Awful

Awful. Just simply awful. There is absolutely no plot lines, just a series of events that seems to happen. There is no character buildup and the supposedly protagonist is like the least developed, one dimensional character Ive ever come across. Stephen Seagal movies seem Shakespearian in comparison. Avoid avoid avoid!!!

8 people found this helpful

Just play the game, the book is too goofy.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The main character is simple and boring, easily forgettable. His dialogue and actions remind you it's a guy playing a video game,impish and far too casual. The story was great in the game, but this re-telling fails.

7 people found this helpful

Poor Novelization of Good Source Material

I know the bar is pretty low for these kinds of books, but this is an extremely boring and poorly written novel. The author wastes so much time with dull and unnecessary tangents. The entire romantic subplot is tedious from start to finish and not at all reflected in the game. And how can you write a novelization of this RPG without Minsc or Imoen? The plot of the video game is a tight narrative, and the author should have just stuck with that. His changes might be forgiven if they added something, but all they did is subtract from the source material.

12 people found this helpful

no

just no. didn't like the story, it was an extreme disappointment. I wish I could like it better but just no.

5 people found this helpful

Doesn't offer much.

Sadly, there isn't much to this book. The narration is only alright, while the story itself fails to capture much beyond the bare-bones of the original story of the game, and absolutely nothing of its feel. This would presumably be fine if the book was good in its own right, but here it fails as well, killing off most characters before they leave an impact beyond offense of their misrepresented personalities. However, the biggest nail-in-the-coffin of this book is the main-character himself, whom completely fails to be a likable protagonist, and only manages to be bareable by the very end. No one has any reason to go through this book, and if a person likes Khalid and Jaheira, it should be avoided like the plague for its crimes against these characters.

6 people found this helpful

Does not follow the game's story at all

What would have made Baldur's Gate better?

The story seems to be completely made up and does not follow the story what so ever.

What could Philip Athans have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Author needs to seriously play through the game before attempting to recreate the story in novel form.

Which character – as performed by Fleet Cooper – was your favorite?

Performance was ok at best. Characters we somewhat believable however, I get the impression that the narrator never played the games either.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

No redeeming qualities in this book. I can not even finish it.

Any additional comments?

This is a Baldur's Gate flavored story with characters and locations from the game but does not justify the epic story that was the original game.

9 people found this helpful

A slap in the face to anyone who enjoyed the game

Do yourself a favor and skip this one. It barely follows the story of baldurs gate. Most of the companion characters are missing, including minsc, and imoen. The companions that are in the book are poorly written. (Don’t get me started on jaheira and Khalid) ghorions ward “abdel adrian” is more a mindless brute who just follows around his companions rather than the main character that he should be.

1 person found this helpful

Good story but average narration

Having been an avid fan of the Baldur's Gate games then listening to this story I went in with the expectation that the story would not match the game. However, it was enjoyable I still couldn't help to think this was a world that Mr Athans didn't quite understand or couldn't picture very well. Mr Cooper constantly fumbled words and names throughout the book. Names he would say correct multiple times then incorrectly a chapter or two later. Katana, Abdel, Jaheira, Sarevok to name just a few but overall he did a good job with the voice complexion for the main characters.

1 person found this helpful

So bad.

The story flowed like a clogged toilet. Poorly written with no sense of direction to the story. The dialog is poor and the character development is almost non existent. Pass on this one.

Not the game at all

This was terrible for me. As a long time player/lover of the games this was painful. The best part was the Narrator he was pretty good. My only complaint was he mispronounced names withou consistency. One time he said a name correct later he would butcher it. Oh this is asking alot but since it was a game with audio he could have matched voices better.
Anyway the story took names and places and a few storylines but the rest was totally off. They didn't have to follow page by page but i think they just ran completely off track.
I could go on forever on how bad it was but I won't. Lets just say it was painful to Indore the entire book. There were a ton of reviews that said it was bad but it was the intro or sample that made my decision. It was the best part. Let me say its like when you see a commercial for a movie and think looks good but then see the movie only to realise that commercial was the best part. Yeah its like that.
I can not recommended this book whether you are a fan of the video game or d&d you will be disappointed I'm sure. If you are not you'll probably still dislike it I'm sure.