• The Sleeping Dragon

  • Guardians of the Flame, Book 1
  • By: Joel Rosenberg
  • Narrated by: Keith Silverstein
  • Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (722 ratings)

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The Sleeping Dragon  By  cover art

The Sleeping Dragon

By: Joel Rosenberg
Narrated by: Keith Silverstein
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Publisher's summary

Captives of Sorcery...

It began as just another evening of fantasy gaming with James, Karl, Andrea, and the rest ready to assume their various roles as wizard, cleric, warrior, or thief. But sorcerous gamemaster Professor Deighton had something else planned for this unsuspecting group of college students. And the "game" soon became a matter of life and death as the seven adventurers found themselves transported to an alternate world and into the bodies of the actual characters they had been pretending to be.

Cast into a land where magic worked all too well, dragons were a fire-breathing menace, and only those quick enough with a sword or their wits survived, the young gamers faced a terrible task. For the only way they would ever see Earth again was if they could find the legendary Gate Between Worlds - a place guarded by the most terrifying and deadly enemy of all....

©1983 Joel Rosenberg (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about The Sleeping Dragon

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    455
  • 4 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
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  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
    59
  • 2 Stars
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    14

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

A Self Image Cast in Stone Could Shatter

SOMETIMES I'M SO CLEVER I DON'T EVEN UNDERSTAND MYSELF.
This book starts out sounding like a teen book, but it is not. Though details are not usually given there is gang rape and murder. I am one generation too old to have played D&D, but my kids did and I do believe I would have enjoyed it. I believe gamers will like this book better then those who are not gamers.

I found I had to but my common sense on the shelf. In the same way that Burroughs gets Carter to Mars, similarly JR gets this group to this fantasy world. I did not really like the characters in this, most of them seemed to be selfish and rude to each other. I found it hard to believe that a group of kids this rude to each other would continue to meet on a regular basis and spend time with each other. The rudeness and selfishness got worse as they became there characters, but that was probably on purpose to show the thinking of medieval people.

I thought I was going to give up on this book several times, but when it would get to the end of the chapter I found I wanted to know what was going to happen next. These kids go on a quest and nothing goes easy for them. The author does not cope out, by giving them special powers that work wonderfully helping them escape at the last minute. Most of the time there inability to work their magic properly gets them in deeper.

I don't know how to advise you on this book. Some of you are going to love it and some are going to hate it. I give the story three stars and I am not going to listen to the rest in the series.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A Favorite Fantasy Series Of Mine From Long Ago...

I've just completed a long review for Jordan's Last novel, so in fairness, I must keep this one brief.

I first came across this book decades ago, and it pulled me into a fantasy series that offered great reading and loads of fun. It starts a bit slow, but then it builds into a wonderfully detailed fantasy world without being tedious, and sets a journey that will take the entire series to complete. It deals with modern and timeless moral issues, and does it very well.

This series is one of the earlier "modern people thrust into a fantasy realm" that really had meat to it, real "bite" similar to Andre Norton's earlier effort, Quag Keep. Rich characters, great plot, a detailed world and just plain good writing. Machiavellian and magical, and I like both together. This series has it in spades.

The narrator Silverstein is great for this work, and I hope to hear more of him in future listens.

I liked this first Audible novel in the series so much, I bought the entire series, and I do NOT regret it.

If you like Dungeons and Dragons, if you play dungeon crawler games, if you like action in a fantasy realm, you'll enjoy this. A LOT.

Plain and simple. it's GOOD. Enjoy!

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

A dark story about flawed people who make mistakes

I read this series as a young adult and enjoyed it, so I decided to take a stroll down memory lane and listen to it again as an adult.

It's a rare genre that I have a soft spot for: a group of college-aged kids who roleplay together end up in the game for real, no longer playing characters but actually living their lives, with the knowledge and skills from their own lives. It's a pretty awesome idea - take your average teenager and give them the body and skills of Conan the Barbarian, or Merlin the Wizard, and you have an idea of what fun it could be. But that's not what this book is about. The fun is temporary - the book focuses on how flawed everything is - the world, its people, and even the main characters.

The characters in it are all flawed people. They're not BAD people, but they're also not without problems. The novel stresses the idea that people can grow out of childishness and into heroes. But in the meantime, you get a group of people who can be self-absorbed, petty, and rubbing against each other in the worst possible ways. There are love triangles, unresolved issues, and lots more going on behind the scenes.

The whole book is full of mistakes the characters make - some accidental, some caused by their personality quirks, some because they are seeking to become heroes - that cause bad things to happen to them, from losing their spellbooks right away to a main character dying to the girls getting raped. THIS BOOK IS DARK. Bad things happen to good people. It's not always the fault of the protagonists, but they usually contribute to it through naivete and mistakes. While the worst events take place off-screen, the effects aren't just brushed aside - the book dwells on them and how big events change people, and not always for the better.

