“The body count quickly goes from ‘a couple of mysterious murders’ to ‘heaps of corpses piled in every hallway,’ but Greenwood doesn’t seem to realize that while one death is a tragedy, dozens are just set dressing.”
Tag: Ed Greenwood
“A favourite game of mine, whenever I read a novel by multiple authors, is to try to pick out which bits were written by which authors. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book where the game was so unsatisfyingly easy.”
“Buckle up; we can’t talk about this one without first dredging up some ugly TSR history.”
“Another year, another anthology! This year’s theme is ‘wizards and magic,’ and it must be quite the well of inspiration indeed, because there are no fewer than seventeen stories this time around plus a prologue and epilogue.”
“It’s basically Malaugrym spring break — unwise youngsters on their own without supervision for the first time, making bad decisions and getting into trouble — which is the worst way to sell them as impressive villains.”
“The general impression is that the world revolves around Elminster to such an extreme degree that if he were to spend an hour in the toilet after eating a bad mussel, the world would crumble to its very foundations.”
“I thought it was bad in Salvatore’s books when the last third of a novel would be one long running battle, but Shadows of Doom is practically nothing but combat — an entire book of meaningless violence with practically no plot and only occasional pauses for breath.”
“Speaking for myself, I suspect that it would be difficult to get into a romantic mood if my arms ended in bleeding stumps. But who knows? Perhaps Elminster is made of sterner stuff than I.”
“TSR has finally gotten around to employing several new authors to write Realms material. Do these newcomers bring a fresh set of voices to familiar material, or are they just new line cooks churning out the same old dishes?”
“Imagine a chase scene in a movie: cars careening around corners, explosions going off, gunfights between moving vehicles, that sort of thing. It’s exciting and fun, right? Then imagine that the chase scene goes on for nine solid hours.”