Sacrifice of the Widow

Forgotten Realms: The Lady Penitent, Book 1

By: Lisa Smedman

Narrated by: Dara Rosenberg

Goddesses vie for the soul of people...

Halisstra Melarn, convert to the cause of the goddess Eilistraee, was sent to the deepest depths of the Outer Planes to kill the demon goddess she once worshiped, but instead was transformed into a hideous creature bent to the vengeful will of her former mistress.

For the Queen of the Demonweb Pits not only survived her Silence but evolved into something greater than she was before - something that no longer needs to share the domain she calls her own.

Could it be that the War of the Spider Queen has just begun?

©2007 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Great continuation of War of the Spider Queen

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Dara Rosenberg?

Rosalyn Landor would have been a better choice for the narration. She read all six books of The War of the Spider Queen and her voice would have added consistency to the story.

Any additional comments?

While I don't think Dara Rosenberg is the worst narrator that I have every heard, she is clearly out of her depth with the subject matter (this also applies to the Darkwalker on Moonshae Trilogy). Rosalyn Landor, who voiced The War of the Spider Queen, would have given the book just what it needed... the right voice and consistency.

This should be re-read by Rosalyn in much the same way as R.A. Salvatore's books are all being (re)read by Victor Bevine.

Don’t listen to the other reviews

The narration is fine, the story a good continuation of War of the Spiderqueen which should really be read first so that theses characters and plot already have a basis for the word they are in.

Bad Narration

I love this series, but did not care for the narrator. Sometimes the way she would read was like someone would read Dr. Seuss to a child. I know not everyone can be as good at it as Victor, but come on. It felt like they didn’t even try finding someone decent

Fantastic story God awful performance.

I should have heeded the reviews. The performance was beyond any horrible description I could confer upon it. I'm painfully enduring it to hear the story, but so much is lost in the performance.

The narrator’s poor performance was distracting

While the story itself was typical “Forgotten Realms,” decent but not award winning fantasy, the narrator made this truly difficult to listen to. Debating if I’ll continue the series.

Inflection fiasco

This was difficult to listen to. Dara Rosenberg doesn’t seem to know how or when to deliver her words smoothly. Almost like being out of tune or off beat in a song.

Story is great but the narrator is awful

It’s a great book if you can endure listening to a narrator that is constantly mispronouncing words and reading the wrong words. She reads like a library storyteller reading to little kids.

somewhat distracting

I dig the narrator's voice, but too many mispronounced words distract from the story; especially penitent, which is the title of the series. Hoping that it improves with the next two books.

Couldn’t finish

I’ve heard better text to speech performances. It’s seriously like someone recorded her voice saying random words and had an AI read the story, yet somehow worse.

Poor audio and narration

I purchased this title hoping for similar quality to the other forgotten realms books I own on audible, I have all of the 40+ drizzt books, the clerics quintet, several one off stories like the stone of Tymora Or the tablets of fate, and the war of the spider queen saga that this is a continuation of. I was sad to find out that not only was the narrator's pronunciation and cadence/inflection questionable at times, but the audio quality itself is very poor. This clearly was not recorded in any kind of sound booth, there is a constant echo at all times.