[[ Greetings and well met!
I feel that the best way to get to know the Forgotten Realms is to start small. I've found that to truly get a feel for what a world is like, one should get to know those who give it life: its inhabitants. There are over 300 novels published in the Forgotten Realms setting, I would suggest finding something you're interested in and starting from there. You might not be getting the broad strokes right away, but it's a lot more personal and interesting this way, as reading sourcebooks can be horribly dry. 😜
A lot of people who start their foray into FR novels with Drizzt find other drow-related novels the easiest to branch out into, so if you like drow, the War of the Spider Queen series is a suitable second step. There are some issues with that series, but it's mostly lore-related so I won't delve into them here. For an FR beginner though, it also lets you experience six different authors' writing styles, and if you especially like any particular author, you can look up what other novels they've written in the Forgotten Realms to read next. An author who didn't write any of the WotSQ books but who nonetheless is a must read is Elaine Cunningham, whose Starlight and Shadows trilogy bring more life and nuance to the drow than any Drizzt book does, which is saying a lot given that there are only 3 drow-centric books by Elaine compared to ~40 Drizzt books (and counting).
If you don't care much about drow, Azure Bonds by Jeff Grub and Kate Novak is a good place to begin. It is the first of The Finder's Stone trilogy, so you can continue the tale if it interests you, but Azure Bonds also works well enough as a standalone if you're not interested in continuing. More often than not however, many find that three books is not enough and wish for a continuation of their story, but sadly there are not more books continuing that tale.
The Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep series, which consists of six stand-alone novels, is also something I'd recommend for expanding your knowledge of the Realms. Like WotSQ, it's penned by six different authors, but unlike WotSQ, each book tells a separate story, all set within one of the most well-known and iconic cities of the Realms. So much about Waterdeep is so representative of the feel of the world in general that it's no wonder that a lot of FR products visit the city, such as the 5e adventures Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage. Some of the books in the Waterdeep series spin off into their own series, so if you liked any of them it might be possible to continue. For those that don't have spin-offs, their authors have published other books in the Realms, so you can follow those for new reading material.
Other FR series that are regularly praised are the Erevis Cale books by Paul S Kemp and the Brimstone Angels books by Erin M Evans. The Erevis Cale books follow a morally gray protagonist and in general feel more mature than some of the FR novels. Brimstone Angels feature a pair of tiefling sisters and contains a lot of dragonborn lore. I enjoyed both sets of books well enough, but I'm mostly recommending them because a lot of other people enjoyed them. I personally feel that the Brimstone Angels books are wordy and juvenile, reminiscent of some books I read in middle school called "Sweet Valley High", but a lot of people absolutely love them. Elaine Cunningham also has books aside from the Starlight and Shadows trilogy that are very good as well; I wholly recommend all of her books. Elaine's book on Waterdeep, penned together with Ed Greenwood (and not part of the Waterdeep series) does start off somewhat slow, but grows into a deep, compelling, and moving work, in other words, Elaine's signature type of writing.
My personal favorite trilogy in the Realms is Blades of the Moonsea by Richard Baker. It is set in the 4e era of D&D, which is a very unpopular edition due both its rulesets and what it did to the setting. I love it because it embodies through and through what made me fall in love so hard with the Realms. The protagonist, Geran Hulmaster, is just your average Joe in the world. Sure, within his own circle he's got some traits that elevate him from his peers, but he's far from the all too often trope (especially in the Drizzt books) of competing to be the biggest Mary Sue he could be. It's easy to slip into Geran's shoes and experience the problems that, for him, are bigger than the world, but in the global scheme are barely a blip. I find this sort of scenario really relatable because in real life, all we can do is strive to do the best that we can with what we're given, celebrating our accomplishments even when they aren't world-shaking, and enduring our failures even when they aren't world-breaking. Not everything is nor has to be, "And the whole world will never be the same again", and it's really not much different in a high fantasy world with tons of magic. Worlds are made of individuals, and there's no better way to understand it than seeing the world through the eyes of those who live within it.
If reading a bunch of novels don't appeal to you, video games are another good way to get to know the Realms, for the same reason of starting up close and personal. The classic games are definitely a step up in difficulty compared to modern games, for instance the original Baldur's Gate games will absolutely murder you if you go into them unprepared. Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2 aren't as bad in terms of difficulty, but they start slow, and definitely show their age to those who are accustomed to modern games. Sadly, there aren't that many options as far as modern FR games are concerned. Baldur's Gate 3 looks extremely promising, but it isn't complete yet (and I've not played the beta to know how complete the story will be upon release). Sword Coast Legends had good voice acting but was a big flop otherwise. Neverwinter Online is a pay to win MMORPG that requires as much understanding of the lore as it gives (which is to say, not a lot). I do mention Idle Champions on my blog, but it isn't really an interactive game as it belongs to the "idle clicker" genre that differs a lot from what most people would consider gaming.
Please note that it is dry if not paired with a narrative. The 3e Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting is also good, but is more suitable as a step 2 after Ed Greenwood Presents Elminster's Forgotten Realms, for it is a bigger scope. Both of these resources are several editions out of date, but it is unfortunately the case that the current edition (5e) has all but reduced the Realms to only the Sword Coast, and not a really deep coverage of it at that. 3/3.5e was really the golden era for FR, and with 5e all but resetting everything back to what it was then, it's almost never wrong to pull a 3/3.5e sourcebook for some deep lore delving.
I realize that I've probably beaten the dead horse to a pulp about this 😜, but the best way to get to know the Realms is really through the novels. I personally had a lot of fun looking up things I'd encounter in the novels that I didn't understand at the time on the FR Wiki. It totally isn't necessary to do so, that was just my personal approach; you learn a lot about the world just reading the books and enjoying the journey they take you through. Depending on what kinds of creatures/characters/subjects/areas you're interested in, I can point you in all kinds of directions on what to read.
As for Artemis, I would say that Night of the Hunter would be the last book in which his characterization is consistently true (even if the back side of the cover shows him as a white guy yet again 😑). The first dramatic decline of the quality and consistency of his characterization is in the Homecoming Trilogy, with the final book ending in what I felt to be the worst of all time in those regards. That, however, was before the Generations Trilogy came into being, and performed what I didn't think was possible: the worsening of Artemis' characterization than in Hero. The current The Way of the Drow Trilogy feels very much like RAS is taking a stance with Artemis the way that he did with Wulfgar post-reincarnation: He has no idea what to do with him but includes the character for old time's sake, then moves him around without putting any thought into if it makes sense and/or is consistent with his past development. RAS might not have ever been the pinnacle of literature, but he has demonstrated the ability to write quality that isn't the trash that he's been putting out recently. I continue to read each book hoping that things will improve, or at the very least go back to the quality that they were in the past. It might be a foolish endeavor, as those older books were written by a man who still knew humility and humbleness, but at the very least, I want to know what's happening to the character that I love, if for nothing other than to figure out sensical ways to reconcile what's being done to him with what's going on in the wider world and what would be reasonable/sensible. ]]