The book gets better the more you read, but it can be slow going. The first chapter in particular was a little painful to listen to - it introduced each of the main characters as they went to their weekly gaming session. With a whole group to introduce, you can't really get to know any of them, so they ended up feeling like two-dimensional stereotypes. That may have been on purpose, though - as the characters go through strife and suffering in the fantasy world, we see them grow up and become more three-dimensional. And the heroes begin to realize that the fantasy world they are so eager to leave needs someone from our world to bring some badly needed enlightenment - at the point of a sword. Thus beginning a series.

In terms of writing style and reader performance, both were a bit lacking at first. The reader had to speak dozens of different voices from different genders, ages, and races, and did a fine job of keeping them all separate and distinct, yet some of them sounded a little too comical. However, as the story went on, I began to notice this less and less. In terms of literary quality - well, this is no great American novel, but the writing style isn't horrid, either. While it is tough to get through the first two chapters, and while the group still seems selfish and childish halfway through the book, it all starts to seem worth it once the group meets the dragon halfway through the book. Then, the book takes the rug from beneath your feet, and changes everything in the last chapters of the book.

This is a book about growing up, about losing your innocence, and about redefining what heroism means. It's also a book about roleplaying rules, roleplaying groups and roleplaying quests. if you're not into fantasy or you're not into roleplaying games, I'd suggest giving this a pass. But if you're into roleplaying games, especially tabletop ones, and if you've ever wondered what it would be like to travel back in time or into your favourite movie, this could be the book for you.


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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great Memories From My Teenage Years!

What did you love best about The Sleeping Dragon?

I first read this book as a kid and I loved the idea of it being based on kids playing a D&D like game and getting transported into it.

What other book might you compare The Sleeping Dragon to and why?

Dream Park by Larry Niven. It is another great example of people playing a role-playing game in real life.

Have you listened to any of Keith Silverstein’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No.

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

Fantasy Becomes Reality!

Any additional comments?

If you are a lover of dungeons and dragons or role-playing games you will enjoy this book. I hope the other books in this series will be available soon.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Didn't enjoy the language and cruelty

What disappointed you about The Sleeping Dragon?

Crude language and content. Too much for me, probably not an issue for many listeners.

Would you be willing to try another book from Joel Rosenberg? Why or why not?

No. It all begins here. I expect more of the same.

Which character – as performed by Keith Silverstein – was your favorite?

They were all pretty good.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Sleeping Dragon?

I'd change the language and modify a few scenes.

Any additional comments?

Narrator was very good.
I also expect that listeners interested in following a D&D type story will like this.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

RPGGamelit before it existed

This book is so brilliant that it actually blazed a new genre that is really only taking a hold today. The book is about some college students who get together to do some role-playing with a professor once a week. On the night we join them the Proff. has a new setting, and they've added a new player. The only problem that they aren't playing a game, and the Proff. Isn't what he seems. They find themselves in the gameworld as their characters. They soon find out that they are playing for keeps with their lives, and need to find a way back home before they all end up dead.

This book really was ahead of its time. The writing is powerful, and the characters fully fleshed out. You empathize with them, and really feel like you know them. The plot the pacing, and the cast of characters feel organic. Not forced. Silverstein embodies the characters too. He drives home every blade swing, every burn, and every bite.

A fantastic first book to a brilliant series.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The beginning of the greatest story ever told!

This is a fantastic story. It has the perfect amount of fantasy, drama, and intrigue. The details to surroundings, characters, and the story makes it easy to put yourself there. It has romance, struggles of life and death, as well as moral struggles of the ages. I promise after reading this you will be compelled to read the next one, and the next one, always wanting more. I have read this book, and the series as a whole, at least 30 times for the past 15 years and plan to keep coming back to it. I recommend this to every person I can. It may not be one of Walter's rules, but it is one of mine.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

this is a fantastic book. little dated.

the text is a little clunky hearing read out loud. I read this when I was in 7rh grade and loved it, great to hear it again.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Perfect book for D&D geeks! (myself included)

Read the series for the first time back in high school in the 80s. Characters are believable and a great story. Closest and best series I have found for those of us that dreamt, what if....

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic! Narration and story

Would you consider the audio edition of The Sleeping Dragon to be better than the print version?

Yes! I loved the print version, but the narration was charmingly done.

What did you like best about this story?

The vibrancy of the descriptions made me feel as if I were there. The story grabbed my attention and did nog let go until it was done.

What about Keith Silverstein’s performance did you like?

His ability to honestly bring the characters to life.

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

I sat on the edge listening as the scene unfolded. My heart broke for the girls after the rape.

Any additional comments?

I am looking forward to the next books in the series.

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