It's been well over twenty years since I've read this book, so I don't have many clear memories of it, which I suppose is also my indictment of it, since the books that I do like I tend to go back and re-read my favorite sections at various points. But not this one.
In truth, I don't think I've ever enjoyed an Ed Greenwood novel. The man has an incredibly fertile imagination, but his characters and his pacing always leave me cold. The characters (in my opinion) all tend towards very flat archetypes, particularly because they all seem to be completely ruled by their id. Characters who fall in love will be utterly flat-out crazy in love, unable to stop themselves from proclaiming their feelings out loud every other scene. Elminster and similar "mentor" characters will all vacillate between passive-aggressively snarking at their charges' naivete and having a plan for everything that could possibly happen when an enemy attacks. Villains will wear their foibles large, either plotting against everyone around them all of the time or dedicated beyond all reason to destroying the heroes.
The pacing isn't much better. His stories tend to proceed in an extremely chaotic manner, largely because he has magic show up everywhere with very little context. His adventures will have people stumble into portals of teleportation in old caves in the middle of nowhere, utter a word and accidentally activate an old wand that they thought was just a minor magic item, or stumble into some ancient but still-active spell that suddenly changes the entire scene. And while all of that makes sense within the context of a high-fantasy world with a long history, it's the presentation that I can't stand, because none of it is contextualized within the framework of the story, or at least not very much. These things just come out of left field and boom, the characters barely have a chance to react to them before the story is rushing onward to the next scene. That might be "realistic" for how things would work in a crazy fantasy world, but a sequence of "stuff just happens (with little explanation)" doesn't make for good reading. The characters don't need to be the center of the universe, but they shouldn't seem like they're constantly being buffeted by forces that they keep blindly stumbling into either.
So yeah, not a fan of this one.
Obviously I'm not going to make an attempt to convert you to the dark side, and I get all of the above- I've even said similar after reading other Greenwood novels.
It's becoming clear that Ed Greenwood has (at times) a little more in the way of a license to get away with things, this book is 380+ pages (from memory) and there seems otherwise to be a uniformity to these novels 312 pages, no more- no less. Mr Lowder earlier in this forum spoke about getting special permission to go over the word/page count (he was allowed approx. 330 pages, from memory).
Likewise I wouldn't want to be Ed Greenwoods ed(itor) because you're right- the randomness abounds, speak word on random bone and get transported to who knows where- chased by a Gargoyle, and then leap in to the portal... There was a short story back in one of the earlier collections (I think) in which Big E went hopping from plane to plane and it was just Gah!
But this one, as stated (imho) appears to offer less of this, and much less of the (least enjoyable) sexy Gandalf version of Big E.
I think I also said something similar with regard to the anything goes nature of the Greenwood novel, we're in (name of place) with (name of person) doing (name of task)- five lines later and we've shifted location, person and task- ten lines later, we're off again. But again, less of it here- I think, fairly linear.
But, and this is my big BUT- I'm here to find out about the Forgotten Realms, first and foremost, Ed Greenwood is making a lot of the place sound and feel real to me. In a way that many of the other novels fail (or else fail to try), possibly my one-eyed view- I want to find things to drag in to my game- places, people, words (and sayings) and anything else that will fit. Greenwood's books have that in spades, like you said- an incredibly fertile imagination.
For I don't know how long I lived (dependent on who was asking) in Greyhawk, then in some generic homebrew world (called Oerth) that was Greyhawk in all but name (and map), now... at last, I've started to make a home for myself (and my players) in the Forgotten Realms.
I'm fifty books in here, and I can still see the point of it all.
Perhaps the book just caught me by surprise, I needed a lift after the last one in Legacy of the Drow- this was it, it just swung by and I really raced through it, pleasantly gurgling to myself- as you do.
Thanks for commenting, always appreciated.
Cheers Goonalan