October 12, 2015
Credo che questo sia uno dei peggiori libri fantasy mai letti in vita mia...è riuscito a battere persino il secondo libro della saga di Moonshae di Douglas Nile. Libro di una noia mortale, tutto identico per 300 e passa pagine, per poi arrivare a niente...Greenwood prova a complicare le trame, ma lo fa' in maniera talmente sconclusionata da risultare tutto straridicolo. Da dimenticare...
January 12, 2014
I spent 2 months trying finish this book simply because I couldn't bring myself to just burn through it. It's like reading poorly written fan-fiction...I find it really sad when the best characters in a book are those found in the background.
October 25, 2010
Camp, Fight, Camp, Fight, Camp, Fight. Really didn't feel like their was much of a story. This book finishes the trilogy but is otherwise unsatisfying.
May 22, 2013
Excellent series -- wonderful "romp through the realms" every time I read it! I love Ed Greenwood's characters so much that I miss them in other Realms stories!
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March 21, 2014the first two were much better than the last one. i was disappointed in the third book.
December 21, 2015
"Come here and kiss this bottle with me"
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews