Baldur's Gate

As a writer who is about to complete a similar novel, I found this series very entertaining.

If you love the R.A. Salvatore books than read this. Its not by him but I got into this book almost as much as I did his other books.

this book doesn't deserve all the crap reviews it gets. First of all it was written before the game ever came out , second it is not the same plot if you expect it to follow the game then it will disappoint you. That being said it isn't a bad book at all and Athans isn't a terrible writer , the book is a good quick read and a lot of fun. If you like fantasy and not expecting an epic tale it's a fun adventure. I repeat it's not the same plot as the game which is why I'm assuming it's got so many bad reviews. It's not a bad book at all..

I want to confess the love I had for this book (and the entire series). There is love to be had here. However, you should know the audience it's for.I was maybe 12 or 13 when I picked up the Baldur's Gate books. I was the type who couldn't stand (the character of) Harry Potter and looked for a different magical-realm fiction to read. I owned Baldur's Gate the game beforehand and loved the world it contained. I did understand that there is certainly a divergence from the game's story but I was not a stickler for consistency as many reviewers here are. I don't blame them for being upset, but going into this book with the expectation it would simply be the game's screenplay on a piece of paper will certainly ruin it, just like many other novel-to-movie story divergences. "To each their own" is how you should always go about these things.I'm giving it 5 stars because I loved this book. The action scenes are powerful, detailed, complex, and memorable. That's a lot for a quick-read type of book this is. It's "can't-put-it-down" type. But this is no Lord of the Rings trilogy. And I'm glad about that! Too many books in the middle-world realm are dense as such, while this is in the same space but much easier to follow / read. Possibly a warm-up (or cool-off) to the more dense types of novels.Anyways, I hope this review helps you and know that I still have very fond memories of the characters in this book, 15 years later.

I bought this novel after finishing playing both Balder's Gate, and Balder's Gate II-Shadows of Amn.As is my usual habit, I did not read any reviews of the book beforehand, and now I really wish I had.This book has none of the epic feel of the games. It ignores some of the best events and plot devices of the game (Imoen's weakness, Minsc's incredible one-liners) in favor of creating an artificial relationship between the main character (Abdel? Who came up with that name? It sounds almost Indian... not what one would expect of someone growing up on the Sword Coast) that doesn't exist in the first game at all.I can only guess that the writer of the game never actually played the game the novel was based on. And especially was not given information about Baldur's Gate II -- or he couldn't have killed certain characters and ignored the existence of others.Given that no book based on a game can fit with the entire plotline, I suppose some of these problems can be overlooked... but they add up.When you add into it the author's inability to make you CARE about any of the characters, good or ill, and his lack of actual writing talent, the book becomes downright awful. It took me less than 3 hours to read it from cover to cover, and I was relieved when it was finally over.The writing style is disjointed, and as someone who has done some editing in my life, looks like every third page was cut so that the book would be shorter. The descriptions are choppy and uninteresting, and the story just doesn't flow at all.All in all, I wouldn't recommend buying this book if you previously enjoyed the game (or even just the first one). It just doesn't live up to the epic story that Baldur's Gate is supposed to tell.

I liked it and happy I got it. Narrator sounded good.

The Thing Is About Games And Books With Movies And Stuff That They Change Things To Make It More Interesting And Thats What The Author Tried To Do With This Book. If This Book Was Exactly Like The Game Then Whats The Point Of Reading it? You Have To Change Some Things To Keep The Reader Err... Reading. And Isnt That What You All Did? Read The Book? So When You Read A Book Based On A Movie Or GAme Dont Compare The Book To It You Moron, But Look At It Like You Reading A Brand New Story That You Have Never Heard Before. Then Maybe One Day You'll Be Able To Appreaciate A Book.

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

got any more?

First of all: I'm a true fanatic about the game, playing it since 13 years straight, never lost the enthusiasm about it.The story was pretty good in my opinion, I couldn't stop reading - except I had to make pauses, because the book seemed to have mould or something like that - made me cough pretty much times.In conclusion:A for the storyC- for the condition(no damage, but mould)

Re bought this after I lost my original copy. Took some time to track it down, but I'm glad I got it. Ahhh memories of playing BG for the first time.

Such a rare book. Great find.