Swordmage

Forgotten Realms: Blades of the Moonsea, Book 1

By: Richard Baker

Narrated by: J. P. Linton

Discover a whole new realm of adventure!

When a wandering swordmage, trained by the elves of Myth Drannor, returns to his boyhood home on the windswept shores of the Moonsea, he finds that corruption has taken hold, leaving his friends and family open to a devastating evil.Swordmage was the first novel to fully embrace the exciting new elements from the next edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. This paperback resize releases fresh on the heals of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide, and showcases a major revision to the Forgotten Realms world that has fans buzzing.

©2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Epic struggle...on a non-epic scale

Richard Baker first came to my attention as one of the authors in the War of the Spider Queen saga. On a whim I then decided to check out his Last Mythal Series and wow. That was an epic adventure spanning all around Faerun and the locations were beautifully described. With this series Baker brings down the stakes and the scale. Greater Faerun probably doesn't care too much what happens to the little city of Hulburg, but to the people who live there it is home and the stakes are very high indeed. Baker still takes us on a ride around the Moonsea and beyond (no spoilers). I quite enjoyed this book. I didn't enjoy it as much as the Last Mythal because I had issues with the main character. By the end of the first book you are thinking, "Okay...you are 30 now, time to take some responsibility. But he makes excuses, gets distracted, and refuses to see what is right in front of him for two more books until he finally comes to his senses. It was a bit frustrating (but likely necessary to the story arc, but it made him less relatable for me).

Narrator needs to wake up

I read this book years ago when it was first published. I am sorry for what I am about to say, but this narrator did a poor job. He sounds sleepy, out of breath, and constantly fails at using the appropriate dramatic inflection for numerous scenes. A great example, is when a dwarf attacks the orc climbing the wall. The dwarf yells out "Die, orc!". The narrator read this as "Die." *breath* "Orc."

That is the exact issue I took with the entire performance, played out over and over again ad nauseam. If I wanted to listen to a book read I'm such a manner I would hire an elderly alcoholic man to pretend to be my disinterested grandpa at bedtime.

I'm truly sorry that I come across harshly but I feel that it is important to note that I am also being sincere and earnest.

Quick fix

Any additional comments?

I know this may sound a bit odd but when I first began to listen to this book the readers performance was awful. His bad guy voices all sounded like they had marbles in their mouths. At one point I grew tired of how bad it was so I sped it up so that I could finish with it. But when I put it to 1.20 the performance actually became good. Can't say if they slowed it to add to the read time or what they are thinking. After this fix I'm now going to purchase the second book. I wouldn't even entertain the idea if I hadn't done this. The story has pulled me in now and I look forward to the next book and recommend it to any fans of D&D novels.

Rough listen

sorry to say it but the narrator ruined this adventure for me.
The attempts at voicing the characters was terrible, (for me).
The monotone reading and emphasis throughout was very rough for me to get into.
Again, sorry to say it but it was only the narrator for me that caused me to rate low.

Poor editing of recording.

The recording editing is horrendous. Lines in chapters 7, 8, and 9 are repeated several times. Chapter 8 is especially bad. I erased the book, and then downloaded it again, hoping to correct the issue to no avail.