The Verdant Passage

Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Sun: Prism Pentad, Book 1

By: Troy Denning

Narrated by: Ray Porter

Under a previous sun, Athas teemed with life. The sorcerer-king, after obtaining immortality for himself, united all lands under the power of his magic. But power-hungry overlords have carved the lands into pieces - setting themselves up as sorcerer-kings--and survival depends on the optimism of three steadfast people.

©1991 TSR, Inc., ©2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Very Good

I went through this series around 20 years ago back when I was in middle or high school. I loved it then and thought I'd give it a try now...I still love it, though maybe not quite as much as before. I will be moving on to the next book.

great

This novel is a great intro to any D and D fan to the Redsun campaign and just a great novel

Good Introduction

Any additional comments?

A wonderful introduction the world of Athas. All five of Denning's books, read by the talented Ray Porter do a good job of wetting your appetite for the world. Sadly, the other eight books in the older Dark Sun series have yet to be released on Audible. I recommend that fans of the series, old and new, get these audio editions. Hopefully it will encourage WotC and Audible to release the remaining books, and have readers as talented as Mr. Porter.

great book for fantasy genre fans

read it while in high school and enjoyed it thoroughly and even managed to finish it in a day

Wonderfull Story and Narration.

The story is very fun and addicting. I found my self making excuses to ride in the car to listen to the next part. I recommend it to all!!!

Ray Porter along with this series

Hello! Long time reader short time audibles user here. I just wanted to say how disappointed I am with my listening to this series narrated by Ray Porter. This series I held very dear to my heart, as I feel that this particular series is what kick-started a life-long endearment to fantasy, Dungeons & Dragons among many others. What I'm so disappointed in is that now that I've finished, Ray Porter has left a desire in me that hardly any other narrator comes close to sating! Truly he has set such a high standard in my tastes of narration that I find myself branching AWAY from entirely fantasy and exploring other types of books simply because, they're narrated by Ray! Unfortunately, although not a deal breaker, Audible does not host very many of my favorite reads, from childhood or otherwise. Albeit it'd be a perfect world if Audible had them all, I'm still very much sold on this entertainment due much to Ray's performance.

Here's a few things that stood out to me with the narrator:
He had a very good handle on inflection, everytime that a character yelled in the book Ray portrayed that. Everytime someone was gritting through pain Ray portrayed that. Every single time a certain evil character spoke Ray put into that voice the thousand years of hate and intimidation to remind the listener that this particular character was in fact very evil.
Ray never missed a beat. Everytime there was a climactic event or a description with a type of atmosphere, Ray's tone went right along with whatever it was the book was telling. He made sure that dismal cities had a certain dismal tone to put the listener in a dismal mood, or a grand sweeping area gave the listener a sense of wonder.
His accents, despite him having one voice box, never led the listener astray with a certain character. Male, female or creature, they all had their own unique voices through Ray. I remember only a single instance where two separate characters sounded similar, and even then it was hard-pressed to say.

I never forgot reading these books. And now that I've listened to Ray read them to me again, they shall remain at the core of my fantasy aspirations!

Thanks Audible for hosting these, and thank you for hosting Ray Porter.

Great overall.

The narrator had great range and helped distinguish all of the characters. Also handled narration of opposite sex without making it cringe.
Story was great and easy to follow as well as well written.
The setting was amazing also. I loved it.
Downloading the sequel now.

A Great Intro To Darksun

The story feels straight out of a 3rd edition campaign and hits all the important parts. The great strength of this book is all the world building it does for Dark Sun on how magic, psionics (the way), and the brutal nature of the tiers. It's just fairly simplistic of a story, but I'm a sucker for menacing villains.

Espetacular character voices

The Darksun world is incredible, and this story is particularly interesting. Added to this, the rendition of the characters by Ray Porter is really powerful and capturing. A recommended "read", for sure. Going to get the next one ASAP.

An interesting world, and a good VA, but a rushed plot

The Dark Sun world of Athas is easily my favorite of the traditional D&D settings. The author and certainly the narrator do a great job of portraying the setting and painting striking mental images. The plot is decent, but the latter half is a rushed. The narrator has a decent range of accents and character voices.