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Bury Elminster Deep (Sample chapter)
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<blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 5590411" data-attributes="member: 8461"><p>This reminds me of how I wanted to write a review of the first book in the series.</p><p></p><p>I didn't like it very much, mostly because, despite what seemed like some real effort on the author's part to make Elminster face some real hardship, he still can't help but make him into an overpowered Mary Sue. Elminster at no times loses total moral superiority over his enemies, and can handily justify whatever he does as as being part of the greater good. </p><p></p><p>This is reinforced by almost all of his enemies being shortsighted, churlish morons who are prone to infighting at the most inopportune moments, allowing Elminster to overcome even staggering disadvantages. Despite being knocked around again and again, Elminster suffers very few setbacks due to the opposition being ethically-bankrupt imbeciles.</p><p></p><p>I also didn't care for the over-the-top amount of sexuality that the book portrayed. Say what you want about sex being an underdeveloped aspect of D&D, or about it being a realistic motivation for characters...it was simply uncomfortable how often it came up. Virtually every woman in the book acts like a tramp at some point - the Simbul is horny when she comes out of her madness; Storm takes her top off to distract some guards; Amarune (a new character) works as a stripper/thief/prostitute, etc.</p><p></p><p>The one redeeming feature the book had, at least for me, was that Ed Greenwood honestly seemed to be trying to dial back the damage WotC did to his setting. He reintroduces over half-a-dozen of his characters as the book progresses, [spoiler]from Mirt to Manshoon to Mystra at the very end of the book,[/spoiler] and I get the distinct impression he's not going to stop there.</p><p></p><p>As for the whole "magical ash" thing, that's basically right. Basically, what happens is that [spoiler]after Manshoon kills him, Elminster the "ash-ghost" convinces Amarune, his (great?-)granddaughter, to let him share her body[/spoiler], so he's still running around, probably to be brought back to life at some point.</p><p></p><p>It wasn't a good book by any stretch, and I don't expect anything better from the sequel, save to try and turn back the clock on the Realms some more.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Alzrius, post: 5590411, member: 8461"] This reminds me of how I wanted to write a review of the first book in the series. I didn't like it very much, mostly because, despite what seemed like some real effort on the author's part to make Elminster face some real hardship, he still can't help but make him into an overpowered Mary Sue. Elminster at no times loses total moral superiority over his enemies, and can handily justify whatever he does as as being part of the greater good. This is reinforced by almost all of his enemies being shortsighted, churlish morons who are prone to infighting at the most inopportune moments, allowing Elminster to overcome even staggering disadvantages. Despite being knocked around again and again, Elminster suffers very few setbacks due to the opposition being ethically-bankrupt imbeciles. I also didn't care for the over-the-top amount of sexuality that the book portrayed. Say what you want about sex being an underdeveloped aspect of D&D, or about it being a realistic motivation for characters...it was simply uncomfortable how often it came up. Virtually every woman in the book acts like a tramp at some point - the Simbul is horny when she comes out of her madness; Storm takes her top off to distract some guards; Amarune (a new character) works as a stripper/thief/prostitute, etc. The one redeeming feature the book had, at least for me, was that Ed Greenwood honestly seemed to be trying to dial back the damage WotC did to his setting. He reintroduces over half-a-dozen of his characters as the book progresses, [spoiler]from Mirt to Manshoon to Mystra at the very end of the book,[/spoiler] and I get the distinct impression he's not going to stop there. As for the whole "magical ash" thing, that's basically right. Basically, what happens is that [spoiler]after Manshoon kills him, Elminster the "ash-ghost" convinces Amarune, his (great?-)granddaughter, to let him share her body[/spoiler], so he's still running around, probably to be brought back to life at some point. It wasn't a good book by any stretch, and I don't expect anything better from the sequel, save to try and turn back the clock on the Realms some more. [/QUOTE]
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