The Forgotten Realms is a fantasy setting which was created by Ed Greenwood in the 1960s, which came to commercial use in 1987 as a campaign setting for the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game. Spellfire was the first of what would come to be well over one hundred novels and collections of short stories published by Ed Greenwood, and was released that same year. In the 25 years since then, the Forgotten Realms has been used for role-playing games, board games, card games, video games, novels, short stories, magazine articles, and millions of hours of Dungeons and Dragons.
The impact of The Forgotten Realms on the development of Fantasy fiction really cannot be understated. It’s virtually impossible to find a current fantasy author who doesn’t list someone or something from the Forgotten Realms among their influences. The world has generated dozens of bestsellers, and several Realms books have seen half a dozen reprints. Few fantasy worlds are as large, well developed, and widely written in and about.
I started reading in the Realms in the early 90s, borrowing my brother’s copies of The Crystal Shard and Azure Bonds. In the years since, I’ve probably managed to read a solid 60-75% of the complete Realms bibliography, and I have spent many hundreds of hours playing Dungeons and Dragons in the setting, as well. Among the highlights of my career as a nerd were the several times I had a chance to play D&D with Ed himself. Needless to say, I consider myself to be an aficionado.
Over the next week or two, I will be publishing reviews for several Forgotten Realms novels, one from each of a few authors I consider to be among The Realms’ biggest contributors. In addition to the review of the book, I’ll briefly discuss my impressions of their influence on the world of the Realms, both for future fiction, and the other forms of Realms media where applicable. A link to each review is found by following the links on each author’s name below:
Ed Greenwood – The creator himself. No list of Realms works would be complete without an entry from Ed. He is a Canadian writer and editor who first published a novel in the Forgotten Realms in 1987. Since that time, he has published 25 novels set in the Realms, and introduced dozens if not hundreds of characters that appear in the works of other authors in the setting. He is most famous for the sage and archmage Elminster of Shadowdale, a character he sometimes portrays at conventions.
Elaine Cunningham – An American sci-fi and fantasy author who first published in the Realms in 1991. Creator of some of the most well-known and enjoyed characters in the Realms, she has produced 13 Realms novels and 16 novellas.
“Richard Awlinson” – Not a real person, but instead a combination of the writing efforts of Scott Ciencin, an American author of over 40 novels, and Troy Denning. This pseudonymous author published only two Realms novels, but they comprise books one and two of one of the most influential sets of books in all of Realms lore.
R.A. Salvatore – Likely the most well-known Realms author after (or perhaps even before) Ed Greenwood, Salvatore has published 36 novels in the Realms, and is responsible for creating one of the most well-known characters in fantasy, the dark elf Drizzt Do’Urden.
Kate Novak & Jeff Grubb – Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb are an American couple who’ve collaborated on a half dozen Forgotten Realms novels. Jeff has also created a number of role-playing sourcebooks for the Realms. Their first Realms novel, Azure Bonds, was the source material for one of the greatest of the SSI ‘Gold Box’ PC role-playing games, Curse of the Azure Bonds, which was released in 1989.
Paul S. Kemp – One of the later comers to Realms publishing on this list, Paul Kemp started in the Realms contributing to the Sembia series, and created the fantastic character Erevis Cale. He has since expanded upon that character to the tune of eight novels, for a total of nine novels and several pieces of short fiction in the setting.
So there you have my list. Stay tuned over the next few weeks for a review for each of these authors. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the article series!
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