Dungeons & Dragons: Ravenloft: Heir of Strahd

De: Delilah S. Dawson

Narrado por: Ellie Gossage

A party of adventurers must brave the horrors of Ravenloft in this official Dungeons & Dragons novel!

Five strangers armed with steel and magic awaken in a mist-shrouded land, with no memory of how they arrived: Rotrog, a prideful orcish wizard; Chivarion, a sardonic drow barbarian; Alishai, an embittered tiefling paladin; Kah, a skittish kenku cleric; and Fielle, a sunny human artificer.

After they barely survive a nightmarish welcome to the realm of Barovia, a carriage arrives bearing an invitation:

Fairest Friends,

I pray you accept my humble Hospitality and dine with me tonight at Castle Ravenloft. It is rare we receive Visitors, and I do so Endeavor to Make your Acquaintance. The Carriage shall bear you to the Castle safely, and I await your Arrival with Pleasure.

Your host,

Strahd von Zarovich

With no alternative, and determined to find their way home, the strangers accept the summons and travel to the forbidding manor of the mysterious count. But all is not well at Castle Ravenloft. To survive the twisted enigmas of Strahd and his haunted home, the adventurers must confront the dark secrets in their own hearts and find a way to shift from strangers to comrades—before the mists of Barovia claim them forever.

©2025 Delilah S. Dawson (P)2025 Random House Audio

Interesting story

I bought this book as I love curse of strahd. the story is a bit scatterbrained due to the multiple viewpoints but a solid story.

Predictable

Not a fan of spending hours knowing exactly what was coming next. This DND spin on Dracula and Frankenstein was not the worst I’ve heard.

A steller performance of a firmly adequate book.

Ellie is pleasant on the ears, and has enough range that I enjoyed the book(despite the book), and her performance of it.

Delilah meanwhile seems to have perused the 5th Ed source books for Curse of Strahd & Van Richten's guide, and attempted to make a novel of them, while ignoring the three previous novels Strahd has appeared in. OK, that's harsh, but I was violently ripped out of my immersion when Strahd claimed not to know of Waterdeep. The same Waterdeep in which Jander Sunstar met a fragment of Tatyana many, many moons ago in "Vampire of the Mists" by Christie Golden.

So, the book is adequate. If you are unfamiliar with Ravenloft, it might even be Good. If you enjoy watching others Game sessions this may be right up your alley, and fantastic. Unfortunately I am highly familiar with the setting, characters, and module, and thus the errors in characterization, and continuity stand out rather sharply to me. I should mention that I do not hold the imbecilic 5th ed changes against Mrs Dawson, I suspect most of my lore based complaints are due to WoTC and Hasbro dropping the bag. E.G. The domains are unconnected except for the mists. Having said that, the style of following 4 semi-cooperative characters through a CoS game is at the end of the day, I fear one of the few audible purchases I truly did not find to my liking.

The narrator did a good job.

Liked: the atmosphere, the character backstories, Dr. Mordenheim and her laboratory ( I actually really want a quest where the group does help find her lost lover)

Disliked: the huge about face that happens in the second half and the out of nowhere ending. I feel like the author jumped into this project with both feet, but not enough time to devote to drawing out the story to her desired conclusions. The penultimate chapter by Rudolph Van Richten especially felt like a cop out by someone trying to fit a longer story into a shorter one.

Overall it was a fun read and I can see myself picking up a sequel with these characters later, but I doubt I would read this one a second time, or strongly recommend it to anyone.

Fun characters

I wish we had more time with them exploring the mist (woods). I need the next book immediately!!!

Interesting characters, and good story pace

Very enjoyable story setting, the characters are the strongest element, the only negative is the conclusion to the story doesn’t share the excellent built pace of the first half of the tale.

that ending

The ending while kind of obvious it makes me really want another book, can't wait to see what else they do

feels like im in the D&D party

I love this book due to it truely grabbing the vibe of ravenloft and the struggle for survival

Meh.

So, I finished the book today… it’s fine. Just fine. The characters are mostly shallow and boring. Three of them feel like they are taken from boulders gate 3; and the rest are one dimensional and shallow. There are fun Easter eggs for people that have played Curse of Strahd, having characters pop-up here and there, however most of them are handled poorly and make no sense… the story itself self is rushed.

Worse is the narrator. Her accents are terrible and come and go throughout the story. Most notably, with the Drow character… sometimes he has a southern US accent… and sometimes he doesn’t. Most of the other characters have terrible French accents, and they are all so similar that it’s somehow more confusing than if she would just use her normal voice.

All in all it’s an alright book… but coming off of I Strahd or vampire of the mists, it falls pretty short.

Return to Ravenlof or something else.

Meeh not really feeling this it miss the mark for me I really can’t say much without spoilers.