The Parched Sea

Forgotten Realms: The Harpers, Book 1

By: Troy Denning

Narrated by: Marty Moran

Determined to drive a trade route through Anauroch, the Zhentarim have sent an army to enslave the fierce nomads of the great desert. As tribe after tribe fall to the intruders, only a single woman, Rhua, sees the true danger - but what sheik will heed the advice of an outcast witch?

Ruha finds help from an unexpected source. The Harpers, guardians of liberty throughout the Realms, have sent an agent to counter the Zhentarim. If she can help this stranger win the trust of the sheikhs, perhaps he can overcome the tribes’ ancestral rivalries and drive the invaders from the desert.

©1991 TSR, Inc., c. 2011 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Narrator was awful

Story was great but the narrator was awful. If I hadn't returned the previous 3 books due to a bad narrator, I would have returned it also. I think Victor Bevine has spoilt me.

Where's my epic fantasy?

Would you try another book from Troy Denning and/or Marty Moran?

I was really hoping for some epic fantasy and some back-story on the Harpers. What I got was a war story about how a girl saves her people from an invading force. The reader was terrible and had unnatural pauses, poor voice differentiation between characters and a flat, unemotional sound. I don't know how anyone could have rated this piece 5 stars.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

The story would have been better with more back-story on the Harpers and some epic fantasy adventure. By epic fantasy adventure I mean having a hero/heroine travel to strange new places, encounter new races or monsters, crawl through a few dungeons or ruins and save the world.

How could the performance have been better?

Hire a new reader.

Not what I expected and enjoyable

I had gotten tired of listening to the endless legend of Drizzt books and so wanted a change of pace. The Parched Sea is certainly that! At first I was really sceptical that the setting and characters wouldn't come together, but I'm really glad that i stuck with it. Both the story and characters are fun and interesting. The setting feels real and well thought out and the theme of the story runs true from start to finish. The weak link in the audiobook would be the narration of Marty Moran, Which isn't at all bad, several of his pronunciations I found to be a bit odd, but forgivable. He's not much of an actor, but the narration is well paced and clear. If you like this Arab/ 1001 nights style setting you might also want to check out the Al Qadim setting novels. I have no idea if they are available on audio book or not.

It was ok.

It took a few chapters to get into it. I was half thinking of giving up. Probably won't do the sequel unless it changes a lot. It felt very dry. It wasn't bad, but I only really enjoyed about 10% of it.

Good story, boring narration.

How in the hell did this guy get a job as a narrator? I could have read this book aloud if that's all I wanted. I'm sure he's a good ole boy but this was a boring as audio book thanks to his happy ass, lazy reading of this story.
I will black list him from any further purchases on the future. Not one single accent, not one time did he change pitch, timbre or tempo of his voice during battle. I'm confident he's very good at bedtime stories because his testing style could put a meth head to sleep. I challenge you to do better good sir. I just don't think he realizes what an action packed story sounds like.