Ed Greenwood is a bit of an acquired taste. His Novels tend to tangentially veer off to do a deep examination of this or that up-till-now-irrelevant peasant, guard, priorly-empty suit of armor or that one vase on the table. In his early novels, villains tend to show up and then immediately get thwacked by *other* villains showing up at the same time, the overpowered characters escorting the plot-centric adventurers or sheer idiocy on their own part.
It can be a bit detracting from the experience when Manshoon shows up atop a Black Dragon, then gets Team Rocket'ed by Elminster, the Simbul, Larloch or whoever else as soon as he gets three syllables into a monologue.
That said, there's a lot of smart, fun and hidden humor in his later novels, but a lot of that could easily be missed by readers who mightn't know a lot about the setting or come from non-English backgrounds.
Ed's early stuff is a dysfunctional journey - He's fantastic at world building, but his focus keeps wandering. There's fun to be had, but some of the novels can easily be skipped.
The major problem you'll run into for Forgotten Realms novels nowadays though is that they're almost entirely out of print aside from the current run of Salvatore novels and the two D&D movie tie-ins.
If you can get ahold of them, though, I'll second a few of the recommendations above and point you towards the following - (In no particular order)
The Aboleth Sovereignty trilogy by Bruce R. Cordell - Warlocks and Aberrations, pacts and addiction, all sprinkled in with Cthulhu Mythos-style Eldritch Evil. The trilogy loosely references earlier books by Cordell (A standalone book from The Citadels series) but isn't required reading, though it is certainly worth picking up.
The Starlight and Shadows trilogy by Elaine Cunningham - A runaway Drow Priestess and a Rashemi Barbarian. A glimpse at Menzoberranzan, Skullport and Rasheman. Elaine is a fantastic writer who loves to explore the emotional depths of her characters and makes fun, memorable stories and locations. In the early years of Forgotten Realms novels, she was one of the 'Big Three' - Greenwood, Salvatore and Cunningham. (No slight intended for Denning or Grubb!)
The Erevis Cale and the Twilight War trilogies by Paul S. Kemp - A reformed thief and assassin forced back into action when the adopted nobles he's been butlering for are threatened. He is pulled into larger and larger plots as a chesspiece on the board between Mask, God of Thieves and Shar, Goddess of Darkness as the Sea of Fallen Stars and then all of Sembia are threatened.
Kemp writes fantastically fun characters and stories, his villains are entertaining, motivated and relatable - But most importantly, this guy gets *evil*.
If you enjoy Sembia or want further context on some of the recurring characters, there's a seven book series called Sembia: Gateway to the Realms, which each focus on an individual member of the Uskevran household, with the first book being an anthology to sample each author's writing style and character focus. It isn't required reading for the Erevis Cale books, but does give further backstory and establishes characters that appear in The Twilight War.
The Rage of Dragons, The Haunted Lands and The Brotherhood of the Gryphon series by Richard Lee Byers.
The Rage of Dragons is a fantastic trilogy that, unsurprisingly, heavily focuses upon dragons in the Realms. Dragons, cults thereof and the adventurers who try to stop both. What happens when dragons all across the realms start succumbing to madness and are reduced from intelligent beings to beasts of instinct and rage?
The Haunted Lands focuses on Thay, the Red Wizards and the dismantling of their government and the supremacy of the lich Szass Tam. Where the Rage of Dragons has a focus on dragons, Byers was handed the monster manual supplements and told "Do Undead!"
Vampires, Liches and worse are showcased while you're introduced to Pre-Spellplague Thay - Already a kind of shitty place - and see it plummit into necromantic autocracy.
The Brotherhood of the Gryphon picks up after the latter, mercenaries who were present in both prior trilogies struggling to find coin and safety in the aftermath. There are strong elements of found-family, juggling loyalties, the struggles of diplomacy and the capriciousness of a God-King gone senile.
There's not a lot I can say for Salvatore that hasn't already been said. Though if you're going to start anywhere, do so with Homeland. The Crystal Shard was published first but became book four in the Legend of Drizzt novels.
Honorable mentions though for Thomas M. Reid's Scions of Arrabar trilogy, Erin M. Evans' The Brimstone Angels, anything by Jaleigh Johnson, Lisa Smedman and newcomer E.K Johnston
For all of the above recommendations, though, I hate to say it... but steer clear of the Baldur's Gate novelizations.
