Elminster in Myth Drannor Book

As a young teenager, when I first read this book, I loved it. As an adult, I enjoyed the first third(ish), was fairly satisfied with the next third(ish), and by that point realised that everything had appeared to go downhill. I have never read, and will probably never read, any of the other books in the series.

So, ignoring the first third/half of the book (which actually was pretty enjoyable), I feel like the main problem with Elminster is Elminster himself.

He doesn't have any agency. When a protagonist feels only like an observer, a pawn who is guided by the hand above him, things become problematic. While Elminster does have his task to complete, and while he does occasionally do things by himself, mostly anything he really achieves is because of Mystra. There's no fear for Elminster - Mystra isn't going to let him die - and when he begs for help for the hundredth time, it gets a little old.

I was particularly dissatisfied with the twenty year jump. Absolutely nothing wrong with it, except that the last third felt overly rushed, and a little like Greenwood hadn't really planned much past the first half of the book.