Although the writting style is a little flat sometimes, and that the excessive number of characters and different plots are very confusing, this a fun introduction to the Realms, and a must read for Dungeons and Dragons fans.

I think I was in middle school when I read this. I learned that you should not buy a book just because it has an animated dragon skeleton on the cover and the word "spell" in the title, so my two dollars weren't completely wasted.

http://www.rantingdragon.com/review-o...Spellfire by Ed Greenwood is one of the very first novels published in the Forgotten Realms fantasy setting, and the first by the creator. It set the stage for what would become dozens upon dozens of books in one of the largest shared-world fictions ever made.An introduction to the RealmsBeing the very first major setting novel to be published in the Realms, which was originally picked up as a game setting rather than a fiction setting, Spellfire seems hel...

2020 Update: Five years wiser, I can safely report that no, Greenwood's novels do NOT get any better. I have to give a shout-out to Rob Bricken at Gizmodo magazine for his 100% accurate and detailed review of Spellfire; my own review below pales in comparison: https://io9.gizmodo.com/dungeon-drago...******************Although he created the Forgotten Realms, his skills as a campaign creator and dungeon master did not translate to being a good author! At least not in this case. Ed Greenwood wrote...

So I've been reading a few Forgotten Realms books and while they all have had problems, they've been enjoyable. Unfortunately, that stops with Spellfire.This book does hold a lot of D&D tropes that I enjoyed in previous FR books, but compounded with a lot of choices the author made, it just makes it worse.I'll go over some of the things I liked first: I liked that we had a female protagonist. I liked that we had both good and evil female characters, this hasn't really been a thing in the previou...

Corny, to say the very least. I'm an enormous fan of the Forgotten Realms setting and the sword and sorcery style books it entails but, this book is too Disney Channel for my liking. To be brutally honest, I didn't finish it. Shandril's character is one dimensional. Also, this might sound weird but, there's too many exclamation points and too many words in italics. For example:"Do *I* stand and gawk? If I did, what would the guests eat *then*?""Shandril snorted. Great chance, indeed, of *that* e...

I first read this book long ago in my youth and I had fond memories of enjoying it. Going through my book collection, I happened to stumble upon it and decided to relive the past nostalgia- boy was I wrong. This story was a chore to get through. I got the impression of it dragging from scene to scene and filled with a secession of coincidences and conveniences. In the end I was left feeling pretty disappointed at my shattered memory.

2 rounded to 3 because I am a Realms junkie. This is not an outsider novel. This is barely even an insiders novel. If you ignore this advice enter at your own peril. The problem is Ed Greenwood's Realms is so rich, detailed and full of history (He created this world at the tender age of 5. FR wasn't released until 30 some odd years later.) he wanted to share his vision and stories with everyone. Unfortunately he shared it all in one, frantic dump.The Good The side characters are amazing. Elminst...

This is the last read for this particular copy. It has been through years of worldwide travel, reading, and more than one flood. (I'm not going to elaborate on that tussle with the geese) So I shall bid a tearful farewell to Shandril, her friends, and my old battered and beloved copy as I take it to the recycle. Don't gasp if your reading this.. it is in no condition to ever be read again... believe me if I didn't recall the missing parts it wouldn't have been readable these last few times. =) I...

A Story About a Powerful Peasant19 March 2012 To put it blunt this book was utter rubbish. Sometimes (actually most times) I wish Goodreads would have a rating system of 10 as opposed to the one they currently have (five) simply because I feel that a rating out of 10 gives a much better idea of what I actually think of a book. Then again, when does one stop, at 20, 50, 100? I personally don't know, but I have always liked to use a rating of 10 simply because giving a book a 1 seems to have more

I wanted to like the first book by the famous creator of the Forgotten Realms, but, alas, there's nothing to like here. The plot is plain and uninteresting, does nothing to keep you reading. The most annoying thing, though, are the unidimentional characters, most of them are there to fill the dungeon-crawl formula (my own RPG campaings have had more developed characters). And I really, really hate Gandalf, err... Elminster. I bet he was a fun character when Greenwood played as him in his D&D gam...

The story is simple: Shandril has always longed for adventure, and when she is able to leave her predictable life behind, she does so. Everything is very ordinary until she discovers she possesses this powerful form of magic which she is not able to harness or completely control.I feel that Greenwood has many elements to craft a fantastic story. This is the original Forgotten Realms novel and it contains a great amount of information about the world and some of its characters. However, Greenwood...

This is the second book I read from Ed Greenwood, after The Herald. I wasn't sure what to expect, as I didn't like The Herald very much.In short, I loved this book.I am a big fan of Dungeons & Dragons, even though I discovered the Forgotten Realms less than two years ago.Since then, it has been a nice surprise after the other.This book is full of characters, a lot of characters; of course there are the two main characters, but there are so many of them in the plot, that is quite easy to become c...

I recognize all the merits Ed Greenwood had by writing the very first saga for the Forgotten Realms. But the book has many, many problems. For starters, those who are not familiar with this world - like I wasn't - will feel like this is a very strange narrative. Because it talks about people and places like you already knew them, never explaining where they came from or who they actually were. It is confusing, specially because Greenwood inserts so many parallel stories.Also, the characters them...

Shandril Shessair is an orphan girl who works as a kitchen hand in The Rising Moon inn in Deepingdale. Restless and wanting to see something of the world, she joins up with a passing group of adventurers and soon discovers that she possesses the rare and devastating ability known as spellfire. This immediately makes her a target for any number evil organizations keen to use her powers for their own nefarious ends. It is up to the likes of Elminster of Shadowdale and the Knights of Myth Drannor t...

I really wanted to like this book. The first book that started all the Forgotten Realms adventures and with a lot of promise to boot! Cover art made me salivate and then I started reading and the more book progressed the more angry it made me. Characters: 2Very unlikable characters made this book very boring to read for me. It was as if everyone in this book wants to protect Shandril. (A genius name, probably he best part about characters was their name). And I mean...everyone. From the first mo...

GoodAs I was reading this I kept thinking I had read it before. Not likely. Was a really good story though. Dracoliches are interesting. I want to dress up my rpg gaming characters in purple. I definitely enjoyed a trip to Shadowdale! I kept getting the Knights of Myth Drannor confused. A visual aid would be nice, but I can find those elsewhere. Now it's off to the Thunder Peaks to read about some Zhentarim meddlers.

Ed Greenwood is a world builder extraordinaire. But his fiction could do with some lessons on pacing and realism. It is rather rare that a happy marriage is built upon meeting a lady, enjoying carnal pleasures with her under extreme circumstances, and marrying her, all within the span of a brace of days! Yet Greenwood plots out this exact storyline, with numerous coincidences, deus ex machinae, and just plain dumb luck. In his defense, he admits in the foreword that he was asked when writing thi...

My feelings for this book are a bit biased I'll admit...because this was the first fantasy book I ever read, and I've been reading the genre ever since...So thanks Ed! :-)I was a young teen (or close to it) when I read this book and I remember it being full of magic, wonder and even having some serious dramatic moments in it...at least for my age...But even now I KNOW I enjoy reading books by Ed Greenwood. His writing style is interesting, his dialog for some of his key characters (certainly in

Started to sort of fall apart at the end.