Elminster in Hell

Elminster in Hell by Ed Greenwood, another D&D Forgotten Realms novel about the mighty mage, is a weird book. Elminster finds himself trapped in Hell and this novel chronicles what he underwent there and the various attempts of his friends and colleagues to rescue him. The framing device is strange, hopping back and forth between the thoughts of Elminster and those of the arch-fiend Nergal who has captured him. The rest of the novel moves back and forth between Elminster's sometimes fragmentary memories and present-time events. In some ways, Elminster in Hell reads as a collection of short stories, but there is an overarching story and plot to the work. At the beginning, I almost abandoned the book, not sure what to make of it, but I stuck with it. Even though the ending is perplexing, even though it was sometimes difficult to keep track of all of the characters, even though some of the scenes of Hell's tortures were particularly gruesome and gut-wrenching, I ended up liking the book. Some of the memory vignettes, such as the mystery surrounding the murders of a number of Lords of Waterdeep, were quite captivating. And I particularly enjoy Greenwood's ability to describe the way magic looks and feels and acts as it is being cast, and I think he is particularly good at describing spell battles. Plus, I give Greenwood bonus points for trying something different and experimenting with storytelling styles. This is the fourth Elminster book I've read (all in the space of a few months) and although it turned out to be an enjoyable read, I think I'm ready to be finished with the Old Mage for a while. The Elminster books are good, but not great, and I've read a bunch of them, so I need a break. But I'm sure at some future point in time I'll be back to read more of Elminster's adventures.