Greenwood, Ed(1959– )
The popularity of the role-playing game Dungeons
& Dragons led to the development of similar game
systems, including the DRAGONLANCEand FOR-
GOTTEN REALMS fantasy role playing products
from TSR Publishing, which eventually became
Wizards of the Coast. Both of these took for their
setting a typical fantasy world peopled with hu-
mans, elves, goblins, trolls, and other legendary
creatures, and the general political and social set-
up was largely influenced by the popularity of the
LORD OF THE RINGStrilogy by J. R. R. TOLKIEN.As
the games increased in popularity, the publisher
began commissioning writers to generate original
novels set in these imaginary worlds. Most of those
writers during the early years were unknown out-
side the gaming world, and many of them were
only marginally talented. A handful, such as R. A.
SALVATORE, Margaret WEIS, and J. Robert King
eventually began to produce more original work for
other publishers.
From 1988 until 2000, Ed Greenwood con-
fined his efforts to this circumscribed fantasy uni-
verse, starting with Spellfire (1988), a standard
fantasy adventure that introduces his recurring
character, Elminster, the protagonist of most of his
subsequent work for this publisher, although in this
title and its sequel, Crown of Fire(1994), the main
character is a feisty young woman. Elminster’s
story is told in more detail in Elminster: The Making
of a Mage(1994), describing his abduction by a
sorcerer and his subsequent mastery of magical
powers of his own. Greenwood’s next several nov-
els are routine potboilers, although Stormlight
(1996) has an interesting puzzle at its core, and
Cormyr(1996), written in collaboration with Jeff
Grubb, mixes fantasy and mystery with consider-
able skill.
Greenwood continued to write about Elmin-
ster’s adventures through the end of the 1990s and
intermittently since then, but in 2000 he started a
new series, the Band of Four, set in a world of his
own creation and with a new publisher. The King-
less Land(2000) is a quest story with a group of
companions setting out to acquire magical artifacts
necessary to release their king from a magically in-
duced sleep. Although the king is revived in The
Vacant Throne(2001), he has not been restored to
his throne. An evil wizard opposes the restoration
and raises an army to seize power in A Dragon’s As-
cension(2002), and even after he is defeated, the
kingdom is troubled by shape-changing spells in
The Dragon’s Doom(2003). Although not part of
the series, the episodic The Silent House(2004) is
set in the same universe as the Band of Four and
probably signals further novels yet to come.
Although Greenwood continues to write game
tie-in novels, most notably Death of the Dragon
(2000), written with Troy DENNING, it seems likely
that he will continue to diversify now that he has
reached a wider audience. He is primarily a writer
of adventure fiction and rarely strays from familiar
fantasy venues and devices, although his skill at
using them has steadily improved. His short fiction
has been almost entirely along the same lines and
is to date undistinguished, but that may also
change as he moves away from his game-related
origins.Gresham, Stephen(1947– )
During the brief horror boom of the 1980s, a num-
ber of competent but undistinguished horror writ-
ers emerged, producing large numbers of derivative
paperback originals. When the field contracted at
the end of that decade, authors such as Ruby Jean
Jensen, William Johnstone, William Hill, and oth-
ers turned to other genres or ceased to write alto-
gether. One of the writers from that period who
faltered but who has recently returned with even
stronger stories is Stephen Gresham, whose first
novel, Moon Lake, appeared in 1982. Although
there are some rough spots in that story, the dis-
covery of an evil presence in a peaceful lake is gen-
erally suspenseful and effective.
His next two novels, Half Moon Down(1985)
and The Shadow Man (1986), involve children
threatened by a supernatural force. Neither ap-
proach the quality of his first book, but next came
Dew Claws(1986), with a similar plot but much
more skillfully handled. A supernatural presence in
a swamp stalks a young boy who escaped the brutal
death of his family. Gresham seemed to be quite
comfortable with this formula, in which children
battle a supernatural threat, and he used it again in
Midnight Boy(1987), pitting a psychic child against146 Greenwood, Ed