Rather a surprising lack of Realms-shaking events in Ed's latest Forgotten Realms novel - you can find my review here, but as I get older, I appreciate spending time with characters when they're not locked in mortal combat. 
Elminster gets a wonderful line when he says "Most of the strife I foresee will be on the Sword Coast and its backlands"... which almost certainly has to be a reference to Wizards' current adventure/storyline publishing strategy.
The book updates a few things about the post-Sundering Realms, which is no mean trick because most of it takes place in a manor where the guests can't leave due to the eponymous spellstorm. Elminster also gets to "retire" and be a butler, or something like that. But we get a clue of what Mystra is up to, and there's a lot of time spent with old favourites of the Realms.
I didn't really realise back when I was first introduced to the Realms exactly how important some characters were to Ed (and in his home campaign). I've got a much better idea of that now, because Spellstorm revisits a number of characters that were prominently displayed in early Realms products (and I'm sure have been developed since then): Elminster, Myrmeen, Khelben, Alusair and Mirt in particular. Manshoon - of course - also gets a fair bit of attention.
I've got this odd perspective on the Realms, as I was one of its early fans (collecting everything I could, etc.), but drifting away in the 2E days. I occasionally picked up things here and there mainly due to Organised Play, but there's a lot of material I never really paid attention to. So, I come back to this book and say, "Hey! I know a lot of these characters!" And they feel developed, which is to say: they've had lives. They've had things happen to them. And, though they're the same characters at their core, they've been changed by the hundred-odd-years that have happened in the Realms since they were introduced to me.
And that is absolutely awesome.
So: I really enjoyed this book. I think it has a few structural flaws and probably doesn't spend enough time fleshing out the other guests, but I wasn't reading it for them. I was reading it for Alusair and Elminster. For that, it delivered.
Cheers!
Elminster gets a wonderful line when he says "Most of the strife I foresee will be on the Sword Coast and its backlands"... which almost certainly has to be a reference to Wizards' current adventure/storyline publishing strategy.
The book updates a few things about the post-Sundering Realms, which is no mean trick because most of it takes place in a manor where the guests can't leave due to the eponymous spellstorm. Elminster also gets to "retire" and be a butler, or something like that. But we get a clue of what Mystra is up to, and there's a lot of time spent with old favourites of the Realms.
I didn't really realise back when I was first introduced to the Realms exactly how important some characters were to Ed (and in his home campaign). I've got a much better idea of that now, because Spellstorm revisits a number of characters that were prominently displayed in early Realms products (and I'm sure have been developed since then): Elminster, Myrmeen, Khelben, Alusair and Mirt in particular. Manshoon - of course - also gets a fair bit of attention.
I've got this odd perspective on the Realms, as I was one of its early fans (collecting everything I could, etc.), but drifting away in the 2E days. I occasionally picked up things here and there mainly due to Organised Play, but there's a lot of material I never really paid attention to. So, I come back to this book and say, "Hey! I know a lot of these characters!" And they feel developed, which is to say: they've had lives. They've had things happen to them. And, though they're the same characters at their core, they've been changed by the hundred-odd-years that have happened in the Realms since they were introduced to me.
And that is absolutely awesome.
So: I really enjoyed this book. I think it has a few structural flaws and probably doesn't spend enough time fleshing out the other guests, but I wasn't reading it for them. I was reading it for Alusair and Elminster. For that, it delivered.
Cheers!
