The Sword of Midras

A Shroud of the Avatar Novel

By: Tracy Hickman, Richard Garriott

Narrated by: Derek Perkins

The thrilling prequel to Shroud of the Avatar from Portalarium!

The world died during the Fall.

Abandoned by the mighty Avatars and their Virtues, the people who remained were left defenseless in an untamed land. That was until the Obsidians came. Through dark sorcery and overwhelming force, the Obsidian Empire brought order to chaos, no matter the cost.

Aren Bendis is a Captain in the Obsidian Army who has seen enough of what a world without Virtue looks like and is willing to do whatever it takes to establish a lasting peace. But after finding a magical sword that only he can wield, a sword his trusted scout, Syenna, claims is a blade once used by the legendary Avatars, Aren is thrown into a far more unfamiliar battle. One fought with whispered words and betrayal instead of swords and arrows.

Running out of allies, Aren's only hope for survival is to discover the true nature of the ancient weapon he wears at his side. In order to do that, Aren will have to turn to the empire's enemies, and in doing so he will discover what order at the hands of the Obsidians really means.

©2016 Portalarium, Inc. (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

I Loved It

I just loved this book and Derek Perkins brings it to life. Can't wait for book one.

Story (not performance) feels a bit rushed

good story as far as they go, but it feels short, like they cut material for brevity sake. I don't find myself as invested in the characters as I have been with either authors' previous works

Very slow, needs SOTA hooks.

I couldn't get hooked to the story at all. Decided to finish the book, since I play shroud of the avatar game. Book finally caught my interest, after a certain artifact was found, but even then, it wasn't enough to give it more than 3 stars overall.

There are a lot of unnecessary descriptions, story is slow, dialogues are uninteresting. I guess this book is more of a starter for series, since in the end they clearly stage that it was the end of Book 1.

I hope the next book(s) will be more engaging. And what I really want to see/hear/read, is the real events that take place in a game represented in this book. They can turn the story around and allow the avatars to appear.

Moon is broken, so the events in this book happen shortly before the game events take place.

If they can manage to pull it off and release the book in parallel of major game events that affect the world in Richard's game, it would be a great incentive for people to check it out and current players enjoy it even more.

I only recommend this book, if you play Shroud of the Avatar game. Otherwise, you probably not going to like it at all, and a lot of things simply won't make any sense to you.

Haven't played the game, but big ULTIMA fan

Any additional comments?

I really wanted to love this book. I grew up reading the Dragon Lance series (Tracy Hickman) and Richard Garriott has been a childhood hero ever since I first played Ultima IV. I will read the next book when it comes out, but this one had some problems for a reader that has not played the associated game. I am very familiar with the concept of Avatars and the Virtues - thanks to ULTIMA - and I was aware going in that the story wasn't necessarily based in the Britannia universe I am used to. The story does start out very slowly and the character development is limited, with the exception of the protagonist. The story was engaging enough to keep me listening and not leave me entirely disappointed in the book. I loved the little references to a "Lord Brinish"and I can't say that the ending was entirely predictable, but the most immediate antagonist was pretty bland and uninteresting. I have high hopes for the next book.

Good for gamers. Probably boring for everyone else

This book is a must-read for all of us who want to enjoy the storyline or roleplay in the game "Shroud of the Avatar".

The book is extremely hard to enjoy at the beginning, as it is doing what all good book *series* do with describing the world. The authors like to drone on about the world at times throughout the book as well.

The ending of the book is note-worthy and makes the rest of the book a much more worthwhile endeavor.

Overall, I do not *yet* recommend this book to anyone who is not playing the game. I may change my recommendation once the book series is finished.

read the story, then play the game

Enjoyed this adventure that beings life to the map and history of the game Shroud of the Avatar.

decent book

good story although lacking lots of detail. it could have easily been much longer. as an avid player in shroud of the avatar the loose ends and lack of more detail into many of the interesting characters and events was dissapointing. but other than that it was a great read and would recommend it to the masses