Customer Reviews

Baldur's Gate

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(36)

 

 

I don't remember how I stumbled upon this book on Amazon, but as I looked at the price for a new book (about 50')I was sure it's because the book is so terrible good. I should have stuck to terrible to better fit my expactations I had when reading it. I never ever read aanytging as shallow and boring like this.

I played the game roughly a thousand times, and I should have started yet another game instead of reading this book.

Keep away if you either liked the game, good written fantasy novels or don't want to feel like you wasted precious time after reading.

"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.

"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?

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.

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... the author gives away Abdels love way to fast, he sees a guys wife and loves her, loves her so much that he kills her husband??? i dont know how many girls out there would like him anymore, bringing him back to life or not. The author starts the book off written much like the Hobbit *(Which i didn't enjoy his writing style)* but slowly... at about page 30 it turns into a novel, yet the Abdel still gets mad at everyone for talking about his father, even if nothing really makes him mad. Wish he had planned more on the character profile, it was an interesting read. I would recommend this, and I have.

*No i havent played the game

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 very disappointed.

What makes the book so awful is the lack of plot and character development. The plot is simply there to get the characters to the next battler scene, which occur pretty much every chapter. The characters are unbelieveable and unlifelike. You feel absolutely no emotion along with the character, simpily because they are developed so poorly. The author will discuss some life altering event to a character with a sentence or two and leave it at that.

I'll try and provide a few examples of the author's writting style to give you an idea of what to expect.
1)The author tends to love the word 'thing' as a description for oppentents for Abdel. There are times where he will use 'thing' up to five times in a single paragraph. Ex. The thing jumped... Abdel drove his sword into the thing.. The thing screamed... The things were everywhere.... Maybe it was just me, but this repeativeness drove me crazy. Not only is it the worst descriptive word I can think of, he uses it over and over and over.
2)Abdel himself seems to immortal and godlike . Ex. several times the author says something along the lines that Abdel is the only man in the world who could do a certain action. Abdel is described as being nearly 7-feet tall and extremely strong, but he is also quicker and smarter then nearly all his opponets. Also, he gets seriuosly hurt on several occasions, falling 20 feet onto a stone floor, getting several deep sword gashs and the list goes on. The problem with this is that the author will describe how painful they are and how diffucult it is for Abdel to press on, but a page later the wounds are NEVER mentioned again. And I mean never, not that they still hurt or have healed, they are simply forgotten.
3)I could go on all night on poor writing, but this review is already to long so I will leave it at that.

In summary, save your money and time.

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. Salvatore's work about the Forgotten Realms. Athans does a horrible job in this book, it is like he played the game for a couple of hours and then penned his fantasy of his character, Able, and Jaheira becoming romantically involved. In fact after reading this book I have begun to doubt that Mr. Athans has ever read any of R.A. Salvatore's work or anything else that deals with the Realms.
Where is Imoen? Where is Minsc and Boo, all three of whom return to BGII. The fact that Abel kills Khalid is horrible, the first quest from Candlekeep is for the main character to find him. The book adds several elements that had nothing to do with the tale of Baldur's Gate at all; in fact it portrays the main character as an experienced mercenary/fighter that has many adventures when in fact the main character in the game has never had a chance to leave Candlekeep.
The zombie eating the remains of Gorian, the black flowers...it is all so bad that I wouldn't have been surprised if Drizzt had been turned into a Drider by Abel either.
If you would like to read about the Forgotten Realms, this is 1 book you should avoid, it is definitely not work the $7.00 bucks. I would strongly recommend the Icewind Dale Trilogy.

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 awesome.

Someone said that it was trying to be 'original.' My retort, YOU DON'T TRY TO BE ORIGINAL WHEN YOU ARE MAKING A CONVERSION! You try to follow the original storyline. Might make a tiny change here and there, or fill in the blanks, but you DO NOT REWRITE THE STORY.

Only the basic skeleton of the plot of the game-story is left in the book. Practically everything else is changed. Character personalities are changed, the main character's level of experience is changed, etc. In the book, Jaheira acts pathetically, I only saw her 'true' personality (the one from the game) appear once in this book. At all other times she just acts the role of screaming chick.

First off, in the game she is more mature, and very strong-willed. Not so in the game, her husband gets killed by Abdel, and then after being a little weepy she decides to, effectively, become Abdel's girlfriend.

Pure balderdash! If her real personality were in effect, Abdel would have died a slow, painful death the instant he killed her husband.

And THAT is only ONE of the problems with the book... GRRRR!!!!

The book is written by Philip Athans, why am I telling you that? So that you never read anything by someone who cant write.

Maybe its not all his fault, some of the sentences seemed to be missing. As if the book was made cheaply as possible. There is only 240 pages in this thing, and trust me for the seven bucks on the cover its not worth it.

Now for you baldur gate fans, Khalid the husband of Jaheire is made to look like a selfish, cheating skirt chaser. Totally opposite of the righteous young shy guy in the game that he was. Why did Philip change Khalid? So that his one-dimensional character Abel can take Jaheria from Khalid and still let the readers like this Barbarian Abel.

Those who enjoyed Candlekeep, will be sad to see that Abel is already an experienced adventure who has seen it all and done it all. There is no discovery of the world around him, like the original story. He knows everything that's going on, except he never seems to recognize any monsters attacking. Strange for a guy that has been supposedly everywhere.

Basically is a short, short book with very little of the original story from the very big game of Baldurs gate. And like one guy said..... What happen to Minsc?

The computer game's storyline is far more coherent than this book! I give the story two stars because I've never seen an author more adept at killing off characters in a gruesome fashion. That provided some entertainment, you see. Aside from Xzar, the few characters included from the computer game were poorly done. First of all, Jaheira is depicted as this babe. In the game she's a bossy annoying lady with a constant sour expression on her face. Khalid really doesn't say or do much. Xan is depicted as a swordsman? He's supposed to be a shrimpy little mage. And his delightfully pessimistic personality is also excluded. No "Your quest is vaaaain" in this book. Where's Minsc and Boo? They would have provided excellent comic relief. And Imoen? She's one of the most important characters, but she's not there. The book does a horrible job of explaining why Sarevok wants the main character dead. Why the Zhentarim wanted to go to the mines. Why Sarevok kills off all his underlings without any apparent reason other than to give the reader a show. And there's all this stuff about black flowers that has nothing to do with the game. In fact there's lots of things that don't seem to have much to do with the game. It's amazing that the author had more than two hundred pages and produced little more than a flawed outline of the plot of the computer game. Yes, this novel is rather loosely constructed sequence of events, but like a TV show, it does provide a sort of mindless entertainment.