Brimstone Angels

By: Erin M. Evans

Narrated by: Dina Pearlman

Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's Summary

Rejected at birth and raised in a village of tiefling misfits, Farideh expects a life without friends, love, or control over her destiny. Then she makes a pact with a devil named Lorcan, and everything changes. Lorcan promises all she ever dreamed of and asks for nothing in return. Her twin sister, Havilar, urges Farideh to resist the devil’s sway. But Farideh’s not so sure. Lorcan may be dangerous but the power he offers is exhilarating.

In the ruins of Neverwinter, Farideh’s doubts get tangled up in a devilish snare six layers deep. A succubus playing human pawns against an otherworldly foe sees the twins as obstacles in her path. And Lorcan’s monstrous sisters have their eyes on the city—and on Farideh. There’s no time to question her pact with Lorcan—it will take every ounce of Farideh’s newfound powers to get out of Neverwinter alive.

©2011 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Good start to the Realms for New Comers

Very entertaining story focusing on Warlocks who get their powers from Devils and the inner workings of the Forgotten Realms' Hells.

Reader does well to have separate modes of speech for each character and stays consistent. However, it is hard to realize when there is a shift of perspective. Most jarring when it occurs mid-chapter especially when focusing on the devils.

My only issue with the story are a couple of moments when characters meet in contrived ways that seem impossible. The city that is in the story is relatively the size of New York yet three main characters bump into each other very easily with no one seeking the others out.

Overall a 5 because it's a good listen. 4's because of a few moments that took me out of the story.

Stunning

Amazing story, and I am so glad it was pointed to in the D&D 5e player's handbook in the entry for Tieflings. Provides some amazing insight into the nature of tieflings and warlocks.
The narration was excellent. I was slightly disappointed with the voice for Asmodeus in the epilogue, as I would have expected a deep menacing almost omnipotent threat, but such a voice would be difficult to achieve without heavy audio effects, which obviously was not the style of this simple narrated recording. The voices through the rest of the book were great.

Great book!

Wonderfully surprised by the complexity and depth from this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and can't wait for the next one!

Poor story and narration

The ending makes little sense, and unfortunately the narrator's voice is grating and inconsistent with the characters who she voices.

Great example of well rounded characters.

If you could sum up Brimstone Angels in three words, what would they be?

Adventurous. Funny. Human.

"Brimstone Angels" came as a pleasant surprise. The fantastic fantasy adventure from a novel based on the dungeons & dragons games is expected, but not one with so many characters a reader can relate to. Each and every character was well thought out and so well rounded with their own strengths and personal insecurities that the story became something much more than an outlet for fans of the setting and source material. Farideh, her sister, her adoptive father, her new friend and even her controlling bad influence Lorcan could share character traits with people you meet at school, work or in the streets.

Who was your favorite character and why?

If you had ever had a sibling, Havilar, Farideh's sister, polar opposite and personality fence, has to be the most entertaining character to follow. Every time Havilar and Farideh enter a situation together the bickering and jokes come forth in such a naturally silly sisterly way that an audience will be hard pressed not to smile.

What about Dina Pearlman’s performance did you like?

Her performance was great. She nailed the whole silly bickering of the teenage twins routine with such flair that I laughed out loud a couple of times.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I love the fact that this book seemed humorously stuck on family dynamics. Everything in this book remind me of a terribly funny family reunion. It's not just Farideh, her sister and her adoptive father. Brin has a funny awkward family issue. Even the villains, Lorcan, his mother and sisters, all the way down to the overlords of hell are humorously jabbing each other in their own dark way when they are related.

Any additional comments?

I highly recommend this book, regardless of the source material, because it's a great character study. There is an odd jumping around in the writing towards the end as the plot gets fast paced, but I was able to follow it fine and was totally worth it because the plot and characters were just that great.

For Y.A.

If you could sum up Brimstone Angels in three words, what would they be?

Young Adult D&D

If you’ve listened to books by Erin M. Evans before, how does this one compare?

First Evans book.

Would you be willing to try another one of Dina Pearlman’s performances?

Doubtful

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

D&D taken to a whole new level.

Any additional comments?

I try and listen through every book I purchase (get my money's worth). And hundreds of books later there have only been a handful I could not finish. This was one of them. Looking at the overall rating and reading reviews I figured I could not go wrong... but, it just wasn't for me. The introduction of main characters into the story was lacking at best. And the two main characters were... annoying teenagers. It seemed more like a coming of age story, then anything else. Maybe if I was a 16 year old it would have held my interest, but there are just too many books geared toward adults to listen to than that are outstrip this book. So, if your into the series, great, but new to the series and not a teenager, you may want to read more reviews to see if it is right for you.

Warlock who isn't an edgelord

Loved all the characters and loved the voice acting. Can't wait for the next one!

Transitions are a bit jarring

I read some reviews that said as much, that the perspective changes are handled poorly, etc. I like the narrator's voice well enough, and she voices characters well. She pronounces some things strangely, but I can get past that. The only problem I really had was that the perspective changes fairly frequently, and almost no signal is given and often times no change in voice accompanies this. Aside from this, you get what you expect from a young adult DnD novel. The characters are interesting to me, and I'm not normally a big YA fan, so I can recommend this. I intend to keep reading.

Characters acting bizarre throughout.

The tiefling girls who should be the stars come across as mooning, spoilt, and stupid. Entirely too much time is spent in the hells with the warlock patron who should have been given a back seat. I simply don't care about anyone in this story. I haven't got to the end yet, but fingers crossed that they all die. *edit - I got to the end... It was a mess of "hurry up and finished this." Don't bother with this one.

Interesting and Exciting

Wonderful story set in the Forgotten Realms of the memorable table-top game D&D. The plot thickens and twists as you follow along and keeps you drawn in. The narrator tended to use very similar voices for certain characters, but delivered the content in a way that was not hard to follow which person was speaking.