Sacrifice of the Widow

Forgotten Realms: The Lady Penitent, Book 1

By: Lisa Smedman

Narrated by: Dara Rosenberg

Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

Goddesses vie for the soul of people...

Halisstra Melarn, convert to the cause of the goddess Eilistraee, was sent to the deepest depths of the Outer Planes to kill the demon goddess she once worshiped, but instead was transformed into a hideous creature bent to the vengeful will of her former mistress.

For the Queen of the Demonweb Pits not only survived her Silence but evolved into something greater than she was before - something that no longer needs to share the domain she calls her own.

Could it be that the War of the Spider Queen has just begun?

©2007 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Great continuation of War of the Spider Queen

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Dara Rosenberg?

Rosalyn Landor would have been a better choice for the narration. She read all six books of The War of the Spider Queen and her voice would have added consistency to the story.

Any additional comments?

While I don't think Dara Rosenberg is the worst narrator that I have every heard, she is clearly out of her depth with the subject matter (this also applies to the Darkwalker on Moonshae Trilogy). Rosalyn Landor, who voiced The War of the Spider Queen, would have given the book just what it needed... the right voice and consistency.

This should be re-read by Rosalyn in much the same way as R.A. Salvatore's books are all being (re)read by Victor Bevine.

Don’t listen to the other reviews

The narration is fine, the story a good continuation of War of the Spiderqueen which should really be read first so that theses characters and plot already have a basis for the word they are in.

Inflection fiasco

This was difficult to listen to. Dara Rosenberg doesn’t seem to know how or when to deliver her words smoothly. Almost like being out of tune or off beat in a song.

Story is great but the narrator is awful

It’s a great book if you can endure listening to a narrator that is constantly mispronouncing words and reading the wrong words. She reads like a library storyteller reading to little kids.

Fantastic story God awful performance.

I should have heeded the reviews. The performance was beyond any horrible description I could confer upon it. I'm painfully enduring it to hear the story, but so much is lost in the performance.

Couldn’t finish

I’ve heard better text to speech performances. It’s seriously like someone recorded her voice saying random words and had an AI read the story, yet somehow worse.

Poor audio and narration

I purchased this title hoping for similar quality to the other forgotten realms books I own on audible, I have all of the 40+ drizzt books, the clerics quintet, several one off stories like the stone of Tymora Or the tablets of fate, and the war of the spider queen saga that this is a continuation of. I was sad to find out that not only was the narrator's pronunciation and cadence/inflection questionable at times, but the audio quality itself is very poor. This clearly was not recorded in any kind of sound booth, there is a constant echo at all times.

The narrator was jusr bad.<br />

She sucked. I felt like it wqs a story for kids. p
Please , if you want my money find someone new.

Mediocre story, bad narration

I decided to pick this up because the war of the spider queen series was pretty good. I was rather disappointed in this one though. Only one character has any real personality, and sort of feels like a knockoff Pharaun. The biggest problem though is the narration. While I have heard worse, the narrator lacks the vocabulary to read a book like this. Frankly, I don't think someone should narrate a fantasy novel if "smiting" isn't a word they are familiar with. The narrator also has an odd cadence where she is clearly just reading the book off of a page without regard to the sentences, resulting in odd pauses. She does try to do voices, but everything is some variation of high pitched and many characters come off sounding silly.

To be fair, I have had audiobooks which were completely ruined by the narration before, and this isn't that bad. It is just off-putting.

The story itself is okay, but I just find myself not caring about any of the characters. It sort of jumped into big events without laying groundwork with the characters. I realize that this is part of a larger series of books, but it is the first book with the new characters and events, and it just feels forced.

Good story..Bad delivery

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The premise of the story is great, the way its read is not..I'd ask the narrator of the War of the spider queen Series to continue on doing this story and it would improve immensely.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

the story itself was good

What didn’t you like about Dara Rosenberg’s performance?

The narrator obviously doesn't understand the subject matter. Its like the narrator was reading it to a group of kids at a sunday readying at a library. The tempo is off, pauses in the wrong places, and feels like someone wants to brighten up this dreary drow stuff and make it abit more upbeat.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

no..if this reading was a movie..it would be directed by uwe boll featuring linsey lohan