TSR Code:

'It was the eve of the Time of Troubles.  The chaos of spilled blood, lawless strife, monsters unleashed, and avatars roaming Faerun was still to come.  Unbeknownst to mortals, the gods had been summoned together, and among them was Mystra, grown proud and willful in the passing eons.  With the others, she was about  to be stripped of her godhood.
The secret of her power gave her an idea.  She made certain preparations, looking always for one who would be her successor...But until that person's ascension, her power must be preserved.
A lone mortal must carry the greater share of her divine energy until the power could be reclaimed, and it was the fate of this mortal to risk being destroyed or driven wild, involuntarily and without warning.
This was the occasion of Elminster's Doom'.

Other titles in The Shadow of the Avatar Trilogy:

• Book 2 - Cloak of Shadows
• Book 3 - All Shadows Fled

Like many of Ed Greenwood's books, this is a long series of battles and sinister conversations, with a little humor (the exact same humor that is in all of his books). There is no character development at all - the characters are completely one-dimensional. I do sometimes enjoy action-packed books, but the good guys are never even seriously threatened, and never lose. The other two books in this series are essentially the same. I love Greenwood's RPG contributions and admire his imagination, but almost none of his books are worth reading, unless you want to get all the details of happenings in the Realms.