Blackstaff

Forgotten Realms: The Wizards, Book 1

By: Steven E. Schend

Narrated by: Bruce Miles

Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's Summary

Khelben Arunsun, Chosen of Mystra, Archmage of Waterdeep, is as close to a demigod as you're likely to meet on the streets of Faern's mightiest city. But when the skies rain lightning and a long-forgotten city arises from the earth, he can seem like just another wizard.

©2006 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Author Comments on Audio Version

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I'd recommend it but that's because it's my book and I'm biased. That said, I wrote this for long-time fans of the Forgotten Realms in hopes they'd enjoy the romp through the secret histories behind the Blackstaff.

What does Bruce Miles bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

It's interesting hearing my written words read back to me as it changes the tenor of the story for me and I'm less apt to skip parts I'm more familiar with due to that. It's also fascinating to hear how Mr. Miles pronounces and lends weight to particular words or parts of the narrative that I don't expect. In all, a great experience for this author and hopefully for other readers as well.

Could not take the cadence of the narrators voice

What would have made Blackstaff better?

The story itself was not horrible, but the narrators cadence made me think of someone reading a grocery list.

Would you be willing to try another book from Steven E. Schend? Why or why not?

Yes if there is another narrator.

What character would you cut from Blackstaff?

none

Disappointed

It's called Blackstaff and I had hoped it would be about Blackstaff, but he was almost a secondary character. It seemed more about Tsarrah or other big named wizards than him. He's handing off the blackstaff to Tsarrah who can't even witness the powerful magic, yet, we're to believe she's going to replace a 900-year-old mighty chosen of Mystra.

This book needs a different narrator!

I found it very difficult to connect to the story, characters and follow along in general due to narration. The narrators inflection, or lack thereof, drew the story to a singular flat plane. I am slightly familiar with the forgotten realms lore as well as it’s characters. But not familiar enough to follow such shallow reading.

I ended up having to buy the kindle version in order to gain context and keep up with what’s happening. Maybe I’m spoiled by Kate Reading and Michael Kramer who would have given a story like this and intense depth given its Lore. It’s made even worse to its old English style speech!

A big disappointment, as I feel this could be a good book. But I will not know until I sit and read it to myself.

Good novel. No complaints.

It was a good novel. I enjoyed the heavy focus on khelben. The narrator's pronunciations were bizarre rather often, but once you heard him say things a couple times you got used to it.