The City of Towers: Eberron: Dreaming Dark, Book 1

This is an introductory novel to the then new campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons. Every now and then, mixed with and in explanation of some parts of the plot, there are excursions on the races, societies, and magical aspects of the world. The way the story and the explanations mingle together is well crafted (a long way since the Forgotten Realms and better than Dragonlance).

The heroes of the story are all interesting. Maybe my favourite is Daine, probably the main male protagonist. I like that way the character has religious doubts and doubts altogether on what to do next, after the Last War. That's the kind of character I like best.

Certainly a professional, maybe his voice sounds too "old" for these characters (all young or young-ish). Nice rhythm.

I'd suggest this book to any D&D geek, like myself, or to anyone who wants a good introduction to fantasy fiction. The narrator has certainly done his job, but I would have preferred a younger voice. He tries to give each character their own unique voice, but sometimes the effect is slightly comical (the warforged and occasionally Lei). Still, the narration is smooth and the audiobook is certainly worth its credit!

I bought this book (and some others), to get a quick crash course on Eberron while stuck working. I was really after color, and setting, maybe some history, but actual plots were not high on my list of priorities. I actually decided to get this one when I found posts by the Author (aka Hellcow) discussing it in an RPG forum topic about Eberron novels. Common consensus was that the end of the trilogy sucked. The auther agreed (ok, he said he'd have done it differently if he'd..yadda yadda,)

I like Sharn. I like Lorac the disgruntled flying dwarf and the obnoxiously cute goblin girl far more than any of the actual protagonists, who I'd briefly encountered in Tales of the Last War (Get it first!).

I think I liked the book, but it wasn't a quick listen. Lots of starts and stops. It drags in places, and...

I'd like to fire the editor with unnatural speed, for the soul-crushing number of times someone or something is described with "unnatural speed". The author clearly inserted that same description with unnatural speed almost as often as he reminded us that Pierce is made of wood and metal. Oh, and they ate nothing but gruel for six months. Get used to hearing that. It's whipped out with unnatural speed, though Pierce doesn't mention it, since he's made of wood and metal.

The Dreaming Dark series gives the reader a great start into understanding the feel of the Eberron Campaign Setting for Dungeons & Dragons.

The Series has a pretty linear progression
The City of Towers takes place in the City of Sharn, introducing the reader to the Warforged, the Dragonmarked Houses.

The Shattered Land takes the reader to Xend’rik, and uncovers a glimpse into the world of the Eberron Drow.

The Gates of Night takes this adventure to the Planes and sheds some light on the driving forces of this universe.

Personally I loved the first book, the City of Sharn is so full of adventure it almost shames all other campaigns I have read about, and I suppose that is why my interest in the series waned as the story moved from this city to uncover the setting as a whole. The adventure gets to be a bit "over the top" especially as it runs into the final book of the series.

The change in narrator for the 3rd book didn't help with this... at all.