The first of seventeen in the series

I purchased the audio book to listen to at work and being a Dungeons & Dragons player and DM I wanted to fall into the realms, to listen and learn, of the Harper organisation and the nation of Calishman. Which is did to a point. The book was written in 1991 under TSR publications, a fantasy novel shouldn't age. The story is average, and there are the protagonists vs the enemies wishing to bring destruction of dominion over powerful, wise but disorganised tribes of the Anauroch desert. There is love, loss and small skirmishes to large battles. There is of course more to this story also, mainly the use of magic, but only just about.

This is the first novel in the Harpers Series, so for one it is a good book to read, but there is not a great amount of depth to the Harper involved. That being said, there are seventeen books in total for the series, including Ed Greenwood, so this could be a huge answer to my problem.

If I would have picked my narrator for the novel, The Parched Sea, about the deserts of Faerun, with tribes, and cut throats. I would have picked someone different. Unfortunately the narrator, you can listen to the sample to get an idea, good in his own right does not suit the themes of the story and this does at points of climatic situations, descriptions and voices get irritating having to hear a young American narrator, instead of the aged middle eastern woman we really wish to be listening to telling us the story.

In short, the book reminds me a lot of Wilbur Smiths 'Warlock' novel. Although a fantasy, TSR twist.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful