Ed Greenwwod - good or not

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

I've read (or tried to read) several of his books. I wanted to know more about Elminster for example. The thing was that his sentence structure drove me crazy! I felt like I had to read every line twice to make sure I read it right. I find with authors like Salvatore and Terry Brooks, I know what they're going to say, so it flows much better for me.
Has anyone else found this in his books?

[ 10-25-2004, 08:42 PM: Message edited by: Variol (Farseer) Elmwood ]

[Luvian]

He's the worst author ever. In fact, calling him an author is an insult to all the real ones.

The problem is not really his writing style (or lack of it), that can always be improved.

The problem is that he's writing like a 15 years old hormones driven teenager.

In every of his novels there will be cheap gratuitous nudity, always involving Elminster in some way. He even apparently had sex with the godess Mystra.

His characters are also way too UBER. In Elminster in Hell, he's killing demons as easily as a level 20 warrior would kill Kobolds. Not just him, every main or even not so important characters can kill anything without sweating.

I wont even talk about his pathetic storylines...

[Gxc]

I havent read any of his book.

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

I didn't know about the Demon killing thing 'cos I couldn't get far enough into the book.
Pretty sad considering he created the Forgotten Realms.

A similar thing happened when I read "The Meetings Sextett" for Dragonlance. I think it was the Strum Brightblade book (3 or 4 I think) the sentence structure was horrible. I had to struggle through it though.
I even emailed Wizards of the Coast when I read "Dragons of Summer Flame". I gave them some examples of their grammar like "he got up, walked out the door".
They told me this was a "comma splice". I told them it was lousy grammar.

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

I just noticed the spelling error in my title, sorry, it's been fixed.

Oh, and yes, I feel the same about nudity, graphic sex (specially rape) and the like in these books. They're rated teen in most cases and even if they wern't I still don't think it has a place. I personally look for adventure and a story I can get lost in, not Maxim (I may be off there 'cos I've never read it) but you get my idea I think.

[ 10-26-2004, 06:06 PM: Message edited by: Variol (Farseer) Elmwood ]

[Larry_OHF]

<font color=skyblue> I onced complained about him to some of the other authors in the FR world, as well as fans of the books on the WotC website a few years ago. I think I was banned. I was told by one of the authors that he is a nice man and not a dirty writer like I was accusing him of.

Well...the written word speaks for itself. It does not even matter if he intends it to be that way...what matters is what we read it as.</font>

[shamrock_uk]

Is there any other author that has written stories about Elminster, or is Ed Greenwood the only option?

I hear so many negatives about his books, from everybody who's ever picked it up it seems, please don't tell me I'm stuck with him...!

[ 10-26-2004, 02:22 PM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]

[Luvian]

Originally posted by shamrock_uk: Is there any other author that has written stories about Elminster, or is Ed Greenwood the only option? I hear so many negatives about his books, from everybody who's ever picked it up it seems, please don't tell me I'm stuck with him...!

Well... He's bad as a novel writer, but he's ok with source material, so that's a good source of info.

He was also (Elminster) in the Avatars series as well as some other books not by ED.

I'm sure he's a nice guy, no one here is accusing him of killing kitten. It's just that he's not good at writing novels.

[ 10-26-2004, 04:05 PM: Message edited by: Luvian ]

[Morgeruat]

I've read a few things here and on other forums, and yes, he is indeed a dirty old man, he prides himself on the fact that the High Lady Allustriel, one of the seven sisters, and ruler of Silverymoon (which is near Mithril Hall, for you Drizzt Fans) has essentially had sex with everyone within a forty mile radius of her city (male and female), and once ran an adventure where the PC's had to find her and deliver a message through her royal bath house (think orgy involving all of the nobility), and there was a ward that removed any and all metal when they went in (swords, arrowheads, belt buckles, etc) so the party is supposed to end up buck naked in an orgy and deliver a message... I don't think so.

Yes Larry, he is indeed a perv living out his 13y/o masturbation fantasies with his books.

The books themselves are rubbish, Memnoch had some very good rants about them, as did Luvian, I'll see if I can track them down.

as far as love scenes, and possibly nudity, there is a place for it in novels, look at some of the Wheel of Time books, it is handled (usually) maturely, well thought out, and in a realistic manner, throwing it around without thought or care is irresponsible, childish, and irritating.

[Morgeruat]

good rant

here we go