Baldur's Gate: Amazon.ca: Philip Athans: Books

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by Philip Athans

2.5 out of 5 stars (31)

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Product Description

Bhaal must be stopped!

Someone is sabotaging the iron mines of the Sword Coast, pushing powerful realms toward a bloody war, and a young mercenary toward an unimaginable secret.

Evil gods, giant spiders, murderous doppelgangers, flesh-eating ghouls, and wicked Zhentarim come to life in the action-packed novelization of the Baldur's Gate computer game form BioWare and Interplay.

Ingram

A novelization of the much anticipated new computer game from Interplay. The son of a dead god fights his way along the Sword Coast in search of a truth that could rip the world apart.

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First Sentence
The blades came together so hard they threw out a blue-white spark bright enough to burn its gentle arc into Abdel's vision. Read the first page

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Concordance

Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

71 Reviews

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(35)

Average Customer Review

2.5 out of 5 stars (71 customer reviews)

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Most helpful customer reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars So so Forgotten Realm book, April 4 2004

By	Vagabond77 (Tennessee, USA) - See all my reviews

"Baldur's Gate" is based on the popular computor game set in the Forgotten Realms. In it Abdel, a young but experienced sellsword, is charged by his dead adopted father to solve the mystery of why the iron supply in the land is being ruined. He is escorted/guided by a half elf Harper, a flesh eating ghoul, and assorted other charactors as he solves both the political mystery and the secret of his heritiage. I really wish that Amazon.com had a two and a half rating, because that is what this book deserves. Where it is good, like some of the descripition of the mystical realm of The Sword Coast and some of the action, it is excellent. But where it is bad, like with the cardboard charactors and their relationships, it is equally as extreamly a failure. The action and fight scenes that is in the book are exciting and graphic. The book is fairly short, so you can get through it some what quickly. But it also has a tendency to start a chapter after a fight is finished, and some of the description of the places Abdel and company goes is not described very well. The love story between Abdel and Jaheria, the half elf (who is married, by the way) seems like something out of "Melrose Place"; escpecially when Abdel kills the husband. And Abdel seems just a little too psycotic; he loves killing too much. Although this is explained at the end, the blood lust still seems too fake to be a real. Some of the scenes are obviously borrowed. Doppelgangers are murdering important politicians and assuming their identities to further their master's cause. This reminded me a lot of Robert E. Howard's King Kull story "The Shadow Kingdom". To me, though, it's biggest mistake was the end; or the lack there of. The book dose not so much end as it just stops very abruptly. In the end, "Baldur's gate" isn't bad, considering it had to stay within the confines of the game it is based on, but it could have been much better.

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1.0 out of 5 stars Bites, Feb 27 2004

By A Customer

"Knocking the author's storytelling ability is a little silly, considering the story is from the computer game."

That's the problem. I believe the author probably didn't put much effort into this novel because he just saw this as a story from a computer game. If I want fan fiction I can read it for free on the internet. I read the book and played the game, and I enjoyed playing the game more then reading the book.

If you put your heart into writing a book it show. RAS is a better writer then this because at least he cares about his characters and story telling ablity. That's why R.A. SALVATORE is a popular fantasy author and Philip Athans is hiss at by any and all readers.

The reason that this book gets bad reviews is not because it is one angry and rude reader responding. The reason this book gets bad reviews is because its readers are literate! They expect books to be good.

To have no depth of character, describe details poorly, and have unbelievable character emotions are NEVER allowed in GOOD fiction. Just because you aren't writing for Random House or Del Rey doesn't mean you have to suck.

This isn't about following the game. I could care less if he wrote about what happened in the game. I already played the game! I just want a GOOD book. That's all I'm asking.

Is that too much to ask for in modern Fantasy literature?

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2.0 out of 5 stars Not entirely bad, but definately not very good, Feb 27 2004

By	Magus (Homer Glen, Illinois) - See all my reviews

When I first saw that there was a book based off of Baldur's Gate (my favorite game) I immediately bought it. Let me tell you something. This book is not bad. But this book is nothing real special either.
There are many things that I did like about this book. 1) I love the phrase "sellsword" I thought is was an awsome way to describe a mercenary. I also like how he describes his "strong sword arm". That added a nice touch to it. 2) I enjoy how he described some of Abdel's pain after losing Gorion and I enjoy the fact that he gave him a burial. 3) There are many other parts of this book that I do enjoy. The biggest is his choice to use Montaron and Xzar as party members, that tied in well with the story.
I have many things that I greatly dislike about this book though. 1) They don't start off with candlekeep. That would have been the ideal place to begin the story with. It would have shown where the main charactor (Abdel) grew up. 2) They don't describe the relationship between Gorion and Abdel well enough for the reader to truly get a sence over what his loss means. We know that he's devistated but we don't get a sense over HOW devistated he is. 3) The main charactor has never been outside of Candlekeep before. In the stroy Abdel is a mercenary who has already been as far as Amn! The main charactor doesn't reach amn untill the second game! That's why it's called "SHADOWS OF AMN" And what's this about Abdel leaving Candlekeep to make it on his own? 4) In the story Abdel is an experienced killer. In the game the main charactor has never killed before the assasination atempts. I highly enjoy how Mr. Athans portrays his draw to killing and how easy it is for him. But he had never done it before he left The Keep when he accompanies Gorion. 5) Where's Imoen? She follows the main charactor and Gorion! In the game you automatically get her no matter what you say. She is obviously meant to be in the storyline, just look at the second game!
Overall this is a book that could have been done much better but is itself worth reading. I don't know if I would recomend this book to others. This author is good enough for me to read "SHADOWS OF AMN" but overall I think the overall linguistics, narrorations, dialog, and stroytelling could have been better written. There is a distinct lack of Charactor developement, a distinct lack of emotion, and a distinct lack of overall quality. The only real saving grace of the story is it's topic and genre.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Amatuer Author
This probably wasn't the best pick of author, Abdel was at beginning and through the whole beginning of his life, to boot, a huge murderer, also... Read more

Published on Jan 20 2004 by Gun-Ryo

1.0 out of 5 stars Not worth your time.
This book is simpily not very well written. I don't want to dwell to much on how closly it follows the game, but in my opinion if you're a fan of the game you will most likely be... Read more

Published on Jan 18 2004 by W. Schultz

1.0 out of 5 stars You were smoking what?
Ok, if you thought this book deserved more than 1 stars then I can say this about you: 1. you have never played the game, and/or 2 you have probably never read R.A. Read more

Published on Dec 1 2003 by Satnam Singh

1.0 out of 5 stars Now, to grill the people that rated this book highly...
After seeing several high-rated reviews, where the reviewer grilled the majority who gave the book a measly 1 star, I am here to grill the minority who thinks the book is... Read more

Published on Nov 13 2003 by Chris StarShade