Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: The Druid's Call

De: E.K. Johnston

Narrado por: Emily Lawrence

Explore the thrilling origins of the druid Doric in this original prequel to Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

For as long as she can remember, Doric has felt alone. Abandoned by her human parents, she wandered for years before being taken in by a community of Neverwinter Wood elves. But her horns and tail proclaim a tiefling heritage, and even among the kindest of elves, her fledgling druidic abilities mark her as different from the rangers around her. And as humans begin to encroach farther and farther into the once pristine woods, Doric knows she needs to master her druidic capabilities if she is to be any help to her adopted family. With no means of helping Doric themselves, her guardians see no choice but to send her somewhere she can come into her own.

Tucked among the ancient pines of the Ardeep Forest hides the Emerald Enclave, an order of warriors tasked with preserving the natural world. They fight to maintain balance between the forces of the wild and civilization, and in doing so, protect the sanctity of each.

Among their order, Doric begins to find power in her differences. But not all her fellow initiates are so capable of new growth, and as her training continues, Doric is forced to confront the very beliefs that brought her into the Enclave’s fold. If she’s going to protect her home, she’ll have to reckon with her people, her power, and the walls she’s built to keep herself safe from both.

©2023 E. K. Johnston (P)2023 Random House Audio

Classic Tiefling/Druid Story

I felt this was a joy to read! It was short, but fun. And though I'm sure the basics of the story have been done before, it feels familiar and comforting. I'm intrigued by how this will relate to the movie as well.

Loved it!!

I found it very easy to listen to! I hope there will be more stories about Doric and the never winter wood! I will definitely buy those!

It was great!

Could have the red wizards in it. But it was still good. Write one about the movie.

If you liked the movie.

Worth a read if you liked the movie and you want some backstory on Doric. She will probably become your favorite character from the film within the first five chapters. The middle of the book gets to be a bit of a chore to get through. It picks back up near the end and did well to hold my attention and tie seamlessly into the opening of the film. If you're just D&D obsessed then this will probably be worth your time too but don't expect a lot of action. Overall, it's fine. Nothing groundbreaking. Feels more like really good fan fiction but it's canon so why not give it a go?

Solid story

The story was good, especially for a movie tie in novel. A lot of characters are introduced in this book, but really just Doric, Open, and Torrieth resonated with me. I especially liked Open. He wasn’t in the book a lot but the parts he was in I really liked and found his character the most interesting.

Really liked the flashback scenes to when Doric was a child alone in the woods. However, it would have been nice if those sections had been their own chapters or were introduced in some way to let you know a flashback scene is beginning. Maybe the physical copy of the book separates those sections better but in the audio version you have to just really pay attention to know when they are switching from present day to a flashback as it will just happen randomly in the middle of a chapter.

The narration overall is really good though and I’d recommend this book if you enjoyed the movie.

Unfair

This book has no right being this good. Movie companion books, by their very nature, suck. They have to because the author doesn't have time to really sink their teeth into the story and flesh it out. They are told what to write and therefore have no ability to stretch their creative wings, as it were, to truly tell a good story.

This book shatters that stereotype. It's not good, it's great! The characters are deeper than they are in the movie. The story is a real origin story that covers exactly what is needed for the full breath of life of good storytelling. I would never suggest this book to someone that hadn't watched the movie, but if you have, this is a must read.

Don't pass this book up. The author gave you more than any other movie companion book I've ever read. It's great!

Lacking a story…

If you know the movie, you know there is a story to come. This is quite a lot like the rash of magical school juveniles running about, I want to but I can’t recommend it.

Well written and performed

Gave great insight into the background of the story and characters. It is definitely a must-read for the main storyline of the upcoming movie.

Great character story of an emerging druid

Quick version: It was a really enjoyable story of Doric's origins and learning to be a druid that would otherwise be a 5 star review except for some really shoehorned in movie links and an unresolved major plot point (again, maybe to leave it for the movie?)

Longer version:
This was a entertaining and emotional story of Doric finding a home and learning to be a druid that I thoroughly enjoyed! She is a fun character and has a believable and well written growth arc that is the focus of the story. The secondary characters are all enjoyable even if they don't all get much depth which makes sense given the length of the story and focus on Doric. Also, having read a lot of D&D novels in the past, this is the best one I've come across that explores becoming and being a druid, an often overlooked character type in the other novels.

The audiobook narration is also incredible with distinctive but not distracting voices, and solid emotional range!

However, there are two things that shift this from "a really great book" to "a really great book BUT..." and the first is the obvious links to the movie. When Simon the sorcerer first appears, it actually works rather well with the story. The other times he appears or is mentions on top of the "bard and barbarian getting into trouble" references are so forced and tangential to the actual plot that even Doric mentions how forgettable they are! Given how solid the rest of the writing is, it feels very much like pieces forced in by editorial decree after the book was already written. Thankfully they are small and pass quickly, but they are jarring enough to momentarily knock me out of the story. Certainly not nearly so much to ruin it, but enough to keep it from being 5 stars.

Secondly, and this might be a movie thing as well, but I haven't seen it yet, is that a larger plot issue builds to a climax for the final resolution and... it just ends. Again, maybe this is just to set stuff up for the movie, I don't know. But the plot just sort of ends in a way that doesn't even feel like "and this is just the beginning" or "ambiguous ending" or anything as much as feeling like a couple chapters were just edited out. Hopefully, it's just a set up of something to be resolved in the movie, but either way, it was more jarring than the other shoe-horned movie links (which just amounted to a sentence or paragraph here and there, so they breeze by bumpily but quickly).

However, if go into this knowing that it is a CHARACTER ARC story and that the plot is secondary, then it is very enjoyable and fun read that helps you really understand Doric well!

Just Learning

This is a good prequel to discover and learn identities and background of characters. D and D afficianadoes should love it.