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Originally posted by Dantrag

The Elimimster series is good until you get to the 2nd book. Somehow I can't get into it.
But the Salvatore series is awesome, i have read the books two times over. Just can't put them down.
Anyways have an adventurous reading and scimitars high!

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Originally posted by RogueAssassin

These books are great. If anyone is new to the realms I recommend reading these and also The Eleminster books. Again Great Books..

-The Rogue

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Originally posted by Gion
I'll take consideration of this advice. hehehe. What do you reccommend me after finishing reading the Avatar Trilogy?

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Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

To me, the books by Elaine Cunningham best capture the feel of the Realms.

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Originally posted by Faraer

Really? I mean, when I read Elfshadow I was really impressed by how Realms-authentic it was; and Christopher Tolkien and Guy Kay did a good job expanding and rewriting parts of the Silmarillion, but they're judged next to J.R.R., and the feel of the Realms is judged next to Ed Greenwood, as I dare say Elaine would agree.

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Originally posted by Blueblade

Interesting opinion. I’ve heard others say I and post it before. But I was at a panel at the last Gencon with a lot of the female Realms writers and editors at it, and I remember one of them saying Ed’s writing was the most feminine Realms books she’d read, and until she met him she thought it was a woman writer using a pen name. And a lot of the other ladies agreed.
Another thing. The last two Ed books I read had several ugly women in them, too, and so did Crown of Fire (the fat Harper agent), but people never seem to remember those. They just key on his babes.
I agree with Faraer. It’s like telling Tolkien he doesn’t write Middle Earth as well as Ralph Bakshi or Peter Jackson.
Also, that “too much going on” thing IS the Realms. Jeff Grubb even said that at a Gencon panel years ago: that the whole point of the Realms was its endless interweaving stories, not a single clean and clear plotline (like Dragonlance).
I’m not looking to pick fights, here, but to those of you who posted about Ed’s babes or too much going on, what did you think of ELMINSTER’S DAUGHTER?

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Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
My problem with having too much going on in a lot of Ed's books is just that with so many different plots, side-plots, and extra bits added in, I find I am not seeing the setting itself -- I lose track of it. It's almost like watching an over-the-top spy-action-thriller movie. There's just too much going on to keep track of it all, given the length of the books in question.

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Originally posted by Capn Charlie

Then again, I am easy to please and might enjoy Ed's books even if they were so bad as to make the eyes weep blood. however, I doubt they would be, despite what some of the more outspoken anti Ed realms fans might believe.

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Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
I certainly hope no one reads me as being anti-Ed. I may not enjoy his books as much as I do those of other authors, but I do enjoy them. I enjoy his non-novel stuff a lot more, though.

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Originally posted by Chyron
But I do have to disagree somewhat with your comparison regarding Tolkien and Jackson/Bakshi. Tolkien wrote the novel first and the films came second. In the realms case, the world references (i.e game supplements, etc.) were published first and Mr. Greenwood’s novels published second. Writing for a novel and writing for a sourcebook are not the same thing. So if Tolkien went on to try and direct the movie, would he be as good a director as Jackson or as good an animator as Bakshi? What if he wrote a game system for ME? And while no one is going to question that Tolkien is indeed that father of Middle Earth, consider also that Jackson has given it a feel of his own that now “is” the Middle Earth for many many people who have never read Tolkien. First impressions can be a powerful thing.

And as I said he is the father of the realms but many people have not encountered his writing. Bear in mind even Mr. Greenwood was not the first published author of Realms novels. That goes to Doug Niles with the first Moonshae trilogy. And really unless you play 1st ed (gray box only with a few supplements), much of the realms has been penned by other authors as well… so each person will have a different idea of what the realms feels like based one who they have read and what they have played. And to this I say there is no right or wrong…again it is subjective.

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Originally posted by kuje31

I have to disagree with the above. Ed originally created the Realms to write stories in. Yes Niles wrote the first "published" novel but Ed orinally wrote stories in FR when he was 9 years old. His first short story was One, Comes Unheralded, to Zirta.

Mirt, some of the Seven Sisters, Elminster, and others were in that original story that he wrote when he was 9 years old.

http://web.archive.org/web/20010821060144/http://www.wizards.com/books/main.asp?x=forgottenrealms/articles/begining2,2&b=forgottenrealms

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Originally posted by The Hooded One

One nit more to pick, Chyron. Not with your views, but with your contention that Ed’s writing hasn’t been foremost in Realms game fiction since the Old Gray Box. Not so. Even when his name isn’t on the cover, his lore has usually been used, and his brain consulted on all matters of dispute and query. It’s in the few cases when authors didn’t that the products have sagged.
THO

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Originally posted by The Hooded One
and his brain consulted on all matters of dispute and query.

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It’s in the few cases when authors didn’t that the products have sagged.
THO

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