Blackstaff Tower

Forgotten Realms: Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep, Book 1

By: Steven E. Schend

Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin

A Call for Heroes!

A young group of friends stumble across a terrifying conspiracy that holds the heir to the Blackstaff, the defender of the city of Waterdeep, in terrible danger. These friends must search deep within themselves to become the heroes their city needs to save its champion from those who would see both brought low.

Ed Greenwood, beloved author and creator of the Forgotten Realms, presents the first book in a brand-new series dedicated to showcasing both the City of Splendors and our most talented up-and-coming authors. A series of stand-alone adventurers, this book and the series to which it belongs were written specifically for those readers with no prior knowledge of the Forgotten Realms, making it an excellent entry point for new readers.

©2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Sniffles!

The story was decently written and fun to learn about famous characters. But the narrator was really hard to listen to. Not only was his voice tinny but he sniffled every so often which drove me nuts. Can't decide if I want to return it because of the narrator or get the next one because of the story.

Muy disfrutable promedio

El narrador es mediocre, si bien agradable la mayoría del tiempo. Usa tonos poco naturales en algunos diálogos y uno de los protagonistas, cierto mercenario, tiene una vez exagerada que parece una sátira más que una voz real, y corta un poco la inmersión. De un modo u otro, si como yo buscas una historia de intriga clásica de reinos olvidados, o ahondar en la gran ciudad de Aguas Profundas, no te defraudará

The story keeps your attention.

I am along time lover of forgotten realms novels, as well as a tabletop gamer. This book does not dissapoint. Good action and dramatic tension overall.

good story, good overview of waterdeep

the narration is for the most part good, aside from being brutally unlistenable on some of the character choices.

The narrator definitely detracts from the story but it is overall a pretty good listen

The other reviews are right that the narrator's voice impressions are pretty terrible. It is far too goofy and lame. The book deserves a rerecording.

A great listen(read).

The narrator's style of delivery took a few minutes for me to get used to. Once I accepted that the rest of the book was fantastic for me. Which is not surprising, being a DM from1980-1993, I am an avid follower of forgotten realms lore. I have read almost every book in forgotten realms and won't stop til I have finished them all.

Zero Tension

It kept putting the characters in positions to learn and grow, then they would just solve the puzzles or defeat the enemy with little to no effort.

Narrator was too terrible

The narration would have been ok, if he hadn't tried to do voices. It's tolerable in the prologue, but already in chapter one it becomes unbearable. This book deserves better.

Fine for a college writing assignment but not published

This is mediocre fan fiction. Characters are flat and story seems forced but that wasn’t the worst of it. The characters, both hero and villain, explain what they did after the author describes the scene. They explain their powers, share their motivations, tell their opponents how they could have done better etc. it is unbearable.

Hard to Listen to

The Narrator made a number of questionable decisions, including voicing one of the main characters as a dumbed down Kermit the Frog. Overall his performance made this the first audio book on Audible that I just couldn't finish. The story is so-so, but entertaining enough that a good performance would have allowed me to see it through to the end.